Bitcoin recovered from an early decline as U.S. stocks turned higher, although shifting reports about progress toward ending the war in Iran kept oil markets volatile. The market backdrop also included weak U.S. housing data, renewed pressure on technology shares and a modest rebound in crypto-related stocks, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin and crypto stocks regain ground
Bitcoin initially moved lower alongside equities before climbing back toward $83,000. The cryptocurrency’s recovery came as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reversed early losses. Bitcoin was later reported at about $82,300 after retreating roughly 1% from its session high, while earlier trading had taken it back to $83,000.
The move also supported companies linked to digital assets. After last week’s market-wide selloff pushed several crypto-related names down by 10% or more, a number of them posted gains during Tuesday trading:
- Coinbase rose 1.7% and Robinhood gained 2.3%.
- Circle advanced 5.3%, while Bullish increased 5.7%.
- MARA Holdings rose 3.8%, Securitize added 3.9% and Strategy climbed 6.3%.
At one stage, the Nasdaq was up 0.25% and the S&P 500 was 0.4% higher. Ether, solana and XRP each gained more than 1% over the preceding 24 hours.
The broader technology market remained unsettled, however. South Korea’s KOSPI dropped almost 4%, while data-center company Elice fell about 30% in one of the country’s weakest initial public offerings. In U.S. premarket trading, CoreWeave was down 4%, Cipher Digital fell 2% and IREN lost 3%. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks major technology stocks, also traded lower.
Oil swings on conflicting Iran reports
Energy markets were a major source of volatility. West Texas Intermediate crude had moved above $101 a barrel overnight before falling sharply after reports that Qatar and Pakistan had presented a proposal aimed at ending the war in Iran, with preliminary approval reportedly received from the United States and Iran. WTI then fell to about $95.50, down 3% for the session, while the Nasdaq moved from an opening loss of nearly 1% to a gain of 0.6%.
The decline in oil prices was later partly reversed after an earlier report of significant progress was denied. WTI recovered roughly $2 to reach $97.60 a barrel, leaving it down about 1% on the day. The Nasdaq returned to approximately flat, and bitcoin gave back part of its earlier rise.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said economic pressure on Iran was intensifying and that panic was beginning to spread in the country. He also said the main problem for the United States was the energy-price spike. WTI for December delivery was later quoted at $98.40 a barrel, about $2 below its overnight high.
Higher rates weigh on U.S. housing
Fresh housing figures offered evidence that elevated borrowing costs are affecting demand. Pending home sales fell 7.3% in September, far worse than the 0.5% decline economists had expected. The index reading of 66.0 was described as the weakest in the 25-year history of the measure, while sales were down 11.3% from a year earlier.
Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors said rapidly rising mortgage rates had weakened market conditions. He noted that employment and income growth could support home purchases, but that affordability was more sensitive to mortgage-rate changes.
Housing starts also missed expectations. September starts declined 5.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.221 million, compared with forecasts of 1.3 million and an August level of 1.288 million. Building permits fell to 1.4 million from 1.403 million, though the result was slightly above the 1.39 million forecast. The National Association of Home Builders had reported the previous day that builder confidence had fallen to its weakest level since 2012.
Corporate results and crypto-sector developments
SpaceX reported third-quarter revenue of $14.58 billion, a 161% year-over-year increase and above the $12.87 billion estimate. Adjusted EBITDA reached $8.81 billion, while net income was $4.4 billion; both exceeded forecasts. Capital expenditure was $19.59 billion, broadly matching estimates. Cash and equivalents stood at $51.29 billion, below the $91.2 billion forecast, and bitcoin on the balance sheet was valued at $1.57 billion. Shares were flat after hours at about $148, implying a valuation near $2 trillion.
Anthropic’s draft IPO prospectus, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, showed revenue of about $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, compared with $1.1 billion a year earlier. Compute spending rose to $9 billion from $2.3 billion, while the company recorded a net loss of more than $80 billion. Amazon, meanwhile, was reported to be storing billions of dollars of Nvidia GPUs because data-center power and construction were lagging hardware deliveries.
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s FINMA approved the country’s first bitcoin ETF after allowing an exemption for funds holding only bitcoin. Bitget agreed to acquire Thailand-based licensed exchange GMO-Z, subject to regulatory approval. Strive’s SATS preferred security began trading on Nasdaq at $85, below its $90 IPO price; its 15% coupon represented an effective yield above 17% at that price.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data recorded at 08:32 on October 21, 2026, show Bitcoin at $83,135.94, up 2.17% over 24 hours but down 0.72% over seven days. edgeX was priced at $0.3017, up 3.59% in 24 hours and down 8.98% over seven days. Definitive was quoted at $0.1322, up 15.76% over 24 hours and 23.32% over seven days; the supplied reading for that asset was timestamped October 7, 2026.
