Bitcoin, XRP, ETH decouple from tumbling Korean stocks

Bitcoin BTC$83,696.96 climbed back above $83,000 on Tuesday, shaking off an early drop as a sharp selloff in Asian chip stocks and U.S. tech futures weighed on risk appetite.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value fell to just under $81,000 at 00:50 UTC before recovering above $83,000, according to CoinDesk data. Ether ETH$2,532.21 bounced from five-day lows, while XRP (XRP) turned higher after touching three-week lows. Zcash (ZEC), solana (SOL) and several other major tokens followed a similar pattern.

Asian tech rout

The early crypto weakness came as South Korea’s KOSPI plunged more than 6% intraday, falling below 6,000 and hitting its lowest level since late July. The index remained down roughly 6% in morning trade.

Chipmakers led the rout. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell roughly 8%, extending their losing streaks to five sessions. Investors were rattled by concerns over AI-related valuations and rising competition from Chinese memory-chip producers.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.4%, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.6%, extending Monday’s 0.78% decline in the tech-heavy index.

Oil stays elevated

WTI crude traded near $92.67, holding most of Monday’s sharp recovery from below $90. Fresh attacks in Saudi Arabia and continued threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have kept energy-market uncertainty elevated.