Bitcoin (BTC) slid to about $82,800 Thursday, below the $83,000 level FxPro tied to a quick drop toward $80,000, as fears of U.S. strikes on Iran pushed oil above $102.
Key Points:
- Bitcoin fell 1.6% to just under $82,800 in Asian trading on Thursday.
- Brent crude topped $102 a barrel after a report that the White House sought Iran strike options.
- FxPro's Alex Kuptsikevich said a break of $83,000 could send Bitcoin to $80,000 fairly quickly.
Bitcoin Price Slide
The largest cryptocurrency fell 1.6% to just under $82,800 during Asian morning hours on Thursday. That left it under $83,000, the floor of its two-week range and a level it first lost on Wednesday. XRP (XRP) led losses among major coins with a drop of nearly 4% to about $1.42, while Ether (ETH) lost 3% to about $2,570 and Dogecoin (DOGE) slid 3% to just under 9 cents.
Oil added to the pressure.
Brent crude climbed more than 2% to above $102 a barrel after a report published Wednesday said the White House had asked the Pentagon for options to strike Iran before next month's midterm elections. The jump lifted the 10-year Treasury yield to about 5.3%, near its highest level since 2002, and Asian shares fell after Wall Street slipped from record highs. Minutes released the same day showed most Federal Reserve officials saw another rate increase as likely appropriate this year, after a quarter-point hike in September.
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FxPro's $80,000 Scenario
Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at FxPro, said Tuesday, when Bitcoin still traded above $85,000, that a break below $84,000 would signal "a victory for the bears," meaning traders who bet on lower prices. A fall through the recent lows near $83,000 would confirm that shift with greater certainty, he said, and Bitcoin could then drop to $80,000 fairly quickly.
The slide followed a wave of forced selling among leveraged traders. Liquidations reached about $550 million across the crypto market a day earlier, and roughly $480 million of that came from bets on higher prices, CoinGlass data showed. Bitcoin's last two daily declines both arrived as oil and bond yields rose.
Not every analyst reads the move as a change of trend. Jeff Ko, chief analyst at ViaBTC, said earlier this week that Bitcoin closed the third quarter up roughly 40%, and that he would still call the pullback a constructive consolidation if $82,000 to $83,000 holds.
Bitcoin Price Swings
Bitcoin spent the past two weeks in a range capped near $87,000, where sellers turned it back on Monday for the third time since Sept. 23. It traded near $86,600 as recently as Tuesday. The cryptocurrency still sits about a third below its record above $126,000, set Oct. 6, 2025, even after a rally from about $64,000 in early August.
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