Bitcoin fell below $77,000 on Sunday, extending a weak week into the weekend as investors faced fresh uncertainty around artificial intelligence development and an approaching Federal Reserve meeting.

Bitcoin was trading at $76,695 near press time, down 0.80% over 24 hours and 4.08% over seven days. The decline returned the cryptocurrency to a price area it had visited before the weekend.

That area was already familiar. CryptoSlate reported on Sept. 11 that Bitcoin reached an intraday low of $76,676 on Sept. 10, before the AI-related statements made on Saturday. The chronology indicates that the weekend move extended existing weakness rather than marking the start of a sell-off attributable entirely to the new warnings.

The broader performance also provides context. Bitcoin remained up 22.34% over 30 days, placing the latest losses within a wider monthly recovery. Reported 24-hour trading volume was approximately $13.44 billion, down 49.98%.

Trading volume measures how much activity took place. It does not measure the number of available buy orders or identify which news prompted investors to sell. The price decline and lower turnover are separate measurements, and neither establishes a single explanation for the day’s trading.

The new uncertainty concerns how investors will interpret calls to slow the pace of AI development. NPR reported on Saturday that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged slower development and independent evaluators. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman agreed and said his company would follow suit.

In an interview released Saturday, Altman told Fortune that OpenAI’s initial public offering would be delayed until 2027, citing safety concerns.

The reports raise questions about the timing of AI advances and related commercial milestones. They do not establish an industrywide halt, a reduction in chip orders or a corresponding change in the earnings of listed technology companies. Any market response to those possibilities remains a scenario for Monday rather than an observed outcome.

Inflation adds a separate pressure

The AI debate is unfolding against an already difficult inflation backdrop. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Sept. 10 that final-demand producer prices increased 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis and rose 5.4% over the year before seasonal adjustment.

Goods prices climbed 1.1% during the month. Energy prices rose 4.2% and accounted for more than three-fourths of the increase in goods prices, indicating the extent to which energy contributed to the latest wholesale-price rise.

That energy contribution puts the inflation issue on a different footing from the AI debate. One concerns prices already recorded in August, while the other concerns how companies may develop and commercialize technology in the future. Both issues will be in view ahead of the Fed’s Sept. 15–16 policy meeting, which will include a press conference on Sept. 16.

The calendar presents two separate checkpoints: Monday’s equity response to the weekend news, followed by the Federal Reserve meeting. Neither outcome is known yet.

The NYSE’s regular core session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern. Monday’s technology-stock performance will provide the first regular-session comparison with Bitcoin’s weekend decline. A fall in both markets would be consistent with broader caution, although it would not identify the cause of either move.

Futures and extended-hours activity may offer earlier indications, but those periods are distinct from the regular session. A steadier technology session would weaken the case for treating Sunday’s Bitcoin move as a warning of an immediate technology-stock sell-off. A weaker session would make the comparison more relevant without proving that the AI statements drove either market.

For Bitcoin, the immediate question is whether buyers can reverse the weekend loss when regular US markets reopen. The Fed meeting will then present a separate decision point, meaning Monday’s AI-related reaction will not be the only possible explanation for the week ahead.

Sources: CryptoNewsNet and CryptoSlate.