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News · Oct 14, 2026 · 3 min read

Bitcoin today: back near $84,000 as Strive buys 3,311, and Binance closes its pool

Bitcoin dipped to about $81,000 on Tuesday and recovered to just under $84,000 after a Fed signal on 2027. Strive bought 3,311 coins, a UK court ruled on 61,000 seized bitcoin, and Binance said it will close its mining pool. What it means for anyone running machines.

Firsthand card: "Bitcoin today: back near $84,000 as Strive buys 3,311, and Binance closes its pool"

Bitcoin swung $3,000 and was back near $84,000 after a Fed signal

Bitcoin fell to about $81,000 early on Tuesday 13 October, when a burst of stop-loss selling took it back to its 50-day average, then rose above $84,000 and traded near $83,500, according to CoinDesk's live coverage. On Wednesday morning in Asia it was just under $83,900 after New York Fed President John Williams said he saw no need for further rate hikes in 2027, CoinDesk reported. He still expects one more this year: "I haven't changed my view that it may be appropriate to have one more rate hike."

In our own series, bitcoin's daily reading was $81,752 on 13 October and $83,446 on 14 October, as we write. Futures positions force-closed on 13 October came to $57 million of longs and $50 million of shorts on our liquidations chart, after $95 million of longs on 12 October. The Fear & Greed Index read 57 on 13 October, its lowest since 18 September, and 62 on 14 October.

Chart: Bitcoin's daily reading since mid-September. It has stayed between $81,100 and $86,600 since 19 September, and the dip of 13 October sat near the bottom of that range. Open the chart

Strive bought 3,311 bitcoin and is raising $500 million more

Strive, a listed bitcoin treasury company, bought 3,311 bitcoin between 5 and 9 October at an average of about $84,500 each, taking its holdings to 32,773, according to an SEC filing that The Block reported. It is the company's largest purchase since January.

The same day it announced an offering of a new fixed-rate preferred share, SATS, aiming to sell 5 million shares at $100, about $500 million, with a 15% dividend paid daily, CoinDesk reported. The proceeds can buy more bitcoin, income-producing assets or buy back stock.

For scale, the network mined 771 blocks from 5 to 9 October on our data, which at 3.125 bitcoin a block is about 2,409 new coins. Strive's week of buying was about 1.4 times that.

A UK court said Chinese law decides who owns 61,000 seized bitcoin

On Monday 12 October Mr Justice Mark Turner of the High Court ruled that Chinese law decides whether victims of Zhimin Qian's Ponzi schemes have rights to more than 61,000 bitcoin seized by London's Metropolitan Police, The Block reported. Qian was sentenced last November to 11 years and eight months. The ruling does not decide who owns the coins.

About 16,000 Chinese victims have joined the proceedings. The Block, citing the Financial Times, put the coins at about $5 billion and said the ruling could improve the UK government's chances of keeping much of them. Fieldfisher, which represents some claimants, told the Financial Times it is pursuing an appeal.

Binance is closing its mining pool on 10 November

Binance said on 13 October that it will switch off Binance Pool, Cloud Mining, Pool Savings and the Transaction Accelerator at 07:00 UTC on 10 November, according to its support notice. Machines still pointed at the pool have to move before then. On our data it found 1.1% of the last 30 days' blocks. The dates, and what is still owed, are in our piece Binance is closing its mining pool.

What it means for miners

A petahash earned 0.000476 bitcoin a day on 13 and 14 October on our hashprice chart, which is $38.93 at the 13 October reading and $39.73 at the 14 October one. Both are estimates. The dollar figure moved with the price; the coins did not.

Difficulty is next. Our estimate for the retarget, 342 blocks away and about two days off, is a rise of 5.8%, and mempool.space shows the same at 5.78%. Blocks have been arriving every 9.5 minutes on average since the last adjustment on 3 October, faster than the ten the schedule assumes, which is what more hashrate looks like. It means fewer coins per machine, and it is why efficiency decides who keeps stacking.

Strive paid about $84,500 a bitcoin. The most efficient machine we stock, the Antminer S23 XP Hyd at 8.9 J/TH, makes one for about $18,000 of electricity at Nigeria's 3.9¢, against a market price near $83,000. That is electricity only, at today's hashprice, and output is not guaranteed.

Strive paid about $84,500 a bitcoin. The best machine we stock makes one for about $18,000 of electricity.

Sources and further reading

Disclosure

Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware, including this machine. No manufacturer, distributor or affiliate programme paid for or reviewed this page and we take no commission on the links above. Historical figures are computed from daily bitcoin price and network hashprice, each day valued at its own prices. Nothing here is investment advice.