Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin’s price broke below $64,000 for the third time since July 24, when an earlier slide triggered an $87 million liquidation event.
- South Korea’s KOSPI plunged 8.02% earlier today, tripping its eighth circuit breaker of 2026 on a U.S. semiconductor stock plunge.
- The Fed, chaired by Kevin Warsh, opened its July 28-29 meeting with the funds rate held at 3.50%-3.75% for four straight meetings.
Bitcoin’s Third Break Below $64,000 This Week
The $64,000 level has become a battleground of sorts for bitcoin traders over the back half of July. To this point, Bitcoin.com News reported a slide below the level late last week when the asset retreated from nearly $67,000 and triggered an $87 million liquidation event, split between $70 million in long positions and $17 million in shorts.
Three days later, bitcoin failed three separate attempts to clear resistance at $65,500, which pushed total 24-hour liquidations to $75 million as the price slipped back to a session low of $64,336. Today’s move follows that same script as roughly $100 million was liquidated inside a single hour, faster than either of the prior two episodes this week.
KOSPI’s Chip-Stock Rout Adds to the Risk-off Mood
The liquidations coincided with a sharp selloff in South Korean equities, with the KOSPI dropping 8.02%, or 542.24 points, to 6,213.51, triggering the index’s eighth circuit breaker of the year on the back of a plunge in U.S. semiconductor stocks. It was the latest in a string of chip-driven routs this month; a similar KOSPI selloff on July 13 marked the exchange’s seventh circuit breaker of 2026.
Crypto and semiconductor equities have moved in tandem for much of the year. Coverage of a mid-July selloff, when the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index unwound gains built on AI infrastructure enthusiasm, noted that “over the past two years, crypto has increasingly traded as a high-beta extension of the tech sector.”
That same episode saw bitcoin fall 1.2% to below $63,000 alongside a broader tech drawdown, once again demonstrating how swings in Seoul and on Wall Street’s chip desks have repeatedly spilled into digital-asset prices.
Traders Now Eye the Fed’s Rate Call
The bigger catalyst may still be ahead given that the Federal Reserve, under Chair Kevin Warsh, opened its two-day meeting on July 28 with the federal funds rate parked at 3.50%-3.75% for a fourth consecutive meeting, and outlooks on the timing of any 2026 rate cut have already been pushed later across several forecasts.
A policy statement is expected tomorrow, with Bitcoin.com News flagging the Fed’s decision, alongside the pending Digital Asset Market Clarity Act vote and two anticipated Bitcoin forks in August, as converging catalysts that could drive sharper price swings into month-end.
That said, none of those catalysts have resolved yet, which helps explain why $64,000 keeps getting tested from both sides rather than breaking decisively. Options and leverage positioning has clustered between the $65,000 and $70,000 strikes, meaning traders are still betting on a recovery even as short-term liquidations pile up around the lower end of that range.
Lastly, weak spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows and Strategy Inc.’s decision to hold $544.5 million in cash rather than add to its bitcoin treasury are also being cited as tangible headwinds that traders are likely to treat as the next real test of whether support holds.
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