Bitcoin slides below $82,000 as AI doubts return, with DeFi tokens leading declines

Bitcoin BTC$84,459.46 slid by the most in two weeks, losing as much as 2.9% since midnight UTC to below $82,000 after mixed earnings reports from Tesla TSLA and Meta Platforms META revived doubts over AI spending and sent equities lower in Asia.

Chinese stocks entered a bear market, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell more 3%, South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.5% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 2.7%. Nasdaq 100 index futures dropped 1.32% and S&P 500 futures 0.66%.

Altcoins fell even harder than bitcoin, with the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) recently down 3.2% compared with 2.5% for the CoinDesk 5 (CD5). Ether ETH$2,490.55 lost 2.6% to near $2,400. DeFi bore the brunt, with the sector index (DFX) sliding 5.6%.

Spot bitcoin ETFs took in more than $1 billion over the first three days of the week, according to SoSoValue data, and Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade went live overnight, though SOL fell 2.4% to around $104. U.S. jobless claims are due later today.