Bitcoin Slides to $80K as Fed Dissent and Tech Earnings Rattle Markets

Bitcoin declined 1.4% from midnight UTC to approximately $80,100 on Thursday as disappointing earnings from Samsung and Alphabet pressured technology stocks. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, is scheduled for release later in the day.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to around $80,100 after briefly touching $79,600 before buyers stepped in. Altcoins experienced steeper losses, with Ether (ETH) dropping 1.7% and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index declining 3.4%.

South Korea’s Kospi index led the broader market downturn, falling 1.2% as Samsung Electronics shares slid 4%. The decline came despite the chipmaker reporting a record quarterly profit, as investors were disappointed with its shareholder returns. Nasdaq-100 futures also dropped 1.1% after Alphabet reported earnings below market expectations.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, as anticipated. However, two officials opposed the decision and favored a 0.25-percentage-point increase. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh also avoided providing clear guidance on the central bank’s December decision. Investors are now awaiting September’s PCE inflation figures for additional clues about the economic outlook.

Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted $137 million in net inflows on Wednesday, extending their positive streak to three consecutive sessions. According to Farside Investors, cumulative inflows over that period reached $423.7 million.

Crypto Derivatives Positioning

Futures activity increases as traders close positions: Cryptocurrency futures trading volume climbed 21.8% to $198.8 billion over 24 hours, while open interest (OI) declined 1.9%. The combination suggests that trading activity intensified as positions were unwound. Liquidations jumped 84% to $337.4 million. Taker volume remained almost evenly divided, with buyers accounting for 50.1% and sellers representing 49.9%.

Bitcoin and Ether exposure declines: BTC fell 1.6%, while its futures open interest dropped 1.2%, indicating that market exposure contracted broadly in line with the price decline. ETH lost 2.1%, while its open interest decreased 0.7%. Funding rates remained positive for both assets but fell from the previous day, suggesting that bullish positioning in perpetual futures is weakening. Ether liquidations reached $71.6 million, nearly matching Bitcoin’s $72.5 million despite ETH having roughly half as much open interest.

Capital moves into BNB positions: BNB open interest increased 1.7% even as its price declined 0.8%, indicating that traders added exposure during the downturn. Trading volume surged 70%. Its funding rate turned negative, becoming the most negative among leading cryptocurrencies. Negative funding means short traders pay long traders, reflecting a bearish bias in perpetual futures markets. SUI displayed a similar, though smaller, pattern.

ZEC positions unwind: ZEC open interest fell 12% as its price dropped 5.4%, suggesting that traders were exiting positions and reversing some of the previous day’s buildup. Open interest had risen 13.9% during a 6.3% price rally on Wednesday. Funding remained positive, indicating that long traders were still paying short traders and that bearish positioning had not yet taken over.

Funding rates signal fading bullish sentiment: Funding rates remained positive for most major cryptocurrencies but declined compared with 24 hours earlier. This means traders holding long positions are paying less to maintain their exposure, pointing to a cooling bullish bias. BNB recorded the most negative funding rate, while Monero (XMR) had the highest positive rate.

CVD turns negative across major tokens: Nearly all major cryptocurrencies posted negative 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD). This indicates that aggressive market selling outweighed market buying relative to open interest, reversing Wednesday’s broadly positive readings. NEAR showed the strongest negative movement, with a sharp decline around midday.

Alphabet-linked contract sees sharp activity increase: The GOOGL perpetual contract, which tracks Alphabet shares, recorded a 77% jump in open interest while its price fell 10%. Trading volume increased to nearly five times its previous level.

Call options dominate Bitcoin trading: Four of the six most actively traded Bitcoin options on Deribit over the past 24 hours were calls, all with strike prices above BTC’s spot price. The $82,500 call expiring on October 30 led activity. However, options skew continued to indicate demand for downside protection across all maturities.

Put options lead Ether activity: Five of the six most heavily traded ETH options were puts, with strike prices ranging from $2,280 to $1,500. The only call in the group was the $3,200 contract expiring in December. Ether puts continued to trade at a premium to calls, reflecting persistent concerns about further price declines.

AI and DeFi Tokens Face Steeper Losses

AI-related cryptocurrencies were among the biggest losers as risk appetite weakened across technology markets. NEAR, a blockchain focused on AI-related applications, fell 7.8%, while Bittensor (TAO), a decentralized artificial intelligence network, declined 3.1%. The losses coincided with a roughly 10% premarket drop in Alphabet shares following its disappointing earnings report.

Decentralized finance tokens also underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market. Raydium (RAY) dropped 8.9%, Jito (JTO) lost 6.8%, and Ethena (ENA) declined 6%.

JasmyCoin (JASMY), a Japan-based token associated with data and Internet of Things applications, fell 10%, recording the largest decline among assets in the CoinDesk 100. Dash (DASH) and Pump.fun (PUMP) each dropped approximately 6%.

Tron (TRX) was among the few cryptocurrencies to post gains, rising 0.5% since midnight UTC.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index declined to 54 out of 100 on Thursday, down from 60 the previous day, indicating weaker relative performance across the altcoin market.

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