Bitcoin slips under $81K as Brent oil hits a 7-month high

Bitcoin slipped below $81,000 shortly after Wall Street opened on Friday, Oct. 23, as oil prices jumped to their highest level in seven months and US stocks turned lower. TradingView data cited by Cointelegraph showed BTC touching $80,988 before bouncing back to roughly $81,600.

Oil is the story of the day

• Brent crude climbed nearly 3% to $116 a barrel, a level last seen on March 19.
• WTI crude passed $102, its highest since Sept. 16.
• The move followed worries that the US could renew military strikes on Iran around the midterm elections.

Economist Robin Brooks pointed out that the rally came even though oil flows through the Persian Gulf are close to pre-war levels for many countries, with Saudi Arabia above its pre-war average. In his words, the market is pricing in a "huge risk premium".

Stocks and bonds

The S&P 500 was down about 0.6%, the Nasdaq Composite 0.2% and the Dow Jones about 1.4% at the time of the report, with worries about AI spending adding to the oil shock. The US 10-year Treasury yield stayed under 5% after falling to 4.939% on Thursday, its lowest since Sept. 23.

Levels traders are watching

Bitcoin has fallen below its 50-day simple moving average at $81,781. Keith Alan, co-founder of trading platform Material Indicators, said that if bulls cannot reclaim it by the daily close he would look for a test of support in the $78,000–$80,000 range. That is his view, not a forecast of ours.

The broader $80,000–$81,500 zone matters because it roughly matches the average cost basis of US spot bitcoin ETF buyers, which we covered in bitcoin circles its ETF cost basis. Flows into those funds have weakened: they lost about $635 million on Thursday, as reported in bitcoin ETFs turn October negative.

The price snapshot above is taken when the page is built. If you are deciding between an ETF and holding coins yourself, our comparison of bitcoin ETFs vs buying bitcoin covers the trade-offs.