- The October crypto market collapse worsened with a further 3% decline.
- Bitcoin slipped below $110,000 and Ethereum fell under $3,900.
- This month alone the market lost roughly $370 billion in value.
The brutal October sell-off in the cryptocurrency market intensified as a fresh 3% drop pushed Bitcoin below the key level of $110,000, dragging most major altcoins deeply into the red.
The broad-based sell-off is the latest chapter in one of the toughest months of the year for digital assets, driven by a potent mix of dwindling institutional support, technical disruptions and mounting macroeconomic pressure that has triggered a strong “risk-off” environment.
The scale of the recent bloodbath is significant. This month alone the market erased roughly $370 billion in value, with about $19 billion in leveraged positions liquidated.
Open interest in futures was also decimated, with around $65 billion wiped out, resetting market activity to levels seen at the start of 2025.
Institutional support thins as ETF outflows accelerate
A key driver of the recent weakness has been a dramatic and worrying reversal in institutional sentiment.
After months of strong inflows, spot Bitcoin ETFs have become a source of intense selling pressure, recording an astonishing $1.23 billion in weekly net outflows.
That included a massive $366 million outflow on Friday alone, a move that removed a critical layer of buying support from an already fragile market.
The perfect storm: AWS outage and SpaceX fears
That underlying weakness was compounded by a perfect storm of technical and psychological blows.
A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) disrupted access to several leading crypto platforms, including U.S. exchange Coinbase and several DeFi front-ends.
The outage widened spreads and accelerated forced liquidations, with more than $240 million in long positions wiped out within 24 hours, briefly pushing Bitcoin toward $107,500.
Market nerves were further rattled when on-chain watchers flagged a large transfer of 2,395 BTC (about $268 million) from a wallet linked to SpaceX.
While analysts suggested the flows were likely internal custody movements, the timing prompted headlines questioning whether “Musk is selling?”, adding another layer of anxiety to an already unsettled market.
What to watch next as the market hangs in the balance
Technically, the market now sits at a critical inflection point. Bitcoin faces stiff resistance in the $112,000 to $115,500 range, while key support levels lie between $108,000 and $105,000.
A decisive daily close above the 50-day moving average (around $113,000) is needed to stabilize the market. Failure to do so would keep the $100,000 psychological zone squarely in play and increase the risk of a much deeper bear phase.
Short-term catalysts remain rooted in the macroeconomic arena: upcoming U.S. CPI data and any fresh signals from the Federal Reserve about interest rates are likely to be the next significant market movers.
For now, the battered crypto market is left to lick its wounds and wait for the storm to pass.