Bitcoin stabilized near $83,000 on Friday as digital-asset markets worked to recover from Thursday's selloff, with U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds standing out as the only crypto ETF group to post net inflows.

Trump Claims Diesel Supply Deal With Putin

President Trump said on Truth Social that he had concluded a highly successful discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin, under which Russia will ship large volumes of diesel to global markets.

“I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter,” Trump said in the post.

“Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel,” he continued.

The announcement knocked heating oil (diesel) for November delivery down by 1.6% to $4.66 per gallon. That, in turn, shaved about one basis point off the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, which remained 2 basis points higher on the day at 5.25%. Energy costs are among the inputs that feed into consumer price readings, giving the announcement added relevance ahead of next week's inflation data.

Crypto Headed for Weekly Loss as Friday Bounce Loses Steam

After rising to just shy of $87,000 on Sunday evening, bitcoin suffered mostly downward price action through the week. A bit less than an hour before the U.S. stock close, the cryptocurrency was changing hands at $82,450, up 1% over the past 24 hours but down 1% from highs hit earlier on Friday, leaving it nearly 3% lower for the week.

Ether followed a similar but amplified pattern, gaining 1.3% over the past 24 hours while sliding 7% for the week.

Rising oil prices and interest rates, fears that AI could crack hardware wallets, an actual exploit of Ledger wallets, and the one-year anniversary of last year's 10/10 flash crash, when cascading liquidations swept through leveraged positions, combined to pressure crypto prices throughout the past five days.

Next week brings the September CPI and PPI reports, key data as the U.S. Federal Reserve weighs when to hike its benchmark fed funds rate again. For now, the betting is that the central bank skips a 25 basis point hike at its October 27-28 meeting, which falls just ahead of the midterm elections, and resumes tightening policy at its subsequent meeting in December.

Strategy's STRC Makes New Multi-Month High

STRC, the high-yielding preferred stock of Michael Saylor's Strategy, touched $99.71, its strongest level since the June panic, when it plunged from about $100 to as low as $71.25.

The stock has been supported in recent months by bitcoin's recovery from $60,000 and by Saylor and his team's commitment to preserve the 12% dividend no matter what. That effort has included the sale of common stock to stockpile U.S. dollars with which to pay the dividend, as well as outright repurchases of STRC.

STRC remains below the $100 level, which is significant: once the stock gets there, Strategy could presumably begin issuing STRC to fund additional major bitcoin purchases.

SATA, the high-yielding preferred stock of far smaller peer Stive, had been above $100 for several weeks, allowing Matt Cole and his team to raise capital for bitcoin purchases. That stock is suddenly struggling, sliding all the way back to $99 this week.

Gold-Standard Advocate Judy Shelton Joins Treasury as Adviser to Bessent

Judy Shelton, a former Trump nominee to the Federal Reserve, has been picked as an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Shelton will advise the secretary on currency policy, with a particular focus on evaluating financial conditions in China,” the Treasury Department said.

Shelton was nominated to the Fed during President Trump's first term in office and was notable for her hawkish views on inflation and her support of the gold standard. Her nomination failed to clear a Senate vote — one of the few things both sides of the aisle agree upon is easy money.

Another Crypto Exploit as Ledger Investigates Stolen Wallet Funds

Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger said Friday it is investigating reports of stolen funds linked to devices sold through a reseller in Southeast Asia, as a suspected $86 million heist threatens to add to the industry's mounting losses from exploits this year.

Pseudonymous blockchain investigator Specter said on X that more than $86 million in crypto may have been stolen from hundreds of wallets; there has been no independent confirmation of the amount of user assets affected. Specter said they traced suspected theft addresses across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tron after seeing reports from Ledger users on X and Reddit. It remains unclear whether the incidents are connected or what caused the losses.

Ledger acknowledged in a post the reports of missing funds from customers who purchased devices through CryptoBilis, a reseller in Southeast Asia, but did not confirm the reported loss amount or identify the cause.

As a precaution, the company said it asked CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while its investigation continues. Ledger advised customers who purchased devices from the reseller within the past 90 days not to begin setting them up, and said those who have already activated their wallets should consider moving their assets to a new Ledger device with a newly generated recovery phrase.

The potential theft may add to an already rough year for crypto security. Last month, crypto exchange Bitget suffered an exploit that resulted in more than $350 million in stolen assets. Other major incidents included Liquid Network at about $320 million, Drift at $295 million and Kelp at $293 million, according to DefiLlama data.

Founded in 2014 and based in Paris, Ledger is a major maker of hardware wallets — devices that keep the private keys used to access cryptocurrency offline. The company says it has sold more than 7 million devices worldwide, and its products are widely used by investors seeking to protect their crypto without relying on exchanges. That makes any potential security issue involving its products significant for the broader crypto market.

In this case, however, the investigation concerns devices sold through a third-party reseller, and there is no confirmed evidence that Ledger's own systems or wallet technology were compromised.

One possible explanation is a supply-chain attack, in which hardware wallets are tampered with before reaching customers. An attacker, for instance, could supply a device with a recovery phrase they already know, allowing them to access funds deposited into the wallet at a later date. Such a scenario would differ from a breach of Ledger's own systems. However, there is no confirmation that device tampering or pre-generated recovery phrases caused the reported losses.

The incident remains under investigation, and it is unclear how many users were affected, whether the reported thefts are connected or how much cryptocurrency was lost. Ledger said it would provide updates as the investigation progresses.

New Misery Index Hits Record High

The Misery Index, created by economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s to put an easily digestible number on then-stagflationary conditions, is simply the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates.

As inflation began to take root again in 2022, the team at Bespoke created the MORTGAS Index, which sums the price of a gallon of gasoline and the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate. That gauge bottomed during the Covid scare of 2020, with mortgage rates below 3% and gasoline falling below $2. By October 2023, it had spiked to a record.

Three years on, that record has now been broken, with the 30-year mortgage rate and a gallon of gasoline adding up to 11.79.

Canada's September Jobs Report Stuns to the Downside

Canada lost 68,300 jobs in September, according to a just-released government report, after losing 41,700 in August and well shy of forecasts for a gain of 7,000. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from 6.4%.

The loonie quickly shed about 0.5% against the U.S. dollar on the news.

Unlike its counterparts at the Fed and the ECB, the Bank of Canada has yet to commence a rate-hike cycle this year. Its last move was a 25-basis-point cut to 2.25% in October 2025, and rate increases north of the border do not appear likely to start anytime soon.

SpaceX Jumps 4% on Starlink Mobile-Carrier Plans; Verizon and AT&T Tumble

Elon Musk's SpaceX late Thursday announced an agreement to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio “that will pave the way for Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the U.S.,” according to the company's announcement.

Low-band spectrum is prized in wireless because its signals travel farther and penetrate buildings more easily than higher-frequency airwaves, making it the foundation of nationwide mobile coverage.

“This will sound super crazy, but I see a path to SpaceX being worth orders of magnitude more than the current Earth economy,” Musk wrote shortly afterward on X.

SPCX shares were higher by 4% in pre-market trading, while mobile leaders Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (TMUS) all tumbled more than 7%.

Bitcoin Climbs Back Above $83,000 as Gold Rises

Bitcoin remained bid during European trading hours, tracking an uptick in Nasdaq-linked futures, and traded near $82,500 — fast approaching its May high of $82,814. That level was first breached to the upside on Nov. 21 and then vigorously defended for several days before giving way on Thursday. The focus now is on whether bitcoin can reclaim it; a failure would strengthen the immediate bearish outlook, as technical analysts typically view a rejected retest of a former support level as a negative signal.

The cryptocurrency subsequently climbed back above $83,000, gaining more than 2% over the past 24 hours as it rebounded from Thursday's low of around $80,000. Gold also moved higher, rising more than 1% over the same period to trade above $4,180 an ounce.

XRP Was the Only Crypto ETF Group to Take in Money on Thursday

U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds drew about $8 million on Thursday, the only crypto ETF group with net inflows, while investors pulled money from bitcoin, ether, SOL and ZEC funds, according to SoSoValue data.

All of the XRP flows went into Franklin Templeton's XRPZ, a fund from one of the largest traditional asset managers in the world, which added about 6 million XRP; the other four XRP funds saw no flows.

Elsewhere, withdrawals mounted. Bitcoin ETFs lost about $244 million after Wednesday's $485 million outflow, taking two-day outflows to roughly $729 million. Ether funds shed about $73 million and SOL funds about $3 million.

The lone U.S. spot ZEC ETF lost about $19 million, its fifth outflow in six trading days this month, with no inflows at all in October. Those withdrawals add up to about $86 million and have erased roughly a third of the net inflows the fund had gathered since launch.

The outflows came on the day $1.19 billion in leveraged crypto bets were liquidated and bitcoin fell to about $80,400. It has since rebounded to near $82,000 after President Trump said the U.S. would not strike Iran before the midterm elections.

XRP funds have now taken in about $1.81 billion since launch, ahead of the $1.59 billion that has gone into SOL ETFs.

Pyth Puts 100% of Revenue Into PYTH Purchases

Decentralized oracle service Pyth, which provides real-time market data to applications across blockchains, is putting 100% of the money it earns from its products into buying PYTH tokens for its reserve, according to the announcement shared on X.

A standing rule now replaces monthly votes and sends all product income, plus existing non-PYTH assets, to open-market PYTH buys. The reserve already holds 41 million PYTH, and every additional token increases the network's ability to fund itself as demand grows.

In September 2026, Pyth reached $11.5 million in annualized revenue, up 86% from the prior quarter, as large institutions pay to use its data. Over the past quarter, more than 94% of tracked real-world-asset perpetual volume ran on Pyth data.

MARA Holdings Moves $81 Million in Bitcoin as Treasury Shrinks Amid AI Pivot

MARA Holdings transferred 996 BTC, worth $81.13 million, to a Galaxy Digital address, according to on-chain analytics account Lookonchain, although a sale remains unconfirmed. The miner's bitcoin holdings fell from 53,822 BTC in February to 35,577 BTC in August as it sold coins to reduce debt while expanding into AI infrastructure.

Robinhood Explores Tokenized Actively Managed ETF With T. Rowe Price

Robinhood is exploring a tokenized version of actively managed ETF with T. Rowe Price, one of the largest traditional asset managers in the world. Tokenization refers to representing traditional assets such as stocks or funds as blockchain-based tokens that can be issued, traded and settled on-chain.

In a post on X Thursday, Robinhood Crypto said it is working with T. Rowe Price Digital Assets to examine a Stock Token linked to an actively managed exchange-traded fund that would trade on Robinhood Chain. The firm noted that T. Rowe Price oversees roughly $1.9 trillion in assets and said a successful launch would mark the first Stock Token of its kind. “Institutions are here, and our rails are ready,” the post added.

Any collaboration remains preliminary, subject to legal due diligence, board approval, final terms, and regulatory clearances in relevant jurisdictions. T. Rowe Price has not publicly confirmed the discussions.