Bitcoin seeks support above $81K as Brent crude oil hits highest level since March

Bitcoin dipped below $81,000 as stocks fell and Brent crude hit its highest level since March, leaving the 50-day moving average in focus. Bitcoin (BTC) saw a fresh dip below $81,000 after Friday’s Wall Street open as Brent crude oil set new seven-month highs. Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD falling to $80,988 before recovering to around $81,600 at the time of writing. BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView US stocks opened lower as AI-sector expenditure woes coincided with a surge in oil prices on the back of tensions around the US-Iran war. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were down 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, at the time of writing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.4% lower. As traders turned risk-averse, the 10-year US bond yield stayed below 5%, having reached 4.939% on Thursday, their lowest since Sept. 23. US 10-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView Concerns that the US may renew military strikes on Iran around the midterm elections sent WTI crude oil past $102 per barrel on Friday. This is the highest level since Sept. 16. Brent crude saw an even sharper rise of nearly 3% to $116 per barrel, a level last seen in mid-March. CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView Commenting, economist Robin Brooks noted that prices were rising although oil flows through the Persian Gulf approached pre-war levels for many nations and Saudi Arabia surpassed its pre-war average. “Since the start of the war, we’ve not seen this kind of decoupling between prices and flows,” he >wrote in analysis on the day, seeing markets incorporating a “huge risk premium.” Persian Gulf oil-transit volumes (screenshot). Source: Robin Brooks on >Substack.com Commenting on low-timeframe BTC price action, Keith Alan, cofounder of crypto trading platform Material Indicators, saw the potential for lower support retests to come. Related: Here’s what happened in crypto today BTC/USD, he noted, had fallen below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) at $81,781, with bulls now attempting to reclaim it by the daily close. “If they fail to do so by tonight’s close, I’m looking for a support test in the $78k - $80k ran