Bitcoin holds $81,500 as crypto stocks slide and ETFs bleed

Bitcoin went into the weekend at about $81,500, down roughly 1% over 24 hours, after a late-Friday sell-off on Wall Street dragged crypto-linked stocks sharply lower, according to CoinDesk's live coverage. The token itself held up far better than the companies tied to it. The snapshot above shows the latest prices, refreshed each time the site rebuilds.

A rough Friday for risk

• The Nasdaq fell about 2.2% and the VIX volatility index jumped 22%, CoinDesk reported — on the 39th anniversary of the Friday before the October 1987 "Black Monday" crash.
• Oil drove much of the move: WTI crude rose as much as 3.8% to about $101.70 a barrel amid reports that Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline had been targeted in an attack.
• The 10-year US Treasury yield climbed back above 5.1%, adding to pressure on growth stocks.

Crypto stocks take the hit

By early afternoon in New York, Strategy (MSTR) was down about 9% — it is also digesting MSCI's index-exclusion rules — with Securitize off 13.4%, Bullish 5.9%, Circle 4% and Coinbase 3.5%. Former bitcoin miners now renting capacity to AI firms fell again: CoreWeave dropped 8%, while Hut 8, IREN, CleanSpark and Cipher Mining each lost around 6%. Goldman Sachs noted that AI-linked corporate bonds sit "at the epicenter of the funding cost debate."

Bitcoin treasury firm Strive slid 6.6% even as it raised $630 million through a new preferred stock.

ETF flows turn negative again

US spot bitcoin ETFs saw $82.4 million of net outflows on Friday, according to Farside Investors data: BlackRock's IBIT lost $71.8 million and Fidelity's FBTC $10.6 million. That left the funds with about $228 million of net outflows for the week of October 12–16. Spot ether ETFs shed $69.7 million on the same day, all from BlackRock's ETHA.

Earlier on Friday the picture was brighter: zcash (ZEC) jumped 11% to around $1,230, and solana and ether each gained more than 3% before the afternoon slide erased much of the bounce.

What traders are watching

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said he does not "prejudge meetings," but market-implied odds of an October rate hike have fallen to about 15% from nearly 45% right after Wednesday's hot inflation report. Binance's head of institutional, Catherine Chen, called the CPI-driven sell-off "a sentiment shock, not a structural break." Bitcoin has now held above $80,000 since its brief dip on Thursday — our Thursday report has the details. Choosing between a fund and the coin itself? See bitcoin ETF vs buying bitcoin.