BlackRock
Mitchnick argued on Monday that Bitcoin's weak stretch since October has little to do with crypto-specific problems and everything to do with capital flooding into AI instead.
He noted gold and other traditional inflation hedges have faced the same pressure as investors chase AI exposure across public and private markets.
"It's been a tough stretch for Bitcoin since last October for all of crypto, and that's consistent in many ways with just about everything that is not AI-centric," Mitchnick said.
"The AI momentum is certainly sucking a lot of the oxygen out of the room," he added.
Mitchnick pointed to US fiscal deterioration as the catalyst most likely to reverse that dynamic.
He expects debt and deficit concerns to resurface as the 2026 midterms approach, framing rising fear over government borrowing and money printing as the single most important fundamental driver for Bitcoin over the next year, alongside interest rate moves.
BTC Breaks Its Third Channel Of 2026 With RSI Not Yet Oversold
Bitcoin trades down 4% over the past 24 hours, breaking below the rising channel that formed off the June 5 capitulation lows near $59,000.
This marks an attempt to break third such channel this year, following similar patterns in January and May that both preceded deeper flushes.
RSI at 36.44 is declining but has not yet reached the extreme oversold levels seen in February and June that previously triggered bounces, suggesting more room to fall before exhaustion sets in.
The full bearish EMA stack from $65,001 to $77,530 remains firm resistance overhead.
Reclaiming the channel and the 20 EMA at $65,001 resumes recovery toward $68,767. Losing today's low at $61,862 opens a direct retest of the $59,000 June lows.
