Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
Bitcoin is taking a hard hit today, falling six percent to seventy-five thousand seven hundred dollars as a Nasdaq selloff rippled through crypto markets, triggering over one billion dollars in liquidations. Ether dropped seven percent in tandem, erasing the gains that followed November's election results and underscoring just how tightly digital assets remain correlated with broader risk sentiment.
Turning to the AI space, Anthropic is pressing ahead with what could become one of the largest IPOs in history, targeting a Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT, but the company is carrying junk-rated debt that analysts say could weigh on its valuation story. That financial overhang arrives at a complicated moment, as independent safety researchers embedded at Anthropic's headquarters released their first public report, confirming the company is already using AI systems to train future AI models, with significant portions of the findings redacted.
And on the political front, Democratic lawmakers are pushing for tighter restrictions on AI infrastructure following their gains in the two thousand twenty six midterms, with some calling outright for a national data center moratorium. The move signals that AI buildout is no longer purely a regulatory debate — it is now a live legislative one, and the industry is watching closely.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
