BTC Struggles for Momentum While Kospi’s 17% Rally Leaves Crypto Behind

Samsung and SK Hynix shares jumped more than 23% each, but Bitcoin barely reacted, moving only slightly over the past 24 hours as most major cryptocurrencies remained in the red for the week.

Crypto markets showed little enthusiasm despite a major equity rebound on Friday. Bitcoin stayed near $64,300 while South Korean stocks recorded a historic recovery following two weeks of heavy selling pressure.

Most leading cryptocurrencies traded within a narrow range. Ether hovered around $1,907, XRP near $1.08, Solana at $74, and Dogecoin around $0.07. Bitcoin’s trading volume reached roughly $27 billion, while Ether saw about $7 billion in activity. BNB was the exception among major tokens, climbing 3% to $590 and remaining the only large-cap cryptocurrency with a meaningful weekly gain. Bitcoin briefly climbed to $65,300 during early Asian trading before giving up those gains within an hour.

The weekly outlook remained weak across much of the crypto market. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token fell 5% over seven days, Solana and XRP each lost 3%, and Bitcoin declined 2%. Ether and Dogecoin were slightly positive, both gaining about 1% over the same period.

Equity markets, meanwhile, delivered a powerful rebound. South Korea’s Kospi surged as much as 17%, recovering from a three-day collapse that had pushed the index more than 40% below its June peak. Semiconductor companies drove the rally, with Samsung and SK Hynix each rising over 23% and Taiwan Semiconductor adding 10%, making chipmakers the biggest contributors to gains across Asian markets.

The rally followed the strongest performance for U.S. chip stocks in over a year, helping the Nasdaq 100 snap a six-day losing streak. Amazon gained nearly 10% after hours following solid cloud earnings, while Apple dropped 6% as supply shortages affected its sales outlook.

Bitcoin had closely tracked semiconductor stocks throughout July, often moving in line with the chip sector. However, the cryptocurrency remained steady through last Thursday’s $797 billion decline in U.S. mega-cap technology stocks, South Korea’s historic market crash, and the latest stock market rebound.

A major Bitcoin wallet security breach also failed to disrupt the market. Approximately 594 BTC, worth about $38 million, was drained from around 500 wallets on Thursday due to a vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallet key generation. The incident did not create noticeable selling pressure on Bitcoin.

In currency markets, the Japanese yen weakened after giving back some of Thursday’s gains, which had marked its strongest daily move against the dollar in more than two years following another round of intervention by Japanese officials.

The yen continued to slide after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged, matching expectations. At the same time, Treasury prices moved higher alongside the U.S. dollar, while oil prices extended their decline.

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