Trump’s Iran pledge underpins crypto gains as bitcoin bears face liquidation pressure

Bitcoin BTC$82 458,29 held near $82,600 after President Donald Trump said he would not strike Iran before the U.S. midterm elections, pulling the largest cryptocurrency off Thursday’s low of roughly $80,400 and turning the liquidation pressure onto bearish traders.

Ether ETH$2 490,10 slipped 2% over 24 hours to about $2,500, still nursing the worst of Thursday’s flush, when ether bets were wiped out at six times bitcoin’s rate relative to its market value.

SOL was the laggard among the major coins, losing nearly 4% over the same period to around $110, while XRP and HYPE were little changed. The broader CoinDesk 20 index slipped about 2%.

Thursday’s dip tested a level traders watch for the medium-term trend.

“At the peak of its decline on Thursday, Bitcoin fell to $80.4K, touching its lowest level in the past three weeks and its 50-day moving average, where the balance shifted in favour of buyers,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at FxPro, said in an email to CoinDesk.

“This moving average is often regarded as an indicator of the medium-term trend. It has performed this function admirably since July, when the price consolidated above it, and then the 50-day moving average acted as support in August. Yesterday’s dip provided further confirmation of buying interest during pullbacks,” he added.

Meanwhile, broader markets showed signs of recovery from drawdowns earlier in the week.

S&P 500 index futures rose less than 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 contracts gained nearly 1% amid reports that OpenAI expects to reach $70 billion in annualized revenue by year-end.

Brent crude slid below $103 a barrel on Trump’s Iran remarks, a day after hitting a two-week high, taking some heat off the inflation fears that pushed Fed minutes toward another interest-rate increase. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Week Ahead.

• Bitcoin mined for pennies in 2010 moves after 16 years, now worth $8.5 million (CoinDesk): The 100 BTC came directly from two mining rewards created during Bitcoin’s “Satoshi era.”
• New tech to power bitcoin lending is set to debut with $500 million in commitments (CoinDesk): Layer-1 blockchain Sui is set to launch Hashi, a new institutional network that allows holders to use bitcoin as collateral for lending without moving it off the Bitcoin ledger.
• Treasury yields steady as Trump strikes diplomatic tone on Iran ahead of midterms (CNBC): Bond yields largely steadied Friday morning as investors digested the latest Treasury auction and President Donald Trump’s pledge not to attack Iran until after the U.S. midterm elections.
• World shares are mostly higher and crude prices fall after an unsettled day on Wall St (AP): Shares were mostly higher in Europe and Asia, while oil prices fell back from recent gains. The German DAX rose 0.7%, while the CAC 40 in Paris surged 0.8%. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.7%.

The chart shows weekly moves in the price of bitcoin. The largest cryptocurrency sank to about $80,300 yesterday before recovering to $82,600, and is now testing overhead resistance.

The key support is now BTC’s 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) of around $78,000.