Bitcoin was supposed to be the high-beta expression of a risk-on market. For most of the past cycle, that logic held, with crypto and tech rising and falling together as the same liquidity and the same appetite for risk moved both. That link has now snapped. The Nasdaq is printing fresh all-time highs, lifted by an artificial intelligence (AI) boom pouring money into chipmakers and data-centre operators, while Bitcoin has dropped under $70,000 and sits more than 40% below the peak it set last October.