Market Pullback Deepens: Bitcoin Slips, ETH Drops, and Traders Panic Over Musk’s BTC Move
The crypto market’s October hunch simply worsened, dropping by round 3%. Bitcoin slipped underneath $110,000 intraday and Ethereum fell beneath $3,900, dragging most altcoins into the pink as a risk-off wave rippled throughout digital property.
The drawdown follows one of many harshest months of the yr. The market has erased roughly $370 billion in worth, with as a lot as $19 billion in leveraged positions liquidated and $65 billion wiped from futures open curiosity, resetting exercise to early-2025 ranges.
Related Reading: Winklevoss-Led Gemini Exchange Unveils New Credit Card Featuring Solana Rewards
Institutional help thinned as spot Bitcoin ETFs posted about $1.23B in weekly web outflows, together with $366M on Friday alone, eradicating a key purchaser throughout promote stress.
At the identical time, a significant AWS outage disrupted entry on main venues, together with Coinbase and a number of DeFi entrance ends, widening spreads and accelerating compelled unwinds. Within 24 hours, over $240M in lengthy positions, largely BTC and ETH, had been liquidated, briefly pushing Bitcoin towards $107,500.
Musk/SpaceX Wallet Move Fuels Fear As Macro Tensions Simmer
Nerves frayed additional after trackers flagged SpaceX transfers totaling 2,395 BTC ($268M). While on-chain analysts recommend the flows seem like inside custody reshuffles, with receiving wallets nonetheless inactive, the timing sparked “Is Musk promoting?” headlines and added to headline danger.
The backdrop was already fragile as renewed U.S.–China commerce tensions, a stronger greenback, and U.S. fiscal uncertainty have pushed buyers towards money and secure havens.
Micro catalysts didn’t assist confidence. A Paxos operational error that minted an astronomical variety of PYUSD items (shortly reversed) reminded merchants of infrastructure danger simply as liquidity thinned.
Meanwhile, altcoins bled greater than majors (averaging 4% drop) as SOL, BNB, ADA and DOGE posted deeper single-day declines, whereas XRP confirmed relative resilience on recent institutional headlines. The rotation underscores a basic flight to high quality: when BTC wobbles, smaller caps often underperform.
What To Watch Next
Technically, Bitcoin faces layered resistance close to $112,000–$115,500, with helps at $108,000, $105,000–$102,000, and the psychological $100,000 zone.
A decisive day by day shut again above the 50-day area ($113,000) would assist stabilize momentum; lose $101,700 and the market dangers a deeper bearish section as stop-losses and auto-deleveraging re-ignite.
Related Reading: Is The Bitcoin Supercycle Still In Play? Wave 3 Tells A Story Of A Surge
For Ethereum, bulls wish to reclaim $4,000 and the $4,050–$4,150 provide space; failure retains stress on towards $3,700–$3,600.
Near-term catalysts stay firmly macro, with the upcoming U.S. CPI print and any Federal Reserve hints on charge cuts or quantitative tightening (QT) prone to shift liquidity dynamics shortly. On the micro aspect, buyers ought to monitor ETF flows to see if outflows ease, in addition to change uptime and whale habits.
Cover picture from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
