Treasury yields pulled back from multi-decade peaks, while oil prices declined after reports that the U.S. and Iran were exploring a phased agreement. Against that backdrop, roughly $14 billion in bitcoin options are scheduled to expire on Deribit Friday.

Sequans Fully Exits Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

Sequans has sold its remaining bitcoin, becoming another company to unwind a corporate crypto treasury strategy launched during the 2025 market boom.

The Paris-based semiconductor manufacturer Sequans (SQNS) disclosed that it had sold its final 314 BTC as of June 30, ending its bitcoin treasury operations.

The company entered the digital-asset treasury trend during the summer of 2025. By the market peak in October, its holdings had grown to more than 3,200 bitcoin.

Sequans later faced convertible-debt obligations and sold most of its BTC in May to help redeem that debt.

The company now joins Satsuma and Empery Digital, which also participated in the 2025 corporate bitcoin-buying wave before reversing their strategies roughly one year later.

Strategy Proposes Daily Dividends on Preferred Stock

Strategy is seeking shareholder approval to change the dividend schedule for four of its preferred securities.

Michael Saylor said STRF, STRC, STRK and STRD would accrue dividends every calendar day, including weekends and holidays, with payments made on the next business day. The proposed changes would leave the underlying economics unchanged.

Saylor said the move is intended to support price stability, liquidity and demand.

Shareholders will vote on the proposal through Oct. 28. Daily dividends for STRC are expected to start Nov. 1, while the other securities would move to daily payments in January.

Strive’s ASST $29.43 high-yielding preferred stock SATA adopted a daily dividend schedule several weeks ago.

Cipher Mining Expands Barber Lake Contracts

Cipher Mining (CIFR) rose after announcing expanded agreements with Google-backed Fluidstack for its Barber Lake data center in Texas.

The revised contracts extend the lease term from 10 years to 20 years, lifting total contracted revenue to $9 billion from $3.8 billion previously.

CIFR was up 4.3% in premarket trading.

Bitcoin Briefly Touches $85K as Risk Assets Advance

Risk assets gained ahead of Friday’s U.S. market open. Bitcoin briefly reached $85,000, up more than 0.5% over 24 hours, before slipping back below the level.

Gold advanced nearly 1% to above $4,300 an ounce, while Invesco QQQ was almost 1% higher in premarket trading.

The dollar index moved below 101, WTI crude fell to $92.50 a barrel and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield declined 0.7% to 5.171%.

QNT Leads Altcoins Higher

Alternative cryptocurrencies outperformed bitcoin as BTC remained between $84,000 and $85,000.

QNT gained 38.2% over 24 hours, leading the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. ONDO climbed 28% and LINK rose 11%, while ALGO, AERO and CC posted gains of 8% to 9%.

No memecoin appeared among the top 10 performers, with the strongest gains instead coming from projects with established use cases.

Yen Strengthens as Intervention Risks Return

The Japanese yen climbed as much as 0.6% to 158 per dollar, putting it on pace for its strongest session in more than two weeks, Bloomberg reported.

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said President Trump had shared Japan’s concerns about yen weakness and pledged to coordinate with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The yen has weakened about 3.5% against the dollar since Sept. 8. Japan and the U.S. bought yen during the summer in an effort to support the currency.

Renewed intervention concerns followed Bessent’s comment: “I have asymmetric information. I am the house now.”

Goldman Sachs Earned Around $200M From Situational Awareness

Goldman Sachs collected roughly $200 million in fees this year from Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by Leopold Aschenbrenner, according to the Financial Times.

The fund grew rapidly through leveraged positions in AI stocks, with assets reaching approximately $30 billion at their peak.

A mid-July sell-off in AI stocks triggered a significant unwinding of positions, including a large sale to Citadel. Situational Awareness later reduced its leverage and assets.

FxPro Says Bitcoin Downturn Could Be a Pause

Bitcoin traded slightly above $84,000 Friday, little changed over 24 hours after dropping below that level Wednesday, CoinDesk data showed. Most major tokens moved less than 2%, while smaller assets posted larger gains, with ONDO up 27% to about 54 cents and Quant gaining 39% to nearly $100.

Treasury markets stabilized in Asia. The 10-year Treasury yield fell two basis points to 5.17% after climbing more than 20 basis points over the previous two sessions.

Brent crude declined 1% to around $105 a barrel following reports that Washington and Tehran were discussing a phased agreement that could facilitate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich described bitcoin’s decline as a pause in the uptrend that began in mid-August. He said BTC encountered resistance near an important former support level and failed to complete the 161.8% Fibonacci extension of the August move in a single advance.

Kuptsikevich said the incomplete structure of the trend could indicate that the pullback is temporary.

He also referenced bitcoin’s 2021 cycle, when BTC dropped more than 50% from its peak before eventually reaching new highs. A decline toward $70,000 could hurt short-term speculators without necessarily changing the broader bullish outlook, he said.

Bitcoin heads into Friday’s Deribit options expiry below $85,000, a strike that holds one of the largest concentrations of call options.