Bitcoin (BTC) worked to avoid fresh losses on Friday as cryptocurrency markets digested reports of an exploit affecting Ledger hardware wallets.

Key points:

• Bitcoin rebounded from local lows of $80,350 to reclaim $83,000 at the Wall Street open.
• Crypto markets avoided significant selling pressure following reports of funds being stolen from Ledger hardware wallet users.
• BTC/USD continued to trade around $82500 as traders looked ahead to the weekly close.

BTC price rebounds to $83,000 despite Ledger theft reports

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hovering around the key $82,500 support level on Friday.

After dropping to $80,350 on Thursday, BTC/USD attracted fresh buyer interest as rolling 24-hour crypto liquidations passed $1 billion. Liquidations occur when exchanges forcibly close leveraged positions that no longer meet margin requirements, making the metric a widely followed gauge of turbulence in derivatives markets. The latest data from CoinGlass showed the spot price cutting through ask-side liquidity on exchange order books, with that liquidity thickening around $84,000.

US stocks opened higher on Friday as technology shares rebounded from the selling seen earlier in the week. The recovery included the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which CNBC reported had come under pressure following weaker-than-expected earnings projections from OpenAI.

“The sell-off reflected extreme positioning imbalances that have further to unwind in our view, which is why the whole AI-linked tech stock complex is unlikely to simply stage a sharp, V-shaped rebound,” the publication quoted Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge as commenting.

Crypto markets appeared to brush off the reports of funds being stolen from Ledger hardware wallet users. In an X post, Ledger acknowledged the claims and linked them to CryptoBillis, a reseller based in Southeast Asia.

“If you have set up your Ledger device, consider moving assets to a new Ledger signer (with new seed),” it advised. A new seed refers to generating a fresh recovery phrase — the master secret from which a wallet's private keys are derived.

Hardware wallets are designed to keep the private keys controlling crypto holdings offline — a core reason many holders rely on them for self-custody — and the segment has faced increased security scrutiny in recent months after manufacturer Coldcard suffered a multi-phase hack in July and August.

US macro data seen as next BTC price volatility catalyst

Bitcoin traders were increasingly focused on the upcoming weekly candle close. As Cointelegraph reported, $82,500 remained a key level for bulls to reclaim, having served as support since mid-September. The level also formed part of a potential inverse head-and-shoulders reversal pattern — a formation technical analysts read as a potential downtrend-to-uptrend shift — similar to one that emerged in 2023.

On Wednesday, Bitfinex Alpha, the research arm of crypto exchange Bitfinex, forecast range-bound trading conditions continuing until Oct. 14, when fresh US inflation data is due for release. The Consumer Price Index, the report in question, is among the most closely watched US inflation gauges.

“Our primary outlook anticipates range-bound consolidation between $81,300 and $86,500 heading into the 14 October US CPI data, with repeated retests of $84,000,” the firm wrote in a blog post.

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