Bitcoin fell 1.3% during last week's technology selloff, a modest dip next to the damage in equities. The Nasdaq-100 dropped 5.5% over the same period, sliding from a close of 30,883.15 on Oct. 9 to 29,187.55 — a 5.49% decline.
The selling wasn't confined to retail accounts. Hedge funds cut technology positions at the fastest pace since at least 2016 across the five trading sessions through Oct. 15, according to a report citing Goldman Sachs prime brokerage data.
Bitcoin's smaller bruise
A 1.3% move is barely a headline in crypto terms. Bitcoin routinely swings that much in an afternoon. But the direction matters more than the size here. When tech stocks get hit this hard, the assets that trade alongside them on risk sentiment usually take a knock too, and last week was no exception.
What's notable is the gap. A 5.5% equity drawdown against a 1.3% bitcoin dip suggests crypto holders weren't rushing for the exits the way stock investors were. Or it suggests bitcoin simply had less froth to lose going into the week.
Funds heading for the door
The Goldman Sachs prime brokerage data points to something more structural than a one-day flush. Cutting tech exposure at the fastest rate since at least 2016 — a decade-long record — is the kind of move funds make when they're repositioning, not just trimming.
Prime brokerage desks see the flows before anyone else does. When they report this kind of rotation, it's usually already well underway by the time the numbers surface.
The timeframe is worth pinning down: the five sessions through Oct. 15. That's last week's run, ending just before the weekend.
A crowded trade unwinding
Tech has been one of the most crowded long positions on Wall Street for a while now. Crowded trades unwind fast when sentiment turns, and the pace of the exit here suggests funds weren't waiting around to see how the next earnings cycle played out.
Bitcoin's smaller decline fits that picture. Crypto has spent much of 2026 trading in step with risk assets, but it doesn't carry the same institutional crowding as mega-cap tech. Less leverage stacked on one side means less forced selling when the tide goes out.
The near-term question is whether the rotation stops at tech or widens. Funds that pulled money from software and semiconductors last week will have to put it somewhere, and the obvious candidates are cash, defensives, or assets with less correlation to the Nasdaq. Bitcoin's 1.3% dip suggests it hasn't been lumped in with the trade being unwound — at least not yet.
Watch the next round of prime brokerage flow data covering this week's sessions. If the tech exodus keeps up at anything like this pace, the 1.3% figure will look less like crypto's insulation and more like a lag.
