Bitcoin Slides Below $82,000 as Tesla Earnings Disappoint and Asian Stocks Fall

Bitcoin dropped below $82,000 on Thursday following an unsuccessful push toward $85,000, driven by broad equity market softness and disappointing corporate spending figures ¹. The retreat reversed gains seen a day earlier, when $BTC peaked near $84,840 on Bitstamp before encountering heavy resistance ¹. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading near $81,945, down 1.7% over the past 24 hours.

The decline coincided with weaker-than-expected third-quarter metrics from Tesla, which released earnings after the US market close ¹. While Tesla reported Q3 revenue of $28.05 billion against a Bloomberg estimate of $28.13 billion, its capital expenditure totaled $4.73 billion, well below the anticipated $7.96 billion ¹. The underspend weighed on sentiment across tech equities, stoking broader worries regarding capital deployment in artificial intelligence initiatives ¹. On the earnings call, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk stated that capital spending had come in lower than projected but predicted it would expand significantly by 2028 ¹.

Equity Weakness and Elevated Open Interest

Regional market pressure deepened the pullback, as South Korea’s tech-heavy KOSPI Composite Index closed Thursday down 3.52% ¹. The cross-market slump echoed prior volatility where Bitcoin retreated toward $82,000 as Asian stocks slumped, putting digital asset markets on the defensive once more ¹.

Derivatives positioning also compounded the price reversal ¹. According to CoinGlass figures, Bitcoin exchange open interest climbed to $55.95 billion late Tuesday, marking its highest level since Sept. 25 following a 4.5% one-day increase ¹. The surge in leverage increased vulnerability to position liquidations after Bitcoin failed to break through a downward-sloping trend line resistance, leaving the token testing support near the $80,000 to $81,500 zone where the cost basis for US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds resides ¹.