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Bloomberg reported that US stocks finished the week lower as semiconductor names dipped following the reveal of an AI model from Chinese startup Moonshot, whose Kimi K3 model could rival the strongest offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.The Nasdaq 100 closed down 1.5%, its worst week in almost a month. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 1.6%, widening its drop from a June record to 20%, meeting the definition of a bear market. Meta led the Magnificent Seven lower.The S&P 500 fell 1%, snapping two straight weeks of gains and finishing below its 50-day moving average. Nationwide chief market strategist Mark Hackett said bulls remain in control but are waiting for an all-clear signal from earnings.Vital Knowledge's Adam Crisafulli said the narrative has evolved into a more nuanced lens, noting Kimi is a large model requiring significant compute, though it creates market share headwinds for OpenAI and Anthropic.Concerns around AI capital spending resurfaced after TSMC reported results. However, even as chip stocks dragged the S&P 500 lower, a majority of stocks rose, and the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index finished at an all-time high.Hargreaves Lansdown senior equity analyst Matt Britzman said the rout resembles a crowded trader coming unstuck rather than a sudden collapse, adding it looks like a healthy reset rather than the end of the memory trade.Netflix fell 7.3% after forecasting a second consecutive quarter of slowing sales. Intuitive Surgical tumbled 14% on softer US growth for its da Vinci robots. Sweetgreen rose 14% after a parasite outbreak was traced to Taco Bell lettuce. Coca-Cola fell 4% after suspending Fairlife milk production.

Bloomberg reported that Meta Platforms Inc. is in early discussions to lease computing power from its data centers to Anthropic PBC, an opportunity for the social media giant to build a new business around its heavy investment in AI infrastructure.The arrangement could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times, which first reported the talks. Spokespeople for Meta and Anthropic declined to comment.Meta has been developing plans for a cloud computing business, including leasing capacity to other companies and selling access to AI models hosted on its infrastructure, akin to Amazon Web Services' Bedrock offering.CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Bloomberg that Meta is currently using all of its computing capacity internally, but lucrative offers have made him consider renting it out, saying the offers are so high it may make sense in some cases.Anthropic has been spending aggressively to secure computing capacity. It announced a deal in May to pay SpaceX nearly $45 billion over three years for computing power from multiple data center sites, and a separate $1.8 billion deal with Akamai Technologies.Meta shares, which were down nearly 6% earlier in the day, jumped on the news and were trading down roughly 2.5%.

CoinDesk reported that Cardano developer Input Output is handing control of core blockchain infrastructure to outside teams, reducing the network's dependence on the company that built it.The handover covers Cardano's Haskell node, Plutus smart-contract platform, Daedalus wallet, Hydra scaling technology and developer relations. It will begin in August and continue into 2027.Specialist companies include Se7en Labs, which specializes in Solana infrastructure, and Teragone, which leads development of Mithril. The plan calls for independent teams to maintain at least three Cardano implementations in Haskell, Rust and Go, with community review and voting.Founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson said the last stage of the Voltaire era is full decentralization of node and reference blueprint development. Input Output will focus more on research through IO Labs and IO Ventures.The announcement comes as Cardano faces weak activity, with just $70 million in TVL compared to rivals like Tron and Solana with over $4 billion each. ADA was trading at about 16 cents, nearly 95% below its September 2021 record of $3.10.Hoskinson acknowledged the network has stopped expanding and said further setbacks would be part of its development, adding that bones have to be broken and failures must occur to build confidence in the system.

BeInCrypto reported that FTX will pay creditors about $900 million on July 31 in its fifth distribution, with most creditors recovering more than 100% of their claims.
The payout follows FTX's court-approved bankruptcy plan. International customers get 9% more, reaching 105% of their claim. US customers get 5% more, also hitting 105%. Other creditor groups reach 103%, while the smallest accounts receive a full 120%.
Four earlier rounds have already paid about $10 billion since 2025, including a $2.2 billion round in March. Creditors should receive cash within 1 to 3 business days.
Passing 100% is rare in bankruptcy. FTX repaid the full claim plus 9% annual interest running from its November 2022 collapse under founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
The wind-down led by restructuring veteran John Ray III gathered more than $14 billion. It sold assets early, including a stake in Anthropic for about $1.3 billion.
Claims are valued at 2022 prices, meaning many who took cash lost out versus holding as crypto has climbed since. Preferred shareholders receive a second payment of $18 million on July 31, totaling $95 million so far.
FTX has not set a date for the sixth payout and warns of scams, saying it will never ask creditors to connect a wallet.

Glenmark agreed to pay $29.6 million to settle claims brought by dozens of states over generic drug pricing. According to NS3.AI, a coalition of 48 states and territories reached the settlement.
The funds are designated for consumer restitution tied to overcharged generic prescriptions.

Foresight News reported that Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, increased its SpaceX holdings by 147,805 shares yesterday. According to Foresight News, the purchase was worth about $18.32 million.

Shipping data from Kpler showed only eight confirmed transits through the Strait of Hormuz on July 16 — the lowest daily passage count in three weeks — according to BlockBeats reporting on July 17. Analysts warned that the collapse in traffic volume could exacerbate crude oil supply uncertainty and amplify international oil price volatility at a moment when Brent is already trading at $85 per barrel, up 12% on the week.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed that, for the week ended July 14, COMEX gold speculators increased net long positions by 4,294 contracts to 119,147. According to Jin10, COMEX silver speculators cut net long positions by 1,755 contracts to 10,377, while COMEX copper speculators increased net long positions by 1,536 contracts to 61,932.

EVIX rose 2.62% intraday to 51, while BVIX added 0.22% intraday to 37.09. According to NS3.AI, gold fell 0.24% to $3,966.58 per ounce, while silver moved to $54.951 per ounce.

SanDisk stock fell 12.63% on Thursday during the largest semiconductor sell-off of the year. According to NS3.AI, StockAnalysis cited a Wall Street consensus that sees SNDK falling to $1,000 in a worst-case scenario.

Iranian basket crude prices have risen above $80 a barrel. According to Jin10, Tasnim News Agency reported the price move without giving further details.

Bitcoin fell to approximately $63,000 on Friday — down 1.7% over 24 hours and 2.2% on the week — as a deepening global selloff in semiconductor stocks dragged risk assets lower and erased most of the gains from Tuesday's soft CPI print. Ether held better at $1,836, still up 2.4% over seven days. Hyperliquid's HYPE led crypto losses at 8% on the day and 12% on the week. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.8%, S&P 500 contracts fell 0.9%, and a semiconductor ETF slid 3% in premarket trading. Taiwanese stocks fell into a technical correction and Asia's main benchmark hit a two-month low. The Fed meets July 28 and 29.The Two Trades Pulling Bitcoin in Opposite DirectionsBitcoin's week can be summarized in two trades pulling in opposite directions. Tuesday's soft CPI print — headline decelerating to 3.8% from 4.2% with core MoM falling to 0.2% — was a macro trade that lifted Bitcoin toward $65,000 by reducing Fed rate-hike expectations and pushing the two-year Treasury yield lower. Friday's chip selloff is the counter-trade: a sector-specific risk-off move driven by fundamental questions about AI capital expenditure returns that has been running all quarter and has repeatedly overridden macro relief rallies.The dynamic is the same one that has defined Bitcoin's entire Q2. AI and chip stocks set the tone for global risk appetite — Anchorage Digital analysts attributed approximately 30% of Bitcoin's first-half pressure to capital rotating into AI. When semiconductor stocks sell off on valuation and ROI concerns, Bitcoin follows. When macro data provides disinflationary relief, Bitcoin rallies. The current price of approximately $63,000 represents the equilibrium between those two opposing forces heading into the July 28-29 FOMC meeting.The Chip Rout — TSMC Didn't Settle the QuestionThe central question driving the semiconductor selloff is whether the hundreds of billions that AI hyperscalers — Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta — are spending on GPU clusters will produce returns sufficient to justify the valuations embedded in chipmaker stocks. TSMC's results this week — which showed a 67.9% year-on-year surge in June revenue to $13.8 billion driven by AI chip demand — did not settle that question. Strong revenue growth confirmed the demand exists. It did not answer whether the AI applications being built on that infrastructure will generate the revenue that validates the infrastructure spending at current valuations.The distinction matters for Bitcoin because the chip selloff is not a demand story — it is a valuation story. TSMC's revenue is growing 68% year-on-year. The concern is not that AI chip demand is fake but that the multiples applied to that demand growth are unsustainable if revenue conversion from AI applications takes longer than the current investment cycle. That concern produces a rotation from high-multiple semiconductor names into lower-risk assets — a rotation that historically reduces risk appetite broadly and applies downward pressure to Bitcoin as the highest-beta risk asset in global markets.Taiwan Correction, Asia at Two-Month Low, Europe HoldsThe geographic distribution of the selloff provides a precise read on where the chip exposure concentration is highest. Taiwanese stocks fell into a technical correction — defined as a 10% decline from a recent high — as TSMC and the broader Taiwan semiconductor complex absorbed the sector-specific selling. Asia's main benchmark hit a two-month low. Europe held up better specifically because of lower technology and semiconductor exposure — a data point confirming that this is a sector-driven selloff rather than a broad macro risk-off event of the type that the Iran ceasefire collapse produced.The contrast with the June KOSPI crashes is instructive. June's semiconductor selloffs — Samsung down 8.3%, SK Hynix down 30% from record — were driven by AI demand fear following SpaceX's $20 billion bond sale and its implications for AI capex sustainability. Friday's selloff is the continuation of that same fundamental reassessment playing out globally rather than being concentrated in Korean names.HYPE's 8% Drop — The Leveraged Derivatives ExposureHyperliquid's HYPE leading crypto losses at 8% on the day and 12% on the week is consistent with its role as the highest-beta token in the derivatives and DeFi narrative. When risk appetite contracts, the tokens most closely associated with leveraged trading activity and protocol-level speculation compress more severely than Bitcoin or Ether. HYPE had been targeting a record above $78 following its Robinhood Chain competitor dynamic with LIT — Friday's 8% decline puts that target further away and reflects the broader de-risking that accompanies semiconductor-driven equity selloffs.The Setup Into the FOMC — July 28-29Bitcoin at $63,000 heading into the weekend sits in the same range it has occupied for most of the past month — above the 200-week SMA at $62,873, below the $64,400-$65,200 resistance that CPI briefly pushed it through, and subject to the same dual forces that have defined the quarter. The Fed meets July 28-29 — the next scheduled event with the potential to structurally shift the macro half of that equation. Until then, the chip rout's trajectory and any further Iran-Hormuz escalation are the variables most likely to determine whether $63,000 holds as support or gives way to a retest of the $60,000-$62,000 floor that has anchored the lower boundary of the 307-day consolidation range.

U.S. stocks turned lower again, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversing course and SanDisk (SNDK.O) and Micron Technology (MU.O) also turning negative after rising more than 2% earlier. According to Jin10, the moves came after the two chip stocks had each gained more than 2% at one point.

Scotiabank said policy adjustments do not need to follow a straight line, especially during periods of elevated uncertainty. According to Jin10, that view appears to be shaping market pricing for the European Central Bank's rate decision next Thursday, with markets expecting the ECB to leave the deposit rate unchanged at 2.25% after a 25 basis point hike in June.
ECB President Christine Lagarde's most recent major remarks were on July 1, when she said inflation risks to the upside and growth risks to the downside may now be more balanced than a few weeks earlier because changes are happening quickly. Since then, the conflict between the United States and Iran has resumed, and both WTI and Brent crude have risen by about $12 per barrel.
A June inflation report may have bought the ECB more time to assess conditions, given its data-dependent approach. Eurozone headline CPI fell 0.1% month on month, while core CPI eased to 2.4% from 2.6%, its highest level since April last year. Even so, market sentiment indicators showed hawks still largely in control.

According to CNBC, Iraq and Syria signed an agreement on Friday to rebuild an oil pipeline that would provide an alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz. The deal was inked at a Chamber of Commerce summit in Washington, D.C., on U.S. investment in Iraq, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright presiding over the signing by Basra Oil Company CEO Bassem Abdul Karim Nasr and Syrian Petroleum Company CEO Youssef Qablawi. The pipeline runs from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast and has a nameplate capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It has been closed since it was damaged during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraq's oil production fell more than 50% to about 1.9 million barrels per day in June from around 4.2 million bpd in February before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, according to OPEC data.

Goldman Sachs said central bank buying is expected to provide a floor for gold prices despite pressure from tighter Federal Reserve expectations. According to Jin10, the bank estimated that central banks bought 81 metric tons of gold in May, with a three-month average monthly purchase rate of 67 metric tons, far above the 17 metric tons average seen before 2022.
Goldman Sachs analysts said the trend of central banks increasing gold holdings will continue for years as they diversify reserves to hedge geopolitical and financial risks. The bank forecast average monthly gold purchases of 50 metric tons this year and 40 metric tons next year.

Ether dropped 4% to $1,850 on Friday — twice Bitcoin's 2% decline to $63,400 — as a semiconductor selloff across Asia dragged every major cryptocurrency lower and Japan's Nikkei posted its worst single session since March, falling 5%. HYPE was the worst performer at $60, down 10% on the day and 12% on the week — its steepest stretch since June. Bitcoin held up best of the group, down just 2% on the day and 1% on the week after failing twice at $65,000. Brent crude surged to approximately $85 per barrel — up 12% on the week, its largest weekly gain since April — as five consecutive days of US strikes on Iran thinned Strait of Hormuz shipping traffic and rekindled the inflation fears that Tuesday's CPI data had just calmed.The Semiconductor Unwind — TSMC Headed for Biggest Drop Since April 2025The selling started in semiconductors and cascaded into everything else. MSCI's Asia Pacific equities gauge dropped 3%, heading for its lowest close in two months. Japan's Nikkei 225 slumped 5% — its worst session since March. Taiwan Semiconductor was on track for its biggest one-day decline since April 2025. Japan's Kioxia fell as much as 16%. The contrast with the prior Friday is the sharpest illustration of the AI trade's fragility: one week ago, Bitcoin rose 4% on the same day South Korea's KOSPI jumped 8% and SK Hynix priced $26.5 billion in American depositary shares. This Friday, the same semiconductor complex is driving a global risk-off move.Investors are now asking whether this year's AI rally moved too far too fast — and the answer is arriving in the chip tape rather than in anything on-chain. The question is not whether AI chip demand is real — TSMC's 68% year-on-year June revenue confirmed it is. The question is whether the multiples applied to that demand growth are sustainable if AI application revenue conversion takes longer than the current investment cycle pricing assumes.Ether's 4% Drop — The One to WatchEther's decline is the most analytically significant of Friday's session, for a specific reason. US spot Ether ETFs took in nearly $97 million over the first three days of this week — more than they gathered across all of last week — with BlackRock's fund accounting for almost all of it. That institutional inflow did not stop Ether from falling twice as hard as Bitcoin when the chip tape turned. The failure of institutional ETF demand to provide a floor for Ether against a semiconductor-driven selloff is the specific signal Wintermute flagged: this week was "consolidation under resistance rather than continuation," with spot volumes falling rather than rising into the highs.Ether remains the only major cryptocurrency still green on the week — up approximately 4% over seven sessions — making it the relative strength leader of the correction. But relative strength in a declining market is cold comfort if the ETF demand that drove this week's $97 million inflow is insufficient to absorb macro-driven selling pressure when the chip trade unwinds.The Weekly Scorecard — Only Ether Holds a GainThe week's damage across majors is broad. Solana fell 2% to $75, down 5% on the week. XRP eased 2% to $1.09. BNB fell 2% to $571. TRON slipped to $0.32. Dogecoin lost 2%. Bitcoin at $63,400 — down 1% on the week — outperformed the altcoin complex by holding its loss to just 1% while majors like HYPE fell 12% over the same period. Bitcoin's relative outperformance reflects its role as the defensive position within crypto during semiconductor-driven risk-off — the asset institutional allocators trim last rather than first when reducing crypto exposure.The Fear and Greed Index at 25 — extreme fear — provides a single-number summary of where market sentiment stands heading into the weekend. Glassnode's on-chain metrics have yet to confirm a reversal, meaning the bottom-signal cluster that has been accumulating since June — realized P&L ratio at a 43-month low, exchange supply at nine-year lows, 79% LTH supply — has not yet been triggered by price action sufficient to produce confirmed on-chain capitulation and recovery.Brent at $85 — Up 12% on the Week, Inflation Fears ReturnOil is doing the opposite of everything else. Brent crude rebounded to approximately $85 per barrel — up 12% on the week, its biggest weekly gain since April — as five consecutive days of US strikes on Iran escalated hostilities and thinned Strait of Hormuz shipping traffic. The 12% weekly surge directly reverses the disinflationary oil channel that had made Tuesday's CPI print constructive: the June CPI's 3.8% headline reading reflected oil's decline from $92 during the ceasefire period. With Brent now at $85 and rising, the July CPI — due in mid-August — faces the opposite oil dynamic, and the Fed's July 28-29 meeting arrives with energy prices reaccelerating rather than decelerating.The rekindling of inflation fears via oil is the most structurally damaging development of the week for Bitcoin's recovery thesis. The entire framework — soft labor market data, falling inflation breakevens, disinflationary CPI prints — was built on the assumption that Hormuz normalization would keep oil declining. Five consecutive days of US strikes on Iran and a 12% weekly Brent surge represent the definitive end of that assumption for the near term.The Setup Into the FOMC — July 28-29Bitcoin heading into the weekend at $63,400 — below the 50-day SMA, above the 200-week SMA at $62,873, and having failed twice at $65,000 — enters the 10 days before the FOMC meeting with the most challenging macro configuration of the recovery period. The chip trade is unwinding. Brent is at $85 and rising. Iran's military escalation is in its fifth consecutive day. US-China diplomatic friction has been introduced by Trump's election interference allegations. And Glassnode's on-chain metrics and the Fear and Greed Index at extreme fear have not yet confirmed either capitulation or recovery.Wintermute's characterization — "consolidation under resistance rather than continuation" — is the most precise single-sentence summary of where Bitcoin stands. The structure is intact. The momentum is not.

Crypto markets fell as AI stock fatigue and rising U.S.-Iran tensions weighed on sentiment, with bitcoin sliding below $63,000. According to CoinDesk, the selloff spread from stocks into crypto even as a technical measure suggested oversold conditions heading into the weekend.

Micron stock fell nearly 6% to $850 on Thursday. According to NS3.AI, StockAnalysis consensus data showed analysts expect MU could reach $2,200 in the next 12 months.

BitcoinTreasuries.NET said on X that publicly listed company Farmhouse FMHS purchased one additional Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 12.209 BTC. According to Odaily, the company now holds 12.209 Bitcoin in total.

SPDR Gold Trust holdings fell by 2.854 tons from the previous day to 999.024 tons. According to Jin10, the world’s largest gold ETF reported the decrease in its current holdings.

US gasoline prices are heading back toward $4 a gallon in the middle of summer driving season, when Americans typically take road trips and burn through millions of barrels of fuel each day, according to Bloomberg.
Drivers will be paying more for each fill-up as demand peaks during the period.

Gold options open interest data showed some bullish testing, with active additions to call options around the 4,100 level. According to Jin10, traders still need to watch the battle near the 4,000 round-number level.

US oil drilling has logged its longest stretch without a decline in activity in more than four years, according to Bloomberg.
The run is supporting shale expansion as higher prices, driven by the Iran war, bolster drilling activity in the US oil patch.

Two tankers exploded and caught fire after passing through a mine-laid route south of the Strait of Hormuz. According to Jin10, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the vessels had traveled along the route before the blasts and fire broke out.

Wall Street stocks fell decisively on Friday as weakness in artificial intelligence shares and rebounding oil prices pressured markets, according to RTHK.
Tech shares have been under pressure in recent days over questions about lofty valuations after the Nasdaq surged in the second quarter. Semiconductor stocks were the worst hit, and Nvidia briefly lost its crown to Apple as the world's most valuable publicly traded company.
Brent North Sea crude closed at US$88.10 a barrel after oil prices jumped more than 4% on renewed fighting between the United States and Iran, which intensified a clash over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for petroleum transport. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4% to 25,520, the S&P 500 dropped 1% to 7,475 and the Dow lost 0.8% to 52,146.

Deutsche Bank AG is preparing to sell about $3 billion of debt for accounting services firm Baker Tilly Advisory Group to refinance private credit loans, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.
The financing would replace existing private credit borrowing with debt sold in public markets.

Foresight News reported that on-chain analyst Ember monitored a whale or institution that likely sold 30,000 ETH through Galaxy Digital seven hours ago. According to Foresight News, the transaction was valued at about $55 million.

Market sources said Angola's preliminary crude oil export plan for September is 1.08 million barrels per day. According to Jin10, the figure refers to the country's planned daily export volume for the month.

According to CNBC, market futures were sharply lower Friday as the selloff in tech and semiconductor stocks continued, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) down nearly 3% and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) off by more than 2%. Netflix shares fell more than 11% after second-quarter results matched expectations but the company issued a disappointing outlook, while analysts at Goldman Sachs, UBS, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley cut their price targets on the stock. SpaceX shares also came under pressure after the company delayed its Starship mega rocket launch, and Elon Musk said the next attempt is "hopefully in a few days." Apple was upgraded to buy from hold at HSBC, which cited an Apple Intelligence-driven cycle and the arrival of new Siri AI. Meta hired a top executive from Amazon's AWS cloud unit to help expand its data center infrastructure business, according to The Wall Street Journal. 3M and Emerson Electric were upgraded to buy from hold at JPMorgan, PPG was upgraded to buy from hold at Bank of America, and Intuitive Surgical shares dropped after earnings even as the company held its outlook for da Vinci procedure growth at 13.5% to 15.5%. Abbott Laboratories raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $5.45 to $5.60 per share from $5.38 to $5.58 per share.

Canada’s largest oil refinery is planning a fall maintenance shutdown that could further tighten gasoline and diesel supplies in northeastern U.S. states that rely on the plant for imports, according to Bloomberg.

Pampa Energia SA is moving ahead with a $2.7 billion urea fertilizer plant on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, the first new facility of its kind in about 25 years, according to Bloomberg.
The project comes amid Argentina’s shale boom and marks a major investment by the company in fertilizer production.

Brazil plans to keep its crude oil export tax in place for two months. According to Jin10, the report cites unnamed sources and gives no further details.

A U.S. official said Iran fired a ballistic missile at a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia on July 17 local time, marking Iran's first direct strike on Saudi Arabia in nearly four months. According to Jin10, Saudi civil defense issued alerts for two locations in Saudi Arabia on July 18, warning residents of a "potential danger," before later saying the danger had been lifted in both places.

Iranian media, citing local officials, said multiple missiles struck power facilities and seawater desalination pumps in the Jask area of Iran's Hormozgan province. According to Jin10, the report said the strikes hit the facilities in Jask.

Intercontinental Exchange said Brent crude speculators increased net long positions by 114,752 contracts to 169,839 in the week ended July 14. According to Jin10, diesel speculators increased net long positions by 2,389 contracts to 71,875 in the same period.

WTI crude oil futures extended gains to 3% and traded at $80.68 per barrel. According to Odaily, Brent crude oil futures also rose 3% to $86.78 per barrel.

Shares of mining equipment makers Sandvik AB and Epiroc AB fell after weaker precious metals prices since the start of the year weighed on orders, according to Bloomberg. The decline in demand was linked to the drop in precious metal prices.

Ken Griffin has bought all 138 units in a condo building across the street from his planned Citadel headquarters in Miami, according to Bloomberg. The purchases are part of his effort to assemble land around the site of the future headquarters.