Crypto holds big weekly rally as Warsh’s Jackson Hole debut comes into focus

Bitcoin eased to just above $77,100 in Asian morning hours Monday, down marginally on the day but up over 21% on the week, as traders held off ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole address.

Warsh speaks at Jackson Hole this week in his first appearance there as chair, with traders looking for direction on rates while high oil prices feed inflation and long-dated yields sit near multi-decade highs.

Jackson Hole is an annual gathering where the Fed chair traditionally signals where policy is heading — in a setting less constrained than a formal meeting — which is why markets treat the speech as a rate signal in itself.

Lower rates make borrowing cheaper and push investors toward riskier assets including crypto, while higher rates do the opposite by making safe government debt pay more for less risk.

XRP is the week's standout, up over 46% to just under $1.50 despite slipping over 1% on Monday. Hyperliquid's HYPE rose 1% to $80 and is up over 35% on the week. Dogecoin eased under 1% to just above 9 cents but holds a 30% weekly gain. Ether added half a percent to $2,442 and is up almost 28% over seven days.

Solana slipped over 1% to $94 and is up 24% on the week. BNB rose marginally to $697 for a 15% weekly gain, while tron lagged the group at $0.344 and 3.4%.

Equities went the other way. MSCI's Asia Pacific gauge dropped 1%, with Samsung Electronics down 8.7% in Seoul after investors were underwhelmed by its plan to return as much as 110 trillion won, or $80 billion, to shareholders.

Alibaba tumbled 9.6% in Hong Kong on plans to raise HK$80 billion, about $10.2 billion, in a share sale. SoftBank slipped 4.9% in Tokyo after announcing a record ¥1 trillion retail bond offering.

Nvidia reports earnings this week. The company sells the chips every large AI buildout runs on, so its forecast for the coming quarters is the closest thing mark

Alibaba's plan to raise $10.2 billion for AI expansion, which sent its stock down almost 10%, is a sign investors have started asking what that spending returns.