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Bitcoin and Ether Lose Ground
Bitcoin and Ether declined over the week as a sharp reversal in U.S. exchange-traded fund flows added pressure across cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin traded at $80,752 as of 9:30 a.m. Oct. 24 in South Korea, down 0.7% over seven days and 0.4% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. Ether stood at $2,374, falling 1.6% for the week and 0.3% over 24 hours.
The total cryptocurrency market was valued at $2.72 trillion, a 3.4% decline over 24 hours. Bitcoin accounted for 59.5% of the market, with a capitalization of $1.62 trillion, while Ether's market value was $290.1 billion.
U.S. Bitcoin ETFs See Sharp Reversal
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $635.6 million in net outflows on Oct. 22, the largest one-day withdrawal since June 25, according to Farside Investors. BlackRock's IBIT lost $254 million, Fidelity's FBTC shed $217 million and ARKB posted $109 million in outflows.
The withdrawals followed several days of gains. The funds attracted $526.7 million on Oct. 19 and $23.2 million on Oct. 20, Farside data showed. The Block reported another $528.4 million in net inflows on Oct. 21. Despite the Oct. 22 pullback, The Block calculated net inflows of $442.7 million from Oct. 19 through Oct. 22.
U.S. spot ether ETFs remained under heavier pressure. They posted $103.3 million in net outflows on Oct. 19, including $95.4 million from ETHA. SoSoValue reported $26.13 million in outflows on Oct. 20 and $14.96 million in inflows the following day, when the funds held $15.36 billion in net assets. Farside recorded another $110 million in withdrawals on Oct. 22.
Through Oct. 21, ether funds had lost a net $1.08 billion during the month, their largest monthly outflow of 2026, according to SoSoValue. That erased September's $832 million inflow and reduced net inflows for the year to about $485 million.
Technology Stocks and Oil Add Market Pressure
The ETF retreat coincided with weakness in other risk-sensitive markets. The Nasdaq-100 recorded its worst day since June on Oct. 22 amid selling in artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks. Market data from Oct. 23 showed Brent crude rising 2.6% to more than $116 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate climbed 3.1% to $102.53, its highest price in a month and in six months. Gold fell below $4,000 an ounce for the first time since July, trading near $3,990.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized stablecoin regulations on Oct. 21 to implement legislation passed the previous year. Separately, JPMorgan's asset management division projected that bitcoin could return about 10% annually over the next decade and outperform stocks and gold over the long term, while warning that substantial volatility could continue.
Solana Activates Major Upgrade
Solana fell 1.5% for the week to $102. The network activated its Alpenglow consensus upgrade around 3 p.m. UTC on Oct. 21 during mainnet beta epoch 1064. The upgrade is intended to replace the TowerBFT voting system and reduce transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds.
Ethereum developers, meanwhile, delayed the Glamsterdam upgrade while investigating an issue involving EIP-8037.
Avalanche posted the steepest decline among the major cryptocurrencies tracked, losing 9.2% to $9.03. Grayscale on Oct. 21 opened in-kind subscriptions for 10 exchange-traded products, including its GAVA Avalanche staking ETF, allowing eligible investors to contribute the underlying cryptocurrency directly in exchange for fund shares.
BNB was the notable weekly gainer, rising 2.4% to $737. XRP declined 1.2% to $1.29.
Bitcoin Trades Between Support and Resistance
Glassnode said bitcoin remained between a support area near $80,000 and resistance between $85,000 and $87,500. Six of 11 major exchanges tracked held less bitcoin than they did a year earlier, while the median decline among 10 smaller exchanges was about 6.4%. Gate's holdings rose 4.9%, and Deribit also posted an increase.
CryptoQuant data showed exchange reserves rising from about 2.67 million bitcoin in early October to roughly 2.68 million. That total remained about 130,000 bitcoin below the 2.8 million held in February.
The market figures reflect publicly available data as of Oct. 24, 2026, in South Korea. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile, and investors can lose their principal.
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