Bitcoin recovered to above $82,000 after falling below $80,000 on Thursday for the first time in more than a month, while several major alternative cryptocurrencies also advanced. The rebound followed a sharp liquidation event, but technical indicators presented a mixed picture about the market’s next direction.
Bitcoin Rebounds, But Resistance Remains
Bitcoin was trading at $82,295, up 1.28% over 24 hours, according to Decrypt. The move came after Thursday’s decline took the cryptocurrency to $79,711, below the $80,000 level and an important technical reference at $81,603.
Ethereum rose 4.17% to $2,473.17, Solana gained 3.02%, and XRP added 2.03%. Zcash was the strongest performer among the 15 largest cryptocurrencies, climbing 10.29% to $1,222.02. Its market capitalization reached $20.67 billion, broadly offsetting an almost 10% loss recorded on Thursday.
The broader market was therefore moving higher after spending most of the week under pressure. However, Thursday’s fall had already caused substantial forced selling. CoinGlass data cited in the report showed $948 million in liquidations, with 90.6% involving long positions. Liquidation occurs when a leveraged trade is automatically closed after losses exhaust the collateral supporting it. Because long positions are bets on rising prices, their forced closure can intensify a decline.
What the Technical Levels Show
Bitcoin’s daily chart placed the price close to the $81,603 resistance level. Traders use such levels to estimate where buying may emerge during a pullback. The Thursday low also moved below the 50-day exponential moving average, or EMA, which gives greater weight to recent prices. That average stood at $80,407.
The 200-day EMA was at $75,759, approximately 8% below the price cited in the report. Since the 50-day EMA remained above the 200-day EMA, the longer-term trend was still described as bullish.
Other indicators were less decisive. The Average Directional Index, which measures trend strength rather than whether prices are rising or falling, stood at 25.5—just above the 25 threshold commonly used to identify a trend. The directional measure for sellers was ahead of the buyers’ measure. Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index was 48.9, a broadly neutral reading with a slight tilt toward sellers; the RSI ranges from 0 to 100, with 70 often viewed as overbought and 30 as oversold.
Possible Paths for Bitcoin
The report outlined three technical scenarios rather than a firm forecast:
- A bullish case would require buyers to defend $81,603 and push Bitcoin above $84,246. The next reference points would be $85,301, $86,644 and the $87,423 high, ideally alongside a stronger ADX.
- A sideways case would keep the price between the $80,365 swing low and $84,246.
- A bearish case would begin with a daily close below $81,603, bringing $80,407 and $80,365 into focus, followed by $78,003 and the $75,759-$75,093 area.
On Myriad, a prediction market operated by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders assigned a 31% probability to Bitcoin reaching $87,500 in October, down from 45% on Tuesday. A separate Myriad market put the chance of a decline to $77,500 at 43%.
Moneyiar Market Picture
Moneyiar data at 21:54 on October 17, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $81,061.979483249, down 0.65% in 24 hours and 2.31% over seven days. Nexus was priced at $0.0000007053, down 4.04% over 24 hours and 13.47% over seven days. RedStone stood at $0.1373016228, down 5.95% and 8.96%, respectively. TAC Protocol was $0.0065984417, up 69.35% in 24 hours and 166.36% over seven days.
The technical views and prediction-market probabilities described above are market observations, not investment advice.
