Bitcoin trades above $82,000 as rising oil prices, Fed outlook weigh

Bitcoin's price soared above $82,000 on Friday, buoyed by increasing oil prices, forecasts of stricter U.S. monetary policy, and renewed worries over cryptocurrency security. By early Saturday, Bitcoin was priced at $82,674.5, up 0.53% over the previous day but down about 1% from its peak. The cryptocurrency was on track for a weekly drop of nearly 3%, after briefly touching $87,000 last Sunday before losing momentum throughout the week.

Expecting higher energy costs and interest rates, investors reevaluated the outlook for U.S. monetary policy in the run-up to important inflation reports due next week. The Federal Reserve is currently expected to maintain its target rate at the October 27-28 meeting, with a possible 25-basis-point increase in December. Security concerns dampened sentiment following an investigation by hardware wallet maker Ledger into allegations of missing cryptocurrency linked to devices sold by a Southeast Asian reseller.

Initial estimates suggested potential losses between $86 million and $93.4 million, though Ledger has not confirmed these figures or determined the cause. The company instructed reseller CryptoBilis to halt sales and shipments while the investigation continued. Notably, corporate Bitcoin activity gained attention as Strategy's high-yield preferred shares (STRC) reached $99.71 on Friday, marking their highest level since June.

The 12% annual dividend could enable Strategy to issue additional preferred shares to fund more Bitcoin acquisitions, potentially creating an extra source of corporate demand. Ether climbed 0.29% in the last 24 hours but still trailed Bitcoin by around 7% for the week. In comparison, other major cryptocurrencies were mostly up early Saturday, including XRP (+1%), Solana (+0.03%), BNB (+3.2%), Cardano (+7.25%), and Dogecoin (+1.99%). Among meme coins, TRUMP remained unchanged, while Shiba Inu climbed 2.8%.