Bitcoin slides 2% after U.S. close while Korea’s Kospi plunges 10%

Bitcoin BTC$63,475.48 has come under pressure since the U.S. stock market closed Monday, with South Korea’s Kospi leading Asian equities lower and providing risk-off cues to the cryptocurrency market.

BTC has fallen to $63,200 from nearly $65,000, a 2.7% decline that has spilled over into the broader crypto market and dragged down the likes of ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL), and others. The drop ends the brief resilience the market showed earlier Monday as shares in NVDA tanked on Wall Street.

The Senate has shelved the CLARITY Act to prioritize a Russia sanctions bill, making a vote on the much-awaited legislation, touted to deliver regulatory clarity and unlock massive institutional buying for digital assets, unlikely before next week. This leaves only the final days before the Aug. 8 recess.

Asian stocks cracked sharply, with South Korea’s Kospi index falling 10% to its lowest level since mid-April. The index has now dropped 25% from its mid-June peak. The latest decline featured steep losses in heavyweights such as Samsung and SK Hynix. “The market is falling out of love with chipmakers at the moment and that’s been a big driver of the bull market in South Korea,” InvestingLive wrote.

BTC has a history of tracking equity-market volatility, but the correlation is not as straightforward as widely perceived.

“BTC trades with equities when the stress is macro and [interest] rates-driven, and decouples when the stress is idiosyncratic to the equity market. An earnings-and-capital-expenditure debate is precisely that, so on this data the correlation is overstated,” analysts at Bitfinex said in a note to CoinDesk.

Looking ahead, Wednesday and Thursday could significantly move the needle and add volatility across asset classes. The Fed decides interest rates on Wednesday, while Thursday brings key data.

“The Fed decides rates Wednesday, with Core PCE and GDP following immediately Thursday. That makes Wednesday–Thursday the week’s highest-volatility window for U.S. rate repricing,” Dessislava Ianeva, analyst at Nexo, said.