Summary
- Bitcoin held around $64,250 and remained up about 1% for the week even as global semiconductor stocks tumbled.
- Major digital assets including Ether, Solana, XRP, TRON and Dogecoin posted modest gains, while HYPE rose about 7% on the week, the strongest advance among the major tokens.
- Markets are focused on the Federal Reserve and roughly a 68% chance that it will hold interest rates unchanged in September, ahead of the release of the July FOMC minutes later on August 19.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Bitcoin and the broader digital-asset market remained relatively steady even as global semiconductor stocks slumped under pressure from rising bond yields.
Bitcoin traded around $64,250 on August 19, up slightly from a day earlier, according to CoinDesk. The token was up about 1% for the week.
Over the same period, global equities came under heavy selling pressure, led by chip stocks. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell more than 7%, pulling the Kospi down more than 6%. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 2%, while an Asian semiconductor index dropped more than 3%.
The selloff spread across Asia after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, or SOX, tumbled 5% in the US session the previous day. A global bond selloff sent the 30-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007, while the 10-year yield climbed near its highest since early 2025. That intensified concern over funding costs for Big Tech companies continuing large-scale investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Digital assets, by contrast, showed little sign of being hit by the broader retreat from risk assets. Ether rose about 1% to around $1,900, while Solana gained about 2% to trade near $77. XRP also rebounded about 1%, approaching $1.
TRON and Dogecoin each added about 0.5%. BNB edged lower, while Hyperliquid fell more than 1%. Even so, HYPE was still up about 7% over the past week, the strongest weekly gain among major digital assets.
Markets are now focused on the Federal Reserve's next policy move. The 10-year Treasury yield eased about 1 basis point to 4.69% on August 19, offering some relief. Gold, after dropping about 2% a day earlier, rose as much as 0.6% intraday to above $4,360 an ounce.
The Fed is set to release minutes from its July Federal Open Market Committee meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern time on August 19. In a Reuters survey, 94 of 104 economists forecast the benchmark rate would remain unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75% in September. Markets are pricing in about a 68% chance of a pause that month.
