Bitcoin BTC$68,701.86 began the year on a painful note, even as equity markets remained buoyant. But stock traders’ luck is now running out, as rising bond yields pressure valuations.

Prices for bitcoin plunged to nearly $60,000 from around $90,000 in the first five weeks of the year, according to CoinDesk data. The decline marked a sharp decoupling from the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which were trading at or near record highs at the time.

Analysts wondered how long the divergence would last — whether bitcoin would quickly bounce back or stocks would eventually catch up with the weakness in bitcoin.

The latter appears to be happening. Since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, fears over inflation and fading Fed rate-cut expectations have pushed U.S. Treasury yields sharply higher, putting pressure on equities.

The stock market’s weakness, appearing weeks after BTC’s decline, underscores the cryptocurrency’s role as a leading indicator for traditional risk assets. Traders in conventional markets often watch BTC to gauge overall risk sentiment, particularly on weekends or during days when traditional exchanges are closed.

Yields rise, stocks drop

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 4.41% soon before press time, the highest since Aug. 1. The benchmark borrowing cost has risen by 48 basis points since the onset of the Iran war. The U.S. two-year yield has jumped 57 basis points to 3.94%.

Treasury yields are considered the benchmark for risk-free interest rates and borrowing costs in the economy, such as corporate bonds, mortgages, student loans, etc., are priced relative to Treasuries. So, when yields rise, lenders typically increase rates on loans to maintain their spreads, which pushes borrowing costs higher for businesses and consumers. This leads to risk aversion in equities, which we are beginning to see now.

Futures tied to Wall Street’s tech heavy index Nasdaq fell to 23,890 points early Monday, the lowest since Sept. 11. The S&P 500 e-mini futures fell to 6,505 points, also the lowest since September.

CoinDesk recently highlighted that the price patterns of major stock indices bear a striking resemblance to bitcoin’s price action leading up to its crash. This similarity has raised concerns among analysts, suggesting that stocks could be at risk of further declines if the pattern continues to play out.

“Bitcoin has been at the top of the risk-assets iceberg, and its collapsing price could be early days of a broader drawdown — particularly if surging commodity volatility trickles up to stocks,” Bloomberg’s Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone said in a recent report.

Bitcoin steady

Having crashed early this year, BTC has held largely steady between $65,000 and $75,000 in recent weeks. As of writing, the cryptocurrency changed hands at $68,790.

Yet, pricing in options market shows peak fear, resulting in a record bias for put options, or derivative contracts offering protection from price slides in BTC.

Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building an AI agent to help handle his work in managing the company amid a company-wide push for employees to adopt agentic tech.

​According to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, citing sources close to the matter, Zuckerberg’s AI agent is still in development but already being used to help the CEO speed up information retrieval.

Instead of going through multiple layers of people or teams to get the required information, the agent has been retrieving the information directly.  

​The move is part of a broader goal within the company to accelerate employee productivity and reduce layers of friction within its 78,000-strong employee base. The report adds that Meta is pushing to compete with AI-native startups that have much smaller teams.

​Zuckerberg has previously alluded to this push, noting in an earnings call in late January that 2026 is going to be the year that “AI starts to dramatically change the way” Meta works, while also indicating there may be changes to the firm’s organizational structure moving forward.

​“As we navigate this, our north star is building the best place for individuals to make a massive impact. So to do this, we’re investing in AI-native tooling so individuals at Meta can get more done, we’re elevating individual contributors, and flattening teams.”

The WSJ report highlights that Meta employees have been utilizing agentic tools such as MyClaw, which has been giving them access to work files and chat logs, while also enabling them to talk with colleagues or their AI agent counterparts.

Meta employees have also been said to be using Second Brain, another AI tool built on top of Anthropic’s Claude infrastructure to help speed up work on projects, which has been described internally as something akin to an “AI chief of staff,” according to the sources.

Meta could be eyeing mass layoffs

A recent report from Reuters claimed that the firm may be finalizing plans for another wave of layoffs to offset its expenditures and capitalize on AI efficiency gains.

In an article on March 14, Reuters cited three sources familiar with the matter who claimed that Meta could be planning layoffs that may impact up to 20% of the company.

The sources claimed that no date has been set yet and that the scale of the layoffs hasn’t been finalized.

Related: Meta to shutter Horizon Worlds metaverse on VR in favor of mobile

In a statement to Cointelegraph, Meta declined to comment on the WSJ article; however, a spokesperson responded to the Reuters reporting by saying that it was a “speculative report about theoretical approaches.”

The crypto sector has been hit by a wave of layoffs in 2026, with several firms outlining a renewed focus on AI.