It’s time to put aside any differences with your crypto trader cousin and give him a call to make sure he’s OK. The price of bitcoin fell as much as 10% yesterday, dipping below $70,000 for the first time since it began rallying on President Trump’s 2024 election. Almost half of its value has been decimated since it peaked in October.

As bitcoin fell below certain price thresholds on its way down, some investors were forced to sell their holdings, causing it to cascade further.

Crash catalysts

Spooked by wider market turbulence, investors have soured on the volatile virtual coins and other risky bets, like tech stocks. Adding more bearishness to an already dour crypto mood was Trump’s recent nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, since he is perceived as being likely to pursue policies that dampen the value of crypto.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently suggested the US government won’t bail out crypto, increasing the gloom.

Might not be a blip

Investors have been losing enthusiasm for the idea that a crypto-friendly Trump administration will usher in an industry golden age, particularly amid stalled regulatory efforts. And many are questioning what bitcoin is actually useful for:

• Crypto payments usually happen via stablecoins, as opposed to volatile tokens like bitcoin.
• There are also doubts about its value as a safe-haven asset, with investors preferring to pile into gold and silver amid recent geopolitical turmoil and a weakening dollar.

Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal noted that with AI supplanting crypto as the next big thing, the technology is hoovering up resources. And as online crypto hypeists become a dying breed, there’s less eagerness to buy the dip.

Looking ahead…though there’s been crypto downturns before (like in 2021 following the FTX fraud scandal fallout), many observers think this one might herald a prolonged crypto winter, especially if companies with a business model that hinges on hoarding crypto are forced to sell their holdings to cover losses.—SK

Amazon is spending much more on AI than expected. Capping off a busy week of earnings for Big Tech, yesterday it was Amazon’s turn to wow with its latest financials. While it beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations, it also spooked investors by revealing that it expects capital expenditures on projects like AI, chips, and data centers to climb to $200 billion this year—much more than analysts were expecting. Following the announcement, Amazon’s stock immediately fell 10% in afterhours trading. It was a crucial earnings for Amazon as it defends itself against the perception that it’s falling behind rivals in the AI race. In addition to spending hundreds of billions on its own AI products, Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI.

Novo Nordisk calls cheaper Wegovy copycat from Hims & Hers “illegal.” The Danish pharma giant behind Wegovy said it would take legal action against Hims & Hers after the telehealth company said it planned to release a version of the Wegovy weight loss pill for only $49 (Novo sells it for $149). “This is another example of Hims & Hers’ historic behaviour of duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products,” Novo said. Hims & Hers said its pill was legal because it used a different formulation and delivery system than Novo’s patented drug, semaglutide. Novo shares dropped more than 6% yesterday following the announcement by Hims & Hers.

Bob’s Discount Furniture is now a public company. Here’s a free slogan idea for the furniture chain (or for anyone named Bob): “Bet on Bob.” Because now Americans literally can, after Bob’s Discount went public on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The company raised $331 million in its initial public offering, and its stock increased as much as 11%, valuing the place known for affordable couches at around $2.42 billion. Bob’s kicks off what’s likely to be a big year for IPOs, with SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic all expected to go public in 2026.—AE

Instead of the Seahawks and the Patriots, why don’t we throw ChatGPT and Claude in some pads and have them duke it out? That’d save you from reading the scroller that Sam Altman penned this week after Anthropic revealed its first-ever Super Bowl commercials, which flame OpenAI’s plans for in-chat advertising (without naming names).

In one of Anthropic’s spots, a guy asks a smiling chatbot incarnate to help him get a six-pack. He shares his age, weight, and height (5'7"), and the personified bot responds with an ad for height-boosting insoles.

“Dishonest” and “deceptive” are what Altman called the commercials in a post on X. OpenAI “would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them,” he wrote. He also panned Anthropic as “authoritarian,” claiming it “wants to control what people do with AI.”

Anthropic’s commercials—and pledge to keep Claude ad-free—come after OpenAI said last month that it would start testing ads for free ChatGPT users and low-tier subscribers. Promotions will be labeled and won’t influence ChatGPT responses…but they’ll also be relevant to your conversation, OpenAI has said.

Meanwhile…yesterday, OpenAI announced a new platform for businesses to build AI agents, and Anthropic launched its latest Claude model. They’re both targeting corporate customers—an area where Claude excels despite its smaller overall user base.—ML

Get ready to wave back at your screen when you see people from your country in track suits, because the opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy commences live at 2pm ET on NBC and Peacock today.

You probably have one burning question: Is Snoop Dogg part of the broadcast again? Since NBC loves ratings, the answer is yes. But if you’re a purist who actually cares about the Games, there are many intriguing storylines:

• NHL players return for the first time since 2014, becoming the second most interesting hockey-related subject right now behind Heated Rivalry.
• Lindsey Vonn will participate in skiing events despite tearing her ACL on Jan. 30.
• Men’s figure skater Ilia Malinin, aka “Quad God,” could become the first person to land a quadruple axel at the Olympics.

What’s new? Ski mountaineering is the first new sport since 2002. “Skimo,” as it’s called, involves hiking up a mountain and skiing back down. It’s both a grueling test of endurance and an overly ambitious first date.

Precious medals: Thanks to the rising costs of gold and silver, the cash values of gold ($2,300) and silver ($1,400) medals are worth more than double the medals at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.—DL

Not since the year the Black Eyed Peas released “Boom Boom Pow” has a January been this rough. According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US companies cut 108,435 jobs last month—the most in any January since the global financial crisis:

• That’s an 118% increase from the year before.
• Amazon and UPS axed about 16,000 and 30,000 roles, respectively, in January.

While a lot of companies have blamed AI for recent layoffs, some observers are beginning to wonder if execs are using the technology as an excuse to mask other internal issues in a phenomenon known as “AI-washing.”—AE

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to realizing that the new show you want to watch is on a streaming app you actually have.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.