Bitcoin sank 9% to just under $65,000 on Friday, extending a sell-off as Asian shares mostly fell after Wall Street's technology stocks suffered heavy losses. The world's largest cryptocurrency gave back all its gains since Donald Trump's election victory, trading at roughly half its October record of above $124,000.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend with a 0.5% gain to 54,073.52, recovering earlier losses helped by technology shares. SoftBank Group rose 1.9% and chipmaker Tokyo Electron added 3%. Japan holds a general election on Sunday, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expected to strengthen her mandate.
Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.7% to 5,076.69, dragged by tech shares. Samsung Electronics lost 0.9% and SK Hynix dropped 0.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.2% to 26,569.14, while the Shanghai Composite was flat at 4,075.37.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% on Thursday, its sixth loss in seven sessions, as tech stocks plunged. Qualcomm sank 8.5% despite better-than-expected revenue, and Alphabet lost 0.5% amid concerns over heavy AI spending. Amazon dropped 11% in after-hours trading after announcing plans to boost capital spending by over 50% to $200 billion on AI.
Gold eased 1% to $4,843.70 an ounce, while silver tumbled 6.6% to $71.63. Oil prices edged higher, with Brent crude rising 36 cents to $67.91 a barrel. The dollar weakened against the yen and the euro.
