Bitcoin (BTC) managed to climb back above the $110,000 mark following a turbulent week, yet still faces the prospect of closing October in negative territory for the first time since 2018. The cryptocurrency market witnessed a sharp rebound on Friday after a significant sell-off on Thursday, as traders reacted to cautiously optimistic developments from the recent Trump-Xi summit in Busan.
During Thursday’s volatility, Bitcoin briefly fell below $107,000 but recovered to trade just above $110,000 on Friday morning, reflecting a 2.7% increase for the day. Ethereum (ETH) mirrored this upward momentum, gaining approximately 2.5% to near $3,870, despite losing nearly 10% over the month. Among other leading cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin (BNB) exhibited modest gains of 0.1%, while XRP, Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) showed moderate daily increases ranging from 1.5% to 3%.
This October, often referred to as “Uptober” due to historical bullish patterns, has underperformed market expectations. A notable liquidation event on October 10 wiped out an estimated $20 billion in leveraged positions, triggering widespread declines across altcoins. Should BTC close the month near current levels, data gathered from CoinGlass suggests it would mark a roughly 5% monthly loss, echoing a negative October for the first time since 2018. That year preceded a deeper bearish trend, with Bitcoin’s price falling an additional 36.7% in November and 5% in December.
Analysts at Glassnode highlighted in a recent update that Bitcoin has retested the important 0.85 cost-basis band, approximately $109,000. Historically, maintaining this threshold has catalyzed significant rallies, whereas breaching it often leads to a decline toward the 0.75 band near $98,000.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Bittensor (TAO) and Zcash (ZEC) stood out as top performers, rising 11.8% and 11.3%, respectively. Bittensor’s rally comes as it approaches its scheduled halving in December. Zcash has emerged as a notable survivor in “Uptober,” rising close to 294% over the past month amid renewed interest in privacy-focused tokens that offer Bitcoin-like features. This surge has propelled ZEC to price levels not seen since 2018.
Conversely, Figure Heloc (FIGR_HELOC) and Pumpfun (PUMP) experienced marked declines, falling 79.5% and 5%, respectively. Coinglass data revealed that over the last 24 hours, liquidations of leveraged positions surpassed $566 million, encompassing $126.5 million in shorts and approximately $440 million in longs. Bitcoin represented $186.2 million of these liquidations, followed by Ethereum at $126.4 million and various altcoins at $53.7 million.
On the exchange-traded fund (ETF) front, October inflows into spot Ethereum ETFs reached $668.1 million, boosting total net assets to nearly $25 billion. In contrast, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $3.61 billion in outflows, leaving total net assets around $144 billion, according to SoSoValue.
Market participants are also digesting macroeconomic signals, particularly related to the recently reported trade truce between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. As part of the tentative agreement, U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports could decrease from 57% to roughly 47%, China may lift rare-earth export restrictions for one year, and soybean purchases by China are expected to resume. While the details remain provisional, these developments have contributed to cautious optimism within global markets.
