Bitcoin holds above $75,000 despite global tech sell-off and KOSPI crash
South Korea halted stock trading for 20 minutes on Friday after the KOSPI index dropped 8 percent following US election results.
Key takeaways
- 1Bitcoin held above $75,000 after falling up to 6.6% on Thursday.
- 2South Korea's KOSPI dropped 8%, triggering a 20-minute circuit breaker.
- 3US semiconductor stocks fell 12.2% following midterm election results.
- 4South Korea waived the 140% margin loan collateral requirement for three months.
Bitcoin traded near $75,733 on Friday after falling as much as 6.6 percent during the previous session, holding above the $75,000 level despite a broad sell-off in technology equities, Cointelegraph reported. Data from TradingView showed the asset consolidating near its 50-week simple moving average as equity markets in the United States and Asia faced steep declines.
The market decline spread to Asian trading on Friday morning. South Korea's KOSPI Composite Index fell more than 8 percent shortly after opening, triggering a circuit breaker that halted equity trading for 20 minutes. The index later recovered slightly to close 6 percent lower at 5,059.69 points, marking its lowest closing level since March 31.
Following the stock drop, South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il convened an emergency meeting to announce stabilisation measures aimed at reducing forced selling. Local media reported that authorities will exempt brokerages from maintaining a 140 percent collateral ratio requirement on margin loans for three months starting Monday. South Korean daily Chosun quoted an unnamed government official saying authorities recognized the expanding volatility in global stock markets following the US midterm elections.
The rout began in Wall Street trading on Thursday as investors responded to the results of the US midterm elections, where Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The S&P 500 index dropped 4.4 percent while the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5 percent, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed 12.2 percent lower. Excluding technology stocks, the S&P 500 fell roughly 2.5 percent, according to market commentary service The Kobeissi Letter.
Analysts attributed the tech decline to fears of stricter federal regulation of artificial intelligence. Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari called for a pause on advanced AI development in a social media post, Cointelegraph reported. Analysts at The Kobeissi Letter wrote that a total ban on AI development in the US remains unlikely because of competitive pressure from China.
Economist Mohamed El-Erian wrote in a Substack note that while the US approach to AI aligns with productivity goals, lawmakers need to address genuine safety concerns and find policy consensus. Historical data cited by Cointelegraph showed that Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 has turned more positive in recent months. YourKhabri live market data tracked Bitcoin at $76,080 at 11:24 UTC on Friday, representing a 5.2 percent decline over 24 hours with a market capitalisation of $1.53 trillion.
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