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Investing.com — Bitcoin remained under pressure heading into the weekend, trading around $82,450 on Friday as rising oil prices, expectations of tighter U.S. monetary policy and renewed cryptocurrency security concerns weighed on investor sentiment.
Bitcoin was trading at $82,674.5 as of 00:04 ET (04:04 GMT) early Saturday morning and was up 0.53% over the previous 24 hours but down about 1% from its intraday highs.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was on course for a weekly decline of nearly 3%, having approached $87,000 on Sunday before losing ground throughout the week.
Rising energy prices and higher interest rates pressured cryptocurrency markets, with investors reassessing the outlook for U.S. monetary policy ahead of key inflation reports.
September’s consumer price index and producer price index reports, scheduled for next week, will provide further indications of whether the Federal Reserve could resume raising interest rates.
Markets currently expect the central bank to leave its benchmark rate unchanged at the October 27-28 meeting, with a potential 25-basis-point increase in December.
Higher interest rates tend to reduce demand for speculative assets such as Bitcoin as investors seek returns from traditional fixed-income investments.
Security concerns also weighed on sentiment after hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger launched an investigation into reports of missing cryptocurrency linked to devices sold through a Southeast Asian reseller.
Blockchain investigators estimated potential losses of between $86 million and $93.4 million, although Ledger has not confirmed the amounts or determined the cause.
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The company asked reseller CryptoBilis to suspend sales and shipments pending the investigation. There is no confirmed evidence that Ledger’s own systems were compromised.
Corporate Bitcoin activity remained in focus as Strategy’s (NASDAQ:MSTR) high-yield preferred shares, STRC, climbed to $99.71 on Friday, their highest level since June.
The preferred stock carries a 12% annualized dividend rate, with Strategy maintaining dollar reserves to support payments.
A move above $100 could allow the company to issue additional preferred shares to finance further Bitcoin purchases, potentially providing another
Elsewhere, Ether rose 0.29% over 24 hours but remained down approximately 7% for the week, underperforming Bitcoin as the broader cryptocurrency market struggled to sustain Friday’s recovery.
