Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $82,000 in Friday morning’s Asian session after buyers absorbed the roughly two-hour dip below $80,000 on Thursday night. Zcash (ZEC) surged 8%, posting the strongest performance among major cryptocurrencies.
Key Points
Bitcoin traded below $80,000 for about two hours, but buying pressure brought it back to around $82,500.
Zcash rose about 8% to around $1,190, leading the rebound among large-cap coins (those with the highest market capitalizations).
Analysts say the rebound will only be considered a full-fledged recovery once a breakout above $84,000 is confirmed. A speech by the Federal Reserve chair is expected to be the turning point.
Bitcoin rebounds quickly after a sharp short-term drop
Selling the previous day pushed Bitcoin down to around $79,800, breaking below the $80,400 support level that had held twice since last week. But the decline did not last long. Within two hours, the price attempted a recovery, climbing back to around $82,500, and held above $81,000 throughout Friday’s Asian session.
Zcash posted the strongest gains among the top tokens by market capitalization. After leading the sell-off with an 11% plunge the previous day, Zcash rebounded 8% to around $1,190 on a recovery rally. Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) (XRP), and Solana (SOL) also rose about 1% each, joining the broader gains.
Asian stocks showed a similar trend. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 1.3%, while South Korea’s Kospi, which had recently fallen to its lowest level since April, surged nearly 3% at one point during the session. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the rebound, each gaining more than 2%. However, **Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing)** remained weaker despite a positive earnings outlook, as concerns persisted over the sustainability of AI investment.
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Glassnode warns that buying pressure is weakening below $80,000
Pseudonymous analyst **Daan Crypto Trades** noted that Bitcoin had staged a technical rebound from the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level and reclaimed $81,500. He identified this level as key support for maintaining short-term upward momentum and pointed to liquidity around $84,000 as the next test. That was also the price range where the rally stalled just after inflation data was released this week.
By contrast, **Michaël van de Poppe** took a more cautious stance. He said the failure to break above $84,000 had damaged market confidence, and argued that if $82,000 turns into resistance, a breakdown below $80,000 could become the most likely scenario.
On-chain analytics firm Glassnode also warned that buying interest is noticeably waning below $80,000, identifying the $78,000 range—corresponding to the ‘realized market mean’—as the next level to watch.
The market’s attention is now focused on remarks by Federal Reserve Chair **Kevin Warsh**. Warsh is scheduled to speak on Friday at the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September, released two days ago, rose 3.7% year over year, slightly above the market forecast of 3.6%. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets on the 27th and 28th of this month, while the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose 1 basis point to 5.07% on Friday.
Bitcoin’s drop below $80,000 this week was its first since mid-September. “Hot” inflation data released early in the week briefly pushed Bitcoin up to around $84,000, but it then slid to around $80,400 early Thursday, finding support just above last week’s low of $80,430. Over the past week, Bitcoin’s price has seen significant volatility but has barely changed on net.
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