Bitcoin Drops Below $81K, Triggering Nearly $1B Crypto Liquidation Wave: Crypto Stocks Fall With AI Infrastructure Plays

Bitcoin slipped below $81,000 on Thursday, touching an intraday low of about $80,900 before recovering to around $81,100. The move triggered nearly $1 billion in crypto liquidations, with CoinGlass data showing $974 million cleared in the past 24 hours, including $896 million in long positions and $238 million in Bitcoin liquidations. Ethereum led with $311 million. The selloff spilled into crypto-linked equities as AI-focused miners and related stocks hit multi-month lows. Strategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN), and Block (XYZ) fell over 2%, while Circle (CRCL) slipped as much as 1.5%. Riot Platforms dropped over 9%, and several miners posted declines including Cipher Mining (-7.9%) and CleanSpark (-7.1%). Investors appeared to reassess capital-intensive AI infrastructure businesses as rising yields and risk-off sentiment increase sensitivity to financing costs and future lease valuations.