Bitcoin Recovers Some Ground on Falling Yields, Oil — 2nd Update

By Joseph Wilkins and Kirk MaltaisBitcoin recovered some ground on Friday after bond yields and oil prices retreated, easing pressure on risk assets across the board.The flagship cryptocurrency climbed 0.8% to $82,412 after a week of heavy selling pressure saw it fall to as low as $80,544 during Thursday's session, a two-and-a-half week low.Risk appetite improved on Friday on investor hopes for diplomatic progress in the Middle East conflict. President Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday that the U.S. won't attack Iran before November's midterm elections, citing "productive" discussions. Oil prices eased, which sent the dollar lower and provided some support to bitcoin.Macro pressure might keep weighing on bitcoin in the short term, said Colin Basco, quantitative strategist at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Institutional. "A move in the 10-year [Treasury] toward 5.5% would probably extend the consolidation period," he said. Basco added that any retracing of bitcoin's price toward $72,000 would present a buying opportunity.Investor sentiment on bitcoin was subdued this week as stubbornly high yields, a strong dollar, and oil prices above $100 a barrel all continue to tame its appeal. This week's drop can be mostly attributed to leverage leaving the market, said Joe Sticco, founder of cryptocurrency index provider Cryptex Finance.But the profitability of bitcoin miners, which were under stress earlier in the week on lower prices, appears to be returning. The collective hashrate, which is the amount of computing power used to solve cryptographic puzzles on the bitcoin blockchain, has been trending up after briefly dipping."When bitcoin rises, mining becomes more profitable, often attracting additional miners and computing capacity to the network," said Julian Pineda, a market analyst with StoneX focusing on cryptocurrencies.The hashrate, a measure of total computer power used to mine bitcoin, was about 980 million terahashes as of Oct. 7, up 20 million terahashes since the start of the week, according to data from Blockchain.com. Hashrates typically increase as the price of bitcoin goes up, and it is often a sign of a rise in miners trying to acquire the cryptocurrency.Write to Joseph Wilkins at [email protected] and Kirk Maltais at [email protected]