Bitcoin holds near $80,000 as $772m leaves spot ETFs and the Fed decides
Bitcoin held near $80,400 on Monday, little changed since midnight UTC, after dipping to about $79,300 in Asian trading, even as spot bitcoin ETFs shed $772 million over two sessions. Friday alone accounted for $138 million of that exit, according to Farside Investors data cited by Token Times.
The weekend tone was set by Arthur Hayes, who said his Maelstrom fund had sold its entire directional book, including 6,400 ether, citing macro and geopolitical risk. Ether slipped 0.2% to $2,490.55, and the DeFi index was the only index tracked by Token Times to gain as altcoins traded mixed.
Risk appetite elsewhere improved. S&P 500 futures rose around 0.3% after Friday's selloff in US stocks, and oil retreated, with US crude down about 2% to near $101 a barrel and Brent slipping to around $110. Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran on Sunday and President Donald Trump said there would be no strike that day, though he kept the option open.
The Fed, which raised interest rates in September, decides again on Wednesday. CME's FedWatch tool shows a 90% chance of no change and around an 80% chance of another increase in December, a combination that keeps pressure on assets priced for easier money.
Beyond the majors, Token Times reported that diversified real-world-asset stablecoins are sustaining 5-7% yields from real credit as crypto funding compresses to roughly 4%, with the GENIUS framework pushing yield off-chain and the addressable market growing to $4 billion in three years.
