Crypto Corner

Monday, 2026-10-26 · covering the last 72h

Market signal

Bitcoin's first sub-$80,000 print in eleven days follows a weekend scare over US personnel pulling out of the Middle East. Bitcoin slid to roughly $79,150–79,700 on Saturday – its weakest level since October 15 – after the Wall Street Journal reported Washington was evacuating staff from several Middle East posts on fears of an Iranian strike; ether, XRP and solana each fell a further 3–4% and more than $810m in positions were liquidated over 24 hours, most of it longs. Brent crude's weekend spike above $116 eased back under $110 by Monday as hopes grew for an Iran deal, and bitcoin was changing hands near $79,800–80,400 Monday morning, with this week's Fed decision (Wednesday) now the dominant catalyst. CoinDesk · Decrypt · CoinDesk

A lone $68m options bet is wagering bitcoin breaks $90,000 after the midterms. A trader bought 800 contracts of $90,000 bitcoin calls expiring November 6 on the Derive options platform on October 20, and Derive's own market-implied odds of bitcoin topping $100,000 by Christmas have risen from 9.7% to 12% over the past week – a read on positioning, not a price call. CoinDesk

Markets & flows — ETFs, stablecoins & on-chain

Bitcoin ETFs post a second straight outflow day, but the week still closes positive. US spot bitcoin ETFs shed a net $137.9m on October 23 – BlackRock's IBIT led redemptions at $110.3m and Fidelity's FBTC followed with $31.8m, per Farside Investors data – on top of Thursday's $635.6m outflow, yet the five sessions through October 23 still net to a provisional $301.2m inflow for the week, snapping the funds' prior two-week losing streak. Farside Investors, via Blockchain.News

Ether ETFs eke out a rare green day. US spot ether funds posted a $4.4m net inflow on October 23 – a thin positive print that barely dents the roughly $1.1bn they've shed since October 1 – while bitcoin funds kept whipsawing between half-billion-dollar swings session to session. Coin Turk, via SoSoValue

No stablecoin de-peg, supply shock or notable mint/burn news cleared the bar this window.

The industry — exchanges, miners & infrastructure

No exchange, miner or infrastructure news cleared the bar over the long weekend.

Policy & regulation

No material SEC, CFTC, Treasury/OFAC or overseas (MiCA, UK FCA, Hong Kong SFC, Singapore MAS, Japan FSA) rulemaking, approval or enforcement action crossed the bar in this window.

The Chatter

Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE (via CoinDesk): argues the Fed itself is unlikely to move rates this week, so the real swing factor is how hawkishly Chair Kevin Warsh signals on a possible December hike; he points to record oil prices and the US-Iran standoff as reasons the Fed could sound tougher than markets expect, which would mean less liquidity for crypto – a macro read, not a price call. CoinDesk

Riya Sehgal, research analyst at Delta Exchange (via Analytics Insight): argues bitcoin's four-hour chart still looks bearish and flags $78,000–80,000 as the demand zone that needs to hold before buyers can treat this move as more than a bounce – her own technical read, not advice. Analytics Insight