Bitcoin steadies near $82,500 after Trump rules out Iran strike before midterms

Bitcoin steadies near $82,500 after Trump rules out Iran strike before midterms

Bitcoin recovered to around $82,500 after Trump ruled out an Iran strike, but remains about 4% lower on the week, while ether has lost 9%.

Bitcoin recovered to around $82,500 after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, but remains about 4% lower than a week ago. Smaller tokens led the bounce, with the CoinDesk 80 up 2.2% since midnight UTC, though the CoinDesk 100 remains 2.2% lower over 24 hours. Starknet’s STRK jumped 33% after the network said it is considering becoming a standalone layer-1 blockchain to achieve full quantum resistance by 2027.

Bitcoin BTC$82,482.50 heads into the weekend about 4% lower than at the same time last Friday, even after recovering to around $82,500 from a low near $80,300 on Thursday. Ether ETH$2,491.27 slid 9% over the week to around $2,500.

The BTC rebound followed a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump on Thursday saying the U.S. would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Brent crude has slipped about 1% today to around $103 a barrel.

Smaller tokens led the recovery, with the CoinDesk 80 up 2.2% since midnight UTC, more than twice the gain in the CoinDesk 5.

The bounce has yet to undo Thursday’s damage, however, with the CoinDesk 100 still 2.2% lower over 24 hours and DeFi tokens down nearly 4%. U.S.-listed bitcoin, ether and zcash ETFs posted outflows on Thursday, leaving XRP funds as the only crypto products to take in money.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake’s call for a “bunker mode,” which spurred negative sentiment alongside Thursday’s selloff, has also drawn pushback. Coinbase cryptographer Yehuda Lindell dismissed the concerns as “FUD” — fear, uncertainty and doubt — saying there was no evidence that the elliptic-curve assumptions behind bitcoin and ether had been broken.

U.S. equity futures also rose on the back of Trump’s comments, with Nasdaq 100 index futures up 0.83% since midnight and S&P500 futures adding 0.44%.

Derivatives positioning

Bitcoin futures open interest has slipped 1.9% over 24 hours to $27.1 billion, according to Coinalyze, and has barely moved since Thursday’s afternoon’s flush even as bitcoin recovered to around $82,500, suggesting the rebound has come without fresh leverage. Funding rates remain positive at about 5% annualized, with the predicted rate slightly higher, meaning longs are still paying to hold their positions. Deribit’s Oct. 30 futures trade at an annualized basis of around 7%. Accounts holding long bitcoin positions outnumber shorts by nearly two to one. Coinalyze’s aggregated long/short ratio stands at 1.85, or around 65% long, up from close to parity at the start of the month. CoinGlass data shows $1.09 billion of liquidations over the past 24 hours, with longs accounting for $931 million, or around 85% of the total. Ether led with $345 million, ahead of bitcoin at $266 million and solana at $65 million. The largest single liquidation was a $20 million ETH-USD position on Hyperliquid.

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Token talk

Starknet STRK has jumped 33% over 24 hours after the network said it is actively considering leaving Ethereum to become a standalone layer-1 blockchain, targeting full quantum resistance by 2027. The plan has yet to be approved. It comes days after Pudgy Penguins’ Abstract became the second Ethereum layer-2 network to shut down in a week. Kaia KAIA$0.03783, the layer-1 formed from the merger of Kakao’s Klaytn and LINE’s Finschia, rose 40% since midnight on the back of a listing from Upbit, Korea’s largest exchange. Other layer-1 coins joined the bounce, with aptos APT$0.8166 up 12% and cosmos ATOM$1.9448 and polkadot DOT$1.1639 adding nearly 10%. Thursday’s biggest winners have more than given back their gains. Algorand ALGO$0.1172, which led the CoinDesk 100 on Thursday morning with a 9% advance, is down 14% over 24 hours, and curve CRV$0.3406 has dropped 13% after an 11% rise. Two AI tokens missed the recovery after an OpenAI revenue disclosure hit AI stocks. On Thursday, CNBC confirmed that OpenAI told investors it had $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September, below a $68 billion figure widely reported last month, and the Nasdaq Composite index posted its biggest one-day drop since mid-August. AI agent payments token kite KITE$0.1262 and venice VVV$22.31 have each lost about 9% over 24 hours and are still slightly lower since midnight. Pyth Network PYTH$0.08364, the oracle token, has gained 13% over 24 hours, making it one of only a handful of tokens higher in both timeframes.

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The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Why it matters:

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

MARA transfers $81.1 million in bitcoin to Galaxy Digital as strategy pivots to AI

New tech to power bitcoin lending is set to debut with $500 million in commitments

Ether bets were wiped out at six times bitcoin’s rate in crypto’s $1 billion flush

Thailand opens door to locally listed bitcoin and ether ETFs

UK slaps sanctions on three crypto exchanges over alleged Russia links

Dark web drug market operator sentenced to 40 years, forfeits $101 million in bitcoin