Bitcoin BTC$83.292,12 fell to $83,000 on Monday, down 1.7% since midnight UTC and 2.1% over 24 hours, though it is the altcoin market taking the brunt of the damage, with 91 of the 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents lower on the day and the index down 2.6% to 1,874.56.

The unwind is almost a mirror image of Friday, with quant (QNT) falling 16% since midnight after rising 39% over 24 hours in Friday’s session, indexing protocol token the graph GRT$0.03188 is down 12% having gained 14%, and tokenization token ondo ONDO$0.5203 is 12% lower. The sector indices that led the advance are leading the retreat, with the DeFi Select Index (DFX) down 6.4% and 7.3% over 24 hours while the CoinDesk Computing Index (CPUS) lost 3.2% and 5.0%.

The trigger sits in oil rather than in crypto, with President Donald Trump rejecting Iran’s latest terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, conditions that included the release of frozen Iranian funds, the lifting of oil sanctions and an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports. Brent crude has climbed back above $100 to $100.83, up 3.2% on the day, reversing Friday’s move below that level.

LayerZero blamed Kelp for using one verifier instead of several, while Kelp said LayerZero staff had reviewed its setup and never objected. CoinGecko data showed nearly half of active LayerZero apps used the same one-verifier arrangement, and Kelp said it would move rsETH to Chainlink.

CCIP 2.0 offers a similar menu of verifiers, which lets companies run their own or hire outside providers such as Infosys and Nethermind. Chainlink’s own network of 16 independent node operators still checks every transfer, regardless of what else a user adds.

Users shouldn’t have to be “cross-chain security infrastructure experts,” the company told CoinDesk.

“Historically, legacy bridges have lost billions due to insecure infrastructure, while in-house builds are slow and expensive,” Johann Eid, Chainlink Labs’ chief business officer, said in a statement.

The upgrade also changes a safeguard Chainlink used to promote heavily; its Risk Management Network, a separate set of nodes that double-checked transactions, no longer plays that role. Chainlink said that kind of independent check can now come from the optional verifiers instead, which suggests a user who adds nothing now relies on one verifier network, where previously there were two.

Existing Chainlink users were automatically moved to the new version. Still, the company has not named any institution using the new verifiers yet, saying only that Aave and Maple have started adopting some of the upgrade’s other features.

“If every household used AI agents to optimize the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system,” he noted.

Agentic finance refers to AI that acts rather than just answers. These agents can monitor balances in real time, compare returns across institutions, move idle cash into higher-yield accounts and move it back in time for bills.

Estimates of the market’s size vary widely. Mordor Intelligence puts agentic AI in financial services at $7.78 billion in 2026 and projects $43.52 billion by 2031. MarketsandMarkets sizes the narrower AI agents segment at about $845 million in 2025.

Crypto is already building the payment rails these agents would need. Coinbase’s x402 protocol, the most widely used agentic payment standard, lets an AI agent pay for online services in stablecoins within seconds, with no account, card or human approval.

To date, the x402 Protocol has reportedly processed approximately 188 million to over 205 million cumulative transactions, with around 69,000 active agents.
Cloudflare, Google, Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Circle and Stripe have joined the x402 Foundation, which the Linux Foundation now governs.

Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, has previously said that AI and crypto are both coming for the traditional banking model.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin traded below $83,000 on Monday after gaining more than 4% last week.
• Ethereum slipped below $2,700, while XRP consolidated around $1.500.
• BTC remains above its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day exponential moving averages.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP began the week on a quieter note after last week’s gains. Bitcoin pulled back below $83,100 on Monday, Ethereum traded below $2,700, and XRP hovered around $1.500. 

The moves suggest traders are reassessing the market’s next direction following its recent advance.

Bitcoin’s technical picture remains constructive despite the dip. The largest cryptocurrency is holding above several closely watched moving averages, while its momentum indicators still lean positive. 

The immediate question is whether buyers can carry BTC back toward $85,000 or whether the pause develops into a deeper pullback.

Bitcoin holds above key moving averages

Bitcoin was trading at $83,100 on Monday after rising more than 4% last week. Its retreat from recent highs has so far left the broader near-term uptrend intact: BTC remains above its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs).

The 50-day EMA stands at $77,323. The 100-day EMA is at $73,931, while the 200-day EMA is at $74,253. 

Together, these levels form a series of potential support areas if selling pressure increases. Holding above them would suggest that the latest dip is a pause within the recent advance.

For now, BTC is trading well above that group of averages. That gives buyers room to absorb a modest pullback, although a drop toward the 50-day EMA would represent a more meaningful test of the rally than Monday’s move below $83,600.

The distinction matters after a strong week. A market can ease from its highs while retaining its upward trend, but repeated failures to recover may gradually weaken buyer confidence. Traders will therefore be watching both how far BTC falls and how quickly demand returns.

Momentum cools as $85,000 caps the upside

Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI) was near 61, a reading consistent with positive momentum. It remains below the level commonly associated with overbought conditions, leaving room for another rise if buyers regain control.

The moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator has cooled but remains slightly positive. 

That combination points to an uptrend that is still present, though less forceful than during the recent rally. Momentum readings can change quickly, so price action around nearby resistance will offer a clearer test.

The first barrier is approximately $85,000. Bitcoin would need to overcome selling around that level to make a stronger case for extending last week’s gains. A failed attempt could keep BTC in a period of sideways trading as buyers and sellers weigh the recent move.

On the downside, the current price area provides the first place to look for support. A more substantial decline would put the 50-day EMA at $77,323 in focus, followed by the longer-term averages near $74,000. Previously established horizontal support levels at $66,500 and $62,300 sit further below.

These levels outline the range of possible tests rather than a forecast that BTC will reach them. For the near term, the contest is much narrower: whether Bitcoin can stabilize above $83,000 and make another attempt at $85,000.

Ethereum’s move below $2,700 and XRP’s consolidation around $1.500 add to the cautious start to the week. 

Both assets are taking a breather alongside Bitcoin, although the figures provided do not establish equivalent support or resistance levels for either token.

For traders following the three largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s response to $85,000 may offer a useful gauge of broader market appetite. 

A renewed push above that barrier could signal that buyers remain willing to pursue last week’s gains. Continued consolidation, meanwhile, would leave the market waiting for a clearer direction.

Crypto exchange Bitget lost about $388 million in a Sept. 24 breach after an attacker bypassed security controls protecting its exchange wallets. The company has since said it has identified and fixed the vulnerability, though it has not publicly detailed how the attacker gained access.

The exchange had published attacker addresses and offered a 5% bounty for eligible efforts that freeze or recover stolen funds. As the attacker moved those assets through other services, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly asked THORChain over the weekend to refuse the transactions.

“Our attacker addresses are publicly listed and actively tracked. We are formally asking @THORChain to refuse service to these addresses,” she wrote on X. “Decentralization is a design principle, not a shield for facilitating known stolen funds.”

THORChain’s public response on Monday defended its policy of allowing anyone to use the network and distinguished its emergency shutdown controls from an address blocklist.

“A THORChain network halt is an emergency security mechanism designed to protect the protocol,” the project wrote. “A halt is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.”

Its operators do have controls that can interrupt trading, the team said. THORChain’s documentation describes settings that stop swaps across every connected blockchain or restrict activity involving a particular chain, such as Ethereum. Using those controls would also interrupt other users’ transactions on the affected routes.

In plain English, puts are relatively pricier than calls, but the relatively richness is barely even noticeable compared to the typical reading of around -4.41 over the past year or so. In other words, puts usually cost a lot more than they do now.

The takeway, therefore, is that bitcoin traders are chasing puts they are not yet positioning for a crash or deep sell-off.

For ether, calls are still more expensive than puts, but the premium has narrowed from a week ago, suggesting that bullish sentiment has cooled.

10x Research also noted an uptick in demand for puts.

“Put demand has jumped over the past few days. The question is whether that is a short-term hedge or the start of a regime shift,” it said on X.

On bitcoin, they still see cheap options, not panic pricing.

“Implied vol is back near cycle lows while realized vol runs 12 points higher, and some Bitcoin options are now priced at 30 vol on a market moving at 42.” Essentially, bitcoin options are still cheap. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”