Bitcoin holds near $80,000 as oil retreats and the Fed decision looms

Bitcoin BTC$84,459.46 steadied near $80,400 after dipping to around $79,300 during the Asian morning, leaving it little changed since midnight UTC. Altcoins were mixed, with ether ETH$2,490.55 dropping 0.2% and the DeFi index (DFX) the only CoinDesk index to gain. The tone was set at the weekend, when Arthur Hayes said his Maelstrom fund sold its entire directional book, including 6,400 ether due to macro and geopolitical risk.

S&P 500 index futures rose around 0.3% after Friday’s selloff in U.S. stocks, while oil retreated, with U.S. crude falling around 2% to near $101 a barrel and Brent slipping to around $110 as Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran on Sunday and President Donald Trump said there would be no strike that day, though he kept the option open.

The Fed, which raised interest rates in September, decides again on Wednesday. The CME’s FedWatch tool shows a 90% chance of no change and around an 80% chance of another increase in December. Spot bitcoin ETF flows are also in focus after $138 million of outflows on Friday, taking the two-day exit to $772 million, according to data from Farside Investors.