Bitcoin faces a fresh test at $82,000 as it trades at $81,965, up 1.67% over 24 hours but below the crucial pivot level. According to 99Bitcoins, the cryptocurrency has spent a week moving between two levels, with the weekend marking the first stretch where neither equity markets nor US data will be setting the direction. $82,000 has acted as both support and resistance for close to 50 days, making a weekend close on either side of it genuinely informative. As per Pi42 Co-Founder and CEO Avinash Shekhar, "Bitcoin is demonstrating an important degree of resilience. Despite US producer inflation surging to 6.3% year-on-year and expectations of a December rate hike rising, buyers stepped in when BTC briefly fell below $80,000."
The cryptocurrency market faced significant pressure as nearly $950 million in leveraged positions were liquidated following hotter-than-expected US producer inflation data. According to 99Bitcoins, Thursday's drop to roughly $79,800 wiped out about $930 million in leveraged positions, with around $780 million of that in longs and roughly $53 million in shorts liquidated on the way back up. The order book tells a similar story, with Glassnode's heatmap showing a thick wall of bids resting at $80,000 for much of last week, which were consumed during Thursday's slide. Prateek Gupta, Head of Business at Mudrex, noted that the sell-off followed US producer prices rising 6.3% year-on-year, above the expected 5.3%, adding to inflation concerns following the CPI data.
The 10-year yield rose to 5.07% on Friday, up from Thursday's low of 5.06%, as bonds handed back some of Thursday's rush into safety. US producer prices rose 1.3% in September and 6.3% year-on-year, according to data cited by market participants, with September consumer inflation reaching 3.7%, exceeding the expected 3.6%. September wholesale inflation rose 6.3% annually, renewing concerns that the Federal Reserve could keep borrowing costs elevated. The Producer Price Index (PPI), a wholesale-price gauge, rose 1.3% in September - the biggest monthly gain since March 2022. Investors had sold technology shares for the safety of bonds, with US chip stocks having lost $1.64 trillion over six sessions.
Institutional fund activity presented mixed signals during the latest session. According to WazirX, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $261.4 million on October 14, while spot Ether ETFs saw outflows of $129.51 million. However, WazirX Founder Nischal Shetty noted that "despite institutional selling, Bitcoin held near $82,108 and Ether gained slightly to around $2,442, showing that ETF activity does not determine prices alone." CryptoQuant reports that total whale holdings, excluding exchange and mining pool addresses, has climbed steeply since September and now sits close to three million BTC, near its highest of 2026. However, volume fell 23.87% to $30.98 billion while price recovered, indicating the bounce is arriving on lighter participation than the decline that caused it.
Crypto analysts identified key levels for Bitcoin's continued recovery. Delta Exchange Research Analyst Riya Sehgal puts the critical support region at $80,000 to $80,700, with a sustained break beneath it exposing $78,000 to $79,500, while reclaiming $82,000 to $83,200 is what would improve the short-term structure. For the weekend, the floor is $80,000 to $80,700, with the pivot at $82,000 and recovery zone at $82,000 to $83,200. BitDelta India Lead Analyst Purvang Mashru identified resistance near $82,544 with support around $82,000 and $81,000, noting that a sustained move above resistance could improve momentum. The macro backdrop has not improved either, with the Federal Reserve meeting on October 29 with a rate increase still on the table, making the weekend close particularly crucial for Bitcoin's near-term direction.
