Capital rotation into artificial intelligence may have played a bigger role in Bitcoin’s latest sell-off than most market observers initially thought.
Michael Saylor, whose company Strategy recently sold some of its Bitcoin holdings, pushing back on criticism and instead pointing to an unprecedented flow of money into AI infrastructure as a key factor behind the decline.
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Saylor again deflects blame
Strategy’s Bitcoin sale briefly made Saylor a target. TV personality Jim Cramer even went so far as to say that Saylor “killed Bitcoin,” a claim Saylor flatly denied.
He argued that capital markets have funded the AI expansion on a historic scale – roughly $400 billion in six months – and that the pressure on Bitcoin was a rotation of capital, not a sign of structural damage to the asset.
SBI Holdings Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao echoed that view, pointing out the upcoming IPOs of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are likely pulling money away from crypto.
Jobs data delivers the blow
However, the immediate cause was an American jobs report that took the markets by surprise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose to 172,000 in May 2026, more than double the Wall Street estimate of 85,000. The unemployment rate remained stable at 4.3%.
That reading scared investors. BNP Paribas said the data opens the door for as many as three rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, a scenario that has historically weighed on risky assets like Bitcoin. From $62,500, BTC fell sharply to around $59,000 after the release.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin was traded at $59,990a drop of 6% in 24 hours – the lowest price since October 2024.
ETF outflows are adding to the pressure
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have now recorded 14 consecutive sessions of outflows, with cumulative negative outflows approaching $5 billion.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen identified these outflows as a major factor in the broader decline of the crypto market.
那个说过卖肾不卖币的男人终于都卖币了
现货ETF-连续13天净流出,累计$43.7亿，是历史最长连续流出纪录
BTC value is EMA50 value $65K我不是在看空。我只是觉得，该说的风险不能装没看见。… https://t.co/Sj0Y8zanys pic.twitter.com/2f0QxTKJYM
— Gracy Chen @Bitget (@GracyBitget) June 4, 2026
On Friday alone, Bitcoin saw a total of $545 million in liquidations, according to CoinGlass facts. Long positions accounted for $444 million of that amount, meaning a wave of automated selling hit the market as prices fell through key levels, exacerbating the downward movement.
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Whether the $59,000 zone can serve as support remains to be seen. The combination of macro pressures, continued ETF redemptions and shifting capital flows has put the market on edge.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView