Live updates: Bitcoin holds above $81,000 as the AI rout fades and oil climbs

preferred on Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Oct 23, 2026, 2:16 p.m. EDT Stephen Alpher Share Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email You are here: 'The bad part of October' “This part of October is historically one of the worst of the year,” writes Ryan Detrick , chief market strategist at Carson Group.

“The good news is late October lows are quite normal and with sentiment getting extreme, we could be looking at another late October buying period.”

Detrick is writing about traditional equity markets, but to the extent that crypto markets are correlated, it’s worth considering.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Yields edge higher after yesterday's plunge Yesterday’s 19 basis point slide in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was the largest one-day move downward since March 2023, when the failure of Silicon Valley Bank had investors worried about a domino effect across the country.

Markets having calmed for the moment — the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are about flat on Friday, and French bond spreads (to Germany) are little changed — yields are cautiously edging higher.

The U.S. 10-year yield is up 4.3 basis points to 4.994%, and the 2-year yield is up 6 basis points to 4.695%.

Next week brings the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, and investors continue to overwhelmingly bet the central bank leaves its benchmark fed funds rate unchanged.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Gold trades below $4,000 an ounce Gold fell below $4,000 an ounce for the first time since July, trading around $3,990, roughly 30% below its January all-time high of $5,600. Silver has dropped more than 2% over the past 24 hours to around $53.40 an ounce, leaving it 56% below its January record high.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email World oil prices continue surge, hitting six-month high Brent crude oil — typically considered the global benchmark — is now higher by 2.6% and above $116 per barrel for the first time since late April

WTI crude oil — the U.S. domestic benchmark, is ahead 3.1% to a one-month higher of $102.53.

U.S. stocks are modestly lower, the Nasdaq down 0.2% and the S&P 500 off 0.6%.

Bitcoin has turned lower too, dipping back to $81,000.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Final UMich October consumer sentiment tops estimates The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment edged down to 48.0 in October from 48.1 a month earlier. That’s up, though, from the preliminary reading of 46.3 two weeks ago.

The Index of Consumer Expectations rose to 48.8 from 46.3.

One-year inflation expectations rose to 4.7% from 4.6%, but were flat from the 4.7% preliminary read.

Longer-run inflation expectations rose to 3.5% from 3.4%, also in line with the preliminary read.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bloom Energy shares fall 10% Good news is bad news as the AI trade continues to struggle. Bloom Energy (BE) shares fell 10% in U.S. trading on Friday despite beating revenue and earnings expectations on Thursday. Third-quarter revenue rose 138% year over year to $1.24 billion, exceeding forecasts of $1.07 billion, while adjusted earnings per share reached $0.94, ahead of the $0.67 expected.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Time in the market versus timing the market Even with yesterday’s ugly action included, bitcoin BTC $80,690.83 has gained about 39% over the nearly four months since it sat just below $59,000 on July 1.

One trader crunched the numbers . Since July 1, there have been 2,724 hourly candles, and the 15 strongest candles — just 0.55% — produced enough gains for that entire 39% advance.

Removing the 20 strongest hours over the last four months, and bitcoin would have actually dropped 6.8%.

“This is exactly why going fully cash and waiting for the ‘perfect entry’ is so dangerous,” the trader concluded. “Bitcoin could spend weeks doing absolutely nothing and deliver the entire rally while you are waiting to buy lower.”

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin struggles below spot ETF cost basis of $82,313 ETF Cost Basis (Glassnode) Bitcoin continues to struggle below the average cost basis of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, trading just above $81,000 compared with $82,313.

The chart tracks the running average price at which bitcoin has flowed into these ETFs.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin ETFs had largest outflows since June; history says outlook isn't good The U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETF suffered $635 million in outflows during yesterday’s panicky action, according to Farside Investors. That’s the largest daily outflow since June 25.

While the contrarian take might be, “fantastic, the leveraged, fast-money types were flushed out, and now we’re poised to move higher,” history suggests otherwise.

According to Farside, bitcoin has tended to perform poorly in the days and weeks following outsized outflows. For instances of outflows greater than $300 million (there have been 22 such days prior to yesterday), bitcoin, on average, was significantly lower 7, 30, and 90 days later.

The caveat, of course, is that history is quite limited, given the ETFs have been around for less than three years, and is also likely skewed by the bear market begun in October 2025.

Share this post Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin goes quiet near $81,500 after a week of $3,000 swings Bitcoin dipped to about $81,000 late Thursday and has since spent the day boxed in a range of less than $1,000, trading near $81,500 early Friday. After a week of $3,000 swings, it’s the calmest stretch bitcoin has had in days.

It’s down 0.4% over 24 hours and still sits below $82,500, the support it lost on Thursday.

Altcoins were mixed. BNB was the standout, up nearly 2% to about $745, and DOGE added about 1%. XMR gave back part of Thursday’s jump, falling 7% to about $607, and ZEC lost nearly 4% to about $1,200. HYPE, XRP, ether and SOL slipped about 1% or less, with ether just under $2,400, according to CoinDesk data.