Crypto Market Sheds $360 Billion in October as Solana, Ethereum Lead Losses

The cryptocurrency market lost roughly $360 billion in value over the course of October, as Bitcoin and major altcoins closed the month lower. Total market capitalization fell from $2.94 trillion on October 1 to $2.58 trillion on October 31, with Solana and Ethereum among the assets recording the steepest losses.

The decline was compounded by heavy liquidations across leveraged positions and a weakening trend in spot Bitcoin ETF flows toward month-end.

Market Cap Slides 12% in Broad Retreat

The overall crypto market endured a difficult October, with its total value falling approximately 12.2%. At the lowest point of the pullback, on October 30, the market cap dropped to $2.52 trillion, erasing about $420 billion since the start of the month, before recovering slightly to close at $2.58 trillion.

Bitcoin also declined during the period. The leading cryptocurrency's price fell from $87,220 on October 1 to around $77,300 on October 31, a loss of 11.37%. It marks Bitcoin's second consecutive negative October, following a 3.9% decline in October 2025. The last time Bitcoin posted back-to-back losing Octobers was in 2011 and 2012.

The outcome stands out against Bitcoin's historical seasonal pattern: October has traditionally been one of the asset's strongest months, delivering an average return of roughly 12.9%, with Bitcoin finishing the month higher in about 69% of recorded years.

Pressure also emerged in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF flows late in the month. Daily fund data showed solid net inflows of $526.7 million on October 19 and $524.8 million on October 21, signaling continued institutional demand. However, the trend reversed sharply on October 30, when U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $643.2 million in net outflows, the largest single-day outflow in four months. Spot Bitcoin ETFs hold Bitcoin directly and trade on U.S. exchanges, and their daily net flows are widely tracked as a gauge of institutional participation in the asset.

Ethereum and Solana Post Steepest Altcoin Losses

Ethereum fell 21.71% over the month, declining from $2,773 to $2,171. Solana logged the largest drop among the major assets, losing 25.81% as its price slid from $124 to $92. XRP declined 16.96%, falling from $1.445 to $1.20.

The comparatively deeper losses indicate that altcoins faced greater selling pressure than Bitcoin during October. That gap is consistent with a long-standing market pattern in which altcoins have historically tended to register wider percentage swings than Bitcoin during broad drawdowns, which is why the altcoin-Bitcoin spread is often watched as a measure of how far traders pull back from riskier assets in a downturn.

$1.54 Billion in Liquidations Deepens the Decline

As prices slid, leveraged traders came under mounting pressure, particularly on October 30. According to data from CoinGlass, crypto liquidations totaled $1.54 billion over 24 hours, with long-position traders absorbing the bulk of the losses at $1.29 billion. Liquidations occur when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position because its margin can no longer cover losses, and long positions — bets on rising prices — are the first to be wiped out in a sell-off. Totals like this are therefore widely read as a measure of how much leveraged demand was flushed out during a decline, and the daily readings from trackers such as CoinGlass are among the data points traders will monitor in the weeks ahead for signs of whether forced selling is subsiding.

Market participants were also contending with uncertainty following a Binance security incident estimated to have a $6.3 billion impact.