Live updates: Bitcoin holding $64,000 as AI momentum stocks continue to tumble

June retail sales were higher by 0.2%, in line with forecasts and down from a 1% rise in May.

Retail sales ex-autos, though, declined 0.2% versus expectations for just a 0.1% fall and May’s 1% rise.

Balancing out that modestly weak news, initial jobless claims declined to 208,000 last week versus forecasts for 217,000 and the previous week’s 216,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey for July shot higher to 41.4 from 10.3 in June. Forecasts had been for just 13.

Markets are showing little reaction, bitcoin remaining at $64,100 and Nasdaq futures still lower by 0.9%.

Futures tied to Wall Street’s tech-heavy index, the Nasdaq, fell by 0.6% Thursday alongside a near 1% decline in bitcoin’s price.

Asian stocks declined, with South Korea’s Kospi index falling by over 6% and Japan’s Nikkei losing nearly 2%.

Korea’s central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate for the first time in over three years, warning of sticky inflation.

Later on Thursday, investors will get U.S. retail sales data and jobless claims data. These reports will likely be scanned for signs of whether the economy is deteriorating just enough to keep inflation under control or slipping into a destabilizing downturn.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded just below $65,000 early Thursday after South Korea raised interest rates for the first time in over three years to combat inflation.

The Bank of Korea’s 25 basis point hike lifted its benchmark interest rate to 2.75%, matching median estimates from economists polled by Reuters. The bank said in its statement that inflation is projected to remain elevated for some time as the impact of the rise in energy prices feeds through with a time lag.”

Korea’s headline inflation jumped to 3.2%, the highest since 2023.

Following the rate hike, the Korean won firmed to 1,480 per U.S. dollar, extending an appreciation trend from about 1,560 roughly two weeks ago. Bitcoin traded largely flat against the won, with the BTC/KRW pair hovering above KRW 94.96 million on leading local exchange Upbit.

South Korea’s crypto market is widely seen as one of the most speculative in the world, driven by an active retail base that treats digital assets almost like high‑stakes day trading rather than long‑term investment.

Crypto investigator ZachXBT criticized hardware wallets Thursday, calling them unreliable for signing transactions or storing meaningful funds.

In his view, all hardware wallet solutions present today fall short on security and usability, making them unsuitable for high-stakes operations.

He recommends using a dedicated iPhone solely as a signing device, stripped down for wallet purposes only. This approach, he said, offers better control and fewer vulnerabilities than traditional hardware wallets, though he added the tongue-in-cheek caveat: “Only do this if you are not low iq.”

The investigator singled out Ledger as the worst offender, pointing to frequent Ledger Live updates that unnecessarily overhaul the UI and apps, often breaking basic functions in the process. The post quickly sparked debate ion crypto social media, with users sharing their own experiences with hardware wallet frustrations.