Bitcoin lost 1.4% to about $80,100 on Thursday after recovering from an earlier low of $79,600. Ether declined 1.7%. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index recorded a 3.4% loss.
South Korea's Kospi led the market decline with a 1.2% fall. Samsung Electronics shares lost 4% because shareholder returns disappointed investors, despite record quarterly profit. Nasdaq-100 futures declined 1.1% after Alphabet's earnings fell short of expectations.
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, matching expectations. Two officials dissented, preferring a quarter-point increase. Chair Kevin Warsh gave no indication of the likely December decision. The September PCE inflation report, the Fed's preferred measure of price changes, is due later.
Farside Investors reported $137 million of inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday, marking a third consecutive day of inflows. The ETFs attracted $423.7 million across those three days.
Crypto futures turnover increased 21.8% to $198.8 billion over 24 hours, while open interest declined 1.9%, indicating heavy trading alongside position closures. Liquidations increased 84% to $337.4 million. Taker volume was almost balanced, with longs accounting for 50.1% and shorts for 49.9%. In derivatives trading, BTC's 1.6% price decline accompanied a 1.2% reduction in futures open interest, indicating a roughly proportional contraction in exposure rather than substantial capital withdrawals. ETH's price fell 2.1%, while ETH open interest decreased 0.7%. BTC and ETH funding remained positive but weakened from yesterday, indicating less bullish positioning in perpetual contracts. ETH liquidations reached $71.6 million against BTC's $72.5 million, despite ETH open interest being about half as large.
BNB open interest increased 1.7% despite a 0.8% price decline, indicating new money entering during the fall. BNB trading volume increased 70%. BNB funding changed from positive to negative and became the most negative among major coins, indicating bearish perpetual-contract positioning because shorts pay longs. SUI displayed a smaller version of BNB's positioning pattern. ZEC open interest contracted 12% alongside a 5.4% price decline, reversing yesterday's buildup as money exited the contract. Yesterday, ZEC open interest had increased 13.9% during a 6.3% price rally. ZEC funding remained positive, meaning longs continued paying shorts and perpetual-contract traders had not shifted to bearish positioning.
Most major coins retained positive funding at lower rates than 24 hours earlier, while monero (XMR) had the most positive funding. Almost all major coins had negative 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, indicating more market selling than buying relative to open interest, unlike yesterday's mostly positive readings. NEAR showed the most negative reading, including a steep decline around midday. The Alphabet-linked GOOGL perpetual contract recorded a 77% increase in open interest, a 10% price decline and an almost fivefold increase in volume.
Deribit's six busiest BTC options over the past 24 hours included four calls with strikes above spot, led by the $82,500 call expiring October 30. BTC options skew continued to indicate demand for downside protection at every time horizon. ETH's six highest-volume options included five puts with strikes between $1,500 and $2,280, alongside a single $3,200 December call. ETH puts continued to command higher prices than calls, indicating concern about declines.
AI-linked tokens were among the weakest performers: AI-focused blockchain NEAR lost 7.8% and decentralized AI network bittensor (TAO) fell 3.1%, coinciding with Alphabet's roughly 10% premarket decline after a negative earnings call. DeFi tokens underperformed the broader market, with raydium down 8.9%, jito down 6.8% and ethena down 6%. Japan-based data and internet-of-things token Jasmytcoin declined 10%, the largest loss among CoinDesk 100 tokens. Dash and pump.fun each lost about 6%. Tron gained 0.5% since midnight UTC, making Tron one of the few tokens showing gains. CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season index decreased to 54/100 from Wednesday's reading of 60.
Crypto Falls Amid Tech Earnings and Fed Rate Decision
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Summary
Bitcoin fell 1.4% to $80,100 on October 29, 2026, after touching $79,600 earlier in the day. Ether lost 1.7%, and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index dropped 3.4%. The sell-off followed weak earnings from Samsung and Alphabet, with Samsung shares down 4% despite record profits. The Federal Reserve news showed interest rate news remained unchanged, with two dissenters pushing for a hike. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $137 million in inflows, the third straight day of gains. Crypto futures turnover climbed 21.8% to $198.8 billion, while open interest dipped 1.9%. Liquidations jumped 84% to $337.4 million. AI-linked tokens and DeFi projects lagged, with NEAR down 7.8% and raydium down 8.9%.
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