Live updates: Bitcoin breaks lower from recent trading range, sliding back to $82,000

Bitcoin BTC$82,527.92 has busted out of its narrow trading range, but it’s to the downside.

Shortly after the opening of U.S. stock trading, the price of BTC has dipped below $82,000 for the first time since Sept. 20, down more than 1% over the past 24 hours, and down about 5% from Sunday evening highs near $87,000.

The Nasdaq is lower by 0.5% and S&P 500 by 0.25% in early trading.

After rising sharply overnight, long-dated bond yields are retreating; the 10-year U.S. Treasury is now flat on the session at 5.276% after touching 5.36% hours ago.

The 2-year yield remains higher by 3.4 basis points after hawkish remarks by Fed Governor Chris Waller, who said that 75 basis points in rate hikes are coming, but the moves might not be coming at consecutive meetings.

“There is no evidence whatsoever pointing to a break of decades old hardness assumptions like elliptic curve cryptography,” wrote Yehuda Lindell, head of cryptography at Coinbase.

Lindell was responding to what’s turned into a viral post by Justin Drake, saying that thanks to AI, the cryptography underlying the security of bitcoin, ether, and others is in imminent danger of being broken long before the introduction of quantum computers. He urged the blockchain industry to enter “bunker mode,” and holders of crypto to move funds to new addresses that have never signed a transaction.

“I wasn’t going to comment since this is a really bad take IMO, but since it’s taken off I feel the need to,” said Lindell.

“Just throwing out – AI is doing amazing math so elliptic curve hardness is in danger has no logical basis whatsoever,” he continued. “Furthermore, if it really would be broken, the ramifications to our digital world, including the traditional financial industry, would be immense. Once I can break ECC, I can generate fake PKI certificates and impersonate bank websites … Worse, I can generate malicious banking apps and even operating systems and sign them and push them to people phones and computers and completely take them over.”

“But this is fear mongering since there’s zero evidence to this capability existing … Making such statements without any evidence is the opposite of responsible behavior. It is the very definition of FUD — it cannot be proven wrong but there’s also no evidence whatsoever of it being true.”

The latest price action offers little comfort for risk asset bulls, with U.S. treasury yields, oil and the dollar all climbing. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield has risen to 5.352%, while the 30-year continues to set fresh highs above 5.73%.

WTI crude has jumped more than 4% over the past 24 hours to $92.40 a barrel, while Brent is also up around 4% at $105. New York Harbor ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) futures have climbed a further 4% to $4.80 a gallon, adding to the surge in energy prices.

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has strengthened to 102.4, adding another headwind for risk assets alongside rising yields and renewed inflation concerns.

Bitcoin has slipped below $83,000 to $82,965, almost 1% lower over the past 24 hours. Gold is holding above $4,100 an ounce, while silver has fallen to fresh lows below $59. Tech is also under pressure, with Nasdaq 100 futures down almost 1%.