coindesk.com
Crypto's big rally from the Monday lows paused in early U.S. action Wednesday as tech stocks quickly slid on a disappointing AI-related report.
According to a story in The Information, Microsoft was lowering artificial intelligence software sales quotas. The software giant, the story continued, has scaled back expectations for its next wave of AI products — "agents" — after slower-than-expected adoption by customers this year.
As a result, sales quotas for some AI tools were lowered across multiple divisions, including Microsoft's Azure cloud unit, after they missed growth targets in 2025. This comes after AI powerhouse OpenAI earlier this year also lowered its projected revenue from AI agents over the next five years.
Market reaction was swift, with Microsoft (MSFT) sliding nearly 3% on the news, and the Nasdaq 100 moving from about a 0.5% gain to a 0.5% decline.
Crypto prices, closely correlated over the past weeks to tech stocks on the downside, fell in sympathy. BTC, trading above $93,000 overnight, immediately dipped to $91,800. Recently, it was changing hands at around $92,300, still 3.3% higher over the past 24 hours. Ethereum's ether ETH$3,060.58 slipped 1.8% from its session high, holding above $3,000.
Bitcoin mining stocks showed muted movement in pre-market trading. Iren (IREN) slipped around 2%, while Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Core Scientific (CORZ) each dipped about 1%. TeraWulf (WULF) held steady.
Elsewhere in crypto-related equities, MicroStrategy (MSTR) gained roughly 2% and Coinbase (COIN) rose 1%. Newer market entrants Circle (CRCL) and eToro (ETOR) were up 2% and 3%, respectively.