BlockBeats News, July 22. On Wednesday, Bitcoin maintained its consolidation near $66,000, continuing to consolidate its two-week high, driven by AI optimism. Global chip stocks rose for the second consecutive trading day, while the yen fell below 163 against the dollar, hitting a new low since 1986.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin rose nearly 1% intraday, with a weekly gain of about 3%, and a 24-hour trading volume of around $31 billion; ETH was trading at around $1,920, with a weekly gain of about 3%; XRP rose 2% to $1.13, TRX edged up slightly. HYPE showed relatively weak performance, falling 4% intraday and down about 10% in the past seven days.

As for the Asian stock market, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1%, with the South Korean KOSPI index surging 5% before falling in the afternoon, led by SK Hynix's over 13% increase. Previously, the U.S. semiconductor index rose more than 5% on Tuesday, reclaiming lost ground in the technical bear market.

In the foreign exchange market, the yen fell below 163 against the dollar, reaching a new low in nearly 40 years. Despite Japanese Finance Minister Koichiro Gemba's statement that the authorities are still prepared to take decisive intervention in the foreign exchange market when necessary, the strength of the dollar, rising U.S. bond yields, and heightened tensions in Iran driving up oil prices have collectively intensified the pressure on the yen's depreciation. Analysts believe that the long-standing fiat devaluation environment has been an important support for Bitcoin's "anti-inflation, anti-currency depreciation" narrative. However, the recent correlation between Bitcoin's trend and chip stocks remains higher than its linkage with the yen exchange rate.