Bitcoin recovered toward $82,500 after President Donald Trump said the United States would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, but the rebound has not erased a difficult week for digital assets. Ether remained near $2,500 after falling about 9% over seven days, while derivatives data showed heavy liquidations and a market still tilted toward long positions.
According to CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency recovery followed a Thursday post by Trump on Truth Social. The comments also lifted U.S. equity futures, with Nasdaq 100 futures rising 0.83% since midnight UTC and S&P 500 futures gaining 0.44%. Brent crude fell about 1% to around $103 a barrel.
Bitcoin recovers, but weekly losses remain
Bitcoin fell to approximately $80,300 on Thursday before returning to around $82,500. The move stabilized the largest cryptocurrency ahead of the weekend, although it was still about 4% below its level a week earlier. Ether underperformed Bitcoin, sliding 9% over the same period to trade near $2,500.
Smaller tokens led the initial bounce. The CoinDesk 80 index rose 2.2% since midnight UTC, more than twice the gain recorded by the CoinDesk 5. However, the broader recovery remained incomplete: the CoinDesk 100 was still down 2.2% over 24 hours, while decentralized-finance tokens had lost nearly 4%.
Exchange-traded crypto products also reflected the pressure from the previous session. U.S.-listed bitcoin, ether and zcash ETFs recorded outflows on Thursday. XRP funds were the only crypto products among those listed in the report to attract money.
Market sentiment was also affected by a debate over cryptocurrency security. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake’s call for a “bunker mode” contributed to negative sentiment during Thursday’s selloff. Coinbase cryptographer Yehuda Lindell pushed back, describing the concerns as “FUD,” or fear, uncertainty and doubt, and said there was no evidence that the elliptic-curve assumptions supporting bitcoin and ether had been broken.
Derivatives show cautious rebound and heavy losses
Bitcoin futures open interest fell 1.9% over 24 hours to $27.1 billion, according to Coinalyze. The measure had barely changed since Thursday afternoon’s sharp decline even as Bitcoin recovered, indicating that the bounce was not accompanied by a significant increase in leverage.
Funding rates remained positive at roughly 5% annualized, with the predicted rate slightly higher. Positive funding means traders holding long positions were paying to maintain them. Deribit’s Oct. 30 futures were trading at an annualized basis of about 7%.
Long positions continued to outnumber shorts. Coinalyze’s aggregated long-to-short ratio was 1.85, equivalent to about 65% long, compared with a position close to parity at the beginning of October.
The positioning proved costly during the broader market decline. CoinGlass recorded $1.09 billion in liquidations over the previous 24 hours. Long positions accounted for $931 million, or about 85% of the total. Ether led the liquidations with $345 million, followed by Bitcoin at $266 million and Solana at $65 million. The largest individual liquidation was a $20 million ETH-USD position on Hyperliquid.
Starknet and other tokens lead the market move
Starknet’s STRK was one of the strongest performers, jumping 33% over 24 hours. The network said it was actively considering leaving Ethereum and becoming a standalone layer-1 blockchain, with a goal of achieving full quantum resistance by 2027. The proposal has not yet been approved.
The announcement came days after Pudgy Penguins’ Abstract became the second Ethereum layer-2 network to shut down in one week, according to the report. Layer-2 networks are designed to process transactions alongside a base blockchain, while a layer-1 operates as its own primary network.
Kaia, the layer-1 blockchain created through the merger of Kakao’s Klaytn and LINE’s Finschia, rose 40% since midnight after being listed by Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange. Other layer-1 tokens also advanced, with Aptos up 12% and Cosmos and Polkadot gaining nearly 10%.
Some of Thursday’s strongest performers reversed sharply. Algorand, which had gained 9% on Thursday morning, fell 14% over 24 hours, while Curve dropped 13% after rising 11%.
AI-related tokens did not join the wider recovery. KITE and Venice each lost about 9% over 24 hours after CNBC reported that OpenAI had told investors it recorded $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September, below a $68 billion figure widely reported the previous month. Pyth Network was a notable exception, gaining 13% over 24 hours and remaining higher across both reported timeframes.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data at 10:59 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $82,501.420547988, down 0.22% over 24 hours and 4.38% over seven days. Ethereum stood at $2,490.7609442025, down 2.32% in 24 hours and 9.19% over seven days.
NEAR Protocol was priced at $4.7498372276, falling 7.97% over 24 hours and 2.73% over seven days. The Official Trump token traded at $1.839449676, down 0.75% over 24 hours and 13.66% over seven days.
