Bitcoin drops to $81,400 as Asian chip stocks tumble, options traders seek downside protection

Bitcoin BTC $81.462,69 slipped to around $81,400 on Tuesday, down 0.5% since midnight UTC, even after U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted $526.6 million on Monday , their largest daily inflow in nearly a month. Asian stocks set the tone, with South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index falling 3.73% to its lowest close since April 7 as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics declined with renewed worries over AI spending weighing on chipmakers’ shares. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.31%. Altcoin losses were broadly in line with bitcoin. Ether ETH $2.386,64 fell 0.9% to near $2,385 and the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) lost 0.34%, compared with a 0.33% drop for the bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 5 (CD5). DeFi gave back Monday’s lead, with the sector index (DFX) dropping 1.2%, the weakest of the CoinDesk benchmarks.

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