Bitcoin Holds $75K as KOSPI Crashes 8% on AI Fears — SkimNews
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- Bitcoin fell as much as 6.6% on Thursday to $75,109 on Bitstamp before steadying above $75,000 on Friday at about $75,733, near its 50-week simple moving average.
- KOSPI dropped more than 8% shortly after Friday's open, triggering a 20-minute circuit breaker, then pared losses to close 6% lower at 5,059.69 points — its lowest close since March 31.
- Lee Hyoung-il, South Korea's deputy prime minister and finance minister, told an emergency meeting that brokerages will be exempt from the 140% collateral ratio on margin loans for three months from Monday to reduce forced selling, with authorities preparing further measures if volatility increased.
- S&P 500 closed Thursday down 4.4% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 12.2% — losses analysts linked to fears of tighter U.S. AI regulation after Democrats won the House and Senate.
- Yassamin Ansari called for a "pause on advanced AI development," while The Kobeissi Letter said an outright U.S. AI ban is unlikely because surrendering the global AI race to China "won't happen," and called Thursday's decline "more technical than fundamental," noting the S&P fell just about 2.5% excluding tech.
- Mohamed El-Erian said U.S. lawmakers would need to find common ground on AI policy, describing the backlash as "genuine concerns" plus information failures and behavioral factors, even as a government source quoted by Chosun said the domestic market had been "overly reactive to external factors."
- Cointelegraph previously reported that Democratic midterm sweeps under Republican presidents have historically been followed by strong stock returns, and that Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 has become more positive in recent months.
Why it matters: Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 has turned more positive, so a U.S. AI-policy headline now reaches crypto directly: the 12.2% semiconductor rout preceded Bitcoin's 6.6% slide to $75,109. South Korea's three-month waiver of the 140% collateral rule for brokerages is aimed at reducing forced selling after the KOSPI's lowest close since March 31.
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