Bitcoin dipped to about $82,300 before recovering to around $82,800, roughly 4% below Tuesday's high near $86,600.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake urged the industry to prepare for "bunker mode" in case AI-driven math breaks wallet cryptography, while Vitalik Buterin said the risk is real, but holders shouldn't scramble.

The 30-year Treasury yield rose to 5.71% ahead of a $22 billion auction, after Fed minutes showed most officials expect another interest-rate increase by year-end.

Bitcoin BTC$82,420.00 extended its slide during Asian hours, dipping to about $82,300 before recovering to around $82,800, roughly 4% below Tuesday's high near $86,600. The CoinDesk 100 has lost close to 2% over 24 hours.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake used a post on X, viewed almost 4 million times, to urge the industry to begin planning for what he called "bunker mode."

The idea is a gradual migration of funds to new addresses whose public keys have never been exposed. Drake argued that AI-driven advances in mathematics make it reasonable to brace for a break of the elliptic-curve signatures securing bitcoin and ether wallets in "months not years." He pointed to a batch of 722 mathematical results released by OpenAI this week as evidence.

Not everyone agreed on the urgency. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the risk from AI-accelerated math should be taken seriously, but advised holders against scrambling to move funds. Samson Mow, CEO of bitcoin technology firm Jan3, told followers there was no need to panic "because an Ethereum researcher is saying silly things."

The pressure from bond markets has also not let up, with the 30-year Treasury yield climbing 4 basis points to 5.71% and the 10-year to 5.32%, according to CNBC, ahead of a $22 billion 30-year bond auction later Thursday.

Minutes of the Fed's September meeting, released Wednesday, showed all 19 officials backed last month's interest-rate increase, with most seeing another as likely appropriate by year-end. September's consumer price index on Oct. 14 is the last inflation reading before the Fed's Oct. 28 decision.

Sellers keep their edge as liquidations ease: The 24-hour taker long/short ratio is 48% to 52%, little changed from yesterday's 52%-plus share for shorts. Crypto futures open interest (OI) is down 1% at $150 billion, and trading volume is largely unchanged at $187 billion. Liquidations fell to $400 million from $548 million yesterday. Sellers are still in control, but with less forced selling.

Majors see deleveraging, not fresh shorts: Notional OI, or the dollar value of active futures bets, has fallen in BTC, ETH, HYPE, XRP and DOGE by as much as or more than their spot prices. That means traders aren't adding new bets on the way down, and in some cases are closing them. The selloff looks like de-risking rather than a build-up of new bearish positions.

NEAR bucks the slide as capital flows in: NEAR is up 4% over 24 hours, and its notional OI jumped 11% to $1.70 billion, a sign of fresh money entering. The signals are mixed on who's behind it. Funding is slightly negative, showing shorts are paying to hold their bets, while NEAR's 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) is the most positive among majors, a sign of aggressive buying. If the rally holds, shorts betting against it could be forced to cover.

SOL shorts likely piling in: Solana's notional OI rose 1.5% even as SOL fell 2%. Rising OI alongside a falling price usually points to new short positions.

Selling pressure persists for a second day: The 24-hour CVD is negative for most major coins, including BTC and ETH, with NEAR and SUI the exceptions. Sellers are still hitting bids with market orders, as they did yesterday.

Bitcoin volatility stirs from yearly lows: BVIV, bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index, rose 5% today, turning higher from the year’s lows. The bounce points to some fresh demand for options protection, though the index remains within its recent range. Some analysts have argued that the calm in crypto and on Wall Street may not last as bond market volatility keeps rising.

Options traders turn more defensive: Bitcoin's one-week put-call skew has risen to 10%, and one- and two-month skews are slightly positive. It shows a bias for puts, or downside protection, a shift from yesterday's largely neutral readings. Ether skews show a similar tilt. Bitcoin and ether calls are still among Deribit's five most-traded contracts over 24 hours.

Solana DeFi tokens rebounded from Wednesday's selloff, even as SOL itself slipped about 1% since midnight UTC. DEX aggregator token jupiter (JUP) gained 15% over 24 hours, while Solana-based DEX token raydium RAY$2.4647 and liquid staking token jito JTO$0.5704 rose 14% and 10%, respectively. Jito and jupiter had fallen 6% to 8% a day earlier.

A few tokens tied to networks that promote their cryptography as quantum-resistant were among the gainers after Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake's post. Algorand ALGO$0.1332 led the CoinDesk 100 with a 9% gain since midnight. The network uses post-quantum Falcon signatures for its state proofs. Starknet STRK$76.20·Market Closed, whose proofs rely on hash-based cryptography, added 4%.

Zcash (ZEC), the largest privacy coin by market value, fell 6% over 24 hours to around $1,240, and Cardano-linked privacy token midnight NIGHT$0.04521 dropped 8%. Monero (XMR) was little changed, edging up about 0.5% since midnight.

Curve CRV$0.3846 rose 11% over 24 hours, while synthetic dollar token ethena (ENA) lost 7%, splitting the DeFi sector, which remains without a clear bullish catalyst.

AI tokens extended their losses, with bittensor (TAO) down 6% over 24 hours, venice VVV$24.40 falling 7% and decentralized AI data network grass GRASS$0.6150 also dropping 7%.