Updated ,first published
Australia’s sharemarket has posted its biggest one-day fall since the market carnage of US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” last year, as bitcoin plunged amid a global rout in cryptocurrencies.
The S&P/ASX200 took a tumble on Friday, closing 2 per cent lower amid big falls across multiple major sectors: technology stocks, banks and mining shares.
The plunge meant more than $60 billion worth of stocks was wiped from the ASX on Friday. It followed a big sell-off on Wall Street overnight and comes as a meltdown in cryptocurrencies has also gathered pace, with bitcoin this week hitting its lowest level since Trump’s 2024 election win.
Despite Trump’s support for the cryptocurrency market and his pro-crypto policies, bitcoin has now fallen by almost half from its record above $US124,000 in October last year to $US64,907 on Friday afternoon, while other speculative crypto assets have also fallen heavily.
The plunge in crypto prices is hitting investors who have invested in the digital asset hard, but Steve Orenstein, who runs a software business with 12.3 bitcoins ($1.1 million) on its balance sheet, brushed off the recent price falls, saying he was “very unfazed”.
Orenstein is the chief executive of Locate Technologies, a logistics software business that has chosen to hold bitcoin assets, and which last year moved its listing from the ASX to the New Zealand Stock Exchange mainly because the NZX would allow the company to buy more bitcoin.
He pointed out that bitcoin had long been volatile, but said he believed government-issued currencies around the world have been devalued by government’s running up big debts and printing “large amounts of money”.
Orenstein said that when he spoke at a bitcoin event in Brisbane this week, there were no fears about the price of the digital asset among the 60-odd attendees.
“It’s not a trading asset. It’s a long-term hold with a very strategic reason to do that,” he said of the company’s bitcoin investment.
While bitcoin has been heading down for months, this week’s dramatic slide has come as investors have also dumped software shares amid fears over the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence.
“It’s clear the crypto market is now in full capitulation mode,” said Nic Puckrin, investment analyst and co-founder of Coin Bureau. “If previous cycles are anything to go by, this is no longer a short-term correction, but rather a transition from distribution to reset – and these typically take months, not weeks.”
On the ASX, crypto-exposed businesses have also had their share prices hit, with fintech giant Block falling 7 per cent on Friday.
While no sectors were spared on the ASX, technology shares fell especially sharply, with Wisetech slumping 4.6 per cent, NextDC losing 3.9 per cent and TechnologyOne down 5 per cent.
Mining stocks closed deep in the red, with BHP shedding 3.1 per cent and Fortescue losing 1.2 per cent. Rio Tinto was flat after it was revealed the company was walking away from merger talks with Glencore to create what would have been the world’s biggest miner.
Among gold stocks, Northern Star lost 1.7 per cent and Evolution Mining fell 1.4 per cent. Silver player South32 lost 4.5 per cent as the precious metals markets continue to swing.
Energy stocks dropped sharply, with oil prices falling after Iran confirmed it would hold negotiations with the US, easing the immediate risk of military conflict and supply disruptions from the OPEC producer. Woodside Energy lost 1.6 per cent and Santos retreated 1.4 per cent.
Financial stocks were also lower, with the big four banks retreating. Commonwealth Bank lost 0.2 per cent, Westpac fell 1.2 per cent, National Australia Bank dropped 1.6 per cent and ANZ Bank retreated 1.5 per cent. All up, the ASX 200 fell 180.4 points to 8708.80, in the sharpest fall since last April when Trump unveiled tariff plans that spooked the market.
The Australian dollar was fetching US69.61¢ at 5.17pm AEDT.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 1.2 per cent for its sixth loss in the seven days since it set an all-time high. The Dow Jones dropped 592 points, or 1.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6 per cent.
Alphabet dragged on the market and slipped 0.5 per cent, after paring an earlier loss of 8 per cent, even though the parent company of Google, YouTube and other businesses reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on how much Alphabet is spending on artificial-intelligence technology and questioned whether it will all prove worth it.
Alphabet said its spending on equipment and other investments could double this year to roughly $US180 billion ($260 billion). That blew past analysts’ expectations of less than $US119 billion, according to FactSet.
On the winning side of Wall Street were companies that stand to benefit from big spending by Alphabet and others continuing the AI frenzy. Chip company Broadcom added 0.8 per cent.
With staff reporter, AP, Reuters
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Clancy Yeates is deputy business editor. He has covered banking and financial services, and was previously national business correspondent in the Canberra bureau.Connect via X or email.
