Bitcoin rebounds to $64k after AI shock

Bitcoin rebounds to $64k after AI shock

Bitcoin recovered toward the $64,000 level on Saturday, trading at $64,107.7 as of 11:10 ET (03:10 GMT), which represented a 1.1 % rise from its previous close and a range between $62,505 and $64,287 during the session. The cryptocurrency had earlier in the week approached $65,000 after softer U.S. inflation data, but slid on Friday following the release of a new artificial‑intelligence model from China.

Moonshot AI, a Beijing‑based firm, unveiled the Kimi K3 model, which carries 2.8 trillion parameters and employs a mixture‑of‑experts architecture that activates only part of its network for each task. On a widely watched frontend‑coding benchmark, Kimi K3 achieved a score of 1,679, surpassing Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 (1,631) and OpenAI’s GPT‑5.6 (1,618). Moonshot’s prior model had been ranked 18th, so the new release marked a 17‑place jump. The full weights of Kimi K3 are slated for public release on July 27, allowing developers to download and run the model on their own hardware.

The AI breakthrough unsettled technology‑sector valuations by challenging the assumption that cutting‑edge AI capabilities would remain scarce and costly. Bitcoin’s price movement has recently tracked semiconductor and technology stocks, reinforcing its link to the broader AI investment cycle. The development also has implications for publicly listed Bitcoin miners that have repurposed power capacity for AI and high‑performance‑computing infrastructure; cheaper, more efficient AI models could diminish demand for expensive data‑centre capacity and weaken the economics of existing contracts.

Regulatory uncertainty added another headwind. Polymarket traders reduced the perceived probability that the U.S. CLARITY Act will become law by December 31 to a record‑low 32 %, down from a February peak of 82 %. Senate negotiations remain stalled over ethics provisions covering public officials’ digital‑asset interests. The proposed legislation would split oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but Congress is heading into its August recess with only a few legislative weeks remaining.

Separately, Ripple announced a $250,000 grant program funded in RLUSD, targeting 25 veteran‑ and military‑spouse‑owned businesses. Each recipient will receive a $10,000 cash grant, employer‑training support, and access to a pool of more than 20,000 military‑connected job seekers.

Investors also weighed the impact of ongoing U.S.–Iran strikes across Gulf infrastructure, assessing potential energy‑driven inflation risks that could dampen appetite for riskier assets.

Altcoin performance

Most altcoins posted modest gains amid thin Saturday trading. Ether rose 0.8 %, XRP 0.5 %, Cardano 0.6 %, BNB 1.3 %, Solana 0.33 %, Dogecoin 0.3 %, while the meme‑coin $TRUMP surged 5 %.