Bitcoin Holds Near $62,500 as Semiconductor Selloff Deepens Into Second Day

Bitcoin held near $62,500 on Wednesday as the semiconductor selloff extended into a second session. The token traded around $62,546, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 4.9% on the week, touching an intraday low of $61,860 before finding support just above $62,000.

Chip Stocks Lead a Broad Equity Rout

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 7.9% on Tuesday, with all 30 members declining. Micron, Marvell and On Semiconductor, each of which had more than doubled in 2026, led the drop. The selloff pulled the S&P 500 down 1.4% and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.3%.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 10% on Tuesday, its worst session since March, as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropped more than 12%. The two companies are closely watched as global proxies for AI chip demand, and their slide extended the same trade that had already hit the Nasdaq and SpaceX earlier in the week, as investors reassessed whether enormous spending on AI infrastructure would pay off at the scale priced in.

Foreign investors pulled more than $2.5 billion from Korean equities in a single session, and an attempted rebound in Asian chip stocks failed to hold on Wednesday, with Taiwan Semiconductor falling more than 3%.

Brent crude slipped about 1% toward $76 a barrel amid the broader risk-off move, as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz became more visible following the U.S.-Iran interim peace deal. A stronger dollar added to the pressure on risk assets, with a gauge of the greenback reaching a seven-month high.

Ether, Solana, and HYPE Lead Losses as Liquidations Hit $717 Million

Selling was steep across digital assets. Ether dropped 3.7% to $1,661 for a 7.2% weekly loss. XRP fell 2.2% to $1.10, down 9.3% on the week. Solana lost 3.3% to $69 and Dogecoin slid 9.8% over seven days. Hyperliquid’s HYPE was the worst hit, down 8.8% on the day and 18.6% on the week to about $61. Tron held up best among major tokens, up 3.7% on the week.

Leveraged positions bore the brunt of the move. Total crypto liquidations over the 24-hour period reached $717 million, with long positions accounting for the bulk of losses. Bitcoin accounted for $213 million of that figure, ether $169 million. The flush followed a week in which leveraged longs had built up through the U.S.-Iran deal rally, leaving the market exposed when the Asian selloff arrived.

Bitcoin also returned to its 200-week moving average during the session, a long-term indicator that has historically coincided with market bottoms in prior cycles. Whether the level holds will depend in part on whether institutional selling continues into the end of the week.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Post Record 30-Day Outflows as $10.6 Billion in Options Expire Friday

Mike McCluskey, co-founder of tx, said U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have recorded a record 30-day net outflow of more than $6 billion, which he described as sustained institutional de-risking by the same buyers that drove this cycle. Until those flows clearly reverse, he said, relief rallies are likely to hit a hard ceiling.

McCluskey also flagged Friday’s options expiry on Deribit, with roughly $10.6 billion in notional value set to expire. Nearly 80% of open positions are out-of-the-money, clustered around a $60,000 put and an $80,000 call.

He said those levels reflect how stretched positioning has become, with $60,000 acting as a real technical and psychological floor that has already been tested this month rather than a price magnet pulling the market in either direction.

Bitcoin’s stabilization in the low-to-mid $60,000s, McCluskey said, is a measured response to the Federal Reserve’s hawkish turn under new Chair Kevin Warsh, given how hard such shifts have historically hit digital assets.