US Stocks Rebound as Chipmakers Snap Eight-Session Losing Streak

Block Scholes is an FCA-regulated institutional crypto derivatives analytics platform. Live data, IV surfaces, and backtesting available via blockscholes.com.

‍

Recent Research from Block Scholes

• Volatility Report: July 2026
• Is Bitcoin showing greater sensitivity to US CPI releases again?
• Are ETFs and Treasuries Selling ETH's Volatility?
• Block Scholes x Castle Labs: The Renaissance of Onchain Options
• How On-Chain Markets Have Priced Recent IPOs
• From Aggregation to Execution: The Next Layer of Onchain Trading Infrastructure
• Tokenised Markets on Bitget UEX: Liquidity Conditions in Bitget’s Real World Asset Perpetual Markets

‍

In Today's Note

• US equities rebounded as chipmakers snapped an eight-session losing streak and Treasury yields rose with Brent above $110, while BTC slipped 1.6% to $81.4K and ETH fell 2.1% to $2,382 overnight.
• Strategy, Strive and Bitmine kept accumulating BTC and ETH, SkyAI liquidated its entire SOL treasury, and Mt. Gox extended its repayment deadline to October 2027.

‍

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

‍

Macro & Markets

• Sentiment in the US stock market rebounded on Monday after last week’s selloff which saw the Nasdaq-100 close for its worst week since the Liberation Day tariffs in April 2025. 
• The Philadelphia Semiconductor sector index climbed 1.61%, snapping an eight-session losing streak, its longest consecutive decline since October 2008. 
• Individual AI stocks mostly ended the day higher too, with Oracle, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp all rising more than 1%, Intel climbing 2.4%, and Micron Technology rallying 3%. 
• CoreWeave on the other hand, the AI firm that led last week’s selloff, closed slightly lower as investors continue to remain fearful over the company’s credit strength. 

‍

• Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 gained 1.17%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.41%. 
• Throughout last week’s selloff in equities and fears over the sustainability of AI-spending, BTC has shown strong resilience against the deteriorating macro environment. 
• It has traded in a tight range between $80K and $84K for the past two weeks, holding up above its 200-day moving average throughout. 
• Yesterday, price action was supported by a major $526.7M inflow into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, their biggest single day of inflows since September 22, when the funds took in $714.8M.

‍

• Treasuries fell across the curve amidst the rebound in US tech shares, and as oil prices continue to remain elevated, with Brent crude touching a five-month high and currently trading above $110 per barrel. 
• Yields rose across maturities by six to eight basis points yesterday, with the 10-year yield rising more than 6bps to 5.14%. 

‍

• The move higher in yields comes in contrast to last week, where the selloff in chipmakers and the US tech sector coincided with a drop in Treasury yields. 
• That flattened the 2s10s yield curve, as 10-year yields fell 16bps over the course of the week. 
• The rise in US Treasury yields this week has also occurred alongside headwinds to government bond yields in Europe. 
• 10-year yields on French bonds climbed 14 basis points to nearly 4.95%, the highest level since 2002 after a weekend of protests and riots over the cost of living.

‍

Defi/ Crypto

• Major Digital Asset Treasury companies (DATs), including Strategy, Strive and Bitmine, have continued accumulating Bitcoin and Ethereum, despite recent market volatility.
• Strategy, the world's largest publicly traded bitcoin treasury company, purchased another 267 BTC for approximately $22.1M between October 12 and 18 at an average price of $82,900, bringing its total holdings to 848,517 BTC, acquired for $64B at an average cost of $75,446 per bitcoin.
• The purchase was funded through $22M in MSTR stock sales and $0.1M in cash, while Strategy also repurchased $193.1M in STRC preferred shares and increased its authorized digital credit securities buyback program from $2B to $3B.
• Executive Chairman Michael Saylor also proposed a bitcoin-backed, dollar-pegged stablecoin offering potential yields of 6%-8%, while Strategy faces possible exclusion from MSCI indexes and concerns over its growing preferred stock dividend obligations.

‍

• Strive, a publicly traded bitcoin treasury company, acquired another 1,223 BTC for approximately $100M between October 14 and 16 at an average price of $81,734 per bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 36,818 BTC.
• The purchase follows an additional 2,822 BTC acquisition worth $235M on October 12-13, bringing Strive's weekly purchases to 4,045 BTC and making it the fourth-largest publicly traded corporate bitcoin holder, ahead of MARA.
• Strive reported $317.5M in cash reserves and $369.2M raised through warrant exercises, while announcing a new $630M SATS preferred stock offering to support its capital-raising strategy.

‍

• Bitmine Immersion Technologies, an Ethereum treasury company chaired by Tom Lee, purchased another 12,535 ETH, bringing its holdings to 6,041,481 ETH worth approximately $14.3B, equivalent to 4.9% of Ethereum's circulating supply.
• Bitmine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, representing 84% of its treasury, generating projected annualized staking revenue of $309M, potentially increasing to $369M once its entire ETH balance is staked.
• The company's combined crypto, cash and other investments totaled $15.1B, including 215 BTC, $582M in cash and securities, and $254M in other investments, while Lee attributed recent crypto market weakness to geopolitical tensions, rising bond yields and reduced investor risk appetite.

‍

• SkyAI, formerly Sharps Technology and previously the fifth-largest publicly traded Solana treasury company, has liquidated its entire SOL holdings. It held more than 2M SOL before selling.
• The company now holds approximately $223.8M in cash and has launched a $201M share and warrant buyback at $3 per security, potentially leaving just $22.5M in cash if fully subscribed.
• Bastion Trading, a shareholder with nearly 10% ownership, has challenged the buyback terms and requested an independent review of the SOL sales, while SkyAI maintains plans to develop a Solana-based stablecoin payments and AI platform without providing further details.

‍

• Mt. Gox, the collapsed Bitcoin exchange, has extended its creditor repayment deadline by another year to October 31, 2027, following approval from a Japanese court.
• The rehabilitation trustee cited incomplete repayment procedures and operational issues that have prevented numerous creditors from receiving their funds, prolonging the distribution process more than a decade after the exchange's collapse.

‍

• Mesh, a crypto payments infrastructure provider, has partnered with Visa to enable users to spend cryptocurrency and stablecoins directly from participating wallets at more than 175M merchant locations worldwide, without needing a separate card.
• Mesh will handle payment conversion and funding behind the scenes for online and in-store purchases, although the companies have yet to announce launch availability, supported devices or participating wallet platforms.

‍

This Week's Calendar

Charts of the Day

‍

Figure 1. Block Scholes BTC Risk-Appetite Index (white, left-hand axis) and BTC spot price (orange, right-hand axis).

‍

Figure 2. Block Scholes ETH Risk-Appetite Index (white, left-hand axis) and ETH spot price (purple, right-hand axis).

‍

Figure 3. BTC at-the-money implied volatility across selected tenors. Source: Deribit, Block Scholes.

‍

Figure 4. ETH at-the-money implied volatility across selected tenors. Source: Deribit, Block Scholes.

‍

Figure 5. BTC 25-delta put-call skew ratio across selected tenors. Source: Deribit, Block Scholes.

‍

Figure 6. ETH 25-delta put-call skew ratio across selected tenors. Source: Deribit, Block Scholes.

‍