Crypto Market Loses $360 Billion in October as Solana, Ethereum Lead Losses
The cryptocurrency market lost around $360 billion in October as Bitcoin and major altcoins ended the month lower. Total market cap fell from $2.94 trillion on October 1 to $2.58 trillion on October 31, with Solana and Ethereum recording some of the major losses.Meanwhile, heavy liquidations and weaker Bitcoin ETF inflows added to the market pressure.Crypto Market Cap Drops 12% as $360 Billion Wiped OutThe overall crypto market experienced a difficult October, with its total value falling by around 12.2%. It dropped to $2.52 trillion on October 30, wiping out about $420 billion from the start of the month, before recovering slightly to $2.58 trillion.Pioneer cryptocurrency Bitcoin also fell during the month. Its price dropped from $87,220 on October 1 to around $77,300 on October 31, marking an 11.37% loss. This is Bitcoin’s second October loss in a row, following a 3.9% decline in October 2025.The last time Bitcoin had two losing Octobers back-to-back was in 2011 and 2012. This is unusual because October has usually been a strong month for Bitcoin. Its average return for the month is around 12.9%, and it has ended October higher in about 69% of recorded years.Pressure was also visible in spot Bitcoin ETF toward the end of October. Daily ETF data showed strong net inflows of $526.7 million on October 19 and $524.8 million on October 21, showing continued institutional demandHowever, the trend reversed on October 30, when U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643.2 million in net outflows, seeing the largest daily outflow in the last four months.Ethereum and Solana Lead Major Altcoin LossesEthereum dropped 21.71%, falling from $2,773 to $2,171. Solana recorded the largest decline among the major assets, losing 25.81% as its price dropped from $124 to $92. XRP also fell 16.96%, declining from $1.445 to $1.20.The deeper losses suggest that altcoins faced greater selling pressure than Bitcoin during October.$1.54 Billion in Liquidations Adds to the Market DeclineAs crypto prices fell, leveraged traders came under growing pressure, especially on October 30. According to CoinGlass, crypto liquidations reached $1.54 billion over 24 hours, with long traders suffering the biggest losses at $1.29 billion.The market was also dealing with uncertainty following a Binance security incident with an estimated $6.3 billion impact.