Bitcoin Stalls at $63K Amid Altcoin Divergence and Semiconductor Rebound

Bitcoin has been stuck in a narrow range around $63,000 for nearly two days after shedding about $3,000 over the course of the week. The altcoin market has shown a stark divergence between notable gainers and heavy losers. WLFI and Worldcoin led gains with over 13% weekly increases, followed by Chainlink at 13%, and Monero at 7.7%. In contrast, Uniswap was the worst performer among major altcoins, dropping 18%, while Cardano fell 10.6%, Hedera lost 6.6%, and Bitcoin Cash declined 5.5%.

The South Korean KOSPI index delivered a strong weekly performance, closing at 6,977.94 on August 14, up 164.60 points or 2.42% from the previous session. The rally was driven primarily by a rebound in semiconductor stocks, fueled by strong earnings from AI infrastructure companies and expectations of enhanced shareholder return programs from memory chip makers.

Nvidia's upcoming earnings report on August 27 is seen as the next major catalyst for validating AI demand. Analysts have set a weekly KOSPI target range of 6,200 to 7,200, with some suggesting that if the index stabilizes above 6,500 to 6,800, a push toward the 8,500 level could materialize.