Bitcoin Steadies Near $84K Ahead of September CPI, Bank Earnings and Token Unlocks

Bitcoin started the new week trading in the mid-$83,000s after briefly reclaiming $84,000 overnight, as a short squeeze and a pause in spot ETF selling steadied a market that has spent most of October on the back foot. The bigger test comes later this week, with September U.S. inflation data, the first round of big-bank earnings and a cluster of token unlocks all landing within a few days of each other.

Where prices stand

CoinDesk listed bitcoin at about $83,505 early Monday, while Fortune put it near $83,389 at 6:45 a.m. ET. Crypto Times, citing CoinGecko data, reported that BTC touched roughly $84,025 earlier in the session and traded in a 24-hour range of about $82,894 to $84,072. Even after the bounce, bitcoin was still down around 3.3% over seven days.

Ether traded near $2,543 early Monday, according to CoinGecko figures cited by Crypto Times. Both major assets remained lower on the week despite daily gains.

The latest move follows a rough stretch. On October 9, bitcoin fell 3.3% and ether 5.7% in a selloff that triggered more than $1.1 billion in liquidations across the market. We covered the earlier leg of that slide in Bitcoin Slips to $84K as More Than $550M in Crypto Liquidations Hit the Market.

Shorts got squeezed, ETF selling paused

Over the 24 hours to about 05:30 UTC Monday, CoinGlass data showed roughly $46.7 million in BTC liquidations, with shorts accounting for about $39.6 million of that. In other words, the overnight move higher was driven largely by traders betting on further downside being forced out of their positions.

Spot bitcoin ETF flows also offered a little relief. According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw net outflows of about $487 million on October 7 and about $244 million on October 8, more than $731 million across the two days, before flipping to a small net inflow of about $21 million on October 9.

Perpetual futures open interest sat around $66.4 billion, and long/short account ratios on Binance and OKX remained tilted toward longs, per the same report.

The week ahead: what traders are watching

• Tuesday, Oct. 13: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Wells Fargo report quarterly earnings.
• Wednesday, Oct. 14: September CPI at 8:30 a.m. ET. Crypto Times cited consensus forecasts of roughly 3.6% to 3.7% headline inflation year over year and about 2.5% core. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley also report.
• Thursday, Oct. 15: September PPI, retail sales and weekly jobless claims, plus remarks from Fed Governor Kevin Warsh.
• Friday, Oct. 16: Industrial production data and bitcoin and ether options expiry on Deribit.

Rates are the backdrop for all of it. Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting showed most participants viewed another rate increase by year-end as likely appropriate. The next FOMC decision is scheduled for October 27-28. Crypto Times also noted Brent crude above $103 a barrel and the U.S. dollar near an 18-month high, both conditions that have historically weighed on risk assets. For more on how bond yields have pressured crypto this autumn, see our earlier report on the 10-year Treasury yield hitting its highest level since 2007.

Token unlocks on the calendar

Several scheduled unlocks fall this week. Figures vary by tracker and some are marked as pending verification, so treat them as estimates:

• Pump.fun (PUMP): about 6.88 billion tokens on October 12.
• Starknet (STRK): an estimated 127 million to 226 million tokens this week.
• Arbitrum (ARB): about 92.65 million tokens around October 16, roughly 1.3% to 1.6% of circulating supply.
• Cronos (CRO): about 1.17 billion tokens around October 16-17, valued near $69.5 million.

KuCoin’s summary of Tokenomist data put the combined CRO, ARB and STRK unlocks at around $845.8 million, a much larger number than per-token estimates elsewhere, which shows how much methodology matters. Separately, Aptos’ monthly unlock is scheduled to fall from about 11.31 million APT to about 4.54 million as a four-year vesting schedule for core contributors and early backers ends. Unlocks increase supply that can be sold; they do not guarantee that it will be.

Also on the radar

Evernorth, the Ripple-backed XRP treasury company, was expected to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on Monday after completing its SPAC merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II. Event-wise, DC Fintech Week runs October 13-16 in Washington, and Money20/20 USA opens in Las Vegas on October 18.

The bottom line

Bitcoin has found a footing in the low-to-mid $80,000s, helped by a short squeeze and a break in ETF outflows. Whether that holds likely depends more on Wednesday’s CPI print and the rate outlook than on anything crypto-specific. Expect volatility around the data releases and Friday’s options expiry.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.