Pepe pops and chips roar as Bitcoin climbs back above $81,000 🐸

Bitcoin climbed above $81,000 as gains in Asian chip stocks spilled into crypto markets, with the frog-themed memecoin pepe rising 9.4%. In the Oct. 28 report, Bitcoin rose around 0.8% since midnight UTC to $81,400 on Monday after falling below $80,000 on Tuesday, while $ETH gained 0.9% and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index advanced 1.3%. Earlier, on Oct. 23, Bitcoin rose 0.5% to around $81,700 since midnight UTC after touching a low of around $81,000. At that time, Bitcoin ($BTC) was $84,459.46 and $ETH was $2,490.55, according to CoinDesk data.

South Korea’s Kospi led the regional rally, jumping 6.6% as SK Hynix surged around 11% following a sevenfold increase in profit. Nasdaq-100 index futures added 0.5%. On Oct. 23, Asian markets were steadier, with South Korea’s Kospi up 0.3%, China’s CSI 300 up 1.7% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.25% after the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% in its steepest decline since June. The Federal Reserve was due to announce its U.S. interest-rate decision at 18:00 UTC on Oct. 28, with CME’s FedWatch tool showing around a 92% chance of no change.

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs received $176 million on Tuesday, marking a second consecutive day of inflows, according to Farside Investors. Earlier on Oct. 23, traders were monitoring the Fed’s Oct. 27-28 meeting, Brent crude near $113 and exchange-traded fund flows after U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost $635 million on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. That outflow followed more than $1 billion of inflows over the first three days of the week. Alphabet ($GOOG) at $320.40 and Microsoft ($MSFT) at $533.79 were scheduled to report earnings after the market close.

Crypto futures trading volume rose 7.5% to $163.2 billion over 24 hours on Oct. 28, while open interest rose 1.3% and liquidations increased 38% to $183.6 million. Taker volume was split 50.7% long and 49.3% short. Bitcoin rose 2.3% as its open interest slipped 0.1%, while $ETH gained 2.7% and its open interest increased 1.7%. Funding remained mildly positive at 0.0090% for Bitcoin and 0.0079% for $ETH. Bitcoin and $ETH recorded the largest liquidations at $56.4 million and $46.0 million, respectively.

Zcash’s open interest jumped 14% alongside a 6.3% price gain, with funding at 0.0076% and liquidations of $8.6 million. Open interest in XAU futures fell 10% as its price edged up 1.4%. In the earlier Oct. 23 derivatives snapshot, crypto futures volume fell 19% over 24 hours, liquidations dropped 23% and open interest rose 1%. Bitcoin funding increased to 0.0067% from 0.0041%, while $ETH funding was flat. Funding for BNB and SUI had been negative at -0.0048% and -0.0036% the previous day before turning positive alongside DOGE. Open interest declined in mZEC, SOL, XRP and DOGE as de-risking continued. The CoinDesk 80 gained 1.4%, or 0.7% in the index table, while memecoins climbed 2.9% and pepe jumped 13%.