Bitcoin at $85,493, Ether at $2,722: crypto prices today, September 23, 2026

Bitcoin traded at about $85,493 on Coinbase early Wednesday, down 0.6% over 24 hours but still 12.3% higher than a week ago. Ether was at $2,722, down 1.2% on the day and up 12.6% on the week. Seven of the eight coins we track slipped over the past 24 hours; XRP, up 1.2%, was the exception.

Prices at a glance

Coinbase Exchange prices at about 8:05 AM ET on September 23. The 24-hour change compares the latest trade with the price 24 hours earlier. The 7-day change compares it with the September 16 daily close (UTC).

What moved

Bitcoin ran into the same wall twice. Its 24-hour range on Coinbase was about $85,431 to $87,283, and CoinDesk reported that it matched Monday's intraday high near $87,300 before meeting selling again, then slid to a session low around $85,500. Trading volume fell 36% to about $38 billion, CoinDesk said, and the rally narrowed: 38 of the 100 coins in the CoinDesk 100 index were lower on the day.

The macro backdrop turned less friendly as the morning went on. Brent crude dropped below $100 for the first time since September 9 on hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal, which would normally help risk assets by easing inflation worries. But the dollar index rose to about 100.76, and CoinDesk reported that a late bounce in oil helped push the two-year Treasury yield to a cycle high of 4.79%, with market odds of another Fed rate increase in October above 53%. Short-term yields and the dollar rising together is usually a headwind for bitcoin. Our pre-market brief has the full rates and oil picture.

Money is still going into the ETFs. U.S. spot bitcoin funds took in a net $715 million on Tuesday after $999 million on Monday, Cointelegraph reported, citing SoSoValue. The number worth watching sits behind that: Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart puts the average ETF buyer's cost at $81,722 per coin. At Wednesday's Coinbase price, that cushion is only about 4.6%. A drop of roughly $3,800 would put the typical ETF holder back under water, a level traders are likely to watch as potential support or a trigger for selling. Total ETF assets are about $111 billion, still around 13% below January's $128 billion peak.

Beyond the majors

The action has moved to smaller tokens. Bitcoin Cash jumped about 28% to 32% over 24 hours, depending on the measure, after CME Group said it will list BCH and Uniswap futures from October 19, a story we covered in detail here. Zcash rose about 9%. For XRP, we could not verify a single cause for its gain. Separately, CoinDesk reported that an XRP Ledger upgrade letting accounts hand limited payment or compliance powers to another account entered a 14-day activation countdown on September 21 and could go live October 5 if validator support holds.

BitMEX, the exchange that popularized leveraged perpetual swaps, ended all trading at 4:00 UTC Wednesday after more than 11 years, Cointelegraph reported. Users can still withdraw through the website, and API withdrawals will be switched off September 28.

What traders are watching

• $87,300, where bitcoin has now been turned back twice this week.
• The ETF cost basis near $81,700, and whether daily inflows continue.
• The two-year yield and October hike odds, which have been pulling against crypto. See the 10-year chart and crude oil.

For Tuesday's prices and the Binance-Circle deal, see yesterday's report.

Sources: Coinbase Exchange price data; CoinDesk; Cointelegraph. Crypto assets are volatile. This is market information, not investment advice.