Bitcoin falls to $82,000 as OpenAI revenue concerns and geopolitical tensions trigger nearly $1 billion in crypto liquidations

Bitcoin traded near the $82,000 mark on Friday as rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions increased pressure on risk assets. The cryptocurrency was last seen trading at $82,648.

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin fell 0.44%, while Ethereum declined 2.47% to trade around $2,498. Among major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Solana, Tron, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin and Cardano fell by up to 6.26%.

Piyush Walke, Derivatives Research Analyst at Delta Exchange, said Bitcoin was down, triggering nearly $1 billion in liquidations across the cryptocurrency market as rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions increased pressure on risk assets.


Walke further said that the decline in Bitcoin and technology stocks was also driven by concerns that OpenAI’s revenue was $20 billion below expectations, contributing to losses in major technology companies such as Nvidia and Intel.

Also Read |Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund added DLF, Bharti Airtel, Indus Towers and 10 other stocks to its portfolio in September. Details here

The broader decline highlights continued volatility across the cryptocurrency market as investors respond to geopolitical risks, macroeconomic uncertainty, and weakness in technology stocks, Walke said.

The global crypto market capitalisation was down 1.13% to $2.79 trillion on Friday, according to the data on CoinMarketCap.

Minal Thukral, Executive VP-Growth & Crypto Business Head at CoinDCX said the crypto fear and greed index plunged to 55 while the market sentiments remain neutral.

Thukral further said that over $1.19 billion has been liquidated in the past 24 hours and interestingly the largest liquidation in the history of around $16 billion also occurred at the same time, last year.

Over the last week, Bitcoin was down 4.65% and Ethereum was down 9.45%. Among the major altcoins, BNB, Tron, Dogecoin, Hyperliquid and Cardano corrected upto 12.30%.

Prateek Gupta, Head of Business, Mudrex said Bitcoin dropped to $80,400, its lowest since September 21, before recovering above $81,000 after Trump ruled out US strikes on Iran before the midterms. The sell-off came as Fed minutes showed expectations of another rate hike before year-end, with the 10-year Treasury yield at a 24-year high near 5.3%, while oil spiked toward $105.

About $1.8 billion in options expire on Friday, further adding to the volatility. Bitcoin’s support has moved down to $80,000, while resistance stood at $85,000, Gupta mentioned.

Also Read |ET Alpha Wealth Summit 2.0: REITs can diversify portfolios, but total returns matter, says Ramesh Nair

Market perspective

CoinSwitch Markets Desk: BTC approached $80K due to a broader risk-off move across crypto and technology stocks, driven by rising oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty and weakness in risk assets. The pullback also extended to AI infrastructure plays, reflecting concerns around financing costs and broader market sentiment.

Vikram Subburaj, CEO, Giottus: For investors, $81,000 is the immediate level to watch. Fresh purchases can be staggered instead of being committed in 1 trade, while high leverage is best avoided until Bitcoin recovers $83,300 and then $85,500 with stronger ETF inflows.

Nischal Shetty, Founder, WazirX: Bitcoin fell to around $80,000 on Thursday as renewed geopolitical tensions involving Iran, institutional outflows and concerns about AI-enabled security threats affected sentiment across the crypto market. The broader crypto market capitalisation stood at $2.77 trillion, with 24-hour trading volume of $120.75 billion.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)