Bitcoin falls to $82,780 as gold and silver lose $550bn in hours
Metals and bitcoin sold off together as rising bond yields and October rate-hike bets hit both, with no safe-haven rotation into crypto, Bitcoin.com News reports.
Key points
- Comex gold fell 2.11% to $4,197.40 an ounce and silver dropped 3.59% to $62.47 on Sept. 28.
- Gold and silver shed more than $550 billion in market value over roughly three hours.
- Bitcoin slid 2.7% to an intraday low of $82,780 before recovering above $83,000.
- CME Fedwatch showed a 68.1% probability of a 25 basis point Fed hike in October.
- US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $2.39 billion last week, their biggest weekly haul of 2026.
Bitcoin fell to $82,780 on Sept. 28 as gold and silver lost more than $550 billion in market value within about three hours, Bitcoin.com News reported. The drop showed no safe-haven rotation into crypto, even as the metals that bitcoin is often compared with sold off sharply.
Comex gold futures were down 2.11% at $4,197.40 an ounce by mid-morning in India, while silver had fallen 3.59% to $62.47. Gold opened the week lower in Asian trading, slipping 1.55%, and silver slid 2.75% early on, wiping out roughly $470 billion and $101 billion in market value respectively. Gold now sits nearly 25% below its record near $5,590, set on Jan. 28.
The sell-off came despite a weekend of geopolitical tension that might normally support haven assets. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC that Tehran was ready for a war if attacked, after reports that President Donald Trump was considering renewed airstrikes on the country after the midterm elections. The geopolitical premium flowed into oil instead, with Brent crude rising 2.52% to $107 a barrel.
Metals lose $550 billion
Higher oil feeds inflation, and inflation feeds rate expectations. The CME Fedwatch tool showed a 68.1% probability of a 25 basis point Federal Reserve hike in October. The US Dollar Index hit 101.39, a two-month high, while 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields stood at 5.20% and 5.51%. Because gold pays no interest, each rise in yields increases the cost of holding it, a point Peter Schiff made when he wrote that metals were being dragged down by bond yields.
Bitcoin offered no refuge. It fell 2.7% to an intraday low of $82,780 during the same hours metals were falling, and traded above $83,000 at press time. Tokenized bullion moved in step, with PAX Gold dropping from about $4,276 to $4,186, so crypto traders holding gold onchain took the same hit as futures traders.
The weakness followed a strong week for US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which pulled in $2.39 billion, the biggest weekly haul of 2026, and bitcoin had climbed back toward $85,000 over the weekend. None of that held once yields rose. Bitwise has flagged a pattern in which institutions treat bitcoin as gold-like in theory but allocate to it like a technology asset, so when yields climb, both gold and growth assets lose appeal and bitcoin trades with the second group.
Yields and rate bets
Bitcoin.com News noted last week that bond yields had reached a 24-year high, with Schiff, Bill Ackman and Arthur Hayes offering competing explanations. Attention now turns to Trump's 2 p.m. ET address and upcoming PCE data.