Bitcoin round trip to $85,000 and back burns traders on both sides

The bitcoin round trip took less than a day. Bitcoin climbed to about $84,840 on Bitstamp late on Wednesday, Oct. 21, Cointelegraph reported, then gave back the whole move on Thursday as technology stocks slid. By the U.S. close it traded near $81,400, down 3.6% over 24 hours, according to CoinDesk.

What happened

The swing hurt both sides of the market. About $431 million of positions were liquidated over 24 hours, CoinGlass data cited by CoinDesk show. Roughly $173 million of that hit short sellers on the way up, and in the next 12 hours long bets accounted for $210 million of the $222 million liquidated. The biggest single hit was an $11.8 million Binance long on bitcoin, forced shut at around $83,500.

Altcoins fell harder. Ether dropped to just under $2,400 and the CoinDesk DeFi index slid 5.6%, while HYPE lost 4.5% and Solana about 3%. Monero went the other way, rising 11% to around $650. Crypto stocks also fell, with Strategy down 5.6%, Circle 4.6% and Coinbase 4%.

Activity jumped even as positions shrank. Crypto derivatives volume rose 19% to $226.6 billion while open interest fell 2.46% to $141.8 billion, a sign that traders were closing bets rather than opening new ones, CoinDesk said.

Why it matters

The trigger came from equities. Mixed results from Tesla and Meta revived doubts about AI spending, Asian markets fell and the Nasdaq closed down 2.6%. Cointelegraph linked part of the reversal to Tesla's lower-than-expected capital spending of $4.73 billion, which some read as a cooler approach to the AI race. Open interest had reached $55.95 billion late on Tuesday, its highest since Sept. 25, leaving the market primed for a cascade.

The bitcoin round trip also kept a pattern of lower highs intact. Price was rejected at a falling trend line near $84,840, and Cointelegraph said the $80,000 to $81,500 zone, home to the average cost basis of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, is now key support. Those funds took in more than $1 billion over three days this week, as we reported in our bitcoin ETF rally pace story, but the inflows did not hold the price.

The setup echoes the flush in our crypto liquidations of $770 million report earlier this month, when bitcoin also lost the $82,000 area.

What's next

Money moved into commodities instead. Open interest in gold perpetual contracts rose 12% even as gold slipped, and tokenized gold and silver saw similar inflows, CoinDesk said, while U.S. jobless claims fell to 194,000 and did little to change the mood.

Bond yields fell sharply on Thursday, which can help risk assets later, but the immediate driver remains AI stocks. Live updates are on CoinDesk's market blog. Some analysts warn that a clean break below $82,500 could open a path toward $70,000.

On Polymarket, bitcoin dipping to $77,500 in October was priced at 33% as of 08:29 MSK on Oct. 23. After this bitcoin round trip, traders will watch whether the ETF cost-basis zone holds into month-end.