331-year-old bank predicts stock markets are set to fall

Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden warned that despite record highs in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq—fueled by strong Q1 earnings, renewed AI momentum, Fed rate-cut expectations and geopolitical de‑escalation—markets face elevated risks and an eventual correction. Breeden highlighted the danger of multiple risks crystallizing at once (a major macro shock, private credit stress, and a repricing of AI and other risky valuations). A pullback in equities would likely hit crypto hard given tighter crypto-equity correlations (CME cited a Bitcoin–Nasdaq‑100 correlation up to 0.6). Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen large moves year‑to‑date but partially recovered; at press time BTC was about $77,808 and ETH about $2,306. The BoE warning increases downside risk for indices and correlated assets.