Bitcoin closed October lower, snapping a six-year “Uptober” streak while BNB pared a gain as a mid-month jolt left most majors stuck below early highs.
The shock came on Oct. 10, when President Donald Trump threatened steep new tariffs on China amid rare-earth tensions, sparking a broad migration risk.
Bitcoin slipped from a low of around $120,000 to around $105,000 in quick trade, and altcoins fell harder as thin liquidity met with heavy leverage. Over October 10–11, derivatives venues auto-liquidated an estimated tens of billions of dollars in positions and more than half a trillion dollars in market value evaporated before a shaky rebound set a floor. This is a macro headline bumping into tight positioning, not a crypto-specific catalyst.
At the end of the month, Coindesk data showed Bitcoin ending October in the red, the outcome ruining what traders call “Uptober.”
In Coinglass’ monthly Bitcoin returns, October 2025 is the first red October since 2018 and ends a green run that stretched from 2019 to 2024. That those things matter because the pattern has persisted in very different regimes—late-cycle avoidances and reminding traders that seasonality is similar, not a promise.
The shape of the month is remarkably consistent with TradingView’s one-month chart.
Bitcoin started firm, suffering the synchronized October 10-11 air pocket, then spent half the month climbing without recapturing its early peak. Ether traces the same flush-base-fade arc and is stuck below the round-number band tested in the first week. Solana and XRP roared in rhythm with a sequence of lower highs in the closing session. In practical terms, the late rebounds did not flip resistance to support, which is why the monthly candle is printed in red for four.
The BNB rankings. It absorbed the mid-month downdraft, carved higher lows in the final third, and closed October higher—about 4.2%—leaving a green print as peers slipped. Outside of the top 10, several names also finished October up on the screens tracked here, including ZEC, XMR, and WBTC, underscoring the pockets of strength that persisted beneath the surface even as the leaders cooled off.
Why the “Uptober” brand is straightforward. It’s a community nickname born from Bitcoin’s tendency to post October gains over the past decade, fueled by the coinglass grid showing every October from 2019 to 2024 in green. Flipping the cell into the red this year doesn’t eliminate the historical tilt, but it does turn risk management back to tape confirmation rather than calendar confidence.
The numbers displayed by different dashboards may vary for mundane reasons. Coinglass presents Calendar-Month, close-to-close results excluding October. The cycle of 30-day readings in the major trackers have been updated continuously and often with early-October highs, so they can show a steeper decline on November 1 even when the strict calendar month looks milder. The direction is the same; The measurement window drives the magnitude.
Structurally, October leaves a clear checklist for November.
For Bitcoin, reclaiming the late-October lower high will reopen the early month zone and bring back the earlier peaks. For Ether, a clean break and hold above the overhead band will convert a failed retest into support.
For SOL and XRP, cracking a string of lower highs would confirm momentum rather than another short-lived bounce. And for BNB, the question is whether relative strength continues if the majors remain covered, or if leadership rotates back to the largest cap in any broad rebound.
