The tech landscape witnessed a seismic shift on February 23, 2026, as Anthropic unveiled its revolutionary Claude Code tool, designed to automate the modernization of COBOL, a programming language that powers a staggering 95% of ATM transactions in the United States. This announcement ignited a frenzy in the stock market, particularly affecting legacy tech giants like IBM, Accenture, and Cognizant.
The implications of Claude Code are profound. With a tool capable of automatically mapping dependencies, tracing execution paths, documenting workflows, and identifying risks across extensive lines of code, tasks that previously consumed months of painstaking human analysis can now be accomplished with unparalleled speed. In an industry that has seen a decline in COBOL expertise due to retiring developers and dwindling university programs, this innovation turns the tide in a new direction for legacy systems.
As a result of the announcement, IBM’s stock plunged over 11%, prompting concerns about its future revenue streams that had relied heavily on COBOL modernization consulting. Accenture and Cognizant didn’t escape unscathed either, with declines of 6.58% and 6%, respectively. These companies were already feeling the pressure due to existing vulnerabilities in the tech sector, making this AI disruption only more pronounced.
Market trends reflected a wider selloff. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all dipped by more than 1%, further emphasizing the ripple effect triggered by this development. Coupled with these fluctuations, the cryptocurrency market mirrored the stock decline, as Bitcoin retraced 5% to reach $62,700, while Ether and Solana experienced similar downturns.
Despite the broader market pullback, not all sectors were adversely affected. In an intriguing twist, bitcoin miners who are reorienting their operations toward AI infrastructure saw gains. Companies like IREN surged by 5%, while Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, and Hut 8 also reported modest increases.
Interestingly, amid this chaos, traditional safe havens like gold and silver experienced a notable uptick, with gold rising 3.2% to $5,243 and silver climbing 6.5% to $87.69. This contrast highlighted a perceived flight to safety by investors wary of tech stock volatility.
Anthropic’s Claude Code is positioning itself as a game changer in the programming field. As legacy modernization efforts were often stalled due to the prohibitive costs of comprehending aged code structures versus starting anew, AI advancements are redefining these calculations. The promise of reducing modernization timelines from years to mere quarters is creating excitement and trepidation in equal measure across the tech industry.
The ramifications extend beyond the stock market and cryptocurrency. Anthropic’s introduction of the Code Modernization Playbook alongside Claude Code signals a push into an area ripe for disruption, provoking questions about how far-reaching these changes might be. As AI continues to develop and integrate into our daily operations, the legacy tech providers may need to rethink their strategies in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
