Bitcoin steadies after AI-led selloff as eyes turn to latest U.S. jobs figures

Bitcoin edged up 0.2% to around $76,150 since midnight UTC, bouncing from a dip to around $75,200 near 23:00 UTC on Thursday. Ether gained 0.3% and the CoinDesk 80 Index rose 0.2%, while the CoinDesk Memecoin Index led with a 4% gain.

The bounce followed a heavy selloff on Thursday, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on investor fears that Democratic control of Congress will slow the AI data center buildout. The slide spread to crypto, where more than $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Over that period, bitcoin has fallen 5.3% and ether 7.3%.

Fidelity’s FBTC lost around $200 million on Thursday and BlackRock’s IBIT $105 million, extending IBIT’s outflow streak to five sessions, according to Farside Investors.

Traders now look to the U.S. jobs report at 8:30 a.m. EST (13:30 UTC), with economists polled by FactSet expecting payrolls to rise by 65,000 in October.

Derivatives positioning

• BTC open interest rose to $22.1B (from $21.8B), but 24h liquidations hit $1.27B: ~$1.1B longs. The net build masks churn: leverage was flushed and rebuilt, not added. Funding went volatile, briefly negative on Bybit (-5% annualized) before settling 0–5% elsewhere. The 3-month basis held at 5.7%. Net: longs flushed and re-added.
• Options flow turned defensive. The 24-hour put/call volume ratio sits at ~51/48 in favour of puts, and the 1-week 25-delta skew steepened to ~15% (from ~11% a week ago) as downside protection got bid. The ATM term structure stays in contango - front end elevated near ~50% on near-term stress, settling into the belly/back around ~38–40% through late 2027.
• On the Binance heatmap, with price at ~$75,100, the key cluster to watch sits just below spot in the $74,000–$75,000 band - a significant pocket of long liquidity that would come into play on a further drop. To the upside, a brighter band around ~$76,800–$77,000 is the level to watch on a bounce.

Token talk

• World liberty financial rose around 3.5% since midnight UTC, coinciding with the Trump-backed project’s announcement that it plans more token buybacks, partly funded by fees from reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin. The token is still down around 10% since Tuesday’s midterm elections and more than 66% this year, and the official trump token (TRUMP) hit a record low this week.
• Privacy coins held up better in the selloff, with monero (XMR) down 3.2% over 24 hours against bitcoin’s 5.3% drop. Zcash (ZEC) activated its NU7 upgrade early Friday, cutting the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25, and rose 1% since midnight UTC.
• Hyperliquid (HYPE) is down around 19% from its $96 peak last week, when a deal between ICE and Trade[XYZ] to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to U.S. retail traders sent the token soaring, although optimism has since waned.
• Injective is up 14% on the week, in which Nasdaq approved the listing of Canary Capital’s staked INJ ETF, according to an SEC filing.
• CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index is at 44/100, its lowest point since September as speculative sentiment continues to drop off.