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Binance displayed Bitcoin at $79,979 at 08:22 UTC on Monday, 26 October 2026, roughly 6% below last Wednesday's $84,898 high. Ether and XRP joined Dogecoin at prices last seen in August, extending the decline across the largest tokens.
The retreat followed a technology-share sell-off that began on Thursday. Bitcoin's move below a key chart level and withdrawals from US spot funds have added to the pressure, while traders are also weighing oil prices and the Federal Reserve's next decision.
What pushed risk assets lower
The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% on Thursday, its worst session since June, and Meta Platforms lost about 7%. Lorris Beziers, senior DeFi analyst at Tesseract Group, described the crypto move as a spillover from equity risk rather than a new shock specific to digital assets.
Farside Investors data showed withdrawals of $635.6 million from US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Thursday, followed by $137.9 million on Friday. That reversed more than $1 billion of inflows from the three sessions before. The selling came after Bitcoin gained more than 40% in the third quarter, its strongest quarter since late 2024. FM Intelligence data put it 0.4% lower for the month to October 20.
Use magnified the move: CoinGlass recorded $440.9 million in crypto liquidations over 24 hours by Thursday evening, with $397 million from long positions. Brent crude added another pressure point, rising 4% to $113.17 a barrel on Thursday amid Middle East tensions.
The Federal Reserve decision on Wednesday is the next macroeconomic marker. The central bank lifted its target range by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4.00% in September, while consumer prices rose 3.7% in the year to September. A hold is priced for this week, but CME FedWatch put the probability of a December increase at about 75%, according to Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo.
Which desks face the next test
Bitcoin has moved back into its August-September range after closing at $81,189 on Friday, below the $81,355 support level identified in an October 13 analysis. It also fell beneath its 50-day exponential moving average, now near $80,793.
The weekend low was $79,221. A daily close below $80,000 would put $75,055, the range's lower boundary, in view; the 200-day EMA near $76,344 could also act as a support level.
Jeff Anderson, head of US at STS Digital, said a break under $80,000 could bring forced selling and liquidations, although his desk regards the level as a buying opportunity. Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, expects Bitcoin to remain between $80,000 and $85,000 until the US midterm elections. Beziers said the near-term test is whether fund inflows return while Bitcoin holds the $80,000 to $81,000 area into the Fed meeting.
Ether has fallen below October support near $2,393 and was at $2,314 on Monday. Its 200-day EMA, near $2,318, has so far checked the fall, after a Saturday low of $2,280. A daily close below that average would put the $2,000 level next, followed by the $1,819 to $1,919 area.
XRP was at $1.277, below its 50-day and 200-day EMAs, while support remains between $1.28 and $1.32. A daily close below $1.28 would bring the $0.99 to $1.01 area into focus. Dogecoin has already fallen through $0.080 and was near $0.077, with $0.0684 the cited downside target.
The market slide and the levels being tested were also reported by Finance Magnates. The calendar extends beyond Wednesday's Fed decision: core personal consumption expenditures inflation data are due Thursday, and about $11 billion in Bitcoin options expire on Deribit on Friday.
Where this lands in the stack
The reported stress is in prices, fund flows and leveraged positions; the story identifies no platform outage or change to venue, custody or settlement arrangements. For broker and prop-firm risk teams, the operational question is whether price feeds, exposure limits and liquidation controls respond consistently as Bitcoin tests $80,000 and other tokens approach their stated support levels.
Teams can check how their systems handle a daily close below that Bitcoin level, and whether margin, alerts and client reporting use the same price sources and cut-off times. With ETF flow data, macro releases and a large Deribit expiry all in view, operators should also ask how quickly those inputs reach monitoring and reconciliation workflows. The report does not specify how individual firms' systems or positions are configured.
