Wild Ride on Wall Street as the Crypto Crash Spooks Risk Complex

Wall Street’s risk machine didn’t break this week — Friday’s rebound spared it. But it flinched. And in doing so, it revealed how fragile the current market cycle has become.

The shift was subtle, then sudden. For weeks, the riskiest trades in finance — crypto, AI stocks, meme names, high-octane momentum bets — had been slipping. On Thursday, that slow-motion retreat snapped. The Nasdaq 100 sank nearly 5% from its intraday peak, its sharpest reversal since April. Nvidia Corp. at one point shed nearly $400 billion despite beating earnings expectations. Bitcoin hit a seven-month low. Momentum names dropped in near-perfect sync.