Bitcoin closed lower in October, ending its six-year “Uptober” streak, while BNB eked out a gain as a mid-month shakeout left most majors stuck below early highs.
The shock came on October 10, when President Donald Trump threatened new high tariffs on China amid tensions over rare earths, triggering a broad policy of risk aversion.
Bitcoin slipped from around $120,000 to around $105,000 in rapid trading, and altcoins fell harder as low liquidity met high leverage. Over the course of October 10 and 11, derivatives sites self-liquidated positions estimated at tens of billions of dollars and more than half a trillion dollars in market value evaporated before a fragile rebound set a floor. This was a headline colliding with crowded positioning, not a crypto-specific catalyst.
At the end of the month, CoinDesk Data showed that Bitcoin finished October in the red, a result that breaks what traders call “Uptober.”
On CoinGlass’s Bitcoin monthly returns heatmap, October 2025 is the first red October since 2018 and ends a green period that extended from 2019 to 2024. This tradition is important because the pattern has persisted in very different regimes — late-cycle surges and post-sell recoveries — so a failure in 2025 resets expectations and reminds traders that seasonality is a trend, not a promise.
The shape of the month was remarkably consistent on the TradingView one-month charts.
Bitcoin started strongly, suffered the synchronized air pocket of October 10 and 11, then spent the second half of the month climbing without regaining its first peak. Ether traced the same basic fade arc and stopped below the band of round numbers that it tested during the first week. Solana and XRP echoed this pace with a sequence of lower highs in the final sessions. In practical terms, late bounces have not turned resistance into support, which is why the monthly candles are printed in red for these four.
BNB has broken ranks. It absorbed the mid-month downdraft, made higher lows during the final third and closed October higher – around 4.2% – leaving a green print while its peers slipped. Outside of the top 10, several names also ended October on the screens monitored here, including ZEC, XMR and WBTC, highlighting that pockets of strength persisted beneath the surface even as the leaders cooled.
The reason the “Uptober” brand has stuck is simple. It’s a community nickname born from Bitcoin’s tendency to post gains in October over the past decade, bolstered by this CoinGlass grid that shows every October from 2019 to 2024 in the green. Turning the cell red this year doesn’t erase the historic tilt, but it does return risk management to tape confirmation rather than reliance on timing.
The figures displayed by the different dashboards can diverge for trivial reasons. CoinGlass presents monthly results close to the close which isolate the month of October. Rolling 30-day readings on major trackers are updated continuously and often include highs from early October, so they may show a steeper decline through November 1, even when the strict calendar month seems milder. The direction is the same; the measurement window determines the magnitude.
