Bitcoin fell below $82,000 on Thursday, losing as much as 2.9 percent since midnight UTC, after mixed earnings reports from Tesla and Meta Platforms revived doubts over AI spending. The decline reversed a late-Wednesday surge to nearly $84,800 and weighed on equities in Asia.
Equities and crypto fall together
Chinese stocks entered a bear market, and the Hang Seng, Kospi and Nikkei 225 all fell, with the Hang Seng down more than 3 percent. The CoinDesk 80 dropped 3.5 percent. By our market data, the Nasdaq Composite stood at 26,702.86 points at the 21 October close, up 1.05 percent from the previous close, and bitcoin was at $81,568 as of 16:41 GMT, down 3.60 percent.
DeFi tokens led the losses. The CoinDesk DeFi index fell 6 percent, and Ethena and Uniswap dropped 7.2 and 5 percent respectively. Curve slid 8.2 percent to 37 cents.
Derivatives markets show strain
Crypto derivatives trading volume rose 19 percent to $226.6 billion. Futures open interest fell 2.46 percent to $141.8 billion.
Implied volatility, measured by the BVIV and EVIV indexes, was near its 2026 lows. Ether fell 2.6 percent to near $2,400.
Solana and privacy coins diverge
Solana fell 2.4 percent to around $104, even as its Alpenglow upgrade went live overnight. Monero gained 4.9 percent to about $651, while Zcash fell 4.8 percent to around $1,252.
Celestia faces a token unlock of 5.58 million TIA on Oct. 31.
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