Bitcoins
- Bitcoin dropped to a 24-hour low of US$62,785 before recovering to about US$63,836, leaving it 4.3% below Monday’s high and down 3.7% over the week.
- Samsung Electronics closed down 13.4% on Tuesday and SK Hynix down 14.7%, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 4.5% to sit 22.5% below its one-month high.
- Market reports citing liquidation trackers put forced closures above US$500 million over 24 hours, with individual tallies running as high as US$682 million.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a 24-hour low of US$62,785 (AU$90,410) as Asian semiconductor stocks slid for a second straight session, before buyers took it back to about US$63,836 (AU$91,924) by Wednesday afternoon AEST, up 0.91% on the day.
The Bitcoin low landed 4.3% under Monday’s intraday high of US$65,618 (AU$94,490), and leaves the price down 3.7% over seven days.
The majors had already steadied by then: ether traded at US$1,902.88 (AU$2,740.15), up 1.4% on the day, XRP at US$1.075 (AU$1.55), up 1.7%, and Solana at US$73.36 (AU$105.64).
Liquidations closed above US$500 million (AU$720 million), with separate tallies ranging to US$682 million (AU$982 million) and one splitting it into US$543 million (AU$781.92 million) of longs against US$72 million (AU$103.68 million) of shorts.
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Memory Names Lead the Fall
Samsung Electronics closed 13.4% lower on Tuesday and SK Hynix fell 14.7%, their steepest drops of the year.
Tokyo Electron shed 11% and Advantest 10.1%. Reuters put Kioxia’s fall at 18.3% and MediaTek’s at close to 10%.
The selling ran on into Wednesday: by early afternoon AEST SK Hynix was off another 10.5%, Tokyo Electron 9.9%, Samsung 6.1% and TSMC 2.4%. Reuters reported the KOSPI fell 10.8% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day decline since March.
Analysts told Reuters the selling reflected concern over how the AI buildout is being financed and over Chinese competition, after reports that Chinese firms are developing domestic deep ultraviolet lithography gear.
“We seem to be at the despair part of the selloff, where tech investors are rushing for the exit,” StoneX’s Matt Simpson said. Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young said the lithography reports had “reignited concerns” about Chinese memory makers expanding capacity.
The wire also listed a strong market debut by Chinese memory maker CXMT and questions over Nvidia financing an OpenAI data-centre project among the pressures on sentiment.
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José Oramas Read More