Bitcoin fell below $82,000 on Thursday as renewed concerns about artificial intelligence spending weighed on global markets and pushed cryptocurrency prices lower. BTC declined as much as 2.9% to approximately $81,600, while the CoinDesk 80 index dropped 3.5% and decentralized finance tokens recorded some of the steepest losses.
Bitcoin (BTC) suffered its biggest decline in two weeks after mixed earnings results from Tesla and Meta Platforms revived questions about whether heavy AI investments will deliver sufficient returns. The uncertainty triggered a sell-off across Asian equities and increased pressure on digital assets.
China’s stock market entered bear-market territory, with the CSI 300 falling to a 20% decline from its June peak. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost more than 3%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.7%. U.S. equity futures also weakened, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 1.32% and S&P 500 futures lower by 0.66%.
Altcoins experienced greater losses than Bitcoin. The CoinDesk 80 (CD80) fell 3.2%, compared with a 2.5% decline in the CoinDesk 5 (CD5). Ether (ETH) slipped 2.6% to approximately $2,400, while the DeFi sector index (DFX) plunged 5.6%.
The downturn came despite more than $1 billion flowing into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs during the first three trading days of the week, according to SoSoValue. Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade also went live overnight, but SOL dropped 2.4% to around $104. Investors were also awaiting the latest U.S. initial jobless claims figures.
Crypto Futures Activity Rises as Open Interest Falls
Crypto derivatives trading volume increased 19% to $226.6 billion, even as total open interest declined 2.46% to $141.8 billion. Liquidations rose 52% to $431.1 million, suggesting that market participants were primarily closing positions rather than opening new trades. Losses were distributed relatively evenly between long and short positions.
Bitcoin and Ether futures volumes climbed 36% and 27%, respectively. However, open interest moved lower roughly in line with prices, indicating that the decline in the dollar value of outstanding contracts largely reflected falling asset prices. Funding rates remained marginally positive, pointing to a relatively balanced market without an overwhelmingly crowded directional bet.
Several altcoins recorded sharper reductions in open interest. Zcash (ZEC) open interest declined 6.99% while its price dropped 2.34%. Near Protocol (NEAR) saw an 8.83% decrease, and Uniswap (UNI) recorded a 10.17% fall. Chainlink (LINK) and Sui (SUI) also showed signs of traders unwinding positions more quickly than prices were declining.
Commodity Contracts Attract Fresh Trading Interest
Commodity-linked derivatives moved in the opposite direction, attracting additional positions as crypto open interest weakened. Gold futures open interest rose 12% despite a lower price, while tokenized gold Tether Gold (XAUT) and silver contracts recorded increases of 10% and 6.8%, respectively.
An increase in open interest alongside a falling price can signal fresh short positions, although it may also reflect traders buying into the decline. Crude oil futures open interest climbed 6.29%, while funding turned negative at -0.0126%, indicating that short sellers were paying to maintain their positions.
Order-flow indicators also pointed to a shift in sentiment. Market orders had favored buying across most tokens about 24 hours earlier, but selling activity took over by Thursday morning, including across Bitcoin and Ether.
Monero Shows Signs of Crowded Long Positions
Monero (XMR) stood out in derivatives data, with its funding rate reaching an annualized level of roughly 70%. This elevated rate suggests that bullish leveraged traders were paying a substantial premium to keep their positions open, potentially leaving the market vulnerable to liquidations if prices turn lower.
The buildup comes after Monero futures open interest exceeded $300 million this week, approaching January’s record, according to SoSoValue.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s BVIV and Ether’s EVIV implied-volatility gauges remained close to their 2026 lows. This suggests options traders were not paying heavily for expectations of large price swings.
On Deribit, Bitcoin call options with strike prices of $85,000 and $86,000 expiring on Oct. 30 were among the most actively traded contracts over the previous 24 hours. However, short-dated options skews continued to favor puts, showing that downside protection remained more expensive than upside bets. Ether options displayed a similar pattern, suggesting traders were seeking potential gains while maintaining protective hedges.
DeFi Tokens Lead the Broader Altcoin Decline
Privacy coins delivered mixed performances. Monero climbed 4.9% to approximately $651, making it one of only five assets in the CoinDesk 100 (CD100) to gain since midnight UTC. Zcash moved in the opposite direction, falling 4.8% to around $1,252.
Monero has risen about 19% over the past month, while its futures open interest topped $300 million, approaching the record recorded in January.
Decentralized finance tokens were among the hardest hit. Curve (CRV) dropped 8.2% to roughly $0.37, although it remained about 4% higher for the week. Ethena (ENA) fell 7.2%, extending its decline to approximately 25% from its late-September peak.
Uniswap (UNI) lost 5%, leaving it down around 20% in October despite reporting record fee revenue in September, according to Token Terminal.
Other tokens also posted substantial losses. Celestia (TIA) declined 3.7%, taking its weekly drop to around 9% and reducing its monthly gain to approximately 31%. The market is also approaching an Oct. 31 unlock of 5.58 million TIA. LayerZero (ZRO) fell 4.2%, while Worldcoin (WLD), the iris-scanning identity token, dropped 7.3%.
The Sandbox (SAND) declined 5.1%, and Starknet (STRK) fell 6.1%. SAND had previously gained after South Korean exchanges Upbit, Bithumb and Coinone removed trading cautions. STRK had advanced after its network indicated that it was considering becoming a quantum-resistant Layer 1.
Pump.fun (PUMP), the token linked to Solana’s memecoin launchpad, lost 6% and remained down approximately 19% for the month.
The latest downturn highlights growing uncertainty across crypto markets as concerns about AI spending pressure risk assets and traders reduce leveraged exposure. Although Bitcoin ETFs attracted substantial inflows earlier in the week, weakness in DeFi tokens and several major altcoins underscored the uneven nature of market demand.
