News · Oct 29, 2026 · 4 min read
Bitcoin today: Fed holds with two votes to raise, Thailand rules bitcoin is property
The Fed held at 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday with two members voting to raise, and bitcoin closed at $80,809 before slipping under $80,000. Thailand's Supreme Court ruled bitcoin is property, and 26 US companies have objected to tokenized trading of their shares. A coin still costs under a quarter of its price to make.
The Fed held at 3.75% to 4%, and two members wanted a rise
The Federal Open Market Committee left its target range at 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday 28 October. The vote was 10 to 2: Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack dissented, both preferring a quarter-point increase, according to the Fed's statement. The statement says "Inflation remains elevated" and that economic activity is "expanding at a strong pace."
Bitcoin rose to about $81,000 around the 2 p.m. decision, CoinDesk's live coverage reported, and closed the day at $80,808.65 in our series. It was below $80,000 again on Thursday. CoinDesk put the odds of a December rise at 86% on the CME's FedWatch tool, up from 78% a day earlier, with oil above $100 a barrel.
Two members voted to raise rates, and the market now prices a December rise at 86%.
Thailand's Supreme Court says bitcoin is property
Thailand's Supreme Court upheld a 10-year sentence for a robbery on Koh Samui in which a tourist was forced to send about 2.48 bitcoin, then worth roughly $50,000, to the attackers' wallet. The court held that bitcoin is property protected by Thai criminal law, rejecting the argument that it has no intrinsic value and pointing to its economic value and the ability to trade it and convert it to cash, Crypto Briefing reported on 28 October. The order to return the bitcoin or pay its value stands.
It is a ruling about theft, not about shops accepting bitcoin. For anyone who owns coins in Thailand it settles that taking them is taking property.
26 US companies have objected to tokenized trading of their shares
IBM, Oracle, Intel and IonQ are the latest four of 26 companies that have filed objections to the OKX and Intercontinental Exchange plan to trade tokenized versions of their stocks, Cointelegraph reported on 27 October. About 41% of the 62 companies the venture proposed to list have opted out. Co-chair Andrew Cuomo called objecting a "very natural response" for some and expects more.
Under the SEC exemption the venue can offer limited trading in tokenized stocks, and Nasdaq told issuers in September to be "cautious" about taking part.
ETFs took in $176 million on Tuesday, and shorts were the ones forced out
US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $176.0 million on Tuesday 27 October after $110.3 million on Monday, on our ETF flows chart. The 28 October figure is not out yet.
On the liquidations chart, bitcoin futures traders were forced out of $43.3 million of short positions on 28 October and $14.2 million of longs.
Difficulty is 72 blocks from its next step
Difficulty has stood at 140.58 trillion since the adjustment of 16 October. On our difficulty adjustments page the next one is 72 blocks away, about half a day, and at the pace blocks have come it is estimated at +5.7%. The figure moves with every block until it lands.
Network hashprice was $36.31 per petahash a day at Wednesday's close, which is 0.000449 bitcoin a petahash. A rise in difficulty lowers the bitcoin figure for every machine on the network by the same share.
What it means for miners
Rate decisions and oil prices move the dollar price of bitcoin. They do not change how many coins a machine makes. What changes the coins is difficulty, and it is estimated to rise another 5.7% within about half a day.
On our best case, an Antminer S23 XP Hyd at 8.9 J/TH on Nigeria's 3.9¢ power, electricity makes a bitcoin for about $18,538 at today's hashprice. Bitcoin was $79,857 in our series on Thursday, so a coin costs 23% of its price to make. That is electricity only, and output is not guaranteed. The efficient machine on cheap power is the one that keeps stacking coins whichever way the Fed leans.
A coin that costs $18,538 to make was on the market for $79,857.
Sources and further reading
- Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement — Federal Reserve, 28 Oct 2026
- Live updates: Bitcoin trading just above $81,000 as Fed delivers hold on rates — CoinDesk, 28 Oct 2026
- Thailand's Supreme Court recognizes Bitcoin as legal property — Crypto Briefing, 28 Oct 2026
- Intel, IBM, Oracle, IonQ object to OKX-ICE tokenized stocks — Cointelegraph, 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.