Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore all declined, though Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, Wellington and Taipei gained

Asian markets were mixed Monday, while fears of a bubble continue to weigh on sentiment.

The tepid mood on trading floors also dragged on the crypto sector, with bitcoin briefly erasing all its gains this year – just over a month after hitting a record high.

Meanwhile, simmering tensions between China and Japan hit tourism and retail firms on Tokyo’s exchange.

Stocks have enjoyed a healthy rally since their tariff-fuelled decline in April, with tech firms leading the way as companies pumped eye-watering amounts of cash into all things linked to artificial intelligence.

The focus is also on this week’s release of earnings from chip titan Nvidia, which this month became the first $5 trillion company.

Nvidia has been partly responsible for powering the AI rally, but is now facing pressure amid concerns about stretched valuations in the sector, wrote Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.

Worries about an AI bubble have weighed on the sector, and investors are questioning not only the amount of money companies are spending on the tech relative to the returns they’re seeing, but also the circular nature of the spending, the analyst wrote.

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore all declined, though Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, Wellington and Taipei gained. Sydney was barely moved.

Tokyo also dived as figures showed Japan’s economy dipped 0.4 percent in the three months to September.

Tourism and retail firms were among the worst hit after China advised its citizens not to travel to Japan amid a diplomatic spat over comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan.

China is the biggest source of tourists to Japan.

Bitcoin was also suffering from the uncertain climate on trading floors, with the digital unit briefly declining to $92,935.51 – below the $93,714 mark it finished at on December 31 – according to Bloomberg data. It rebounded slightly in the afternoon to sit above $95,000.

The cryptocurrency hit a high of $126,251 on October 6.