Bitcoin lingered under $85,000 on Friday following a short-lived rally that took the digital asset above $87,000 for the first time since Sept. 23. The cryptocurrency was quoted at $84,612.4 as of 21:55 ET (01:55 GMT), down 0.35% after an intraday high of $87,219. Earlier in the session the token remained elevated relative to the prior day, having spent much of that period in the $84,500 to $85,000 range.
Market attention was focused on a new proposal from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would alter custody rules for crypto assets. Under the draft changes, investment advisers and funds could directly hold certain digital assets when a qualified third-party custodian is not available, provided they implement specified safeguards. The proposal aims to create an alternative pathway for funds and advisers who face limited access to qualified custody services for particular assets and would allow such holdings within the framework of federal securities laws.
The SEC measure moves next into a 60-day public comment period after it is published in the Federal Register, giving market participants and stakeholders time to respond to the proposed regulatory adjustments.
Price action on Friday also reflected macroeconomic inputs. U.S. nonfarm payrolls for September rose by 29,000, well below the 90,000 figure markets had anticipated. That softer-than-expected jobs print contributed to declines in Treasury yields and the dollar as market participants reassessed the likely path for Federal Reserve interest rates, providing background support for risk assets including cryptocurrencies.
The intraday rally produced notable trading consequences. Traders who had positioned for a decline in Bitcoin saw sizable forced liquidations - roughly $142 million of short positions were liquidated over a 24-hour window, compared with about $29 million of longs, according to Coinglass data cited in the source material. The disparity in liquidations underscores how sharp moves can compress leveraged short exposures.
Corporate-level demand continued to be a factor in the market. Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor described how the company finances its Bitcoin-focused operations while preserving dollar liquidity for dividends and interest on debt. Strategy’s structure separates Bitcoin accumulation activity from the cash the company needs to meet obligations. The company’s STRC preferred shares carry a 12% annualized dividend rate, and Strategy has put forward a proposal to move to daily dividend accruals; shareholders are scheduled to vote on that change on Oct. 28.
A newer market participant is taking a different approach to accumulation. Supercycle Finance is pursuing a proposed offering to raise up to $75 million, with most proceeds earmarked for Bitcoin purchases. Unlike entities focused purely on accumulation, Supercycle Finance intends to sell Bitcoin in periods it judges to be elevated and to hold interest-bearing assets between purchases.
Outside of Bitcoin, broader crypto prices were mostly lower late Friday in the latest market snapshot. Ether fell 1.42% to $2,678.29, while XRP declined 0.51% to $1.4894. Solana slipped 0.34% to $119.12 and BNB moved 0.40% lower to $768.96. Cardano rose 0.49% to $0.2476, while Dogecoin lost 0.79%. Among meme coins, TRUMP traded flat on the day and Shiba Inu fell 0.87%.
Market context and implications
The SEC custody proposal, together with softer U.S. labor market data, helped shape the intraday interplay between regulatory expectation and macroeconomic reassessment. The custody measure could ease operational frictions for advisers and funds seeking regulated routes to hold digital assets when traditional qualified custodians are not available. At the same time, the payrolls report weighed on rate-sensitive assets by prompting a re-evaluation of policy trajectory, which in turn affected crypto market sentiment.
Corporate demand dynamics - exemplified by Strategy’s continued accumulation framework and the proposed capital raise from Supercycle Finance - remain an observable element of the demand side. These distinct corporate strategies illustrate different approaches to treasury-level Bitcoin exposure: ongoing accumulation tied to a corporate balance sheet versus opportunistic accumulation with tactical selling and interim cash placements.