- The crypto market’s plunge in October deepened with a 3 percent decline.
- Bitcoin slipped below $110,000 and Ethereum fell under $3,900.
- So far this month the market has lost roughly $370 billion in value.
The brutal sell-off in the cryptocurrency market intensified as another 3 percent drop pushed Bitcoin beneath the key $110,000 level and dragged most major altcoins further into the red.
This broad decline represents the latest chapter in one of the toughest months of the year for digital assets, driven by a potent combination of waning institutional support, technical outages and persistent macroeconomic tensions that together created a strong risk-off wave.
The scale of the recent bloodbath is substantial. The market has now shed roughly $370 billion in value this month alone, and as much as $19 billion in leveraged positions have been liquidated.
Futures open interest was also decimated, with around $65 billion erased, pushing market activity back to levels seen in early 2025.
Institutional backing thins as ETF outflows accelerate
A primary reason for the recent weakness was a dramatic and concerning reversal in institutional sentiment.
After months of heavy inflows, Bitcoin spot ETFs have become a source of intense selling pressure, recording weekly net outflows of approximately $1.23 billion.
That included a massive $366 million outflow on Friday alone, a move that removed a critical layer of buy-side support from an already fragile market.
A perfect storm: an AWS outage and SpaceX scare
Compounding the fundamental weakness was a perfect storm of technical and psychological blows.
A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage interrupted access to several leading crypto platforms, including US giant Coinbase and multiple DeFi frontends.
The disruption widened spreads and accelerated forced liquidations, wiping out over $240 million in long positions within 24 hours and briefly pushing Bitcoin toward $107,500.
Market nerves were further strained after on-chain trackers flagged a large transfer of 2,395 BTC (about $268 million) from a wallet linked to SpaceX.
While analysts suggested the movement was likely an internal custody reshuffle, the timing sparked headlines questioning whether Elon Musk was selling, adding another layer of fear to an already jittery market.
What to watch next while the market hangs in the balance
Technically, the market now sits at a critical inflection point. Bitcoin faces a thick resistance zone between $112,000 and $115,500, while key support levels are now at $108,000 and $105,000.
A decisive daily close back above the 50-day moving average (around $113,000) is needed to stabilize the market. Failure to reclaim that level keeps the psychological $100,000 zone squarely in play and raises the risk of a much deeper bearish phase.
Near-term catalysts remain anchored in the macroeconomic calendar, with upcoming US CPI data and further signals from the Federal Reserve on interest rates likely to be the next major market movers.
For now, a battered crypto market needs time to recover and must wait for the storm to pass.