Summary
- Bitcoin climbed back above $61,000 after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh suggested inflation risks had eased, tempering fears of further hawkish policy.
- The cryptocurrency’s gains contrasted with a sharp sell-off in tech stocks, including a nearly 8 percent drop in South Korea’s Kospi index amid renewed worries about AI chip demand.
- Analysts warn bitcoin’s rebound only modestly distances it from key support levels, with Friday’s U.S. jobs report poised to shape expectations for interest rates and market direction in July.
Bitcoin climbed above $61,000 on Thursday, up about 4.1% over 24 hours, per CoinDesk data, its firmest footing so far this week after a sell-off sent the asset to as low as $58,200 earlier.
The lift came from the Federal Reserve. Chair Kevin Warsh told the European Central Bank’s forum in Sintra, Portugal, that inflation risks had come down, his first notably softer comment since a hawkish June rate outlook set off weeks of outflows from U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
The move stood out because it came against a rough day for tech.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 7.9% on Thursday after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shed a combined $290 billion in market value, the second time this month the index has buckled on worries about artificial-intelligence chips, as reported by Bloomberg.
Meta added to the unease with plans to sell spare computing power to outside customers, a move that revived the question of whether the AI infrastructure buildout has run ahead of real demand.
