Bitcoin price $82,690 after the drop from $84,808: outperforms the market

Here is what is documented: Bitcoin stands at $82,690 on Thursday morning, had run up to $84,808 overnight and fell back as far as $82,567. The total crypto market capitalisation sits at $2.785 trillion, 2.64 percent below the level of 24 hours ago, while Bitcoin itself is practically unchanged on the day at plus 0.03 percent. Our own assessment follows further down: as long as the price does not confirm $84,808 from above, the overnight range is the frame for the day.

The rest of the market tells a different story. Of the twenty largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, eleven are down, and the losses hit above all those assets that had risen most in the preceding weeks. Where to place Bitcoin in the longer frame is set out in our running price assessment; this morning report takes the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin price on Thursday morning: $82,690 after $84,808 overnight

The price moved in a range of $2,241 during the night into October 22. The overnight high was $84,808, the overnight low $82,567, and the distance between them equals 2.6 percent of the high. Daily volume traded came to $35.67 billion, and Bitcoin's market capitalisation stands at $1.662 trillion.

The futures market shows the same picture. The Bitcoin index of the options exchange Deribit stood at $82,703.84 in the morning, within a few dollars of the spot markets. A premium or discount between futures and spot, of the kind that appears in hectic phases, is currently absent.

More telling than the point reading is the shape of the move. A price that reaches a high and gives up the entire gain in the same session leaves behind a level at which sellers were demonstrably willing. That is exactly what happened at $84,808.

What has changed since the morning report of October 21

Yesterday morning we reported a Bitcoin price of $82,708 in this slot, together with inflows of $526.7 million into the US funds and the question of which levels had to hold going into the Fed meeting. That is on the record in the morning report of October 21.

Twenty-four hours later the price stands at $82,690. The difference is $18, or 0.02 percent. In between came a rise of more than $2,100 and its complete reversal. Compare only the two morning readings and you see a market standing still; look at the range and you see a market in which anything above $84,000 was sold immediately.

The levels from yesterday's report therefore fared differently. To the upside the price ran beyond $84,000 and failed to hold it. To the downside the low at $82,567 stayed above the previous day's level. The support held, in other words; the breakout did not.

Dominance at 59.53 percent: how the metric rises while the market falls

Bitcoin dominance measures Bitcoin's share of the market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies. On Thursday morning it stands at 59.53 percent, with Ethereum following at 10.67 percent. The metric rises along two paths, and confusing them leads to wrong conclusions.

The first path is a rising Bitcoin price with the rest standing still. The second is a falling rest with the Bitcoin price standing still. Last night the second path was at work: Bitcoin lost nothing on the day, while total market capitalisation lost 2.64 percent. Arithmetically Bitcoin's share then grows without a single dollar of new money having flowed into Bitcoin.

For judging the market that difference matters. Dominance that rises through inflows into Bitcoin shows new demand. Dominance that rises through outflows from altcoins shows a shrinking risk budget above all. In the second case Bitcoin has not become strong; the rest has become weak.

The levels of the day: $82,567 below, $84,808 above

Two levels this morning are grounded in the price action itself, not in a model. Below sits the overnight low of $82,567. It lies around $123 under the current price, so within immediate reach. Should the price break beneath it, it loses the level of the last two morning readings at the same time.

Above sits the overnight high of $84,808. The distance is a good $2,100, or 2.6 percent. The price failed at that level during the past night, which makes it documented rather than estimated. A second attempt that closes above $84,808 would devalue the night's failure; a second attempt that turns in front of it confirms the failure.

Between the two lies the zone in which trading has taken place since yesterday. For short-term investors that means the range is narrow and quantifiable in dollars, and anyone working with leverage has correspondingly little room before liquidation.

Monero and Zcash rise, Hyperliquid and Dogecoin fall

Market breadth splits into two groups this morning. On the winning side stand the assets focused on confidentiality: Monero adds 5.86 percent to $612.19, Zcash 2.2 percent to $1,287.54. Among the large names, XRP holds up at plus 0.94 percent at $1.34.

On the losing side are the assets that had run hardest of late. Hyperliquid loses 2.54 percent to $78.75, Dogecoin 1.75 percent to $0.079995, Cardano 1.34 percent to $0.2198. Ethereum and Solana sit near the flat line at minus 0.08 and minus 0.43 percent, at $2,440.30 and $105.28.

Eleven of the twenty largest assets are down, nine up. That is not a broad sell-off. It is a rotation in which risk capital flows out of the previous weeks' high performers without dragging Bitcoin or the two large smart-contract blockchains along.

Network fees at 1 satoshi per byte: what the empty mempool means

The mempool is the Bitcoin network's waiting room: every transfer sits there until a miner includes it in a block. How expensive a transfer is depends on how full that waiting room is. On Thursday morning the fastest confirmation costs 2 satoshis per byte, while 1 satoshi per byte is enough for confirmation within half an hour or an hour.

Those readings are at the lower edge of what is possible. In practice that means an ordinary transfer from an exchange to your own wallet currently costs cents rather than the double-digit euro sums that accrue in phases of heavy load. If you were planning to move holdings off an exchange into self-custody anyway, the fee situation is favourable right now.

The empty state also says something about activity. Low fees mean few competing transactions, and therefore little movement of holdings on the blockchain. That fits a market trading in a narrow range rather than running in one direction.

Hashrate at 1,027 exahash: 147 blocks in 24 hours

Computing power in the Bitcoin network stands at around 1,027 exahash per second. Over the past 24 hours, 147 blocks were found, an average of one every 9.18 minutes. The protocol's target is ten minutes.

Because miners are faster than the target, the protocol will raise the difficulty at the next adjustment. Currently 1,161 blocks remain until the checkpoint at block height 973,728, and the expected adjustment is plus 4.83 percent. For holders that changes nothing; for miners it raises the cost per block found.

Fear and Greed Index at 68: sentiment rises while the price stands still

The Fear and Greed Index condenses volatility, trading volume, search interest and survey readings into a single number between 0 and 100. On Thursday it stands at 68, in "greed" territory, after 63 the day before.

Sentiment has therefore brightened even though the price is flat on the day and the broader market has lost ground. A gap of this kind between price and sentiment often appears after a push higher: the excursion to $84,808 lingers longer in survey and search data than in the price table. As a buy signal the number is of no use; as an indication of expectations it is.

Holding period under Section 23 EStG: how to check your purchase date before year-end

For investors in Germany, October is the month in which, for tax purposes, the purchase date matters more than the price level. Private disposals of cryptocurrencies are tax-free under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act if more than one year lies between purchase and sale. Anyone selling within the year pays tax on the gain at their personal income tax rate as soon as the sum of all private disposal gains in the calendar year reaches 1,000 euros.

As a result, there is a concrete check you can run today at no cost. Pull up the purchase records for your Bitcoin positions and sort them by date. Every position bought before October 22, 2025 has reached the one-year threshold. Every position from the past twelve months has not, and for those the date from which a sale would be tax-free is fixed.

Two points are regularly overlooked here. First, every swap counts as a sale, including a swap from Bitcoin into another cryptocurrency or into a stablecoin. Second, the deadline applies per position and not per account, which is why the order of disposal determines the tax burden. Which tools map that allocation for German tax returns is set out in our overview of tax software and portfolio trackers. How the legislator is treating the deadline at present, we track in the status of the holding-period reform.

The route via ETN: what runs differently in a securities account than on an exchange

Anyone who does not want to custody Bitcoin directly usually reaches it in Germany through exchange-traded notes, or ETNs, held in a securities account. The difference from direct custody is not merely technical. With an ETN you hold a claim against the issuer rather than the coin itself, and the tax treatment follows different rules from Section 23.

Which products are tradable in Germany and how they differ in costs and collateralisation, we have compiled in the overview of crypto ETFs and ETNs in Germany. For this morning's levels the route makes no difference; for the question of whether a gain is tax-free after a year, it makes the decisive one.

Our assessment: what argues for a continuation and what against it

From the editorial desk's point of view, the night is evidence of stability and against momentum, both at once. In favour: Bitcoin came through a 2.64 percent decline in total market capitalisation without a loss of its own, and the overnight low at $82,567 stayed above the previous day's level. The willingness to sell hit the previous weeks' high performers, not Bitcoin.

Against it stands the $84,808 level. A price that gives up a $2,100 rise entirely within one session found no buyers there. The picture on the blockchain fits: fees of 1 satoshi per byte show little movement of holdings, and therefore little capital going into positions right now. Sentiment at 68 points does not replace that capital.

What is documented, then, is a narrow range with a confirmed downside and a confirmed upside. What follows from it will be decided at those two numbers and not by the direction of the past night. The editorial desk derives neither a buy nor a sell recommendation from this. Crypto investments can fall to a total loss.

Bitcoin at $82,690: without a break above $84,808 the range stays tight

1. Note down the two levels. Write down $82,567 and $84,808. Both come from the past night and are therefore documented. Only a daily close outside that range is new information; everything in between is a continuation of what is known. Where you trade and at what fees is shown in the exchange overview.
2. Check the purchase date, not the price level. Sort your positions by purchase date and mark which ones fall before October 22, 2025. Those positions are tax-free on sale, the others are not. The per-position allocation is handled by the tax tools.
3. Use the favourable fee situation if a move is due. At 1 satoshi per byte, the transfer from an exchange into your own custody costs as little as it rarely does. Which devices are available in Germany is set out in the hardware wallet overview.

The figures in this report come from CoinGecko and, for the network readings, from mempool.space.

(As of October 22, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)