News · Oct 28, 2026 · 4 min read
Bitcoin today: near $81,000 before the Fed, Datavault AI can't reach its bitcoin
Bitcoin rose almost 2% to just under $81,000 on Wednesday morning as the Fed prepared to decide, and US ETFs took in $110 million on Monday. A listed treasury firm said it cannot withdraw coins from an exchange, and Luxor raised $16 million for AI brokerage. A coin still costs under a quarter of its price to make.
Bitcoin is back near $81,000 as the Fed decides today
Bitcoin rose nearly 2% to just under $81,000 in Wednesday's Asian morning, recovering from a weekend slip to nearly $79,000, CoinDesk reported. Zcash jumped 8% to about $1,320 and ether gained 2% to just above $2,350.
Our price series closed Tuesday 27 October at $80,000.34 and read $81,046 on Wednesday morning. The Federal Reserve decides today, and CME's FedWatch tool put the chance of no change at about 90%, per CoinDesk. Traders are looking for clues on whether another rate rise is likely before the end of the year, and for that they are watching Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference.
The decision is priced as a hold. The room is listening for December.
US bitcoin ETFs took in $110 million on Monday, ending two days of outflows
Spot bitcoin ETFs took in $110 million on Monday 26 October, according to Farside Investors data cited by CoinDesk. Our ETF flows chart has the same figure, $110.3 million, after $636 million out on 22 October and $138 million out on 23 October.
The funds held 1,288,058 bitcoin on 26 October on our holdings chart, within a fraction of a per cent of the 1,288,665 they held on 19 October. A week of large moves in both directions left their total almost where it started.
Galaxy says bitcoin's bear market ended in June
Galaxy Digital's head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, wrote in a note that "we think the bear market ended in June and that bitcoin is in the accumulation phase that has preceded every prior advance," CoinDesk reported. Bitcoin is about 38% above its June low under $58,000 and has closed above its 50-week average for five straight weeks after 44 weeks under it.
Galaxy added that spot ETFs have added 87,000 bitcoin since the low, and that a weekly close below $76,540 that is not recovered within a month would challenge its view. We looked at the same turn in miners' pay in today's data piece.
A listed bitcoin treasury says it cannot withdraw its coins from an exchange
Datavault AI shares fell almost 50% on Tuesday, to $0.067, after a filing said the company has been unable to withdraw bitcoin from the Biconomy exchange since June and will restate its results, CoinDesk reported. The bitcoin had been credited to its account by Scilex, which paid for $150 million of Datavault shares and warrants with it, through off-chain transfers inside the exchange rather than on the blockchain.
Datavault now says those balances should have been recorded as an amount Scilex owed for the shares, which would cut its reported assets by $92.2 million at the end of 2025. CoinDesk said Biconomy had not replied to its questions. The episode is a plain case for what we say elsewhere: coins that sit in your own wallet are the coins you can move.
Luxor raises $16 million as miners' AI hosting becomes a market of its own
Luxor Technology raised $16 million in a round led by CMT Digital, with the machine makers Canaan and MicroBT also investing, to build an AI hardware brokerage and computing-power trading business, CoinDesk reported. CoinShares counted more than $70 billion of AI and high-performance computing contracts signed by listed miners by the end of March.
Lenders are asking more of that business. JPMorgan Private Bank's Justin Biemann wrote on 23 October that "the AI label alone is no longer enough to reassure lenders," according to CoinDesk, and the Nasdaq has fallen 6.7% since 6 October. In the other direction, NIP Group plans to raise its bitcoin mining capacity by about 48%, to roughly 195 bitcoin a month at full deployment.
Difficulty is 213 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 one is 213 blocks away, and at the pace blocks have come since the last, it is estimated at about +6.4%, a figure that moves with each block until the day.
A petahash earned 0.000449 bitcoin on 27 October, $35.95 at that day's close, on our hashprice chart. In bitcoin it is almost where it was on 17 October, the first day after the last rise.
What it means for miners
The Fed day, the ETF swings and the AI-credit worry all move the dollar price, and none of them changes how many coins a machine makes. What changes the coins is difficulty, and that is about to rise again. A machine that is efficient on cheap power makes them for less each time the price dips.
On the 8.9 J/TH Antminer S23 XP Hyd, electricity at Nigeria's 3.9¢ makes a bitcoin for about $18,540, 23% of the $81,046 price on 28 October. That is electricity only, at today's hashprice, and output is not guaranteed. Coins kept are the ones that count, and they are the ones nobody can freeze.
A coin that costs $18,540 to make is on the market for $81,046.
Sources and further reading
- Bitcoin nears $81,000 ahead of Fed decision as ZEC jumps 8% — CoinDesk, 28 Oct 2026
- Bitcoin drops below $80,000 as crypto ignores Asian tech rally, Fed meeting begins — CoinDesk, 27 Oct 2026
- Now is the time to accumulate bitcoin, Galaxy says — CoinDesk, 27 Oct 2026
- Bitcoin treasury Datavault AI plunges 50% after firm says it can't access its BTC — CoinDesk, 28 Oct 2026
- Bitcoin miners' move into AI is creating a new market for trading computing power — CoinDesk, 27 Oct 2026
- An AI label alone no longer wins lenders, JPMorgan says — CoinDesk, 27 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.