Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading around $78,000 on Thursday, but is still struggling to break through the $80,000 mark, as new tensions between the US and China weigh on risk appetite.
The White House has accused Chinese entities of conducting deliberate campaigns to steal American artificial intelligence technology, adding to geopolitical uncertainty just weeks before a planned summit between Trump and Xi.
In a note published on Thursday, Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, stated that foreign entities based in China were conducting “industrial-scale campaigns to extract cutting-edge American AI systems”.
These campaigns reportedly use tens of thousands of proxy accounts and jailbreak techniques to extract proprietary data from American AI models.
The administration has said it will share intelligence with American AI companies and explore measures to hold foreign actors accountable.
This announcement comes a few weeks before Trump’s planned visit to China in mid-May for talks with President Xi Jinping.
Bitcoin opened at $78,193 on Thursday before dropping to around $77,465 early in the morning during trading. The $80,000 to $80,600 range has consistently acted as a ceiling throughout April.
On-chain data shows that the realized on-chain price of traders, at $76,800, has capped recent relief rallies. On Deribit, the $80,000 call option has become the most popular trade, recording a notional value of $1.78 billion.
This suggests that traders are positioning for an upward breakthrough that has not yet materialized, with call options (buy orders) outweighing put options (sell orders), reflecting increased optimism among investors.
