Bitcoin regained ground to trade near $82,500 after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would not strike Iran before the midterm elections. Despite the rebound, BTC remains approximately 4% lower for the week, while Ether has recorded a steeper 9% decline.
Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from Thursday’s low of around $80,300 to approximately $82,500, but it is still trading about 4% below its level from the previous Friday. Ether (ETH) has performed worse over the same period, falling 9% to roughly $2,500.
The recovery followed Trump’s Thursday statement on Truth Social that the United States would refrain from attacking Iran before the November 3 midterm elections. Brent crude prices also eased, dropping about 1% to approximately $103 per barrel.
Smaller cryptocurrencies led the latest upswing. The CoinDesk 80 index climbed 2.2% since midnight UTC, outperforming the CoinDesk 5 index by more than twofold.
However, the broader market has yet to recover from Thursday’s losses. The CoinDesk 100 remained down 2.2% over 24 hours, while DeFi-related tokens lost nearly 4%. U.S.-listed Bitcoin, Ether and Zcash ETFs recorded net outflows on Thursday, whereas XRP funds were the only crypto investment products to attract fresh capital.
Concerns surrounding crypto security also weighed on sentiment after Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake urged holders to consider “bunker mode” as a precaution against potential AI-related threats. Coinbase cryptographer Yehuda Lindell rejected the alarm, describing it as “FUD,” or fear, uncertainty and doubt. He said there was no evidence that the elliptic-curve cryptography underpinning Bitcoin and Ether had been compromised.
U.S. stock futures also advanced following Trump’s announcement. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.83% since midnight, while S&P 500 futures increased 0.44%.
Derivatives market trends
Bitcoin futures open interest dropped 1.9% over 24 hours to $27.1 billion, according to Coinalyze. The metric has barely changed since Thursday afternoon’s liquidation wave, even as Bitcoin rebounded toward $82,500. This indicates that the recovery has not been accompanied by a substantial increase in leveraged exposure.
Funding rates remain positive at roughly 5% annualized, with the forecast rate slightly higher. Long traders therefore continue to pay to maintain positions anticipating higher prices. Deribit’s October 30 Bitcoin futures are trading at an annualized basis of approximately 7%.
Bitcoin derivatives remain tilted toward bullish positions. Coinalyze’s aggregate long-to-short ratio stands at 1.85, suggesting that around 65% of tracked positions are long. This compares with a nearly balanced ratio at the beginning of the month.
CoinGlass reported $1.09 billion in liquidations across the crypto market over 24 hours. Long positions accounted for $931 million, or about 85% of the total. Ether led with $345 million in liquidations, followed by Bitcoin at $266 million and Solana at $65 million. The largest individual event involved a $20 million ETH-USD position on Hyperliquid.
Token market update
Starknet (STRK) rose 33% over 24 hours after announcing that it was exploring the possibility of leaving Ethereum to operate as a standalone layer-1 blockchain. The network is also targeting full quantum resistance by 2027, although the proposal remains under consideration. The announcement came shortly after Pudgy Penguins’ Abstract became the second Ethereum layer-2 network to shut down within a week.
Kaia (KAIA), a layer-1 network created by combining Kakao’s Klaytn and LINE’s Finschia, surged 40% since midnight following its listing on Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Other layer-1 tokens also advanced, with Aptos (APT) gaining 12% and Cosmos (ATOM) and Polkadot (DOT) each rising nearly 10%.
Some of Thursday’s top performers subsequently reversed direction. Algorand (ALGO), which led the CoinDesk 100 with a 9% advance on Thursday morning, fell 14% over 24 hours. Curve (CRV) declined 13% after gaining 11% previously.
AI-linked cryptocurrencies also struggled following news about OpenAI’s revenue. CNBC reported Thursday that OpenAI had reached an annualized revenue run rate of $50 billion at the end of September, below the $68 billion figure widely reported the previous month. The disclosure coincided with the Nasdaq Composite recording its largest single-day loss since mid-August.
The AI agent payments token Kite (KITE) and Venice (VVV) each declined about 9% over 24 hours and remained slightly negative since midnight UTC.
Pyth Network (PYTH), an oracle token, gained 13% over 24 hours, making it one of the few cryptocurrencies to post positive returns across both periods.
