Reporting concluded on September 22, 2026, at 4:38 a.m. EDT. Major cryptocurrencies advanced alongside equity futures on Monday, with Monero’s XMR rising 13%, while Brent crude oil declined for a fourth consecutive session as market participants prepared for the upcoming Trump-Xi summit later in the week.
Bitcoin extended its afternoon gains, climbing past $87,000 on prominent digital asset exchanges Coinbase and Binance.
It has climbed over 7% during the course of the day, driving the wider digital asset market upward. Ether, Solana’s SOL, XRP, and Cardano’s ADA all posted gains between 5% and 10%, whereas dogecoin experienced a 14% rally.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq achieved its strongest performance since early August, closing 2.8% higher.
Beneath the surface, market leverage is accumulating within the crypto sector. Following the overnight breakthrough past $82,000, speculators piled more than $2 billion into derivatives bets, pushing open interest past a notional value of $31 billion, according to Coinalyze statistics.
Bitcoin is nearing a valuation of 20 ounces of gold per coin, with the current bitcoin-to-gold exchange metric standing at 19.8. This indicates that a single bitcoin purchases 19.8 ounces of gold, recovering from a trough of 12 ounces in February, though it remains roughly 50% below its all-time peak of slightly above 40 ounces.
The bitcoin-to-gold valuation metric is lower by only 1% since the beginning of the year.
Coinbase has emerged as the latest United States trading venue to provide individual investors with entry to initial public offerings, following in the footsteps of Robinhood, SoFi, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
Beginning with the IPO of smart-ring creator Oura this week, qualified Coinbase users can submit requests for shares at the designated offer price prior to the commencement of public market trading. Share allocations are not guaranteed.
Retail access to initial public offerings is not a novel concept in itself. The significance lies in Coinbase integrating this feature into a platform traditionally centered around digital assets, which draws the crypto service closer to conventional brokerages and rivals like Robinhood.
Equities are up 6% today as part of a broader digital currency bull market spearheaded by bitcoin moving beyond $85,000.
Cryptocurrency-associated equities opened the week significantly higher on Monday, buoyed by the optimistic sentiment stemming from an overnight price surge that has now propelled bitcoin to $86,000.
Securitize surged as much as 8%, stretching its three-day advance to approximately 50% before trimming some of those gains as market participants continued celebrating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s updated regulations concerning tokenized securities. Strategy climbed 9% after the corporate bitcoin treasury entity recommenced BTC acquisitions following a three-week pause.
In other developments, the ether treasury entity Bitmine advanced 5.5%, while Coinbase climbed 5.6%. Galaxy Digital, BitGo, and stablecoin provider Circle secured gains of approximately 4% to 5%.
Bitcoin mining operator Riot Platforms rose about 5%. Former mining entities that have heavily transitioned toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing—including CleanSpark, HIVE Digital, and Bitdeer—advanced by roughly 3%.
This upward movement unfolded alongside a broader risk-on shift. The Nasdaq 100 index jumped 2% past the 30,000 threshold during morning trading, placing it merely 1.5% under its June peak, while the S&P 500 increased by 0.9%.
Strategy, recognized as the globe’s foremost corporate owner of bitcoin, has turned positive for the year, advancing 5% year-to-date. Nonetheless, the equity stays 70% below its November 2024 record high, whereas bitcoin is lower by just 2% over the course of the year. Bitcoin would shift into positive territory for the year if it trades above $87,000.
Ethereum-focused Bitmine also expanded its reserves, acquiring 27,562 ether last week at an estimated value of $75 million based on Monday’s valuations.
This purchase elevates its total reserves to 5.98 million ETH, representing roughly 4.9% of the total Ethereum supply, bringing its 5% accumulation target within reach over the coming couple of months at its current rate of acquisition.
Tom Lee, the organization’s chairman alongside being the founder of Fundstrat, remarked that traditional institutions still need to catch up to the superior performance of cryptocurrencies. He noted that investors maintained an underweight exposure to digital assets throughout the year after favoring artificial intelligence equities, and he anticipates they will boost their allocations toward the close of the year as ETH sustains its robust third quarter.
With bitcoin rising past $85,000, marking an increase of over 5% across the preceding 24 hours, the asset has recaptured the average U.S. spot ETF cost basis of $82,225.
This marks the initial instance of bitcoin trading above the ETF cost basis since dipping below that threshold back in January. This threshold previously functioned as a barrier during May, when bitcoin’s upward momentum stalled close to $81,000.
Digital asset treasury enterprise Strive Asset Management acquired 1,355 bitcoin for $107.7 million at a mean valuation of $79,475, lifting its aggregate holdings to 26,355 BTC. Warrant executions generated $21.2 million in total cash inflow after launching last week. The enterprise additionally distributed about 786,000 extra perpetual preferred SATA shares, with SATA representing 57.7% of its aggregate capital secured. Cash alongside cash equivalents expanded by $25.4 million to reach $229.6 million.
ASST climbed 6% in pre-market trading while bitcoin exchanged hands just below $85,000.
Bitcoin’s price surge today has outpaced ether, disrupting the third-quarter trend wherein ETH demonstrated superior performance.
While BTC has advanced in excess of 4% since midnight UTC, ether has climbed 2%, according to CoinDesk metrics. Yet the macro trajectory keeps ether ahead. The utility token driving Ethereum’s programmable smart contract network has climbed 73% this quarter contrasted with bitcoin’s 44%.
Bitcoin has broken past $85,000, advancing 5% over the past day and pulling crypto-associated equities upward. Strategy and Strive Asset Management both increased by 7%, whereas MARA Holdings secured a 6% gain. CoinDesk parent entity Bullish and Coinbase rose 5%, with Robinhood increasing by 4%.
Bitcoin exchanged hands at $84,700 on Monday, closing in on the $85,000 mark after commencing the European trading session near $82,000, according to data provided by CoinDesk.
Speculators wagering against the upward trend are being forced to unwind their positions. Just over $300 million out of the approximately $313 million in digital asset positions liquidated over the past hour originated from short sellers, representing roughly 96% of the aggregate, as reported by CoinGlass.
A short trade yields returns when a valuation declines. Speculators who employ borrowed funds to execute such trades must post margin collateral, and when the market price climbs sufficiently so that the collateral no longer covers the deficit, the trading platform liquidates the position by repurchasing the underlying token. That forced purchasing drives the valuation even higher, which subsequently triggers the next tier of short positions.
Bitcoin constituted about $226 million of the hourly aggregate while ether accounted for nearly $59 million. Over a 24-hour window, the sum reaches just above $710 million across roughly 135,000 speculators, with the single largest liquidation being an $11 million bitcoin holding on Binance.
The short squeeze is intensifying rather than dissipating. Short positions constituted 86% of liquidations across the complete 24-hour timeframe and 96% throughout the past hour alone, indicating that the mandatory buying activity is materializing more rapidly now than earlier in the session.
Bitcoin changed hands slightly below $84,000 on Monday, rising nearly 2% across 24 hours and building upon the upward trajectory it initiated late last week, figures from CoinDesk indicate.
Monero’s XMR stood out among major digital assets, advancing 13% toward nearly $588, although it surrendered 4% of those gains during the prior hour. DOGE gained 5% and XRP rose 4% to move just past $1.45. Ether, SOL, and HYPE each climbed roughly 3%, while BNB and ZEC gained 2%. TRX lagged behind with an increase of under 1%.
Broader risk assets experienced widespread gains. S&P 500 index futures rose more than half a percent and Nasdaq 100 contracts increased nearly 1%, with technology equities taking the lead across geographic regions. Government treasuries advanced across the yield curve and European debt instruments outperformed. The U.S. dollar remained unchanged.
Crude oil drove most of the market movement. Brent crude declined for a fourth consecutive session, marking its longest negative streak in three months, as traders monitored diplomatic initiatives aimed at reducing friction between Washington and Tehran and reviving Middle Eastern petroleum transport. U.S. President Donald Trump informed Fox News that he would “probably” be receptive to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeskian at the United Nations General Assembly during the current week.
Lower energy valuations alleviate the inflationary pressures that have previously maintained the Federal Reserve’s restrictive stance, and market participants are also positioning themselves ahead of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit later this week.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/21/live-updates-bitcoin-rises-above-usd82-000-as-falling-oil-lifts-risk-assets.
