Bitcoin Holds Near $80,500 as Fear Gauge Sits at Neutral

Bitcoin traded at $80,515 at 5:57 a.m. ET Saturday, down 1.31% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. It is still hugging $80,000.

The rest of the large caps did a little worse. Ether was at $2,363.52, down 1.42%. Solana fell 2.82% to $101.24, and XRP slid 3.28% to $1.28, per CoinGecko at the same time. Bitcoin's share of total crypto market value stood at 60.1%.

Sentiment cools off

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index from Alternative.me read 51, or "Neutral," on Saturday. It was 50 on Friday and 68, in "Greed" territory, on Thursday. That's a fast cool-down.

Fund flows were soft too. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $137.9 million on Friday, Oct. 23, according to Farside Investors data. Spot ether ETFs took in a small $4.4 million the same day.

A quiet weekend, then a loud week

Weekend trading is usually thin, since U.S. stock and ETF markets are closed until Monday. Next week brings the Federal Reserve's rate decision on Wednesday and September inflation data on Thursday.

Our read: Bitcoin has spent five days near $80,000 without a clean break either way. The sentiment index dropping 17 points in two days says buyers lost some nerve, not that sellers took over.