Samsung and SK Hynix shares soared more than 23%, but Bitcoin remained almost unchanged over the last day, while most major cryptocurrencies continued to show weekly losses.
Crypto markets largely ignored one of the year’s strongest equity rebounds on Friday, with Bitcoin trading near $64,300 as South Korean stocks staged a historic recovery after a sharp two-week decline.
Large-cap cryptocurrencies showed limited movement. Ether traded around $1,907, XRP near $1.08, Solana at $74, and Dogecoin around $0.07. Bitcoin generated about $27 billion in daily trading volume, while Ether recorded roughly $7 billion. BNB was the only major cryptocurrency to post a notable gain, rising 3% to $590 and maintaining the strongest weekly performance among large-cap tokens. Bitcoin briefly touched $65,300 during Asian trading before falling back within the hour.
The overall weekly trend remained cautious. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token dropped 5% over seven days, while Solana and XRP declined 3% each. Bitcoin was down 2% for the week, whereas Ether and Dogecoin managed modest 1% gains.
Stock markets moved in the opposite direction, recording a powerful rebound. South Korea’s Kospi jumped as much as 17% after recovering from a three-day selloff that had dragged the index more than 40% below its June record high. Semiconductor companies led the rally, with Samsung and SK Hynix gaining over 23% and Taiwan Semiconductor climbing 10%, making chip stocks the main driver behind the broader Asian market recovery.
The surge followed the strongest advance in U.S. semiconductor stocks in more than a year, helping the Nasdaq 100 end a six-day losing streak. Amazon shares rose nearly 10% after hours on stronger-than-expected cloud results, while Apple fell 6% as supply issues pressured its sales outlook.
Bitcoin had closely mirrored semiconductor stock movements throughout July, rising and falling alongside the chip sector. However, the cryptocurrency remained steady despite last week’s $797 billion selloff in U.S. mega-cap technology stocks, South Korea’s record market decline, and the subsequent stock market rebound.
A major Bitcoin wallet security incident also failed to shake investor sentiment. Roughly 594 BTC, worth about $38 million, was stolen from nearly 500 wallets on Thursday due to a vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallet key generation. The event had no visible impact on Bitcoin prices.
In currency markets, the Japanese yen weakened after reversing some of Thursday’s gains, which marked its largest single-day rise against the U.S. dollar in more than two years following renewed intervention from Japanese authorities.
The yen extended its decline after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged, as widely expected by economists. Meanwhile, Treasury markets strengthened alongside the dollar, while oil prices continued to fall.
