Bitcoin claws back above $80,000 after a morning dip as traders price a 90 percent chance the Fed holds on Wednesday

Bitcoin spent Tuesday hovering around $80,000. CoinDesk reported the price fell about 0.4% from midnight UTC to roughly $79,700 by the time it published at about 7:30am Eastern, ignoring a 3.1% jump in South Korea's Kospi, as the Federal Reserve began its two-day meeting. By early evening it had climbed back to about $80,676, up 0.83% on the day, according to The Motley Fool's market report on Yahoo Finance, which put ether at about $2,345 (up 1.1%) and solana at about $101 (up 0.4%).

The Fed decides on Wednesday. CME's FedWatch tool showed about a 90% probability of no change, and traders will be looking for clues on whether another rate increase is likely before year-end, CoinDesk said. US crude was approaching $102 a barrel, CoinDesk noted.

Positioning stayed cautious. CoinDesk said the most traded bitcoin option over the past 24 hours was the $72,000 put expiring December 25, and that the put-call skew remained positive across maturities, a sign of demand for downside protection. Futures volume rose 18% to $152 billion while liquidations fell 13% to $133 million.

Flows offered some support: Farside Investors recorded $110.3 million into US spot bitcoin ETFs on Monday, all of it into BlackRock's IBIT, ending two days of outflows. Prices in this story are as of the times stated and move constantly.