Bitcoin diverges from South Korean stocks as AI concerns deepen the Kospi selloff

South Korea’s stock market suffered another sharp selloff on Tuesday, with the KOSPI falling 5.5% during Asian trading. The index is now roughly 38% below its June all-time high, extending a reversal that contrasts with bitcoin’s 40% recovery.

Bitcoin bottomed near $58,000 shortly after the KOSPI peaked and has since rebounded as high as $87,000. The weekly chart shows a 20 day-period rolling correlation of -0.41, indicating a moderately negative relationship between bitcoin and the KOSPI.

That divergence suggests that bitcoin could benefit as investors reduce exposure to the AI trade, although correlation alone does not establish capital rotation.

The latest selloff followed comments from Broadcom (AVGO) CEO Hock Tan likening speculative AI investing to gambling in a casino, according to the Financial Times. His remarks intensified concerns about whether the industry can generate returns sufficient to justify enormous infrastructure spending. In addition, advances by Chinese memory-chip rival CXMT added to fears about competition and the durability of chipmakers’ margins, according to Bloomberg.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics fell around 10% and 7%, respectively. The weakness has extended into U.S. premarket trading, with memory and storage chipmakers Micron Technology (MU) and SanDisk (SNDK) both down around 3%.