News · Oct 27, 2026 · 4 min read
Bitcoin today: near $80,000 before the Fed, ETFs lose $772 million, AI-cloud stocks slide
Bitcoin held near $80,400 on Monday as oil retreated, with the Fed deciding on Wednesday. US spot ETFs lost $772 million in two days, and Elon Musk's warning on AI-cloud credit hit the listed miners that host AI. A coin still costs under a quarter of its price to make.
Bitcoin holds near $80,400 while oil retreats and the Fed decision looms
Bitcoin traded near $80,400 on Monday morning, CoinDesk reported, after dipping to about $79,300 in the Asian session. US crude fell about 2% to near $101 a barrel and Brent to about $110, as Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran and President Donald Trump said there would be no strike that day while keeping the option open.
Our price series closed Monday 26 October at $80,023 and read $79,817 on Tuesday morning. That is inside the narrow band of the last week: the daily close has been between $80,000 and $84,100 since 17 October.
The daily close has stayed between $80,000 and $84,100 for ten days.
The Fed decides on Wednesday, and futures say no change now, a rise in December
The Federal Reserve raised rates in September and decides again on Wednesday 28 October at 2 p.m. in Washington, with Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference at 2:30 p.m., according to CoinDesk's week-ahead calendar. The prior range was 3.75% to 4.00%. The European Central Bank follows on Thursday and the Bank of Japan on Friday.
CME's FedWatch tool showed about a 90% chance of no change on Wednesday and about an 80% chance of another increase in December, per CoinDesk. MEXC chief executive Vugar Usi Zade told CoinDesk that traders are "more interested in any statements from Warsh regarding the upcoming December meeting" than in the decision itself.
US bitcoin ETFs lost $772 million in two days
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $138 million of outflows on Friday 23 October, bringing the two-day exit to $772 million, according to Farside Investors data cited by CoinDesk. Our ETF flows chart has the same two days: $636 million out on Thursday and $138 million on Friday.
The week before, the funds had taken in $527 million on 19 October and $528 million on 21 October. The funds held 1,288,074 bitcoin on 26 October on our holdings chart, a fraction of one per cent below the 1,288,665 they held on 19 October.
Musk's warning on AI-cloud credit knocked the miners that host AI
Elon Musk said on Sunday that lenders have almost entirely stopped financing AI-only cloud companies, the "neoclouds" that rent out computing power, and predicted a wave of consolidation, as SpaceX raised $40 billion of debt to buy chips. In Monday's pre-market trading CoreWeave, Cipher Digital and IREN fell, CoinDesk reported.
Cipher and IREN are listed bitcoin miners that have turned part of their power and sites over to AI hosting. A bitcoin machine does not depend on that credit market: its income is block rewards and fees from the network, paid whether or not an AI lender is lending.
More than half of all bitcoin is held at addresses nobody has linked to an owner
About 11.1 million bitcoin, roughly 55% of the 20.1 million mined, sits in addresses that Galaxy Research cannot link to an exchange, fund, government or other known entity, according to its October snapshot, reported by CoinDesk. Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, wrote on X that "a ton of bitcoin (maybe even most) is held by individuals in self-custody."
The unattributed share may also include lost coins, early coins from miners other than the one whose pattern is attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, and institutional holdings spread across many addresses. The largest single attributed holder is that Satoshi-era pattern, at 1,123,658 bitcoin.
Difficulty is 366 blocks from its next step, estimated at about +6.4%
Network difficulty has stood at 140.58 trillion since the adjustment of 16 October. On our difficulty page the next retarget is 366 blocks away, and at the pace blocks have arrived since the last one it is estimated at about +6.4%, a figure that moves with every block until the day.
Our hashrate series, an estimate that swings between roughly 870 and 1,230 exahash a day because it is calculated from block times, averaged about 1,073 exahash over the seven days to 26 October.
What it means for miners
A petahash earned 0.000449 bitcoin on 26 October, $35.93 at that day's close, on our hashprice chart. In bitcoin it has been almost flat at that level since 17 October, the day after difficulty rose, so the price moves changed the dollar value of what a machine produces, not the coins.
On the 8.9 J/TH Antminer S23 XP Hyd, electricity at Nigeria's 3.9¢ makes a bitcoin for about $18,554, 23% of the $79,587 price on 27 October. That is electricity only, at today's hashprice, and output is not guaranteed. A quiet, sideways market is when an efficient machine on cheap power keeps stacking coins for each dollar, and the coins kept are the ones that count.
A coin that costs $18,554 to make is on the market for $79,587.
Sources and further reading
- Bitcoin holds near $80,000 as oil retreats and the Fed decision looms — CoinDesk, 26 Oct 2026
- Fed, ECB and BOJ interest-rate decisions, Coinbase earnings: Crypto Week Ahead — CoinDesk, 26 Oct 2026
- Calpers pulls back from big tech as AI jitters deepen neocloud sell-off — CoinDesk, 26 Oct 2026
- Over 11 million bitcoin has no known owner. Here's what it means — CoinDesk, 26 Oct 2026
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.