When AI Dreams of Profit Meet Crypto Reality: BTC Struggles Below $90K

The cryptocurrency market is grappling with mounting concerns about artificial intelligence profitability, pulling Bitcoin and Ethereum lower as investors reassess their risk exposure. Bitcoin currently sits at $87.96K with a modest 0.45% gain over 24 hours, while Ethereum has slipped to $2.96K, down 0.16% on the day. These price movements reflect broader anxiety rippling through tech stocks following disappointing earnings signals from major infrastructure providers.

The AI Profitability Question Is Reshaping Market Dynamics

Oracle’s recent guidance proved pivotal in shifting sentiment. The cloud-computing giant’s profit and revenue projections missed market expectations, and company leadership indicated plans for accelerated AI infrastructure spending. This combination sends a troubling message: despite massive capital deployment in AI systems, the return on investment timeline remains murky. When corporations can’t clearly articulate how AI investments translate into profit growth, institutional confidence wobbles—and crypto often bears the brunt first.

As one market analyst observed: “Even when traditional risk assets held steady overnight, cryptocurrency showed no interest in following. The space needs clearer proof that the October selloff carnage has truly ended. Right now, that conviction simply isn’t present.”

What Standard Chartered’s Price Revision Tells Us

The bank’s reassessment is particularly noteworthy. Standard Chartered lowered its year-end 2025 Bitcoin price target from $200,000 to $100,000—a 50% reduction that underscores shifting institutional expectations. Geoff Kendrick, heading the bank’s digital assets research, attributed this adjustment to a critical dynamic: corporate treasury purchases of digital assets have likely peaked.

Without that traditional buying pressure, future price support “will rest primarily on a single mechanism—exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows.” This concentration of demand is a precarious foundation when the broader macro environment turns cautious.

The Broader Contagion: Asian Weakness, Global Headwinds

Bitcoin’s retreat coincided with weakness across Asian equities, signaling the crypto underperformance isn’t isolated. European and U.S. equity futures pointed to lower openings, suggesting this profit-taking extends well beyond digital assets. The Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate reduction failed to sustain market momentum, indicating that policy support alone cannot override fundamental concerns about economic growth and corporate profitability across sectors.

For cryptocurrency observers, the lesson is clear: when AI’s promised profit narrative falters, risk assets everywhere feel the chill.