Digital asset markets faced a difficult start to June as investors pivoted toward the surging global artificial intelligence trade. Bitcoin and ether both declined 4.6% over the past seven days, according to CoinDesk data, with bitcoin trading at $73,397 and ether at $1,996. Solana and TRON’s TRX also saw losses of 3.7% during the same period.
The decline in crypto assets coincides with a record-breaking streak of withdrawals from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs. SoSoValue data indicates that these investment vehicles logged a tenth consecutive day of outflows on Friday, with $2.97 billion drained between May 15 and May 29, surpassing the previous record of eight consecutive days.
While crypto liquidity has contracted, global equities have reached fresh records driven by the AI sector. The MSCI All Country World Index gained 0.2% on Monday, while Asian equity markets in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan hit all-time highs. Investor enthusiasm was further fueled by Nvidia’s announcement that it would enter the Windows laptop market to compete with Intel and AMD, and a surge of up to 11% in SoftBank Group shares, which are bolstered by the company's holdings in OpenAI and Arm.
Macroeconomic pressures have further complicated the market environment. Brent crude climbed above $93 a barrel as efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz stalled amid ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions. This rise in oil prices has weighed on broader risk sentiment, contributing to a decline in Treasuries across the curve.
Despite the broader downturn, specific assets have bucked the trend. Stellar’s XLM surged more than 40% after the DTCC selected its network for a new tokenized securities platform, a move described as a pivotal step for the public blockchain in Wall Street’s multichain strategy. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token also outperformed, adding 1.26% since midnight and reaching a record high of $73.94 following a five-day winning streak.
Market sentiment remains fragile, particularly for decentralized finance tokens. The CoinDesk DeFi Select Index fell 2.6% since midnight, with all six members declining. Ondo Finance’s ONDO token dropped 2.8% and has lost 17% of its value since the unexpected death of founder Nathan Allman last week.
Derivatives data suggests that institutional interest is currently stabilizing rather than collapsing. Bitcoin open interest remains at $19.5 billion, essentially unchanged from a week ago, while funding rates across multiple venues have held between 0% and 10% annualized. While bitcoin is currently negative for the sixth time in seven days, it historically averages a 7.4% rise in May, according to Coinglass data, making this year's 3.5% decline a notable anomaly.
