Bitcoins
- Bitcoin dropped to about US$62,530 on Friday, roughly 2.6% below where it started the day, before recovering to end the session near US$64,110.
- The Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.40% after falling as much as 2.44% intraday, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has lost 7.8% across three sessions.
- Brent crude settled at US$88.10 a barrel, up about 16% on the week, as US strikes on Iran ran into a seventh consecutive night.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to about US$62,530 (AU$89,418) on Friday, its weakest level in three days, as US forces struck Iran for a seventh consecutive night and a selloff in chip stocks accelerated across global markets.
Bitcoin recovered the loss the same session, closing Friday near US$64,110 (AU$91,677). It traded at about US$64,860 (AU$92,750) at the time of writing, roughly flat over 24 hours and up 2.3% across the week, with a market capitalisation near US$1.30 trillion (AU$1.86 trillion), according to CoinGecko data.
BTC now sits about 48.6% below the record of US$126,080 (AU$180,294) it set in October 2025.
Almost everything went down. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 25,520.24 on Friday, down 1.40%, after falling as much as 2.44% during the session.
The S&P 500 lost 1.01%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the chipmakers at the centre of the selling, fell 1.63% to 11,673.89 after dropping as much as 5.7% intraday, leaving it 7.8% lower over three sessions.
The VIX, Wall Street’s volatility gauge, closed at 18.77, up 12.2% on the day.
“The semiconductor selloff has gone from profit-taking to position-clearing,” said Patrick Munnelly of Tickmill Group in the firm’s Friday outlook. Munnelly said the damage was “no longer just Korea’s problem” and had broadened into Japan and Taiwan, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell as much as 5%.
He summed up the week as leaving markets with “two bruises: AI fatigue and Hormuz heat”.
Read more: Senate CLARITY Bill Faces Pushback Over Trump’s Crypto Ties
The Conflict Enters Seventh Night
The past few days started off strong with US forces striking sites like Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz and Yazd on Friday, with US Central Command saying the attacks were “designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”.
Then Iran retaliated against US allies in the Gulf, including Bahrain and Kuwait.
Well, as expected, Brent crude settled at US$88.10 (AU$125.98) a barrel on Friday, up 4.6% on the day and about 16% over the week, and traded near US$90 (AU$128.70) at the time of writing.
Munnelly said crude at those levels was “awkward for central banks”, enough to keep inflation concerns alive despite soft price data.
Related: JPMorgan Cuts Circle, Coinbase Targets Over USDC Deal Concerns
José Oramas Read More