Bitcoin fell back under $80,000 overnight from Sunday to Monday 26 October, touching about $79,330 according to Journal du Coin, its second dip below that line in three days. It traded near $79,950 at 06:55 UTC, down 0.56% over 24 hours and 3.09% over seven days, according to Coindaro’s market feed. The bitcoin price today hangs on two appointments: US spot bitcoin ETFs reopen at 13:30 UTC, and the Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on Wednesday 28 October at 18:00 UTC.
That undoes the headline of Coindaro’s Sunday morning report, when bitcoin still held above $80,000. Monday’s low stayed above Saturday’s $79,100, but the rebound is thinner this time. Journal du Coin had bitcoin at about $80,050 at 05:30 UTC; by 06:55 UTC it was a little below that again.
“It already seems like investors are de-risking as Bitcoin falls below the $80k mark,” Jeff Mei, chief operating officer of the exchange BTSE, told CoinDesk. What matters for crypto, he added, is how strongly Chair Kevin Warsh hints at a December hike.
Part of the leverage had already gone on Saturday. About $547 million of positions were liquidated in the 24 hours around Saturday’s slide, hitting more than 116,000 traders, according to CoinGlass data cited by Journal du Coin. No liquidation total for Monday night has been published, and Coindaro could not load CoinGlass to check either figure.
Bitcoin price today: what changed since Sunday
The night was rougher than the 24-hour figures now show. CoinDesk, writing at 04:37 UTC, had bitcoin nearly 2% lower at about $79,800, ether down nearly 3% just above $2,300, XRP 3% lower at $1.28 and Solana 2% lower and barely holding $100. Tron was the only large coin in the green. By 06:55 UTC part of that had been won back: ether was down 0.97% over 24 hours and XRP 0.76%.
The whole crypto market was worth $2.67 trillion at 06:48 UTC, against $2.71 trillion on Sunday at 05:48 UTC. Bitcoin’s share rose to 60.1% from 59.4%, so the rest of the market lost more than bitcoin did. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index slipped to 50, neutral, from 54.
| Asset or gauge | Level, 26 Oct | 24 hours | 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | about $79,950 (06:55 UTC) | -0.56% | -3.09% |
| Ether (ETH) | about $2,315 (06:55 UTC) | -0.97% | -4.25% |
| Solana (SOL) | about $100.8 (06:55 UTC) | -0.47% | -4.08% |
| XRP | about $1.28 (06:55 UTC) | -0.76% | -1.68% |
| BNB | about $737.5 (06:55 UTC) | -0.58% | +1.74% |
| Total crypto market value | $2.67 trillion (06:48 UTC) | n/a | n/a |
| Bitcoin dominance | 60.1% (06:48 UTC) | n/a | n/a |
| Fear & Greed Index | 50, neutral (06:48 UTC) | n/a | n/a |
Prices from Coindaro’s market feed (CoinGecko and alternative.me data). Our bitcoin page shows the live quote.
Bitcoin sits 36.6% below its record of $126,080, set on 6 October 2025. The levels traders quote this week are close together. CoinDesk says bitcoin needs to win back $82,500, the level it lost last Thursday, before the drop can be read as a pause. Glassnode data cited by Journal du Coin puts support at $78,000 and the 20-day moving average, the first ceiling, near $82,400. Cointribune mapped clusters of long liquidations between $78,500 and $79,000 and quoted analyst Benjamin Cowen’s $83,000 weekly-close line.
Cointribune also cites a Glassnode estimate that matters at this exact price: companies that hold bitcoin in their treasury bought it, on average, close to $80,000. Below that line, the group as a whole sits on paper losses.
For readers new to the mechanics, a liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged position once the trader’s margin no longer covers the loss. Clusters of them near a price act like trip wires: if the price reaches them, exchanges sell automatically, which can push it further.
Fed meeting, oil and the AI trade weigh on the Monday open
Wednesday’s Fed decision is the main event
The Federal Open Market Committee meets on 27 and 28 October. The Federal Reserve’s calendar does not mark it as a meeting with new economic projections. The statement is due at 18:00 UTC on Wednesday and Warsh’s press conference at 18:30 UTC. CoinDesk expects no change this week; traders mostly want to know whether Warsh leaves the door open to a December hike, after September’s quarter-point increase to 3.75%-4.00%.
What has moved is futures pricing. CME FedWatch, as reported by Journal du Coin, gave an October hike a 9.4% chance on Sunday, with 90.6% for a hold, down from 64.2% on 25 September. It priced a December hike to 4.00%-4.25% at 67.5%. Coindaro could not load the CME page to check these numbers. Prediction markets, a different measure cited in our Sunday piece, had December near 73%.
Oil eases from its six-month high
Brent crude fell about 2% to around $114 a barrel in Asian trading, CoinDesk reported; Journal du Coin had it at $115.16. That is a small step back from Friday’s $116.72 close, after a week in which oil gained about 6% following Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities. CoinDesk also reported that President Donald Trump said it was “getting to be decision time” on whether to reach a deal with Iran or resume attacks. Coindaro has not found the remark in a primary source.
Treasuries rose in Asia, according to CoinDesk, which means yields edged down from Friday, when the 10-year closed near 5%. At that level a government bond pays well for no risk, which raises the bar for assets with no yield at all, bitcoin included.
Asian stocks and the AI trade
Korea’s Kospi lost about 1% after Goldman Sachs cut its 12-month target for the index by 25%, according to CoinDesk. Chipmakers led the losses in Tokyo, Chinese AI developers fell, and the MSCI Asia Pacific index slipped 0.1% after four weekly losses in a row, its longest run since April. Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.1% lower ahead of a heavy week of big-tech earnings. The Nasdaq had dropped 2.6% on Thursday 22 October, its worst session since June, on worries about AI spending, Cointribune noted.
Brazil added its own shock. President Lula won Sunday’s runoff, and Journal du Coin reported the real down about 10% on CME futures and tether trading about 9% above the official dollar rate on Brazilian platforms. No source ties that move to bitcoin’s dip. Coindaro covers it in a separate report.
Bitcoin ETFs reopen after $774 million left in two days
US spot bitcoin ETFs trade again at 13:30 UTC, for the first time since Friday. The two-day outflow totals were in our Sunday report; the split by fund for both sessions is new. According to Farside data reported by Journal du Coin, BlackRock’s IBIT lost $364.4 million over Thursday and Friday and Fidelity’s FBTC $249.3 million, together close to four-fifths of the $773.5 million that left. Morgan Stanley’s MSBT took in $6.5 million. The week still ended about $301 million positive, Decrypt reported, because about $1.07 billion came in from Monday to Wednesday.
| US spot bitcoin ETFs | Net flow | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 22 October | -$635.6 million | Farside via Journal du Coin; Decrypt |
| Friday 23 October | -$137.9 million | Farside via Journal du Coin; Decrypt |
| BlackRock IBIT, Thursday and Friday | -$364.4 million | Farside via Journal du Coin |
| Fidelity FBTC, Thursday and Friday | -$249.3 million | Farside via Journal du Coin |
| Morgan Stanley MSBT, Thursday and Friday | +$6.5 million | Farside via Journal du Coin |
| Week of 19-23 October | about +$301 million | Decrypt |
| October to date | about -$314 million | Decrypt |
| Cumulative net inflows since launch | $57.6 billion | Decrypt |
Decrypt’s tracker puts the funds’ total net assets at $100.2 billion; the SoSoValue figure in our Sunday piece was $104.43 billion, and the two trackers do not match. October has been harder on the other funds. Ether ETFs have lost about $1.18 billion this month and Solana ETFs about $68 million, according to Decrypt.
Monday’s flow figures will only be known after the US close. CoinShares’ weekly fund-flow report for the week to 24 October had not appeared by 07:00 UTC. For how these funds hold bitcoin and why their flows matter, see our explainer on crypto ETFs.
The week’s agenda, with dates and times in UTC
Europe moved to winter time on 25 October, but US clocks change only on 1 November. This week New York is four hours behind UTC, so the 09:30 New York open is 13:30 UTC.
- Monday 26 October, 13:30: US stock markets and spot bitcoin ETFs open for the first time since Friday’s outflows.
- Tuesday 27 October: first day of the Fed meeting; changes to Franklin’s FBEQ and FIBT take effect.
- Wednesday 28 October, 18:00: Fed rate decision, with Warsh’s press conference at 18:30. Alphabet and Microsoft report after the decision, according to Cointribune.
- Thursday 29 October, 12:30: advance estimate of third-quarter US GDP and September personal income and outlays, which carries PCE inflation, per the BEA release schedule. Amazon, Strategy and Coinbase report after the US close.
- Friday 30 October, 08:00: monthly expiry of bitcoin options on Deribit, about $11 billion according to Coindaro’s Sunday piece and Journal du Coin, and about $11.7 billion by Cointribune’s count.
- Tuesday 3 November: US midterm elections.
Journal du Coin notes that the Fed has raised rates within a week of a US national election only once since 1990, on 2 November 2022. The midterms fall on 3 November this year, six days after Wednesday’s decision.
On Friday’s expiry, Cointribune counted about $4.5 billion of calls between $90,000 and $100,000, bets that look far away at today’s price, and a heavy concentration of protective puts around $80,000, the level bitcoin is trading at this morning.
What is still unknown before the Fed
Nobody has published the exact time of Monday’s $79,330 low, or a liquidation total for the night itself. The FedWatch odds come second-hand. Whether Brazil’s currency shock pulled any money out of crypto is not known.
The first hard number arrives with the ETF flows after Monday’s session. Thursday’s $635.6 million outflow came on the day the Nasdaq had its worst session since June; another day like that before Wednesday would put bitcoin into the Fed decision with its largest buyers selling. The US session analysis from 23 October showed how closely the price now follows those flows. On the chart, the $78,000 support and the $82,400 to $82,500 band are the lines to watch.
This article reports market data and the views of named sources. It is not investment advice.