Within two weeks, three of the world’s most talked about technology companies filed their IPO applications. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as well as Anthropic and SpaceX, all want to go public in 2026. For stock investors, that sounds like good news. For the crypto market, it is more nuanced. The key question is where all that capital will come from.
image_here
What exactly is going on?
OpenAI filed a confidential IPO application with the U.S. securities regulator SEC on June 8. The company is currently worth about $852 billion and is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a possible IPO later this year.
Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, reached a private valuation of nearly $965 billion and is also preparing an IPO. SpaceX is actively engaged in a roadshow aimed at a multi-billion dollar valuation. Three giant IPOs, in the same quarter.
Why is this hitting the crypto market?
Large IPOs attract a lot of capital from pension funds, asset managers and wealthy private investors looking to get in early. That money has to come from somewhere. Whereas in previous troubled periods investors more often turned to bonds or gold, capital now seems to be shifting more often to another risky but strong-performing corner of the market: AI and semiconductor stocks.
The numbers also point in that direction. In May, a net $2.3 billion flowed out of U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, the largest monthly outflow of the year. At the same time, crypto companies such as Kraken, Ledger and Grayscale have postponed their 2026 IPO plans for now due to weaker market conditions. This shows that AI is currently not only pulling investor capital out of crypto, but also attracting much of the attention around new IPOs.
Is this temporary or stuctural?
That is the key question at the moment. Previous declines in the crypto market often came from problems within the sector itself, such as a toppled crypto exchange, stricter regulations or a large liquidation wave. Now the pressure seems to come mostly from outside.
AI companies are currently offering investors something that made crypto strong for a long time: high growth expectations, lots of media attention and the feeling of being early to a major technological change. As a result, some venture capital is temporarily shifting toward AI and technology stocks.
Yet this need not be a permanent negative for crypto. Once the big IPOs actually happen, the uncertainty around capital flows may decrease. Institutional players often build positions in advance and rebalance their portfolios afterwards. If the crypto market is technically stronger by then, that may actually create room for recovery.
Conclusion
The decline of crypto while AI stocks break records shows that markets are competing for the same capital. Investors are looking for yield, momentum and confidence. Right now, they are finding that primarily in artificial intelligence.
For crypto investors, it is therefore important to look beyond crypto news. The pressure on Bitcoin and altcoins comes not only from internal factors, but also from external competition from AI companies and large technology IPOs.
If the AI stock market boom stabilizes later in 2026, there may be room for crypto again. But as long as AI attracts the most attention and capital flows, the crypto market will remain vulnerable to further pressure.
Disclaimer: Investing involves risk. Our analysts are not financial advisors. Always consult an advisor when making financial decisions. The information and tips provided on this website are based on our analysts' own insights and experiences. They are therefore for educational purposes only.