Stocks
February 24, 2026
The cybersecurity stocks crash triggered by Anthropic’s Claude Code Security announcement on February 20th, 2026, wiped out over $52.6 billion in market value across the sector in just two trading days. The tool, powered by the Claude Opus 4.6 model, scans entire codebases for vulnerabilities such as business logic flaws and access control errors, and also proposes fixes automatically. That was enough to send investors fleeing from major names across the sector, with fears of AI disrupting cybersecurity driving one of the sharpest sector selloffs in recent memory.
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How the $52B Cybersecurity Stocks Crash Began After Anthropic’s AI Security Tool
The Numbers Behind the Cybersecurity Stocks Crash
An X crypto analyst posted on this topic, and below you can find the summary of losses recorded:
- CrowdStrike stock drop was the most severe, down 20% and losing $19.6 billion in market cap.
- Cloudflare fell 18.5%, shedding $11.2 billion.
- Zscaler dropped 17.3%, wiping out $4.6 billion.
- Okta lost 16.7%, erasing $2.6 billion.
- Palo Alto Networks was down 8.9%, losing $11.7 billion.
- Infosys fell 3.4%, wiping $2.9 billion.
The Kobeissi Letter stated:
“On February 20th, at 1 PM ET, Claude announced ‘Claude Code Security.’ This is an automated AI tool that scans codebases for vulnerabilities. As of 1 PM ET today, just two trading days later, CrowdStrike stock, $CRWD, has erased -$20 BILLION of market cap on the news. What is happening here?”
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Is AI Disrupting Cybersecurity for Good?
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz countered that Claude Code Security complements runtime protections rather than replacing them, and shares began stabilizing by February 24th.
Ash Crypto had this to say:
“Tech stocks crashed because of AI. Cybersecurity stocks crashed because of AI. Dow industrials crashed because of AI. Job market is crashing because of AI. But then AI companies are also losing billions because of AI??? If everyone is losing money, where is it going?”
The cybersecurity stocks crash reflects real fear about AI disrupting cybersecurity services, but the CrowdStrike stock drop and sector selloff may be an overreaction. Code scanning and active threat response are not the same thing, and Anthropic Claude Code Security is also not a runtime protection tool.
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