Bitcoin traded between roughly $81,000 and $82,000 on Friday as oil surged, Wall Street's volatility gauge spiked and technology losses deepened ahead of next week's 39th anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday crash. ZEC led a broad cryptocurrency bounce even as crypto exchange-traded funds continued to record outflows. CoinDesk tracked the session in a live blog; the entries below appear in reverse-chronological order, beginning with the most recent developments.

VIX Soars, Nasdaq Sheds 2% Ahead of Black Monday Anniversary

Whether coincidence or not, this coming Monday marks the 39th anniversary of Black Monday — the October 19, 1987, stock market crash in which the S&P 500 plunged more than 20%, still the steepest single-day percentage drop in the index's history. That makes Friday the 39th anniversary of the Friday before the 1987 crash.

The Nasdaq fell 2.15% on the day — not nearly as dramatic as the S&P 500's 5% decline 39 years ago. The volatility index (VIX), often referred to as the market's “fear gauge,” soared 22%. The index, derived from the price of S&P 500 options, reflects investors' expectations for volatility over the next 30 days.

Rumors flew through the session that some market participant had been blown out of positions, though nothing has been confirmed (X post).

Bitcoin moved off its lows but remained down 1% over the past 24 hours at $81,500.

Stock Losses Double as Bitcoin Tries to Decouple

With a bit less than 90 minutes remaining in the week's final trading session, the Nasdaq sat at session lows, down 2.3%, while the S&P 500 was off 1.25%.

What had been a modestly negative day turned into a rout as oil prices jumped about $3 per barrel over a couple of hours. WTI crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, rose 3.8% to $101.70.

Government bonds, which had benefited earlier in the week as money flowed into fixed income alongside declining stocks, found no bid Friday. The 10-year Treasury yield traded near the day's high at 5.112%.

After initially declining alongside stocks earlier in the day, bitcoin attempted to stabilize in the afternoon as equity losses deepened. It traded at $81,350, down 1% over 24 hours.

Crypto Stocks Slammed as Oil Surges and Rates Turn Higher

After rising slowly at first, oil went nearly vertical in a matter of minutes, with WTI crude up more than 3% on the day at a one-month high of $101 per barrel — a gain of 16% over the past 10 days. There were reports that Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline, which carries crude from the kingdom's Gulf coast to Red Sea export terminals, had been targeted in an attack.

U.S. government bond yields responded, with the 10-year Treasury up 3.5 basis points at 5.125% after earlier dipping to 5.07%. The Nasdaq was down 1.5%, and bitcoin pulled back to $81,300.

Crypto-related stocks took heavy losses: Strategy (MSTR) fell 9.2% to $136.76, Securitize (SECZ) dropped 13.4%, Coinbase (COIN) slid 3.5% to $173.21, Circle (CRCL) lost 4% to $82.25 and Bullish (BLSH) fell 5.9% to $29.48.

Oil Quietly Hits One-Month High

Earlier in the session, front-month WTI crude climbed to a one-month high of $99.40 per barrel, up 1.5% on the day, with much of the move coming in a matter of minutes — though no particular news had hit the tape.

The action may have spooked the bond market, where U.S. Treasury yields swung from declines to gains within the hour. U.S. refined product inventories — gasoline and distillates — meanwhile remain at decade lows, according to government data.

The Nasdaq hovered near its session low, off 1.4% for the day, while bitcoin held in the $81,500 area.

Bitcoin Turns Lower as Tech Declines Grow

After a volatile week in stocks and bonds, Friday began slowly, but declines accelerated late in the U.S. morning. The Nasdaq fell 1.2%, led by big drops in familiar AI-related names.

Among the Magnificent 7 — the group of megacap U.S. technology stocks — Tesla turned lower after opening with sizable gains following its Roadster event the previous evening. Apple was the group's only gainer, up 1.1%.

The selling spread to crypto, where bitcoin dipped about 1% in 30 minutes to $81,500. Fixed income caught bid, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield barely down on the day at 5.08% after earlier rising to 5.13%.

Neocloud Bounce Proves Short-Lived as CoreWeave Falls 8%

After days of relentless selling, the neoclouds — former bitcoin miners turned data-center providers to the fast-growing AI sector — bounced hard Thursday, with many closing the day in the green after sharp early declines.

The selling resumed Friday. CoreWeave (CRWV) fell 8%, extending its weekly decline beyond 20%. Hut 8, IREN, CleanSpark, Keel Infrastructure and Cipher Mining were each down roughly 6%.

In a Friday note, Goldman Sachs argued that the widening in high-yield bond spreads is an AI story: non-AI-related spreads were barely higher this week, while AI-related spreads widened by 25 basis points.

“We view AI-related corporate bonds, from either neoclouds or firms with significant frontier lab exposure, as being at the epicenter of the funding cost debate,” said the bank's Amanda Lynam.

NYC Comptroller Urges Anthropic to Delay Its IPO

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine wrote to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei this week urging the AI company to pause its planned initial public offering.

“I write to urge Anthropic to pause its planned initial public offering until the company fully and transparently addresses the artificial intelligence safety, governance, and development pace concerns it has raised,” Levine wrote in the letter.

He noted that, as comptroller, he serves as investment adviser, custodian and trustee of New York City pension funds holding more than $325 billion in assets.

AI-Related Selloff Continues in Early Friday Trading

The tech sector clawed back from the brink on Thursday, but selling resumed in U.S. trading Friday morning. The Nasdaq slumped 0.7%, while the less AI-focused S&P 500 was flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%.

Micron, Intel, AMD, Dell, SanDisk and KLA Tencor were among the names down 3% to 5%. Declines among the Magnificent 7 were more subdued, and Tesla even rose slightly after its flying-car demonstration the previous evening.

Bitcoin traded quietly near $82,000, up 2% from 24 hours earlier.

Strive Raises $630 Million With Upsized Preferred Offering

Bitcoin treasury company Strive (ASST) upsized the offering of its new high-yielding preferred stock, SATS, to 7 million shares from 5 million, pricing the deal at $90 per share for gross proceeds of $630 million, according to a press release.

At $90, the effective yield on the stock, which pays a 15% dividend, would be 16.67%.

Strategy Declares Conditional Daily Dividend for STRC to Begin November 1

Strategy, the Michael Saylor-led company, declared a conditional daily dividend for its high-yielding STRC preferred stock, set to begin November 1, per a Form 8-K filing.

The company announced weeks ago that it planned to switch STRC's dividend from monthly to daily, a change subject to a shareholder vote now underway, with results due Oct. 28. Friday's declaration is contingent on the vote approving the switch to daily payments.

Though STRC has rebounded strongly from its panicky lows of early summer, it continues to trade just below par value — the previous close was $99.53 — leaving Saylor and his team unable to raise bitcoin-buying capital by issuing more shares.

Warsh Doesn't Rule Out October Rate Hike, but Markets Mostly Have

“I don't prejudge meetings,” Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said during a fireside chat held overnight at an IMF event. “I don't believe in saying now what I might do at the meetings we have.”

“It's a new chapter at the Fed, and we're not in that business anymore,” he added.

Warsh defended September's rate hike as a necessary move to cool inflation. He said the AI boom is the most important thing happening to global economies now and is likely creating price pressures. Productivity gains will come, he said, but the road will be bumpy.

Rates ended modestly higher from the previous close, with the 10-year U.S. yield up 2.9 basis points at 5.12%. Market-implied odds of an October Fed rate hike dipped to 15% from nearly 45% in the moments after Wednesday's CPI report.

Binance's Catherine Chen Says Post-CPI Crypto Selloff Is Temporary

The latest inflation-driven crypto selloff is a short-term reaction rather than a sign of deeper trouble, according to Catherine Chen, Binance's head of institutional.

“The CPI-driven selloff is a sentiment shock, not a structural break,” Chen said, referring to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of U.S. inflation.

Chen expects inflation to peak around October, with clearer signs of cooling potentially emerging in March 2027, and said lower energy prices and easing inflation could eventually help crypto markets recover.

“A difficult trading day does not determine the outlook for the next several months,” Chen added. “The window for relief may already be approaching.”

ZEC Jumps 11% Even as Its ETF Loses $15 Million

Bitcoin climbed back above $82,000 on Friday, a day after a brief drop under $80,000, as ZEC, the native token of the privacy-focused Zcash network, led a broad crypto bounce with an 11% jump to about $1,230 — even as investors pulled money from the token's only U.S. ETF.

SOL and ether each gained more than 3%, to about $106 and $2,450, while DOGE and XRP added between 2% and 3%. BNB, HYPE and TRX rose about 1%, and bitcoin was up nearly 1%, according to CoinDesk data.

The bounce has not reached the ETFs. The U.S. spot ZEC fund lost about $15 million on Thursday, its fifth outflow this month, according to SoSoValue data. Ether funds shed about $60 million, and SOL funds lost nearly $10 million, their ninth straight day of withdrawals, while XRP funds saw a small outflow.

Bitcoin ETFs drew a net $5 million, a thin inflow after Wednesday's $261 million exit. A second straight day of bitcoin ETF inflows would be the first sign that the bounce from $80,000 has buyers behind it.

Source: CoinDesk