Nvidia beat on every line and guided Q3 to $108B — "AI has reached its inflection point," Jensen Huang said. Bitcoin held near $79,400, largely unmoved, as the AI-crypto correlation stays weak. What's driving Bitcoin is different: eight consecutive days of ETF inflows totaling $2.8B, August already the strongest inflow month of 2026. The 50-week moving average at $81,085 remains the technical ceiling. KOSPI hit a record on the BOK rate hike. Gold found support on the dollar-weakening trade. Everything is positioned for Warsh's Jackson Hole keynote tomorrow — the one event that determines whether the ETF streak reaches double digits or the rally stalls here.
Bitcoin Holds Near $79,400 as XRP Leads Losses on Rising Fed Hike Bets
Bitcoin eased to $79,400 — down nearly 1% — as shorter-dated Treasury yields rose overnight on building rate hike bets, cutting against the lower-yield backdrop that launched the recovery from $62,000. Solana was the standout, up 4% to $101 and 19% on the week. XRP fell 3% to $1.424, still holding a 28% weekly gain. LMAX's Joel Kruger identified the next confirmation level at the May high near $82,820 — a break there opens the path back toward $100,000. QCP Capital noted falling open interest points to short covering rather than fresh buying, with ETF inflows supplying the genuine demand. Nvidia's 5% after-hours gain lifted Asian chip stocks, but Bitcoin's muted response is consistent with the decoupling — this rally runs on ETF flows and Treasury dynamics, not semiconductor sentiment.
Bitcoin Tops $80,000 Before Retreating as ETF Inflows Reach Eight Straight Days and $2.8 Billion
Eight consecutive positive sessions have brought Bitcoin ETF inflows to $2.8B — with Ether ETFs on the same streak past $1B. August inflows now exceed $3B, already the strongest month of 2026 and roughly double April. IBIT absorbed around 62% of Monday's total. Three sessions remain to beat October 2025 as the largest inflow month since Bitcoin's $126,000 record high — matching that level from $80,000 rather than $126,000 is the behavioral signal that matters: institutions buying a recovery, not chasing a top. ETFs remain net negative for 2026 by $2.5B, meaning August has recovered roughly half of what left May through July. The streak either extends through Jackson Hole or stalls there.
Seoul's KOSPI Jumps 1.5% to Record on BOK Hike, Chip Gains; Hong Kong Slips, Tokyo Ends Winning Streak
Seoul's KOSPI climbed 1.53% to 6,912 — a third consecutive session of gains and a record close — after the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate 25bps as expected. Samsung rose 1.72%, SK Hynix gained 2.49%. Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.20% as investors digested Nvidia's earnings, with Advantest down 3% while Tokyo Electron added 0.90%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng eased 0.34%, though Baidu rose 5%+ ahead of its dual-primary listing and Zhipu jumped 12%. Shanghai gained 1.13%, led by computing hardware and semiconductor names. The divergence between a record KOSPI and a slipping Nikkei on the same Nvidia earnings result reflects how differently each market is exposed to the AI infrastructure trade's margin dynamics versus its demand story.
Nvidia Beats Estimates and Guides to $108 Billion as Gross Margin Slips to 74%
Nvidia reported Q2 revenue of $96.2B against $92.27B expected, data center revenue of $89B versus $85.4B, and EPS of $2.22 versus $2.09. Q3 guidance of $108B topped the $103.9B forecast. But gross margin guidance of 74% — down from 75% — is the first sequential margin decline of the current cycle, with rising memory, financing and infrastructure costs behind it. Huang flagged a Q1 price increase and supply constraints across power, land and data center capacity. For crypto, the relevant read-through is IREN, which reports Thursday post-market with $2.8B in AI compute contracts — Nvidia's demand guidance strengthens the framework, but the margin dynamic means GPU cloud input costs rise alongside it.
Gold Rises in Asia as Dollar-Weakening Trade Supports Prices
ANZ Research noted the "dollar-weakening trade" continues to attract buyers and limit gold's downside, even as US inflation remains above the Fed's target and hike expectations build before year-end. Gold finding support in a rising-rate environment is the debasement thesis operating independently of rate dynamics — investors are buying scarcity rather than responding to yield differentials. Critical Metals' Tony Sage flagged Warsh's Jackson Hole speech as the week's critical tone-setter for monetary policy expectations. Gold and Bitcoin moving in the same direction for a sustained period is the most concrete evidence yet that Bitcoin's institutional categorization is shifting — partially — from risk asset toward debasement hedge. Tomorrow's speech tests whether that shift survives its first hawkish challenge.