BTC Flatlines at $64K While Equities Throw a Party Crypto Wasn't Invited To 🎉

Bitcoin held near $64,000 across midweek trading even as global equities pushed to fresh records on renewed enthusiasm for artificial-intelligence-related shares, leaving digital assets out of a rally they have historically followed. BTC traded just above $64,000 on Wednesday, up under 1% on the day and roughly flat over seven days, and remained about 49% below the $126,000 it reached last October. Ether slipped to $1,864, down 2% on the week and the only major token in the red over that view.

Other majors offered little direction. XRP fell almost 1% to $1.07, dogecoin the same to just under 7 cents, and tron under 1% to 33 cents. Solana was flat near $73.60. BNB added over 1% to $598, leading the majors over seven days at 5%, while Hyperliquid's HYPE rose 3% to nearly $56 and was 3% higher on the week. By Thursday, BTC held above $64,600, up marginally on the day and 0.5% on the week, with ether rising over 1% to $1,904, XRP down almost 3% to $1.04, BNB slipping over 1% to $595, Solana falling almost 1% to nearly $74, dogecoin the same to 7 cents, and tron flat at 33 cents. HYPE was little changed at $56 and up over 4% on the week, the best weekly performance among the majors.

Alex Kuptsikevich of FxPro said in an email that bitcoin has gained momentum since Monday, when buyers stepped in during a dip toward $62,500 and pushed price back above the 50-day moving average. Optimism is centered more on bitcoin than on the wider market, he said, which is typical of the early stages of a long-term shift.

The equity tape moved in the opposite direction. On Wednesday, MSCI's All Country World Index rose 0.4% toward another record close, its Asia Pacific benchmark gained 2.2%, and Australian shares hit a new peak after the S&P 500 and Dow both closed at all-time highs Tuesday. SK Hynix rose 6.4% after the Seoul open and Nvidia added over 2% after hours, though AMD dropped 9% on a soft sales outlook and SpaceX fell 7.5% on higher projected AI spending. By Thursday the tone softened: MSCI's All Country World Index snapped a five-day run to fall 0.2% as chipmakers retreated on both sides of the Pacific, with Korea's Kospi, a bellwether for the AI trade, dropping 4.4% on losses in SK Hynix and Samsung, while S&P 500 and European futures edged higher.

Traders also watched Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, where roughly $101 billion of stock became tradable Thursday as the first lockup expired; the company holds 18,712 BTC, worth about $1.1 billion at the end of June. Brent crude fell 1.1% to about $78.50 a barrel after Axios reported Washington, Tehran and Oman were close to an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and later slipped under $80 a barrel after Iran said it had reached an agreement with Oman on a shipping route through the strait. Gold rose 0.4% to its strongest since June as traders trimmed bets on further rate hikes. SoftBank was due to report later Thursday; it has put $34.6 billion into OpenAI through Vision Fund 2 since September 2024 and owns chip designer Arm, putting its results under scrutiny as a gauge of whether the private side of the AI trade is holding up.