Bitcoin claws back to $82,500 after Trump's Iran pledge, but $1.09 billion in bets were wiped out

Bitcoin is back off the edge, for now. The price was near $82,500 on Friday morning, up from Thursday's low near $80,300, after President Trump said the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, CoinDesk reported. It is still about 4% lower than a week ago, and ether, near $2,500, is down about 9% over the week.

The damage from the drop was large. About $1.09 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, and about 85% of that, roughly $931 million, was bets on higher prices, according to CoinGlass data. Ether positions accounted for $345 million and bitcoin for $266 million. The biggest single liquidation was a $20 million ether position on Hyperliquid.

The bounce came without fresh leverage. Bitcoin futures open interest fell 1.9% to $27.1 billion, according to Coinalyze data cited by CoinDesk. Brent crude eased about 1% to around $103 a barrel, and US stock futures were higher.

Money is still leaving the funds. US-listed bitcoin, ether and zcash ETFs all had outflows on Thursday, while XRP funds were the only crypto products to take in money.

What to watch: Saturday is one year since the October 10, 2025 flash crash, and traders are watching whether bitcoin can hold above $80,000.