Bitcoin (BTC) reversed sharply again on Tuesday, October 21, sliding nearly 3% and trading as low as $107,552 in the early hours, having lost all of its weekend momentum.
The asset moved in step with the overall crypto market, whose total valuation has dropped more than 2% to $3.67 trillion.
As expected, the new setback is tempering expectations for “Uptober,” the month known for strong gains, with Bitcoin now down 6.30% over the past month, trading at $108,290 at the time of publication.
Altcoins mirrored Bitcoin’s decline. Ethereum (ETH), for example, has dropped 5.3% to $3,859, while XRP has fallen 2.2% to $2.41, showing little reaction to Ripple Labs’ announcement of a new treasury-backed vehicle, Evernorth.
At the same time, BNB shed 5.7%, while Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) lost between 4% and 6%. Among memecoins, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw the greatest losses, losing 4.3%.
Why is Bitcoin down?
As mentioned, the global crypto market tumbled sharply over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin sliding under heavy selling pressure as investor sentiment flipped.
The sell-off was accelerated primarily by $320 million in leveraged crypto positions being liquidated over the last 24 hours.
Similarly, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded further net outflows on October 20, extending a four-day withdrawal streak, as BlackRock saw $101 million in redemptions.
Furthermore, with the Fear & Greed Index at 33 (“Fear”), BTC appears oversold, but the sentiment might turn ahead of the U.S. crypto policy roundtable scheduled for October 21–22.
AWS outage sinks crypto
Adding to the turmoil, yesterday’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage disrupted operations on major exchanges, including Coinbase.
The resulting loss of access to digital assets led to further panic selling as algorithmic systems fired off liquidations.
Thus, the correction not only underscores the crypto’s reliance on institutional adoption and macro elements but also its weakness to technical disruptions.
Featured image via Shutterstock
