Bitcoin falls below $82,000 as AI spending doubts hit stocks and DeFi tokens sink

Bitcoin gives back Wednesday's gains

Bitcoin fell below $82,000 on Thursday, 22 October, according to CoinDesk. The drop erased the rally that had taken the price close to $84,800 late on Wednesday. CoinDesk described it as bitcoin's biggest fall in two weeks.

CoinDesk said bitcoin lost as much as 2.9% after midnight UTC and traded around $81,600. Other parts of the same report put the price near $81,800, down 2.7% since midnight UTC. CoinDesk's price ticker showed bitcoin at $81,261.40, down 3.70%.

The move was not limited to crypto. Stock markets in Asia fell and US futures were lower after earnings from Tesla and Meta Platforms renewed doubts about spending on artificial intelligence, or AI.

The numbers behind the sell-off

• Bitcoin: as much as 2.9% lower, trading around $81,600 to $81,800.


• CoinDesk 80 index (a basket of 80 coins): down 3.2% to 3.5% in different parts of the report.


• CoinDesk 5 index (a basket of the largest coins): down 2.5%.


• Ether: about 2.6% lower, near $2,400 by CoinDesk's report, while the price ticker showed $2,383.03, down 4.02%.


• DeFi index: down 5.6% to 6%. DeFi, or decentralised finance, covers crypto services that run on blockchains without a central company.


• Solana (SOL): down 2.4% to around $104, with the ticker showing $103.28, down 3.85%.

Why AI questions moved crypto prices

CoinDesk linked the crypto decline to weakness in technology stocks. Mixed earnings from Tesla and Meta Platforms brought back doubts about how much money is being spent on AI, the report said.

In Asia, Chinese stocks entered a bear market, meaning a fall of about 20% or more from a recent high. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell more than 3%, South Korea's Kospi lost 3.5% and Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 2.7%. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.32% and S&P 500 futures fell 0.66%.

Altcoins, meaning coins other than bitcoin, fell harder than bitcoin did. CoinDesk reported the CoinDesk 80 recently down 3.2% against 2.5% for the CoinDesk 5.

ETF inflows and an upgrade did not stop the slide

Spot bitcoin ETFs, listed funds that hold bitcoin for investors, took in more than $1 billion over the first three days of the week, according to SoSoValue data cited by CoinDesk. The report also noted that Solana's Alpenglow upgrade went live overnight, yet SOL still fell.

CoinDesk said US jobless claims were due later in the day.

Traders closed positions rather than opening new ones

CoinDesk reported that trading in crypto derivatives rose 19% to $226.6 billion. Open interest, which is the total value of contracts still open, fell 2.46% to $141.8 billion, and liquidations, forced closures of positions, jumped 52% to $431.1 million. CoinDesk said this pattern suggests traders were mostly closing bets rather than opening new ones, and that longs and shorts were split almost evenly.

For bitcoin and ether, volume rose 36% and 27% respectively while open interest fell about as much as price did. CoinDesk's reading is that traders were active but did not change their overall risk much, and funding rates were barely positive.

In some altcoins, open interest fell faster than price, which CoinDesk said points to positions being closed. It cited ZEC, where open interest dropped 6.99% as the price fell 2.34%, plus NEAR (-8.83%) and UNI (-10.17%).

Money moved towards commodity contracts instead. Open interest in gold rose 12% even as the price slipped, while tokenised gold XAUT rose 10% and silver open interest rose 6.8%. Crude oil open interest was up 6.29% with negative funding of -0.0126%, which CoinDesk said means shorts are paying to stay in their positions.

CoinDesk also flagged Monero as an exception. Its funding rate was around an annualised 70%, far above other tokens, which CoinDesk said shows longs paying a steep premium to hold their positions.

What is confirmed

CoinDesk's data shows bitcoin trading below $82,000 on 22 October 2026, with the DeFi index falling hardest among the major sector measures it tracks. The same report shows falls across Asian stock indices and US futures, and more than $1 billion of inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs over the first three days of the week, based on SoSoValue data.

What is still unclear

The report gives slightly different figures for the size of the moves in different places. Bitcoin is described as falling as much as 2.9% to around $81,600 in one place and 2.7% to around $81,800 in another. The CoinDesk 80 is given as down 3.2% and 3.5%, and the DeFi index as down 5.6% and 6%. Ether is described as near $2,400 while CoinDesk's own ticker showed $2,383.03.

CoinDesk presents the link between AI spending doubts and the crypto decline as its explanation of the market mood, not as a confirmed cause. The article does not establish that AI earnings were the direct reason for bitcoin's fall.

Sources

• CoinDesk

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