Strong Dollar Pressures Bitcoin Below $83,000 as Traders Stay Cautious

Bitcoin and gold slipped modestly as a stronger dollar and rising Treasury yields kept investors cautious at the start of the week. Separately, IREN has reportedly entered a multiyear cloud services agreement with Anthropic as the company expands its focus on AI infrastructure.

Strategy Buys 250 BTC and Spends $192.4 Million on STRC Buybacks

Strategy (MSTR) purchased 250 bitcoin for $21.5 million last week and allocated an additional $192.4 million to repurchasing its variable-rate preferred shares, STRC.

The Bitcoin purchases occurred between October 5 and October 11 at an average price of $86,194 per coin. The acquisitions lifted Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 848,250 BTC, bringing its cumulative investment to approximately $64 billion. The company’s average purchase price stands at $75,444 per bitcoin.

The company financed the latest acquisitions with $21 million in net proceeds from the sale of 125,183 MSTR shares through its at-the-market (ATM) offering program, supplemented by $500,000 from its cash reserves.

Strategy also bought back around 1.93 million STRC shares. After completing the repurchases, $354.8 million remained available under its preferred-stock buyback program.

MSTR shares rose 1% in premarket trading.

Dollar and Bond Yields Keep Financial Markets on Edge

Markets opened the week on a cautious footing. Bitcoin traded just above $83,000, while gold hovered near $4,180 an ounce, with both assets losing about 0.5%.

Technology futures edged down, whereas WTI crude oil climbed above $92 per barrel. Treasury yields increased as bond prices retreated, reversing part of the gains recorded during the second half of the previous week. The long-dated U.S. Treasury ETF TLT had risen more than 2% during that recovery.

The U.S. dollar remained firm, with its DXY index above 102.4.

Investors are looking ahead to Wednesday’s U.S. inflation report for clues about the economic outlook and potential Federal Reserve policy. Annual core inflation is projected at 2.5%, while headline inflation is expected to reach 3.7%, suggesting a pickup from the previous month.

IREN Advances After Reported Anthropic Cloud Deal

IREN (IREN), which is shifting from Bitcoin mining toward providing infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads, has secured a multiyear cloud services agreement with Anthropic, according to The Information.

IREN shares gained 4% in premarket trading following the report.