Bitcoin fell toward $62,000 on Wednesday as a second day of heavy selling in technology stocks kept pressure on risk assets worldwide. The token traded around $62,546, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 4.9% on the week, per CoinDesk data, sliding back toward the lower end of the range it has held all month. The broader crypto market followed, with ether dropping 3.7% to $1,661 and solana losing 3.3% to $69.
Chip rout drags markets lower
The pressure came from the same place as Tuesday. A renewed rout in semiconductor shares, the stocks that have led this year's market with triple-digit gains, sent the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 7.9% on Tuesday, with all 30 members falling. Micron, Marvell and On Semiconductor, each more than doubled in 2026, led the drop. The selloff pulled the S&P 500 down 1.4% and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.3%. An attempted rebound in Asian chip stocks failed to hold on Wednesday, with Taiwan Semiconductor down more than 3%.
Oil kept falling as the other half of the macro picture. Brent crude slipped about 1% toward $76 a barrel as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz became more visible following the US-Iran interim peace deal. A gauge of the dollar climbed to a seven-month high as investors moved toward safer assets.
Institutional de-risking and options expiry
The crypto-specific signal sits in the fund flows, said Mike McCluskey, co-founder of tx, in an email to CoinDesk. He called bitcoin's stabilization in the low-to-mid $60,000s a measured response to the Federal Reserve's hawkish turn, given how hard such shifts usually hit digital assets. US spot bitcoin ETFs have seen a record 30-day net outflow of more than $6 billion, which McCluskey described as sustained institutional de-risking by the same buyers that drove this cycle. Until those flows clearly reverse, he said, relief rallies are likely to hit a hard ceiling.
McCluskey also flagged Friday's options expiry on Deribit, with roughly $10.6 billion in notional value set to expire. Nearly 80% of the open positions are out-of-the-money, meaning they are worthless if they expire at current prices, clustered around a $60,000 put and an $80,000 call. Those levels are less as magnets for the price and more as a gauge of how stretched positioning has become, with $60,000 a real technical and psychological line that has already been tested this month.
Altcoins take a hit
The selling was steep across the board. Ether dropped 3.7% to $1,661 for a 7.2% weekly loss, XRP fell 2.2% to $1.10 and is down 9.3% on the week, solana lost 3.3% to $69 and dogecoin slid 9.8% over seven days. Hyperliquid's HYPE was the worst hit, down 8.8% on the day and 18.6% on the week to about $61. Tron held up best, up 3.7% on the week.
That keeps bitcoin where it has sat all week, pinned between a sinking AI trade and an easing oil picture, holding above the $60,000 floor that has defined June but with little to lift it while the institutional bid stays absent.