Cryptocurrency Weekly Summary
- Cryptocurrency weekly performance disappointed as the U.S.-China trade war, U.S. shutdown, and geopolitical risks joined ETF outflows.
- Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple posted a two-week losing streak, despite Saturday’s corrective bounce.
- U.S. and China diplomats clashed, blaming each other for tariffs and supply controls while trying to convince markets of logical actions.
- Washington soothed trade war fears on Friday by confirming a Trump-Xi meeting, showing optimism about a trade deal with China.
- U.S. government shutdown extends, fears of Federal employees’ mass layoffs also weighed on risk.
- Downbeat U.S. data kept dovish Fed bets intact, weighing on the U.S. Dollar.
- Trump’s call with Putin went well, and hopes of a ceasefire in Ukraine stay on the table.
- Pro-industry news failed to defend institutional interest in BTC and ETH.
- S&P 500, Gold both hit weekly gains with XAU extending its record rally before Friday’s retreat.
- October PMIs, China GDP, U.S. CPI, and potential U.S. government reopening raise hopes of market recovery.
Cryptocurrency Weekly Snapshot
Cryptocurrency markets faced another dramatic week, despite the U.S. government shutdown, as fears of a full-fledged U.S.-China trade war drowned cryptocurrencies before a brief rebound during the late week. Adding strength to the pessimism were doubts about the fragile peace in Gaza, fears of mass “reductions in force” by the Trump administration, and ongoing Ukraine-Russia tensions. However, Friday’s news flow counted the previous risk aversion with upbeat developments from Washington, allowing risk assets to pare weekly losses.
Against this backdrop, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) all reported their second consecutive weekly loss, between 6.0% and 7.0% each, despite Saturday’s corrective bounce.
On a different page, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) posted a 0.30% weekly loss, despite snapping a four-day losing streak on Friday, whereas the spot Gold (XAU) rose for the ninth consecutive week to hit a record high around $4,380, up 5.59% weekly to $4,253 by press time. Furthermore, Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all rose over 1.0%.
Bitcoin Stays Bearish: Bitcoin (BTC) recorded its biggest weekly fall since early March, with almost 7.0% slump to $107,000 by press time, down for the second consecutive week. With this, the BTC is down over 6.0% for the month.
Ethereum Also Slides: Ethereum (ETH) traces BTC while posting close to 7.0% weekly loss in its second week-over-week downtrend, to $3,875 by press time. The ETH’s latest slump not only extends its previous weekly gains but also adds more losses to the monthly figure of -6.50%.
Ripple Sinks Too: Ripple (XRP) also posted its second consecutive weekly loss, of around 7.0% to $2.35 by press time. With this, the XRP is down 17% for October.
The Weekly Moves
Key Macro Catalysts
While tracing the key catalysts, U.S. President Donald Trump’s 100% tariffs on China, mixed U.S. data, and the calls of mass layoffs in the federal offices have gained major attention.
On the same line were fears that the Gaza peace wouldn’t hold and that the Ukraine-Russia war could continue.
Furthermore, the U.S. shutdown continues to hinder the data flow, as well as extend uncertainty surrounding the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of the altcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval, which in turn negatively affected the crypto performance.
Additionally, outflows of the U.S. BTC and ETH Spot ETFs also raised doubts about the institutional interest in the crypto.
As per CNBC, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought confirmed the Trump administration plans to cut 10,000 federal jobs during the government shutdown.
On the positive side, Trump’s latest comments suggesting everything will be fine with China and an official confirmation of his meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping tamed the market’s trade war fears on Friday.
Also favoring the risk appetite were the U.S. diplomats’ efforts to block the Trump administration’s plans for mass layoffs of federal employees.
It’s worth noting that the White House reported positive progress from Trump’s call with Putin, with plans for further discussions in Budapest and flagging hopes of Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
Meanwhile, the IMF raised its global 2025 GDP forecast to 3.2% from 3.0%, as well as revised up growth predictions for Japan, Europe, and the U.S., in its latest publication.
Talking about the data, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for October slumped to a six-month low of -12.8 versus 8.6 expected and 23.2 prior. Meanwhile, the U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index for October rose past -1.8 market forecasts and -8.7 previous readings to a whopping 10.7.
Notably, amid the dearth of official U.S. data, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs estimate the U.S. Jobless Claims fell to around 217k during the last week, while Bank of America’s research showed that small-business hiring continues to slow.
For more macro updates like this, please check our news section here!
Crypto Market News
In the crypto universe, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) all witnessed heavy selling pressure during the last week, apart from a corrective bounce during late Friday and Saturday, resulting in the weekly loss. The risk-off mood failed to cheer a softer U.S. Dollar amid ETF outflows, contributing to last week’s crypto pessimism.
Notably, Solana (SOL) slid around 5.0%, whereas Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE) both dropped slightly over 9.0% on the week. More importantly, Aptos (APT) slumped 20.0% while Binance Coin (BNB) marked a 15% weekly loss.
Meanwhile, the crypto market dropped over 6.0% to $3.63 trillion, whereas the Bitcoin Dominance also slid from 60.1% to 58.7%.
That said, some of the top crypto news are as follows, while more updates like this could be traced to our Coin Bytes.
Ripple Labs builds $1.0 billion Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) to strengthen XRP holdings, taking advantage of the crypto market crash to defend the altcoin amid doubts about its sustainability.
Elsewhere, the U.S. state of Florida pursues an advanced crypto-friendly strategy as policymakers put forward a bill for the 2026 legislative session that proposes Bitcoin investments from public funds.
Meanwhile, DeFi Development adds $16 million worth of Solana (SOL) to its crypto treasury, but faced a 25% slump in SOL per share value. This flashes a warning sign for firms aggressively leaning toward crypto treasuries.
Hyperliquid is ready with a major network upgrade, HIP-3, to increase decentralization. Details suggest that, by staking 500,000 HYPE tokens, the update will enable eligible developers to start their own permissionless perpetual DEXs, which are trading platforms that operate fully on-chain.
Elsewhere, a major crypto exchange, Coinbase, collaborates with the U.S. payment giant, American Express (AmEx), to provide a Bitcoin rewards credit card in the U.S. starting this autumn.
Further, last week’s crypto crash allowed stablecoin giants to infuse more liquidity as Tether and Circle collectively injected around $1.75 billion in new USDT and USDC, while Ethereum investment firm Bitmine acquired over $100 million in ETH.
Read More: Tether and Circle Inject $1.75B Liquidity After Historic Market Crash
On a related front, crypto whales took advantage of Friday’s price crash, adding millions of coins like Pepe (PEPE), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Ethereum(ETH).
More Details: Time to buy? Crypto Whales Are buying PEPE, ETH, and HYPE like Crazy
The U.S. banking giant, JPMorgan Chase, confirmed speculations that their clients will be able to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies starting in 2026.
Read More: JPMorgan Confirms Bitcoin and Crypto Trading for Clients in 2026
Among the major news, the crypto market’s $100 million position liquidations within an hour gained major attention, per data from CoinGlass, justifying the major coin’s slump on Tuesday. That said, position liquidation is the forced closing of a trader’s positions by a broker due to insufficient margin. This data reveals whether long (buy) or short (sell) positions were closed, helping explain recent price movements.
Meanwhile, the U.S. House Republicans put forward a bill to activate President Donald Trump’s crypto executive order to open retirement funds to Bitcoin and other digital assets. The bill, the Retirement Investment Choice Act, if passed, will direct the U.S. Labor Department to allow retirement plan administrators’ broader discretion to include digital and alternative investments in 401Ks and similar plans.
Read More: House Republicans Move to Cement Trump’s Bitcoin-Backed Retirement Policy
Position Liquidations
Crypto market position liquidation also gained major attention, with long liquidations grabbing the bear’s eye. That said, position liquidation is the forced closing of a trader’s positions by a broker due to insufficient margin. This data reveals whether long (buy) or short (sell) positions were closed, helping explain recent price movements. Typically, heavy long liquidations happen during a downtrend and suggest short-term bearish sentiment, and vice versa.
During the October 12 to 18 period, a total of $3.887 billion of positions were liquidated, per the CoinGlass data. Out of which, “Long Positions” contributed $2.38 billion, whereas “Short Positions” accounted for $1.50 billion, suggesting a heavy flow of long liquidations and justifying the latest jump in the crypto prices.
Bitcoin Slides, Equities Edge Higher, But Gold Outshines
Bitcoin (BTC) notched the biggest weekly loss since March, despite a late-week rebound, as risk aversion joined heavy BTC ETF outflows. The sour sentiment also dragged the U.S. equity benchmark S&P 500 (SPX) for two days in the week, but reported weekly gains of 1.70% near 6,664.
However, the spot Gold (XAU) rose for the eighth consecutive week to hit a record high around $4,060, up 3.35% weekly to $4,016 by press time.
With this, the BTC loses its historical linear relationship with equities and Gold. Santiment’s weekly report cites this as an early bullish sign, as Bitcoin buyers could portray the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) once the market’s risk profile improves.
To clearly visualize links among these key risk assets, let’s see the correlation chart from TradingView.
BTC, S&P 500, and Gold
With the clearly linear relations between Bitcoin, Gold, and the U.S. equities, despite the latest friction, the BTC traders should be optimistic if the market turns positive, which is likely during the late October period.
BTC ETF, Whale Signals
Starting with the latest U.S. spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) data from the SoSoValue, the Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs reported consecutive three-day inflows, with Friday’s daily outflow of $366.59 million.
With this, the spot BTC ETFs marked the biggest weekly outflow since late February, worth $1.23 billion for the last week.
It’s worth observing that August reported the first monthly outflow in five months, the biggest since March, but September’s inflows were stellar with the $3.53 billion figures, whereas the October inflows have been $3.77 billion by press time.
With this magnitude of surprise from the ETF flows on a weekly basis, the BTC bulls should remain cautious going forward.
Elsewhere, Whale Wallets, addresses with over 10,000 BTC, dumped 12,720 Bitcoin in the four days to Friday, but are still up by 97,300 BTC since late August, according to Santiment.
Technical Analysis Signals BTC Weakness
Bitcoin’s early-week reversal from the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) defied an ascending trend channel since July 01 to convince sellers. Adding strength to the downside bias is the latest break beneath the 200-day SMA, for the first time since late March.
Meanwhile, an increasing strength of the bearish Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) signals (rising red histograms) and top position of the Directional Moving Indicator’s (DMI’s) Downmove (D-, Orange) line also suggest the crypto major’s extended south-run.
It’s worth noting that the D- line is way past the 25.00 neutral level, suggesting strong downside momentum, while the Average Directional Index (ADX, red) line is just beneath the orange line and beyond the Upmove (D+, blue) line, pointing towards very weak upside bias.
Bitcoin Price: Daily Chart Lures Bears
Bitcoin’s latest rebound from the lower Bollinger Band (BB), currently around $104,800, offers a breathing space to the BTC sellers. However, the recovery remains elusive unless the prices jump back beyond the 100-day SMA hurdle.
With this, the BTC stays on the way to lows marked during early June and May, close to the $100K threshold.
Notably, a 5.5-month-old horizontal support near $98,000 will be crucial for Bitcoin sellers to watch as a clear break beneath the same could challenge the crypto major’s broad bullish trend by initially highlighting $91,000, $88,000, and April’s low near $74,400 support levels.
Alternatively, the 200-day SMA and the aforementioned bullish channel’s bottom, respectively near $107,640 and $110K, may guard short-term Bitcoin recovery.
Beyond that, the 100-day SMA of $115,365 and the middle BB of $116,350 could test the BTC buyers before welcoming them with open hands.
In that case, the quote’s successive rally toward September’s high, surrounding $118K can’t be ruled out. However, the bullish channel’s top and the upper BB, close to $126,700 and $127,900, will be tough nuts to crack for Bitcoin buyers past $118K.
Ethereum Also Drops!
Even if Ethereum tops developer growth and firms like Bitmine and Strategy keep adding the ETH to their treasury reserves, the second-largest crypto dropped for the second consecutive day while tracing Bitcoin. Adding strength to the ETH’s 6.7% weekly loss is the first weekly U.S. spot ETH ETF outflow in three.
ETH ETFs Report First Weekly Outflow in Three
As per the latest SoSoValue data, the U.S. Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs reported their first weekly outflow in three weeks, after hitting a seven-week high in late September.
On October 17, the U.S. Spot ETH ETFs reported its second daily outflow, with a $232.28 million figure.
This resulted in the first weekly ETH ETF outflows in three weeks, with a total of $311.80 million for the week.
Still, the monthly ETH ETF scenario is upbeat as it reports the seven-month inflow pattern, with October’s inflows being $797.86 million by press time.
Ethereum Technical Analysis Teases Sellers
Ethereum’s clear U-turn from the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), a daily closing beneath the horizontal area from late July, and bearish MACD signals together bolster the quote’s current downside bias, despite the corrective bounce. Still, a downside break of the six-month ascending trendline and 200-day EMA becomes necessary to threaten the broad bullish trend.
Ethereum Price: Daily Chart Lures Sellers
As present, the ETH bears look well-set to approach the $3,556 support confluence comprising the 200-day EMA and a six-month ascending trendline.
However, the conditions below 50.00 of the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) might challenge the sellers to break the key support; if not, then 50% Fibonacci retracement of Ethereum’s April-August upside and a four-month horizontal support, respectively near $3,170 and $2,900, will be in the spotlight.
It’s worth mentioning that the ETH’s weakness past $2,900 will put the broad bullish trend at risk, while directing prices further south toward the 78.6% Fibonacci ratio and the yearly low, close to $2,150 and $1,385 in that order.
On the flip side, multiple levels since July 21 form strong immediate resistance around $3,880-85, quickly followed by the $4,000 threshold.
Beyond that, the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of $4,112 and the 50-day EMA of $4,195 will act as the bear’s last defense before giving control to the ETH bulls.
In that case, a horizontal area comprising multiple levels from mid-August, near $4,830-$4,768, will be crucial before buyers can aim for the fresh ATH, currently around $4,955. This highlights the $5,000 threshold for the ETH bulls.
Ripple Ignores Ecosystem Optimism…
Ripple (XRP) traces BTC and ETH counterparts while posting the second consecutive weekly loss, down nearly 6.0% on a weekly basis to $2.37 by press time. In doing so, the altcoin ignores optimism surrounding the possible approval of the crypto ETFs by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and multiple ecosystem positives.
The XRP’s recent fall ignores upbeat headlines surrounding the Ripple ecosystem. Among them, Ripple Labs’ $1.0 billion treasury to strengthen XRP and expansion in Africa gained major attention. On the same line is the CoinGlass data showing that nearly 75% of traders on Binance are betting on XRP long positions.
Read more Ripple news from here.
Ripple Technical Analysis Teases Sellers
Despite posting a daily close beneath the 11-month-old trendline support on Friday, the XRP rebounds beyond the support-turned-resistance surrounding $2.35 on Saturday. This joins the steady Stochastic momentum indicator to lure short-term buyers. However, the quote’s sustained reversal from a multi-month horizontal resistance and the 200-day EMA, as well as the previous weekly slump beneath the 100-day EMA, keeps the bears hopeful.
Ripple Price: Daily Chart Suggests Further Downside
Unless Ripple buyers manage to stay beyond the 100-day EMA, the XRP bears look set to approach the 50% Fibonacci retracement of October 2024 to July 2025 rally, close to $2.08, followed by February’s low of $1.77 and the 61.8% Fibonacci ratio surrounding $1.70.
However, a horizontal area comprising levels from November 2024, near $1.63-$1.58, appears to be a tough nut to crack for Ripple bears.
Following that, sellers can for a gradual south-run targeting the late 2024 bottom of $0.49, with the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of $1.17 and the $1.00 likely acting as intermediate halts.
Alternatively, XRP rebound needs successive daily closings beyond the multi-month support-turned-resistance surrounding $2.35.
After which, the 200-day EMA and horizontal hurdle from March, respectively near $2.62 and $2.65, could challenge the buyers before directing them to the 100-day EMA hurdle of $2.78.
Should XRP bulls keep reins past $2.78, a 10-week descending resistance line surrounding $3.05 will be the last line of defense for the bears.
Conclusion
The crypto market’s latest pessimism took clues from the broad U.S.-China trade war and the ETF outflows, apart from the other geopolitical and shutdown fears. However, the traders may witness a recovery during late October as legislators from Washington prepare multiple measures to reopen the government after a three-week shutdown.
Also likely to support the risk appetite, as well as the cryptocurrencies, is the recent shift in the Sino-American trade war concerns and the scheduled publication of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September. Earlier in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed the release of October 24 based on available data, which in turn could give a sense of relief to the traders after multiple days of statistical blackout due to the U.S. shutdown.
Apart from the U.S. CPI, China’s third quarter (Q3) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and preliminary readings of October Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from major economies will also entertain the market players.
Should the potential optimism materialize, the XRP may witness a stronger recovery than the BTC and the ETH, as fears surrounding ETF outflows and technical patterns may weigh on the crypto majors.
Also read: Top 5 Altcoins to Watch in October 2025
