Bitcoin bounce fails, with price falling back to $77,000 while precious metals renew surge

Market Overview - Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a decline of 2% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at $77,100 after a previous rise of approximately 7% from lows near $74,000 [1] - Ether (ETH) is down 4.7%, trading at $2,260 [1] - The selloff in cryptocurrencies coincides with strong gains in gold and silver, indicating a rebound from previous price drops [1] Stock Performance - U.S. stocks, particularly AI-related companies, are declining, with notable drops in Nvidia (NVDA), Oracle (ORCL), Broadcom (AVGO), Micron (MU), and Microsoft (MSTR), all down by 3%-5% [2] - The largest publicly traded bitcoin holder, MicroStrategy (MSTR), is also experiencing losses, down more than 2% [2] - Coinbase (COIN) and Bullish (BLSH) are similarly down by comparable amounts [2] Company-Specific Developments - Galaxy Digital (GLXY) shares have fallen over 12% following disappointing fourth-quarter results [3] - Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) has also seen a decline of 3.5% [3] - Bitcoin miners transitioning to AI infrastructure, such as TeraWulf (WULF), are seeing gains, with TeraWulf up 12% after acquiring two industrial sites that could double its power capacity to 2.8 gigawatts [4] - Cipher Mining (CIFR) shares increased by 4% after announcing plans to raise $2 billion in the junk bond market for its Black Pearl data center in Texas, which will provide 300 megawatts of capacity under a long-term lease with Amazon Web Services [4] Market Sentiment - Options flows indicate that traders are preparing for a short-lived bounce from weekend lows below $75,000, reflecting a lack of demand for upside exposure [5] - Heavy demand for near-term downside protection has led to a distortion in the options market, with short-dated volatility exceeding longer-dated contracts, a situation known as backwardation [6] - Analysts are monitoring when volatility stabilizes and the options curve normalizes back into contango as a potential signal for local lows [6]