Bitcoin trades at $81,200, down 0.5 percent since midnight UTC, after buyers stepped in just above $80,000 around 02:30 UTC—a level that mirrors the Oct. 8 low of $80,300.
Asian equities drove market sentiment lower. South Korea's Kospi plunged 8 percent and triggered circuit breakers to halt trading. Nasdaq 100 futures slid 1 percent, extending Wednesday's 1.9 percent drop in the Nasdaq Composite.
Altcoins bore heavier losses. Ether trades near $2,370, down 2.0 percent. The CoinDesk 80 index, tracking a broad basket of digital assets, fell 2.2 percent. Lower-cap tokens saw the largest declines.
The CoinDesk 5 index, which skews Bitcoin-heavy, dropped just 0.7 percent, underscoring Bitcoin's relative strength. Pump.fun's token fell 9.4 percent, and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index dropped 4.0 percent, with all but six members of the CoinDesk 100 trading lower.
Federal Reserve rate expectations spiked volatility. Odds of a rate hike in October jumped to nearly 47 percent on CME's FedWatch tool after Wednesday's hotter-than-expected inflation report—up sharply from 22 percent. The probability has since retreated to roughly 26 percent. Treasury yields and further rate hike pricing remain critical signals heading into the U.S. open.
