Treasury yields eased after reaching multi-decade highs, while oil prices declined following reports of a possible phased agreement between the U.S. and Iran. Bitcoin is also heading into a major Deribit options expiry, with roughly $14 billion in contracts set to expire Friday.
Sequans Sells Final Bitcoin Holdings
Sequans’ decision to sell its remaining bitcoin marks another reversal of the corporate crypto treasury trend that gained momentum in 2025.
The Paris-based semiconductor company Sequans (SQNS) disclosed that it had sold its remaining 314 bitcoin as of June 30, ending its bitcoin treasury strategy.
Sequans joined the digital-asset treasury wave during the summer of 2025 and accumulated more than 3,200 BTC by October’s market peak.
The strategy was later complicated by convertible debt obligations. Sequans sold most of its bitcoin in May as it sought to redeem that debt.
Sequans now joins companies including Satsuma and Empery Digital, which also built bitcoin treasuries during the 2025 speculative surge before reversing their strategies roughly a year later.
Strategy Seeks Daily Preferred Dividends
Michael Saylor’s Strategy is proposing changes that would allow dividends on several preferred stocks to accrue every day, including weekends and holidays.
“Strategy is proposing daily dividends on STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD accruing every calendar day, including weekends and holidays, and paid the next business day, with economics unchanged,” Saylor wrote Friday.
The company said the proposed changes are intended to support price stability, liquidity and demand.
The proposal requires shareholder approval, with voting scheduled to conclude Oct. 28. STRC daily dividends would begin Nov. 1, while the remaining preferred securities would move to the structure in January.
Strive’s ASST $29.43 high-yielding preferred stock SATA adopted daily dividends several weeks ago.
Cipher Mining Revenue Jumps on Barber Lake Deals
Cipher Mining (CIFR) advanced after expanding its agreements with Google-backed Fluidstack for its Barber Lake data center in Texas.
The revised agreements extend the lease period to 20 years from 10 years and increase total contracted revenue to $9 billion from $3.8 billion.
CIFR gained 4.3% in premarket trading.
Risk Assets Move Higher Before U.S. Session
Risk assets were broadly higher ahead of Friday’s U.S. market open. Bitcoin briefly reached $85,000, gaining more than 0.5% over 24 hours, before giving back some of the move.
Gold rose nearly 1% above $4,300 an ounce, while Invesco QQQ gained almost 1% in premarket trading.
The dollar index slipped below 101. WTI crude declined to $92.50 a barrel, while the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dropped 0.7% to 5.171%.
QNT, ONDO and LINK Outpace Bitcoin
Bitcoin remained mostly unchanged between $84,000 and $85,000 as several altcoins posted significant gains.
QNT climbed 38.2% over 24 hours, leading the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. ONDO gained 28% and LINK advanced 11%, while ALGO, AERO and CC rose between 8% and 9%.
The absence of memecoins among the 10 biggest gainers indicated that the strongest moves were concentrated in projects with established use cases rather than purely speculative assets.
Yen Heads for Strongest Session in More Than Two Weeks
The Japanese yen rose as much as 0.6% to 158 per dollar, putting it on course for its strongest daily performance in more than two weeks, Bloomberg reported.
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said President Trump had acknowledged Japan’s concerns over yen weakness and pledged coordination with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The yen has declined approximately 3.5% against the dollar since Sept. 8. Japan and the U.S. purchased yen during the summer to support the currency.
The latest intervention concerns followed Bessent’s remarks: “I have asymmetric information. I am the house now.”
Goldman Sachs Generated About $200M From Situational Awareness
Goldman Sachs earned roughly $200 million in fees this year from Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by Leopold Aschenbrenner, according to the Financial Times.
The fund rapidly increased its assets through leveraged bets on AI stocks, reaching about $30 billion at its peak.
A sharp AI-stock sell-off in mid-July triggered a major unwinding of positions, including a large sale to Citadel. The fund subsequently reduced both its leverage and assets.
FxPro Sees Bitcoin Pullback as Temporary Pause
Bitcoin traded just above $84,000 Friday, little changed over 24 hours after falling below that level Wednesday, according to CoinDesk data. Most major tokens moved less than 2%, while smaller cryptocurrencies posted stronger gains. ONDO rose 27% to roughly 54 cents, while Quant climbed 39% to nearly $100.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell two basis points to 5.17% in Asia after climbing more than 20 basis points across the previous two sessions. Brent crude dropped 1% to about $105 a barrel following reports that Washington and Tehran were considering a phased agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said bitcoin’s recent decline represents a pause in the advance that began in mid-August. He noted that BTC encountered resistance near a previously significant support level and did not complete the 161.8% Fibonacci extension of that rally in a single move.
Kuptsikevich said the unfinished structure of the broader advance leaves open the possibility that the pullback is temporary.
He also pointed to bitcoin’s 2021 cycle, when the cryptocurrency lost more than 50% from its peak before reaching new highs. In his view, a move toward $70,000 could weigh heavily on short-term traders without necessarily invalidating the broader bullish outlook.
Bitcoin enters Friday’s Deribit options expiry below $85,000, where one of the largest concentrations of call options is positioned.
