Bitcoin climbs back above $74,900 as Asian stocks rebound from AI sell-off
Bitcoin clawed back above $74,900 on Monday, adding more than 1% to $74,934, as Asian equity markets staged a sharp rebound from one of their worst weeks in years and investors weighed a near-80% market bet on a US rate rise in December.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 2% after sliding 4.6% the previous week. Japan's Nikkei added 3.5%, Korean shares climbed 1.8% and Taiwan's benchmark rose more than 6% after notching its steepest weekly drop in two decades, when fears over AI profitability and infrastructure demand sparked a rout following Democratic wins at the US midterm elections. S&P 500 e-minis were 0.6% higher.
Ether held steady at $2,140, with both tokens crawling back from their lowest levels in more than two months. Investors had fretted that a Democratic-controlled US Congress would toughen regulation of digital assets, and the AI sell-off added to pressure already building from rising interest rates.
"The only fundamental this week that matters is price," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne. "You could easily see a lot of people going, 'You know what, now's the time to buy – blood on the streets. It's not as bad as everyone thinks.' It will be driven by flow, and fundamentals will mean very little."
The macro backdrop stayed firm for the dollar. A US jobs report showing employers added 165,000 jobs last month, more than twice economists' expectations, lifted the odds of a Fed increase of at least 25 basis points in December to nearly 80%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. New York Fed President John Williams said growth had remained remarkably resilient but inflation is too high and it is essential to bring it back to 2%. The dollar index last traded at 102.2 after its biggest single-day gain in five months, the euro was little changed at $1.1148 and the yen 0.2% stronger at 158.215 per dollar.
Earnings from CoreWeave, Applied Materials and Cisco Systems this week will test the profitability of AI ambitions, while a company-led investigation by Nvidia into whether chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign spying effort could add volatility. Nvidia shares fell about 3.5% in after-hours trading on the Blue Ocean alternative trading system, and perpetual futures declined roughly 3%, according to Hyperliquid pricing. Brent crude fell to $98.2 a barrel after US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was highly unlikely to order fresh attacks on Iran while talks to end the conflict progress.
What it means for Pakistan: For Pakistani crypto holders, the swing matters less than the direction of US rates: a December Fed rise would harden the dollar and typically pull risk appetite out of bitcoin and ether, the two tokens most traded by local users. The regulatory worry driving the sell-off is also the one Pakistani investors watch most closely, since a tougher US stance on digital assets tends to shape how PVARA and the SECP frame their own licensing rules for virtual asset service providers. Pakistan's remittance flows, meanwhile, are sensitive to dollar strength of the kind the jobs report just produced.
