Bitcoin rebounds from near $80,000 as Kospi plunges 8%, with altcoins falling harder

Bitcoin BTC$80,955.28 is trading at $81,200, down around 0.5% since midnight UTC after trimming a 1% loss from earlier in the session, with buyers stepping in just above $80,000 at around 02:30 UTC, close to the Oct. 8 low of about $80,300.

Asian equities set the tone, with South Korea’s Kospi plunging 8% and triggering circuit breakers while Nasdaq 100 index futures slid about 1%, extending Wednesday’s 1.9% drop in the Nasdaq Composite.

Altcoins took the heavier losses, with ether ETH$2,366.47 down 2.0% near $2,370. The CoinDesk 80 (CD80) slid by 2.2% while the bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 5 (CD5) lost around 0.7%.

The bigger moves were apparent across lower market cap tokens, with pump.fun PUMP$0.004259 falling by 9.4% as the CoinDesk Memecoin Index lost 4.0%, leaving all but six CD100 members lower.

The odds of an October Federal Reserve interest-rate increase jumped to nearly 47% on CME’s FedWatch after Wednesday’s…