This is no blip: things are going to get very real for Big Tech
On Monday, the Dow Jones index plunged 600 points, with the S&P 500 falling below 4,000, its lowest levels in over a year. In just three trading days, Big Tech has lost a total of $1 trillion.
In some cases, like Meta or Netflix, these falls follow previous sharp declines based on their lack of growth, although in the case of the latter this is largely unjustified. But a number of companies that have recently debuted on the trading floor such as Coinbase, Rivian or Robinhood have been hit hard and are trading at 70% below their starting price.
The cryptocurrency market is also sharply down: bitcoin, despite being the most mature asset and with half the world — companies, large banks, and even countries — leveraging it as a store of value against inflation, is still at its lowest level since July 2021, while other smaller cryptocurrencies or those with a higher level of risk are being punished harder. It is estimated that around 40% of cryptocurrency investors are losing money.
What explains this sudden downturn for Big Tech and cryptoassets, when until recently the champagne corks were popping? Firstly, the looming economic crisis. An environment of rising interest rates and inflation leads markets to rethink the concept of risk, to be more bearish, and to get out of anything that…
