Bitcoin has lost nearly 17% of its value in a single week, marking its worst weekly performance since July 2024 and erasing approximately $200 billion in market capitalization. Despite the sharp decline, prominent bitcoin maximalists are framing the sell-off as a temporary capital rotation into artificial intelligence rather than a loss of confidence in the world’s largest digital currency.
Bitcoin is currently trading below $60,000, down 27% over the past month and 50% from its October 6, 2025 all-time high. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have experienced record outflows of $3.45 billion across 11 consecutive sessions, with approximately $4 billion fleeing bitcoin ETFs since May 14.
Michael Saylor, Strategy Chairman and a prominent bitcoin maximalist, attributed the pressure to unprecedented capital flows into AI infrastructure. “Capital markets are funding the AI buildout at historic scale: approximately $400 billion over six months,” Saylor said. “Bitcoin ETFs have seen approximately $4 billion of outflows since May 14, pressuring BTC. This is a capital rotation, not a bitcoin impairment. Volatility creates opportunity.”
Saylor’s confidence has been tested by Strategy’s own actions. The company, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin with 843,000 BTC on its balance sheet, sold 32 bitcoin in late May for $2.5 million to fund dividend payments on STRC, its perpetual preferred stock. This marked the firm’s first bitcoin sale in four years and drew criticism from the community.
Mati Greenspan, market analyst and founder of Quantum Economics, defended the sale’s scale while reinforcing the maximalist thesis. “Selling 32 BTC against a balance sheet of more than 843,000 BTC is not even a rounding error,” Greenspan said. “Bitcoin is not facing a bitcoin problem. It’s facing a liquidity problem. AI has become the market’s new obsession, but obsessions fade.”
Greenspan warned that the AI narrative itself carries downside risk. “If AI sentiment cracks, bitcoin could get hit twice: first from liquidity leaving crypto, and then again from a broader risk-off move across markets,” he said.
Jameson Lopp, Bitcoin core developer, offered a more cautious view. “I suspect the root cause is the bear market, combined with TradFi markets experiencing an AI boom,” Lopp said.
Jason Fernandes, bitcoin maxi and AdLunam co-founder, identified multiple structural headwinds. “BTC is under siege from every angle right now. ETF outflows, high interest rates, creeping inflation, money rotating back into hot tech stocks, macro uncertainty, and now the psychological shock of Michael Saylor’s Strategy selling BTC after years of preaching ‘never sell,'” Fernandes said.
Anticipated IPOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX could together raise more than $200 billion, further intensifying competition for capital. The Nasdaq has risen 34% over the past year while the S&P 500 has climbed 24%, with AI-related equities remaining among the market’s strongest performers despite recent pullback.
Greenspan cautioned against premature optimism. “As for what comes next, I would be careful assuming the bottom is already in,” he said.
