Trump's Iran pledge underpins crypto gains as bitcoin bears face liquidation pressure

Bitcoin held near $82,600 after President Donald Trump said he would not strike Iran before the U.S. midterm elections, pulling the largest cryptocurrency off Thursday’s low of roughly $80,400 and turning the liquidation pressure onto bearish traders.

Ether slipped 2% over 24 hours to about $2,500, still nursing the worst of Thursday’s flush, when Ether bets were wiped out at six times Bitcoin’s rate relative to its market value.

SOL was the laggard among the major coins, losing nearly 4% over the same period to around $110, while XRP and HYPE were little changed. The broader CoinDesk 20 index slipped about 2%.

Thursday’s dip tested a level traders watch for the medium-term trend.

“At the peak of its decline on Thursday, Bitcoin fell to $80.4K, touching its lowest level in the past three weeks and its 50-day moving average, where the balance shifted in favour of buyers,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at FxPro, said in an email to CoinDesk.

“This moving average is often regarded as an indicator of the medium-term trend. It has performed this function admirably since July, when the price consolidated above it, and then the 50-day moving average acted as support in August. Yesterday’s dip provided further confirmation of buying interest during pullbacks,” he added.

Meanwhile, broader markets showed signs of recovery from drawdowns earlier in the week.

S&P 500 index futures rose less than 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 contracts gained nearly 1% amid reports that OpenAI expects to reach $70 billion in annualized revenue by year-end.

Brent crude slid below $103 a barrel on Trump’s Iran remarks, a day after hitting a two-week high, taking some heat off the inflation fears that pushed Fed minutes toward another interest-rate increase.