The digital asset industry is experiencing its most severe downturn due to a combination of factors. According to Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, hosts of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, the current period is marked not just by falling prices but by a “loss of faith” and a systemic crisis of ideas.
Weisenthal emphasized that while Bitcoin has seen deeper declines in its history, the current situation is distinguished by the demoralization of market participants. Key reasons identified by experts include:
- collapse of protective narratives: the first cryptocurrency failed to confirm its status as an inflation hedge — amid dollar instability, investors preferred gold;
- competition with AI: the artificial intelligence sector has begun actively absorbing capital, engineering talent, and investor attention. Additionally, miners are forced to compete with AI data centers for electricity;
- institutionalization issues: the launch of spot ETFs and mainstream adoption have deprived the market of the “early-stage” development argument. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s interest has shifted from trading activity to stablecoins and tokenization;
- technological risks: the hosts mentioned the threat from quantum computing to cryptographic security and pressure from corporate holders who may begin selling off their reserves.
The situation is exacerbated by an “identity crisis” amid the absence of new growth drivers. According to Weisenthal and Alloway, even the launch of powerful models like Claude 4.6 from Anthropic and GPT-5.3 from OpenAI is drawing attention away, leaving the crypto sphere in the shadow of technological progress.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $66,975, Ethereum at $1,874, and Solana at $74.97. Despite high levels relative to past cycles, experts insist that structurally this “cold” is the harshest in the industry’s history.
Earlier, on June 2, the price of the first cryptocurrency fell below $70,000. The decline occurred amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran, as well as due to Strategy’s sale of part of its reserves.