Crypto decouples from chip stocks amid thinning liquidity

Major cryptocurrencies were unchanged on Thursday, with bitcoin holding near $64,100 and ether at roughly $1,905. Trading volumes remained modest, with about $28 billion in bitcoin and $10 billion in ether changing hands. Other large-cap tokens similarly stalled, with XRP at $1.07, solana at $74, and BNB at $572.

The stagnation in digital assets stood in stark contrast to ongoing turbulence in equity markets, particularly among Asian semiconductor manufacturers. Samsung reported chip profits surged more than 250-fold, yet its shares moved just 2% as the Kospi index swung between a 6% gain and a 2% loss. "Results are not the problem, expectations are," a dynamic underscored by SK Hynix falling 17% on Wednesday despite a 557% jump in profit.

The divergence extended to US technology earnings, which showed mixed results overnight. Microsoft climbed nearly 9% in extended trading on the back of its fastest cloud growth in four years, while Meta dropped 8% following a weak revenue forecast. The moves came after the Nasdaq 100 entered a technical correction on Wednesday, though futures later rose 1%.

What matters for market professionals is the apparent breakdown in the correlation between crypto and equities. Bitcoin closely tracked semiconductor stocks through July, but it has since absorbed a $797 billion single-day drop in US megacap technology and a record two-day decline in Korean equities without moving.

This resilience masks a deeper underlying issue of thinning liquidity across the digital asset sector. Over the past week, most major altcoins have posted notable declines, with Hyperliquid's HYPE token down 8%, XRP falling 6%, and solana dropping 5%. Bitcoin is down 3% over the same period, with BNB the only major token holding a marginal weekly gain. The softness across these alternative assets points to capital draining from the crypto market rather than a direct contagion from equity stress.