Bitcoin hovered near $81,200 at 5 a.m. Eastern on October 15 after an intraday low of $80,154 brought the psychologically important $80,000 level into focus for traders. The cryptocurrency has fallen roughly 3.6% over the past 24 hours, with 24-hour volume of $40.7 billion and a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion.
The move lower coincided with a broad risk-off episode across Asian equity markets. South Korea's Kospi plunged 7.6% to close at 5,554.22, its lowest level since early April and the seventh consecutive session of declines — the longest losing streak since September 2024. The exchange triggered a sell-side sidecar and a 20-minute circuit breaker after the index dropped more than 8% from the prior close. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 5.1%, while Taiwan's Taiex declined 3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1%.
Chipmakers led the equity sell-off. Samsung Electronics dropped 9.5% and SK Hynix tumbled 11.4% in Seoul. In Tokyo, SoftBank Group lost 9.4%, Tokyo Electron fell 7.3%, and Kioxia Holdings slid 11.2%. The rout followed Wednesday's decline on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq dropped 1.9%, the S&P 500 fell 1.1%, and Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD each lost between 3% and 6%.