Bitcoin cracks $80,000 and bounces back as Fed chief Warsh refuses to tip his hand and Korean stocks claw back 3%

Bitcoin broke below $80,000 on Thursday and was bought straight back. CoinDesk data showed the price dipping to about $79,800, beneath the $80,400 level that buyers had defended twice in the past week, before climbing to about $82,500 within two hours. It held above $81,000 through Asian trading and was changing hands at about $82,200 at 3am Eastern on Friday, up about 1.7% over 24 hours, per CoinDesk's price page.

The bounce came as risk appetite returned across Asia. South Korea's Kospi, which closed at its lowest level since April on Thursday, rose nearly 3%, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each up more than 2%, and the MSCI Asia Pacific index gained 1.3%. Treasuries fell, lifting the 10-year yield to 5.07%. Zcash led the big coins with an 8% gain to about $1,190, while ether, solana and XRP each rose about 1%.

The main event was Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. He gave traders nothing to price. "I don't prejudge meetings," he said, describing a synchronous tightening of monetary policy around the world and calling the path of AI's payoff very bumpy. The Fed raised rates a quarter point on September 16, its first increase since July 2023, to a range of 3.75% to 4%, and September inflation came in at 3.7%. Markets see a 72.3% chance the Fed holds on October 28, per CME FedWatch, and a strong chance of a December hike. The quiet period before the meeting begins Saturday.

ETF money is not yet chasing the rebound. US spot bitcoin funds took in a net $5.1 million on October 15, after shedding $261.4 million the day before, per Farside Investors. The level to watch is $84,000, where Wednesday's post-inflation rally faded.