Bitcoin climbed to $84,500 on Oct. 21 after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized rules governing stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, according to market data.

The OCC announced its final rule on Oct. 21, establishing requirements for payment stablecoin issuers under its jurisdiction, certain foreign issuers and custody activities at OCC-supervised institutions. The framework, described by Comptroller Jonathan Gould as providing strong standards for "reserve backing, redemption, and risk management," sets Jan. 18, 2027, as the effective date. It covers reserves, redemptions, capital, supervision and other obligations, while anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements remain part of a separate rulemaking process.

The final text removes a proposed presumption that certain arrangements involving third parties would breach the law, but retains a prohibition on issuer payments of interest or yield solely for holding, using or retaining a payment stablecoin. The regulator declined to presume that rewards offered before the GENIUS Act comply with the law and provided no general safe harbor for rewards arrangements. It said it would announce separately when it begins accepting applications and waiver requests, leaving the application opening date pending despite the fixed effective date.

Open interest in Bitcoin rose 5.5% during the rebound, outpacing the 2.78% price gain reported by trader Ted Pillows in a snapshot captured early on Oct. 22. His hourly chart showed aggregated open interest in BTC terms, avoiding a dollar-only comparison that could rise mechanically with price. "Long leverage is building up very rapidly here, and they should hope that spot demand remains strong," Pillows wrote, noting the market data composition.

Bitfinex had flagged similar risks before the advance, reporting a 4.3% rise in futures open interest between Oct. 12 and 15 as prices fell. Its Oct. 21 update cited renewed exchange-traded fund demand, including $526.7 million in net inflows on Oct. 19 and $23.2 million on Oct. 20. The firm placed the average ETF cohort’s cost basis at $84,333 and said sustained inflows and stable leverage would support its bullish scenario above $84,400.

Options positioning showed $1.23 billion in notional open interest for the Oct. 23 expiry, with a maximum-pain price near $82,000. Bitfinex described a separate $11.2 billion monthly expiry on Oct. 30, following the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 28 policy decision.

The daily TradingView chart placed the Bollinger Band midpoint at $83,263.37, with the upper band at $86,267.57 and the lower band at $80,259.17. Bitcoin’s $84,539.61 reading stood above the midpoint but below the upper boundary. The 14-day relative strength index registered 58.26, above its moving average of 49.96 but below the overbought threshold of 70.

Ali Charts identified $86,500 as Bitcoin’s immediate target, placing it close to the daily upper Bollinger Band. CoinGlass’s 24-hour heatmap showed liquidation clusters around $85,300–$85,500 above price and $83,600–$83,800 below, though the firm noted these were approximate readings that did not establish executed liquidations or guaranteed support.

Bitcoin had retreated toward $81,200 a day earlier after losing $82,000 support on Oct. 20, when it traded at $81,730.70. The recovery followed the OCC’s final rule announcement, which maintained limits on stablecoin rewards while declining to grant automatic exemptions to existing programs.

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