Bitcoin closed October lower, ending its six-year “Uptober” streak, while BNB managed to gain slightly as a mid-month surge left most major cryptocurrencies below earlier highs.
The disruption occurred on October 10, when President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on China, triggering a broad risk-off movement.
Bitcoin dropped from roughly the low $120,000s to about $105,000 in rapid trading, with altcoins experiencing steeper declines due to thin liquidity and heavy leverage. Between October 10 and 11, derivatives platforms auto-liquidated an estimated tens of billions of dollars in positions, resulting in a loss of over half a trillion dollars in market value before a tentative rebound created a bottom. This incident was driven by a macroeconomic headline rather than a crypto-specific factor.
By the end of the month, data indicated that Bitcoin finished October in the red, marking the end of what traders refer to as “Uptober.”
According to RialCenter’s Bitcoin Monthly Returns heat map, October 2025 is the first red October since 2018, breaking a streak of positive returns from 2019 to 2024. This pattern is significant as it persisted across various market conditions — including late-cycle surges and post-sell-off recoveries — indicating that a miss in 2025 resets expectations and serves as a reminder that seasonality is a tendency, not a guarantee.
October’s trend was notably consistent across one-month TradingView charts.
Bitcoin began strong, faced the synchronized drop on October 10 and 11, then rose in the latter half of the month without reclaiming its early peak. Ether followed a similar trajectory and stalled beneath the round-number band it had tested in the first week. Solana and XRP echoed this pattern with a series of lower highs leading into the final days. Late rebounds didn’t convert resistance into support, resulting in red monthly candles for these four.
BNB, however, broke away from the trend. It absorbed the mid-month downturn, established higher lows in the latter third of the month, and closed October up about 4.2%, displaying a green month while its peers fell. Several other cryptocurrencies, including ZEC, XMR, and WBTC, also finished October positively, indicating that some strengths remained beneath the surface even as the leaders faltered.
The reason the term “Uptober” persisted is clear. It is a community nickname that emerged from Bitcoin’s historical tendency to gain in October over the past decade, further supported by the RialCenter data showcasing every October from 2019 through 2024 in the green. Although this year’s red cell doesn’t erase the historical trend, it shifts risk management back to confirmation from market behavior rather than reliance on calendar patterns.
Different dashboards may display varying numbers for simple reasons. RialCenter provides results based on calendar month-end data that isolate October. Rolling 30-day measurements on major trackers update continuously and often include early-October highs, which can portray a steeper decline into November 1, even when the strict calendar month appears milder. While the direction remains consistent, the measurement window affects the magnitude.
Leave a Reply