Bitcoin climbed back above $81,000 on Wednesday, October 28, rising about 2.3% over 24 hours to roughly $81,400 as a rally in Asian chip stocks spilled into crypto ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision. Every major token traded higher, a sharp turn from Monday, when bitcoin slipped below $80,000 for the first time in more than a week.
HYPE and ZEC Lead the Majors
HYPE led the majors, jumping nearly 6% to just above $81, and ZEC rose 5% to about $1,300, according to CoinDesk data. DOGE gained 4%, BNB and SOL rose about 3% each, with BNB just under $760 and SOL above $102, and XRP added 3% to $1.32. Ether climbed 2% to about $2,360, while TRX lagged with a gain of about 1%. Pepe jumped 9.4% to top the CoinDesk 100, as Arkham Intelligence reported that wallets it links to Tron founder Justin Sun hold about $51 million of the token. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index rose to 60 from 57.Chip Stocks Rebound
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 6.6% as SK Hynix surged about 11% after reporting record quarterly results, and Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.5%. Alphabet and Microsoft report earnings after the US close.
ETF Inflows Nearly Erase October’s Deficit
US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $176 million on Tuesday, their second straight day of inflows. That brings October’s net flows close to flat after a $774 million two-day exit last week.Leverage Stays Contained
Crypto futures volume rose 7.5% to $163.2 billion while open interest rose only 1.3%, suggesting traders added little new exposure. Funding was mild at 0.0090% for bitcoin and 0.0079% for ether, close to the 0.01% baseline. On Deribit, bitcoin’s one-week put-call skew fell below 1% from nearly 10% a week ago, a sign demand for short-term downside protection is easing, though longer-dated skews still favor puts.Warsh Takes the Stage
The Fed announces its decision at 18:00 UTC, with CME FedWatch showing about a 92% chance rates stay at 3.75%–4.00%. Traders will watch Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference for any signal of a December hike. Monday showed how quickly the market sells when hike talk picks up.
HYPE and ZEC Lead the Majors
HYPE led the majors, jumping nearly 6% to just above $81, and ZEC rose 5% to about $1,300, according to CoinDesk data. DOGE gained 4%, BNB and SOL rose about 3% each, with BNB just under $760 and SOL above $102, and XRP added 3% to $1.32. Ether climbed 2% to about $2,360, while TRX lagged with a gain of about 1%. Pepe jumped 9.4% to top the CoinDesk 100, as Arkham Intelligence reported that wallets it links to Tron founder Justin Sun hold about $51 million of the token. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index rose to 60 from 57.Chip Stocks Rebound
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 6.6% as SK Hynix surged about 11% after reporting record quarterly results, and Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.5%. Alphabet and Microsoft report earnings after the US close.
ETF Inflows Nearly Erase October’s Deficit
US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $176 million on Tuesday, their second straight day of inflows. That brings October’s net flows close to flat after a $774 million two-day exit last week.Leverage Stays Contained
Crypto futures volume rose 7.5% to $163.2 billion while open interest rose only 1.3%, suggesting traders added little new exposure. Funding was mild at 0.0090% for bitcoin and 0.0079% for ether, close to the 0.01% baseline. On Deribit, bitcoin’s one-week put-call skew fell below 1% from nearly 10% a week ago, a sign demand for short-term downside protection is easing, though longer-dated skews still favor puts.Warsh Takes the Stage
The Fed announces its decision at 18:00 UTC, with CME FedWatch showing about a 92% chance rates stay at 3.75%–4.00%. Traders will watch Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference for any signal of a December hike. Monday showed how quickly the market sells when hike talk picks up.
