Bitcoin climbed back above $83,000 on Tuesday after briefly falling below $81,000, even as a heavy selloff in Asian equities pushed South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI sharply lower. The rebound followed a derivatives-market shakeout that liquidated more than $800 million in cryptocurrency positions, most of them bullish bets.
The contrasting moves left investors weighing whether Bitcoin’s recovery reflected renewed demand or mainly the unwinding of short positions and other market mechanics. According to CryptoSlate, derivatives data continued to show aggressive sellers holding the upper hand despite the price rebound.
South Korean technology shares drive a sharp equity selloff
South Korea’s KOSPI fell as much as 7.4% during the session before recovering some ground to close at 6,035.35. The decline temporarily took the index below 6,000 and prompted a sell-side trading curb. The market’s losses were concentrated in the country’s major semiconductor companies, which are heavily linked to expectations for artificial-intelligence infrastructure spending.
Samsung Electronics dropped 7.39%, while SK Hynix fell 10.09%. Both companies extended a losing streak to five sessions. Together, the two memory-chip manufacturers represent approximately half of the KOSPI’s market capitalization, making the broader index especially sensitive to shifts in sentiment toward the AI investment cycle.
Foreign investors sold about 4.5 trillion won, equivalent to $3.35 billion, in Korean equities during the session. Paradis Labs said foreign institutions had continued to retreat from Samsung and SK Hynix, describing the prevailing positioning as “Sell Korea, Buy US.” Domestic investors were more patient, with some money moving from memory-chip companies into financial stocks.
The selling pressure had been developing over several sessions. Comments from Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan added to concerns about the scale and profitability of AI investment after he compared speculative AI spending with gambling. The remarks came alongside news from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies that it had developed a DRAM architecture capable of reducing memory-cell area by about 30%. ChangXin plans to introduce products using the technology by the end of 2026, although its ability to manufacture the design commercially at scale has not been established.
The weakness was not limited to South Korea. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined 2.7% on Monday, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8% on Tuesday. Bitunix analysts said the broader correction reflected concerns about financing risks and concentrated positioning in the AI industry. They also pointed to reduced leverage and less support from share buybacks as factors that could intensify market declines.
Crypto liquidations wipe out mostly long positions
The equity selloff coincided with a major reset in cryptocurrency derivatives. CoinGlass data showed that $812.9 million in crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, affecting 170,209 traders.
Long positions accounted for $686.72 million, or 84.5% of total liquidations. Short positions represented the remaining $126.19 million. Bitcoin recorded $192.14 million in liquidations, with longs making up nearly 74% of its total. Ethereum followed with $180.5 million, while Solana recorded $60.85 million.
The largest individual liquidation was a $9.65 million Bitcoin long position on Binance. When leveraged long trades are forcibly closed during a decline, the selling can add to downward momentum. Bitcoin’s later recovery also forced some bearish traders to close positions, helping accelerate the reversal.
Bitcoin’s move toward the $85,000 area brought it closer to a level where earlier buyers could potentially sell, according to the source material. However, the recovery did not clearly signal that aggressive buyers had regained control of the derivatives market.
Trading data keeps the rebound in question
CryptoQuant analyst JA Maartunn said Bitcoin’s Net Taker Volume had turned negative again. This measure compares aggressive market buying with aggressive market selling. A negative reading indicates that selling orders executed by traders taking liquidity outweighed comparable buying activity.
That pattern suggests the rebound may have been supported partly by passive buying and the closure of short positions rather than by a broad resurgence in forceful demand. The distinction matters because price can recover temporarily after a liquidation event even while underlying selling pressure remains present.
The source material said Bitcoin’s recovery could face another test if the equity selloff worsens or leveraged traders rebuild positions ahead of Wednesday’s US inflation report. It did not provide a forecast for the report or for Bitcoin’s next move.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data recorded Bitcoin at $83,221.60 at 20:44 on October 13, 2026, up 0.25% over 24 hours but down 2.81% over seven days.
Other listed assets showed mixed performance at the same time:
- Sentient (SENT): $0.01986, down 6.60% over 24 hours and 22.50% over seven days.
- DeepBook Protocol (DEEP): $0.02111, up 0.75% over 24 hours and down 8.27% over seven days.
- RedStone (RED): $0.15566, down 0.79% over 24 hours and 3.87% over seven days.
These figures are Moneyiar data recorded at the stated times and provide a snapshot of market conditions after the liquidation wave.
