Oracle lost nearly $80 billion in market value on Dec. 11 when revenue beat expectations, and management raised AI-related capital expenditures from $35 billion to about $50 billion, partly funded by higher debt.
The stock fell as much as 16%, dragging down shares of Nvidia, AMD and the broader Nasdaq.
Reports have framed the move as raising fears of an “AI bubble,” with investors questioning whether the gains from building massive data center capacity are arriving quickly enough to justify those costs.
On the same bar, Bitcoin fell below $90,000, likely due to concerns about the AI sector affecting risk appetite.
The one-day episode is packaged Bitcoin A New Structural Vulnerability: It has become the high beta tail of AI trading, moving in unison with tech stock sentiment and bleeding stronger when AI-related stocks collapse.
The relationship between Bitcoin and Nvidia It reached nearly 0.96 over the three-month stretch leading up to Nvidia’s November earnings, according to analysis from 24/7 Wall St.
related Nasdaqcluster data shows that the overall 30-day Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.53 as of December 10.
Additionally, Bitcoin has fallen 22% since the Fed began easing interest rates on September 17, while the Nasdaq has risen 6%. This suggests that when technology stocks collapse, Bitcoin declines more strongly.
The AI bubble story has matured rapidly over the past few weeks.
Reuters reported in late November that AI-related valuations and macro metrics like the Buffett Index have pushed overall valuations for U.S. stocks beyond the extremes of the dot-com era, while AI-heavy indicators are showing sharp declines and rising volatility even as enthusiasm remains high.
Moreover, major technology companies have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds this year to finance data centers and devices. Morgan Stanley The financing gap has been estimated at $1.5 trillion to build AI infrastructure, and Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi has warned that AI-related borrowing now exceeds the technology’s lead-up to the dot-com bust.
Articles in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and The Atlantic point to nearly $400 billion in AI spending this year versus only about $60 billion in revenue.
Calculations indicate that most companies are incurring significant losses and that the broader economy is now partly dependent on an investment boom in artificial intelligence that cannot continue indefinitely.
Liquidity Mechanism That Makes AI Collapse Worse for Bitcoin
If the AI bubble bursts, the damage to Bitcoin will go beyond simple correlation, as AI capex increasingly becomes a credit story.
Data center and AI-related infrastructure financing deals are estimated to have jumped from about $15 billion in 2024 to nearly $125 billion in 2025, driven by bond issuance, private credit, and asset-backed securities.
In a Reuters article, analysts compare some of the structures and ambiguities For pre-2008 styles And warn of “untested risks” if tenants or cash flows are disappointed.
Now central banks are treating this as a financial stability problem. Bank of England’s latest stability update It clearly highlights extended evaluations In companies focused on artificial intelligence. He also warns that a sharp correction in AI-related stocks could threaten broader markets through leveraged players and private credit exposures.
ECB financial stability review in November 2025 Makes a similar point: The AI investment boom is increasingly funded through bond and private capital markets, making it more vulnerable to fluctuations in risk sentiment and credit spreads.
Oracle is the poster child. Its $50 billion capital expenditure plan for AI data centers, coupled with a nearly 45% jump in long-term debt and record credit default swap spreads, represent the kind of overly concerned balance sheets that regulators fear.
If the AI bubble bursts, those spreads widen, refinancing costs jump, and leveraged funds that were long-term debt and equity under the AI theme are forced to reduce overall exposure. Bitcoin is at the end of that chain.
Chinese researchers’ analysis of Bitcoin versus global liquidity finds a Strong positive relationship Between global Bitcoin and M2 prices or broad liquidity indicators. Their paper described BTC as a “liquidity barometer” that performs well when global liquidity is high and poorly when it is shrinking.
The liquidity story is straightforward: if the AI bubble bursts and causes a credit squeeze, the first effect is a reduction in global risk and a decline in liquidity.
Bitcoin is one of the first things macro and growth funds sell when margin calls come in, and its high sensitivity to liquidity makes drawdowns worse.
Chapter 2: How the policy response could fuel Bitcoin’s next bull cycle
The other half of the story is what happens after the first wave of deleveraging.
The same institutions that are concerned about AI-based correction are also pointing toward a potential response. If AI and over-leveraged credit markets fluctuate strongly enough to threaten growth, central banks will ease financial conditions again.
The International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report warns that AI-driven equity concentration and extended risk asset valuations lead to “Unorganized correction“More likely and underscores the need for cautious, but ultimately supportive, monetary policy to avoid amplifying shocks.
History provides a model. After the coronavirus shock of March 2020, quantitative easing and liquidity provision coincided with a massive rise in the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies from approximately $150 billion in early 2020 to nearly $3 trillion by late 2021.
A recent Seeking Alpha report compared Bitcoin to global liquidity, and the dollar index shows that once monetary easing begins in earnest and the dollar weakens, Bitcoin tends to decline. Put in big upward moves During the following quarters.
Narrative alternation is also important. If AI stocks go through a classic post-bubble hangover, with falling multiples, negative headlines, and political backlash over wasteful capital expenditures, a portion of their speculative and overall capital could shift to a different bet on the “future of money” or an “anti-system” bet.
Bitcoin is the cleanest non-corporate filter.
Recent market pressures have once again focused capital on Bitcoin rather than altcoins. With liquidity dwindling and volatility rising recently, Bitcoin’s dominance has risen to around 57%, with ETFs serving as the institutional route.
Additionally, although Bitcoin has recently shown a correlation with technology stocks, decentralization and scarcity are still the issue The essence of the “hedging” narrative..
Bitcoin swaps cannot be escaped
The structural problem that Bitcoin faces is that it cannot decouple from AI trading in the short term, but relies on policy responses to AI collapse for medium-term upside.
In the immediate aftermath of the AI credit crisis, Bitcoin is bleeding as it represents the high beta tail of macro risk, and global liquidity is shrinking faster than most assets can adapt.
In the following months, if central banks respond with renewed easing and a weaker dollar, Bitcoin has historically made huge gains as liquidity flows back into risk assets and speculative narratives reset.
The question for distributors is whether Bitcoin can survive the first hit well enough to benefit from the second wave.
The answer depends on how violent the AI correction is, how quickly policies shift, and whether institutional flows across ETFs and other vehicles hold up or buckle under the pressure.
Oracle’s Dec. 11 earnings miss is a preview: Bitcoin fell below $90,000 in the same bar that wiped $80 billion off Oracle’s market cap, showing that the correlation is alive and the sensitivity is real.
If the AI bubble fully dissolves, Bitcoin will take the hit first. Whether it emerges stronger depends on what central banks do next.
