Bitcoin Surges to Nearly $64,000 as Chip Rally and Yen Strength Drive Gains

Bitcoin's best session of the week came out of Seoul and Tokyo. The largest cryptocurrency rose 3.5% to nearly $64,000 on Friday, recovering the ground it lost when President Trump warned that strikes on Iran could intensify. It traded as low as about $61,850 before buyers returned, and roughly $28 billion changed hands over 24 hours. Bitcoin is up 4.2% on the week, CoinDesk data shows.

Market Dynamics

■Bitcoin is being closely watched for how it trades inside the $60,000 to $63,000 band now that the first recovery is in.

■MSCI's Asia Pacific equities gauge climbed 1.4% as investors moved back into semiconductor shares on renewed optimism over AI demand.

■South Korea's Kospi, a bellwether for AI investment, jumped 4%. SK Hynix was among the winners after pricing $26.5 billion of American depositary shares.

Crypto Markets

■Stablecoin market cap fell to $312 billion in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD.

■Tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86 billion.

The markets are positioned against this backdrop and the decline in the value of the dollar, causing an increase in the value of cryptocurrencies. The continuation of the chip rally and yen strength will influence crypto markets more than blockchain-related factors.