Crypto Pulse: October 29, 2026 — Bitcoin Slips Below $80,000 as Tech Earnings and a Hawkish Fed Press Risk Assets

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Bitcoin slipped below $80,000 on Thursday, giving back the recovery it had built around the Federal Reserve’s decision as a selloff in technology shares spread into crypto and left every major coin on the board lower except one. In Market Briefer’s delayed snapshot at 5:14 p.m. CDT, Bitcoin fell 2.99% to $78,804, Ethereum dropped 3.91% to $2,266 and Solana lost 4.86% to $97.44, while TRON stood alone in positive territory, up 6.93% to $0.352, a session tracked throughout the day on Market Briefer’s Crypto desk.

The board below is Market Briefer’s delayed market data, sourced from CoinGecko and delayed by about 15 minutes, as of 5:14 p.m. CDT on Thursday, October 29, 2026, ordered by 24-hour move, biggest first.

Cardano took the steepest fall on the board, down 6.80% to $0.192, followed by Solana, whose 4.86% drop to $97.44 carried it back below $100, and Dogecoin, down 4.74% to $0.076. The largest coins fell in a tighter band, Ethereum down 3.91% to $2,266 and Bitcoin down 2.99% to $78,804, a day after it had held above $81,000. TRON’s 6.93% rise to $0.352 was the board’s only gain and its widest single move in either direction, leaving the day’s full range at nearly fourteen percentage points.

The selling started in equities. CoinDesk reported that Bitcoin fell below $80,000 during Thursday’s Asian trading session, dropping from above $81,700 to around $79,800 and reversing a two-day rebound as risk aversion swept through global technology stocks. The move followed Alphabet’s third-quarter results, which CoinDesk said missed expectations — revenue of $127.58 billion against $127.93 billion expected, operating income of $40.58 billion against $43.16 billion estimated — leaving its shares down about 10% in pre-market trading. In Asia, Samsung Electronics shares fell more than 5% after its chip division’s operating profit of 106.5 trillion won, a roughly fifteenfold increase, missed the 108.5 trillion won average estimate, and South Korea’s Kospi fell more than 2% while Nasdaq futures declined 1.4%, CoinDesk reported.

The macro backdrop gave risk assets no offset. The Federal Reserve held its target range at 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday in what CoinDesk described as a hawkish hold, with two officials dissenting in favor of a quarter-point increase and Chair Kevin Warsh declining to signal what comes in December. Thursday’s data kept that question open rather than settling it: the Bureau of Economic Analysis said real gross domestic product rose at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter, up from 2.2% in the second, while its September Personal Income and Outlays report put the PCE price index up 3.6% from a year earlier and the index excluding food and energy up 3.1%. Growth accelerating alongside inflation still above the Fed’s 2% goal is the combination Market Briefer’s explainer on how central bank rate decisions ripple through markets works through — the backdrop against which crypto spent the day on the defensive.

Underneath the spot selloff, the flow and positioning picture split. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $137 million on Wednesday, a third consecutive day of inflows that brought the three-day total to $423.7 million, according to Farside Investors data reported by CoinDesk, even as the price those funds track was falling. Derivatives traders, by contrast, were caught on the wrong side: CoinDesk reported $356 million in crypto futures liquidated over 24 hours, $205 million of it in long positions betting on higher prices, including $94 million in Bitcoin futures and $72 million in ether futures. TRON, CoinDesk noted, was one of the only tokens positive from early in the session, and it extended that lead into the afternoon snapshot.

What to watch begins with the levels Thursday’s slide put in play. Bitcoin’s $80,000 mark, reclaimed only on Wednesday, now sits above the snapshot price of $78,804, and Solana’s $100 line sits above its $97.44 print. Friday brings a dated derivatives marker: CoinDesk reported that the most traded Bitcoin options contract of the past day on Deribit was a call expiring October 30 with an $82,500 strike, a level the spot price now sits well below. The daily U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF flow print after Thursday’s session will show whether the three-day inflow run survived a down day, and the next scheduled macro markers are the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases on November 25, when the second estimate of third-quarter GDP and the October Personal Income and Outlays report both arrive at 8:30 a.m. EST, ahead of the Fed’s December meeting.

Educational content — not investment advice. Crypto Pulse is AI-assisted research produced with automated data checks; figures are verified against the cited sources at publication time.