Bitcoin slips below $81,000 as inflation and AI selloff pressure crypto

Bitcoin fell back under $81,000 on Thursday, down 2.6% in 24 hours, as a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report and an accelerating selloff in AI stocks dragged the cryptocurrency toward last week’s low. September core inflation rose to 2.6% against a 2.5% forecast, making another Federal Reserve rate hike more likely and lifting the dollar, which weighs on bitcoin. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.2% after Anthropic reported slowing revenue growth of $16.8 billion in the third quarter. Zcash led crypto losses, down 11% to about $1,100, while ether dropped 5% to about $2,370. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $261 million on Wednesday. A daily close below $80,400 would break a support level buyers have defended twice since last Thursday.