The week was eventful and contradictory: Bitcoin managed to recover to $64,500 amid positive macroeconomic signals, but the semiconductor market experienced a shock after the announcement of the Chinese AI model Kimi K3. Meanwhile, miners ignored BIP-110, and US Democratic senators demanded a tightening of the CLARITY Act.
Bitcoin: Pullback and Recovery
The beginning of the week was marked by a correction: the escalation of the geopolitical conflict between the US and Iran, combined with general macroeconomic uncertainty, pushed the leading cryptocurrency down to the $61,000 mark. However, by July 14, the situation changed: the release of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed a slowdown in core inflation to 2.6% (against a forecast of 2.8%), which served as a powerful catalyst. Additional support came from the positive rhetoric of Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh. A local high of $65,500 was recorded on the evening of July 15, after which the asset entered a consolidation phase. By Friday, July 17, the market declined again amid the crisis in the semiconductor sector, but by the weekend, Bitcoin recouped its losses, settling at the $64,500 level, corresponding to a weekly gain of approximately 1%.
Performance among the top 10 assets was mixed: Ethereum gained 4%, reaching $1,850, while HYPE lost about 8%. The total market capitalization stands at $2.27 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance holding at 57% and Ethereum's share at 9.9%. The Fear and Greed Index rose to 28 points but remains in the "fear" zone, indicating continued investor caution.
Institutional interest continues to grow: from July 13 to 17, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted net inflows of $75.5 million, and Ethereum funds — $105.5 million. This marks the second consecutive "green" week, confirming the return of large capital to the market.
CLARITY Act Under Fire: Trump's Conflict of Interest
US Democratic Senators Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Van Hollen have spoken out against the current version of the CLARITY Act bill, which aims to delineate the powers of the SEC and CFTC and create a federal regulatory framework for digital assets. In their view, the document does not eliminate conflicts of interest related to the cryptocurrency business of President Donald Trump and his family. They propose including provisions from the MEME Act or the End Crypto Corruption Act in the bill, which would prohibit the president, vice president, cabinet members, and other high-ranking officials from owning or profiting from crypto businesses. Consideration of the proposal is expected starting July 20, and 60 votes will be required for its passage.
BIP-110: A Stillborn Initiative
Over a two-week period, not a single major mining pool supported BIP-110 — an initiative limiting non-payment data in Bitcoin transactions. The adoption rate hovered around 1% against the required 55%. The voluntary activation threshold expires in early August, and if support is not forthcoming, only individual nodes will be able to enable the new rules in September. The initiative faced criticism from Michael Saylor and Adam Back. Concurrently, Runestone founder under the pseudonym Leonidas presented an alternative solution — the DOG Mode client, which increases the transaction limit and lowers the "dust limit" to simplify sending Ordinals and Runes.
Kimi K3: A Blow to the Semiconductor Market
Chinese company Moonshot AI unveiled the largest open model, Kimi K3, with 2.8 trillion parameters, native vision, and a 1 million token context. The solution is built on the Stable LatentMoE architecture, where 16 out of 896 experts are active simultaneously, resulting in a 2.5-fold efficiency increase compared to the previous version. The developers stated that in the overall benchmark ranking, the model is second only to the proprietary Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol.
The launch of Kimi K3 triggered a massive sell-off in chipmaker stocks. On July 17, shares of Asian companies fell sharply: the Taiwanese index lost over 6%, the Japanese index — 4%. In the US, the Nasdaq declined by 1.5%, and shares of Chinese AI developer Z.ai plummeted nearly 30% in Hong Kong. Nvidia temporarily ceded the title of the world's most valuable company to Apple. Investors compared the situation to the "DeepSeek effect," when in January 2025, an AI startup released the R1 model, and Nvidia lost approximately $590 billion in market capitalization in a single session.
Expert Commentary: Bitcoin's recovery to $64,500 amid slowing inflation is a positive signal, but the correction in the semiconductor market triggered by the Kimi K3 announcement serves as a reminder of the high volatility and interdependence of the cryptocurrency and technology sectors. Investors should be prepared for further shocks, especially in light of geopolitical tensions and regulatory uncertainty.