Saylor Blames AI Capital Rotation for Bitcoin Weakness

Michael Saylor, founder of the world's largest Bitcoin treasury firm, Strategy, has distanced himself from recent claims that he's been driving Bitcoin's weakness. In an X (formerly Twitter) post on Thursday, Saylor pointed the finger at the AI boom instead, suggesting it is draining capital from the asset.

He noted that capital markets are funding the AI buildout at a historic scale, roughly $400 billion over six months, while Bitcoin ETFs have seen about $4 billion of outflows since May 14, pressuring $BTC. Saylor framed this as a capital rotation, not a Bitcoin impairment, and added that volatility creates opportunity. The reassurance, as always, comes from a man who owns a lot of Bitcoin.

Much of this week's extended plunge to $61,000 happened after Strategy sold 32 BTC, a move that rattled some investors who have heard Saylor champion a "never sell Bitcoin" stance for years. For him, however, the dump and volatility amounted to an opportunity.

Longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff disagreed with the framing. "This isn't volatility, it's a collapse in price as investors dump Bitcoin to avoid larger losses or to seek out better investment opportunities," he retorted. "It's a rejection of your entire thesis."

Other analysts, however, reinforced Saylor's argument. With SpaceX's IPO next week and other top AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI set to go public between June and October, the narrative has some legs.

Wintermute's OTC trading head Jake Ostrovskis and analyst Benjamin Cowen projected that BTC's bearish pressure may only subside once the scheduled AI IPOs are over. In their view, profits from the AI trade will eventually flow back to BTC and begin its next four-year cycle.

Bitwise advisor Jeff Park also cleared Strategy of blame for the recent dip. "I don't think Bitcoin is selling off because of MSTR. I think it's being tapped to fund the market's upcoming hot ball of money trades: SpaceX, Anthropic, whatever else everyone suddenly 'has to own.'"

Since mid-May, spot BTC ETFs have bled out more than $4.4 billion, with Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas calling it "bad times." On a weekly average, net outflows hit $292 million, the highest investor exit since November 2025. With no institutional bid to cool the pullback, BTC price dumped to February lows near $61,000.

Analyst James Van Straten said BTC's plunge is currently easing at the 200-week moving average (200WMA), but he projected the correction could extend to the realized price of $53,800, citing past bear market patterns in 2022 and 2018.