Crypto markets wobble as Bitcoin and Ether slide after political comments

Bitcoin traded around $82,394.23 heading into the weekend, roughly 4% lower than the same time last Friday after a dip near $80,300 on Thursday and a recovery to about $82,500. Ether fell to about $2,490.13, sliding 9% over the week to roughly $2,500. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post saying the U.S. would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections coincided with the market rebound, which also supported U.S. equity futures.

Smaller tokens led the recovery, with the CoinDesk 80 rising 2.2% since midnight UTC, more than twice the gain in the CoinDesk 5. Despite the bounce, the CoinDesk 100 remained 2.2% lower over 24 hours and DeFi tokens were down nearly 4%. U.S.-listed bitcoin, ether and zcash ETFs saw outflows on Thursday, leaving XRP funds as the only crypto products to attract inflows.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake’s call for a “bunker mode” contributed to negative sentiment during Thursday’s selloff, though Coinbase cryptographer Yehuda Lindell dismissed those concerns as “FUD,” stating there was no evidence that the elliptic-curve assumptions behind bitcoin and ether had been broken.

Derivatives positioning

Bitcoin futures open interest fell 1.9% over 24 hours to $27.1 billion, according to Coinalyze, and showed little change since Thursday afternoon even as bitcoin recovered, suggesting the rebound occurred without fresh leverage. Funding rates remained positive at about 5% annualized, with the predicted rate slightly higher, indicating longs were paying to hold positions. Deribit’s Oct. 30 futures traded at an annualized basis near 7%.

Aggregate positioning showed accounts holding long bitcoin positions nearly doubled shorts, with Coinalyze reporting a long/short ratio of 1.85, or about 65% long, up from near parity at the start of the month. CoinGlass data recorded $1.09 billion of liquidations over 24 hours, with longs comprising $931 million or roughly 85% of the total. Ether led liquidations with $345 million, followed by bitcoin at $266 million and solana at $65 million, and the largest single liquidation was a $20 million ETH-USD position on Hyperliquid.

Token movements

Starknet STRK jumped 33% over 24 hours after the network said it is actively considering leaving Ethereum to become a standalone layer-1 blockchain targeting full quantum resistance by 2027, though the plan had not been approved. Kaia KAIA rose 40% since midnight following an Upbit listing. Other layer-1 tokens also gained, with aptos APT up 12% and cosmos ATOM and polkadot DOT each adding nearly 10%.

Some Thursday winners reversed course, with algorand ALGO down 14% over 24 hours and curve CRV falling 13% after earlier gains. Two AI tokens, kite KITE and venice VVV, missed the recovery after OpenAI disclosed $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September, a figure that CNBC confirmed and that corresponded with a selloff in AI stocks. Pyth Network PYTH gained 13% over 24 hours, among a small group of tokens higher across both timeframes.

Liberal News Analysis: What Does This Development Mean?

The market moves reflect a short-term risk-off reaction followed by a leveraged-light rebound that lacked fresh speculative positioning. Positive funding rates and a long-biased account distribution indicate continued bullish exposure despite recent losses. Large liquidations concentrated in long positions, led by ether, point to forced deleveraging during the selloff while token-specific news drove sharp but volatile intraday gains for several layer-1 and oracle projects.

Quick Glance: What You Need to Know

• Bitcoin traded near $82,394.23 after a low around $80,300 and remained about 4% lower than the prior Friday.
• Ether slid to about $2,490.13, down roughly 9% over the week.
• CoinDesk 80 outperformed larger-cap indices with a 2.2% rise since midnight UTC.
• Bitcoin futures open interest fell to $27.1 billion while funding rates stayed positive near 5% annualized.
• $1.09 billion of liquidations occurred in 24 hours, with longs representing about $931 million of that total.
• Starknet considered moving off Ethereum, driving a 33% gain for STRK amid an unapproved plan for standalone status.
• Kaia rose 40% after an Upbit listing and Pyth Network gained 13% over 24 hours.