This follows a 2% bitcoin price drop to $82,800 24 hours after President Donald Trump declined to rule out further strikes on Iran before the U.S. midterm elections.
However, bitcoin is still more than $20,000 above its summer cycle low and is still the best performing asset of the third quarter.
$BTC Open Interest (Coinglass)
Gold under pressure as dollar rises
Bitcoin is not the only nursing losses.
Gold is also down 3% over the past 24 hours, trading around $4,150 an ounce. The bitcoin to gold ratio, which measures how many ounces of gold one bitcoin can buy, is approaching 20 which is on the verge of going positive for the year.
Meanwhile, the DXY index, which measures the dollar against a basket of major currencies, has climbed above 101, as U.S. Treasury yields continue to rise. The 10-year yield is above 5.2%, while the 30-year yield is above 5.51%.
A resilient U.S. economy may be supporting both the dollar and yields, although stubborn inflation concerns could also be pushing borrowing costs higher. Higher yields mean lower prices for bonds: TLT, an ETF holding long-dated US Treasuries, has fallen to around $79, an all-time low.
Rising yields also make interest-bearing assets more attractive relative to bitcoin and gold, which pays no income.
The 2026 MTV VMAs have arrived, bringing some of the biggest names in music together in Los Angeles for one of the year’s biggest nights. With Snoop Dogg hosting and Madonna opening the show for the first time in 23 years, there was already plenty to look forward to going into the night.
Madonna entered the night with 11 nominations. At the same time, Taylor Swift followed closely behind with 9 and was already set to make history as the first recipient of the new Artist Director Honors. Nirvana was also set to receive the Video Vanguard Award. See the complete winners list here.
Bitcoin $BTC$82,742.29 fell to $83,000 on Monday, down 1.7% since midnight UTC and 2.1% over 24 hours, though it is the altcoin market taking the brunt of the damage, with 91 of the 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents lower on the day and the index down 2.6% to 1,874.56.
The unwind is almost a mirror image of Friday, with quant (QNT) falling 16% since midnight after rising 39% over 24 hours in Friday’s session, indexing protocol token the graph GRT$0.03188 is down 12% having gained 14%, and tokenization token ondo ONDO$0.5148 is 12% lower. The sector indices that led the advance are leading the retreat, with the DeFi Select Index (DFX) down 6.4% and 7.3% over 24 hours while the CoinDesk Computing Index (CPUS) lost 3.2% and 5.0%.
The trigger sits in oil rather than in crypto, with President Donald Trump rejecting Iran’s latest terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, conditions that included the release of frozen Iranian funds, the lifting of oil sanctions and an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports. Brent crude has climbed back above $100 to $100.83, up 3.2% on the day, reversing Friday’s move below that level.
According to McGlone’s assessment, the MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Index (MVDA), in which Bitcoin makes up approximately two-thirds, has lagged behind the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) since 2017.
One of the key points McGlone highlighted at this stage was volatility. The analyst noted that the MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Index (MVDA) has shown approximately three times more volatility than the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) since 2017, but that this higher volatility and risk haven’t resulted in a significant additional return in the long run compared to the Nasdaq-100.
McGlone interpreted this chart as indicating that crypto assets performed poorly in terms of risk and portfolio management.
Another element of McGlone’s analysis was the correlation between crypto assets and stocks. According to the analyst, high volatility could contribute to portfolio diversification due to the negative correlation with stocks. However, the positive correlation between digital assets and stocks did not provide a practical benefit for risk management. McGlone argues that this limits Bitcoin’s ability to function as a risk-reducing tool independent of traditional assets.
The MVDA index, in which Bitcoin has approximately 67% weighting, has lagged behind the Nasdaq-100 since cryptocurrencies entered the regulatory framework with the launch of CBOE and CME Bitcoin futures in 2017. According to the analyst, the MVDA’s superior performance against the Nasdaq-100 also ended after this period.
McGlone added that significant bullish catalysts, including the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the pro-cryptocurrency policy of the Donald Trump administration, are largely already priced in, making it difficult for crypto assets to deliver uniquely strong returns compared to traditional assets in the future.
Videos authentically show Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wearing a Palestinian flag at a United Nations event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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In September 2026, as the United Nations held its annual meeting in New York, a video (archived) circulated online that social media users claimed showed Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wearing a Palestinian flag at a United Nations event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
BREAKING:📷 Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: “I am a woman and also a mother. I cannot stand with someone who kills innocent children.” The brave woman continued to walk around wearing a Palestinian flag around her neck in front of Netanyahu.
The clip came from a TikTok account (archived) that created several fake videos of the same scenario and contained visual signs of artificial intelligence software.
The TikTok user marked some of these videos as AI-generated, though the label was missing from some versions of the footage that spread widely on other platforms. We confirmed the video was an AI-generated fake because it showed an incorrectly rendered Palestinian flag at the eight-second mark.
There’s no record of Netanyahu and Meloni attending the same U.N. event in 2026 either. According to the reputable photo agency Getty Images, the two last met in March 2023 in Rome. Meloni did not attend the annual meeting in September 2026.
Meloni targeted by AI and deepfakes
It was unclear why the TikTok account in question decided to create a fake video of Meloni suggesting she had a poor relationship with Netanyahu.
In August 2025, Meloni criticized the Israeli military’s response to the 2023 Hamas attacks as “beyond the principle of proportionality.” In April 2026, she announced Italy would not renew a defense agreement with Israel. She reportedly did not specify a reason beyond referring to “the current situation.”
Meloni wrote (archived) on X on May 5, 2026, that she was the subject of several popular AI-generated photos, including one that appeared to show her in underwear.
The Italian prime minister wrote, “Deepfakes are a dangerous tool, because they can deceive, manipulate, and strike anyone. I can defend myself. Many others cannot.”
“Deepfake” is an umbrella term for AI-generated content. This content can be generated by altering existing, authentic material or created from scratch. According to the Alan Turing Institute, the U.K.’s national institute for data science and AI, deepfakes are often created “with the intention to deceive or entertain viewers.”
For further reading, Snopes routinely debunks fake or deepfake content.
Sources
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FRANKEL, JULIA, and PHIL HOLM. ‘These Numbers Show How 2 Years of War Have Devastated Palestinian Lives in Gaza’. AP News, 7 Oct. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/october-7-deaths-israel-hamas-war-707cd188234d3fa5bb3129426cf703c5.
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Brunson began his monologue by joking that his time winning the 2026 NBA championship this year with the New York Knicks may mirror his hosting stint.
“Tonight I’m gonna approach hosting in the same way I approach the Knicks finals game; so the first three quarters of the show are gonna be god awful. The last sketch is gonna be amazing,” he said. “This summer, I helped the Knicks win the NBA championship. By now, you’ve all heard me talk about it, but you haven’t heard me sing about it… And obviously I’m not going to.”
He also joked about being back in Madison Square Garden for the NBA season that’s about to start, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married this summer.
“The new season is just a couple of weeks away, and I gotta say, it’s gonna be pretty cool to be back at Madison Square Garden. Looking around like, wow, just a few months ago, this was the exact spot where Taylor and Travis got married,” he said. Brunson
The New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June, marking their first win since 1973. Brunson was awarded with the title of NBA Finals MVP after the dynamic season. To support his debut as an SNL host, the Knicks starting five, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, were all in attendance.
Brunson said he was going to take questions from the audience, to which the camera panned over to make way for his teammates. Towns kicked off a round of questions, asking, “Can you foul out of SNL?” Brunson responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
“I could be here, like, the whole show?” Towns added. Hart candidly asked the SNL host, “Is it true that you took a $113 million pay cut just to resign with the Knicks?”
Brunson said, “Yeah, that’s pretty true.” Hart asked an additional follow-up question: “Wow. So is that money, like, still up for grabs?”
The first cold open of the new season poked fun at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump’s bromance. Ramy Youssef portrayed Mamdani, while James Austin Johnson returned to dish out his impersonation of Trump.
Mamdani was told he had a guest, to which he responded, “What reckless lunatic would travel to see me in this kind of weather?”
“Your best friend!” Johnson’s Trump said. “I missed my day one. For some reason that no one can figure out, I really, really like you.” Youssef pointed out the El Niño impacting New York City, telling the faux president, “That’s very kind, but wouldn’t you rather be in D.C.? We’re in the middle of El Niño.”
“Oh, El Niño, we don’t like big stores, especially when they’re in Spanish,” Trump said. He went on to talk about his “crazy week”: “I kicked out the press and hung out with the president of China, Xi. And yeah, I went brunette. It’s fall!”
“There was this crazy AI stuff, too,” he continued. “I just had dinner with Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and it made me think, wow, RFK Jr.’s probably right about those vaccines.” Ashley Padilla also popped up briefly in the cold open as Natalie Harp, executive assistant to President Trump.
Towards the end of the cold open, Youssef’s Mamdani kept on insisting that he needed to get back to work. “Please let me stay here with you,” Johnson’s Trump said. “OK, only if you give us $21 billion for a housing project in Queens,” Mamdani said.
“Are you out of your mind?” Trump said, to which Mamdani offered, “What if I follow you back on Instagram?”
“It’s a done deal,” Johnson’s Trump concluded.
Jeremy Culhane reprised his Tucker Carlson impersonation during the Weekend Update segment, where he gave his opinions on this summer’s box office hits. Of Obsession, he joked, “The left’s idea of a horror movie; that a woman is forced to love a man. ‘Oh, no, help! I’m being chased by a heterosexual relationship!’”
As for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Culhane’s Carlson said, “Everybody loves Spider-Man: Brand New Gender.” Colin Jost said, “That’s not what it’s called,” as Culhane’s Carlson continued, “Spider-They, Spider-Them, uses whatever bathroom it feels like.”
He also brought up Minions & Monsters, asserting that he was “not talking about the children’s film, I’m talking about the Trump cabinet. That’s right, I’ve turned on Trump, I’m so brave.”
The New York Knicks star and Katseye were the first host and musical guest pair of the new season, also notably making their SNL debuts. Next week, Dakota Johnson will host with Turnstile as the musical act.
Shane Gillis will host on Oct. 10 with musical guest Rosalia, while Obsession star Inde Navarrette makes her SNL hosting debut on the Halloween episode. She’ll be joined by Gracie Abrams.
