Bitcoin (BTC) held near $82,600, trading around $82,985.25, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not strike Iran before the midterm elections. The statement pulled the largest cryptocurrency off Thursday's low of roughly $80,400 and turned the liquidation pressure onto bearish traders. Liquidations are the forced closure of leveraged positions by exchanges when margin can no longer cover losses — and in a rising market, it is short sellers who absorb them. With the pledge explicitly tied to the midterm calendar, the election now marks the horizon for the current easing of geopolitical risk.

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, slipped 2% over 24 hours to about $2,500, last quoted at $2,499.65, still nursing the worst of Thursday's flush, when ether bets were wiped out at six times bitcoin's rate relative to its market value.

SOL was the laggard among the major coins, losing nearly 4% over the same period to around $110, while XRP and HYPE were little changed. The broader CoinDesk 20 index slipped about 2%.

Thursday's dip tested a level traders watch as a gauge of the medium-term trend.

"At the peak of its decline on Thursday, Bitcoin fell to $80.4K, touching its lowest level in the past three weeks and its 50-day moving average, where the balance shifted in favour of buyers," Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said in an email to CoinDesk.

"This moving average is often regarded as an indicator of the medium-term trend. It has performed this function admirably since July, when the price consolidated above it, and then the 50-day moving average acted as support in August. Yesterday's dip provided further confirmation of buying interest during pullbacks," he added.

Traditional Markets Show Recovery

Broader markets showed signs of recovery from drawdowns earlier in the week. S&P 500 index futures rose less than 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 contracts gained nearly 1% amid reports that OpenAI expects to reach $70 billion in annualized revenue by year-end. The synchronized bounce underscores how closely digital assets now trade with the broader risk-asset complex, taking their cue from the same rate expectations and geopolitical headlines that move equities.

Brent crude slid below $103 a barrel on Trump's Iran remarks, a day after hitting a two-week high, taking some heat off the inflation fears that pushed Federal Reserve minutes toward another interest-rate increase. Oil is among the assets most sensitive to Middle East supply risk, which is why a dialing down of near-term strike concerns shows up in the barrel price almost immediately.

What's Trending

• Bitcoin mined for pennies in 2010 moves after 16 years, now worth $8.5 million (CoinDesk): The 100 BTC came directly from two mining rewards created during Bitcoin's "Satoshi era."
• New tech to power bitcoin lending is set to debut with $500 million in commitments (CoinDesk): Layer-1 blockchain Sui is set to launch Hashi, a new institutional network that allows holders to use bitcoin as collateral for lending without moving it off the Bitcoin ledger.
• Treasury yields steady as Trump strikes diplomatic tone on Iran ahead of midterms (CNBC): Bond yields largely steadied Friday morning as investors digested the latest Treasury auction and Trump's pledge not to attack Iran until after the U.S. midterm elections.
• World shares mostly higher and crude prices fall after an unsettled day on Wall Street (AP): Shares were mostly higher in Europe and Asia, while oil prices fell back from recent gains. The German DAX rose 0.7%, the CAC 40 in surged 0.8% and Britain's FTSE 100 picked up 0.7%.

Today's Signal

The weekly chart shows the largest cryptocurrency sank to about $80,300 on Thursday before recovering to $82,600, and is now testing overhead resistance. The key support is now BTC's 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) of around $78,000. Together with the 50-day average that halted Thursday's slide near $80,400, the two moving averages now give traders widely watched reference points beneath the price for the medium- and long-term trends.

More Headlines

• One year after the 10/10 flash crash, bitcoin and ether liquidity have rebuilt, but altcoins still face risks
• Tokenized commodities look beyond gold as lending and oil open new markets
• Bitcoin's $19 billion wake-up call: one year after the flash crash, has crypto learned anything?
• Bitcoin's volatility has plunged, but extreme price swings are more frequent than in 2018
• Robinhood Chain slowdown spreads from fees to trading as transactions fall more than 40%
• XRP Ledger patched decade-old bug that could create billions of dollars in XRP from nothing
• Visa survey says nearly half of APAC consumers open to using stablecoins by 2031
• U.S. CFTC moves to fold event contracts into swaps regulations as legal fight rages
• Robinhood Chain considers technology that gives paying traders priority
• New York AG secures up to $35 million and lifetime crypto ban from Celsius' Alex Mashinsky

Also noted: CoinDesk Research's report "Beyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive Stablecoins" describes diversified RWA stablecoins sustaining 5%-7% yields from real credit as crypto funding compresses to about 4%, with GENIUS pushing yield off-chain and the total addressable market growing to $4 billion in three years.

This article is based on an excerpt from CoinDesk's "Daybook" newsletter, published Oct. 9, 2026. Original report: Trump's Iran pledge underpins crypto gains as bitcoin bears face liquidation pressure.