Bitcoin Whale Wallets Surge to Four-Month High as Retail Investors Exit

Ethereum price failed to stay above $3,050 and tested $2,950. ETH is now attempting to recover but faces resistance near $3,150.

• Ethereum started a fresh decline after it failed to stay above $3,150.
• The price is trading below $3,120 and the 100-hourly Simple Moving Average.
• There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $3,150 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair could continue to move down if it settles below the $3,065 zone.

Ethereum Price Attempts Recovery

Ethereum price failed to continue higher above $3,200 and started a fresh decline, like Bitcoin. ETH price dipped below $3,150 and entered a bearish zone.

The decline gathered pace below $3,050 and the price dipped below $3,000. A low was formed at $2,941 and the price is now correcting some losses. There was a move above the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $3,217 swing high to the $2,941 low.

Ethereum price is now trading below $3,120 and the 100-hourly Simple Moving Average. If there is another recovery wave, the price could face resistance near the $3,150 level and the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $3,217 swing high to the $2,941 low. There is also a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $3,150 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD.

The next key resistance is near the $3,220 level. The first major resistance is near the $3,250 level. A clear move above the $3,250 resistance might send the price toward the $3,320 resistance. An upside break above the $3,320 region might call for more gains in the coming days. In the stated case, Ether could rise toward the $3,450 resistance zone or even $3,500 in the near term.

Another Decline In ETH?

If Ethereum fails to clear the $3,150 resistance, it could start a fresh decline. Initial support on the downside is near the $3,065 level. The first major support sits near the $3,020 zone.

A clear move below the $3,020 support might push the price toward the $2,950 support. Any more losses might send the price toward the $2,880 region in the near term. The next key support sits at $2,750 and $2,740.

Technical Indicators

Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETH/USD is losing momentum in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETH/USD is now above the 50 zone.

Major Support Level – $3,065

Major Resistance Level – $3,150

Bitcoin has slipped into a critical danger zone as support levels continue to give way, putting the market on edge. Amid this decisive breakdown, the RSI is quietly flashing a bullish divergence, a subtle but meaningful early signal that momentum may be preparing to shift. The charts now paint a tense picture: bearish pressure remains dominant, but the first signs of a potential turnaround have appeared.

Support Levels Crumble As Bitcoin Extends Its Downtrend

According to an update shared by Crypto Candy on X, Bitcoin continues to break through support levels with little hesitation. The price held the $93,000–$95,000 zone for a brief period, but eventually failed to maintain that structure, triggering another move to the downside. The speed of each breakdown highlights how fragile market sentiment currently is.

With the most recent support now lost, Bitcoin has slipped to lower levels and remains under bearish pressure. If this momentum persists, Crypto Candy noted that the next area of interest lies between $86,000 and $87,500, a major support where buyers may attempt to slow or halt the decline.

Should Bitcoin manage to hold within this $86,000–$87,500 range, a short-term reversal becomes possible. Even a modest bounce could provide temporary relief to the broader downtrend. However, such a reaction would still require confirmation before hinting at any sustainable shift in momentum.

If that support fails to hold, Crypto Candy warns that the market could face another steep drop. A continued breakdown would reinforce the ongoing bearish narrative, opening the door for what he described as a “waterfall” scenario. 

Bullish Divergence Emerges On The 4H Chart

Crypto analyst Chad recently noted in an X post that Bitcoin is showing a notable bullish divergence between its price action and the RSI (Relative Strength Index) on the 4-hour chart. This divergence is a technical signal where the price makes a lower low. 

Chad acknowledges that the price is clearly in a short-term downtrend and will need to reverse at some point. While he admits he doesn’t know the exact timing of the reversal, he emphasizes that the bullish divergence is the first positive sign that sellers are losing control and a structural shift may be near.

To officially switch the short-term market structure back to bullish, Chad outlines a simple progression: the price needs to first make a higher high to break the current downtrend, and then confirm that break by establishing a higher low. This sequence is necessary to confirm that buyers have successfully taken over directional control of the price.

By Vicky Ge Huang and Caitlin Ostroff

The rally in crypto prices this year was boosted by a large heap of debt, with traders using leverage to amplify their gains. Now, after a punishing selloff in the past two weeks, the dangers of those bets are becoming apparent.

Investors have never had more ways to place complex wagers on crypto. In some cases people can put down $1 of their own money to gain exposure to $100 of bitcoin. It is a strategy that can produce windfall profits — when the market breaks the borrower's way. If it goes in the wrong direction, traders can be on the hook for big losses and can see their holdings liquidated if they don't post sufficient funds.

Daily total liquidations on crypto exchanges have been on the rise this year. But in October, they shot up to a record high, according to data from CoinGlass, after President Trump's surprise tariff announcement against China triggered a crypto selloff that compelled exchanges to close out underwater positions.

"In the end, it really comes down to the fact that you can invest with more means than you have, but it also means that you will get punished for not managing your risks accordingly," said Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at crypto data firm Nansen.

Pressure on leveraged traders has been one of the main story lines in crypto's recent skid. Bitcoin has lost roughly 27% of its value since hitting a record high above $126,000 in October, with investors' retreat from riskier trades dragging the largest cryptocurrency to a recent $92,000, its lowest level since April.

"The last two weeks have been really rough for a lot of people," said Kevin Wan, a 33-year-old individual investor who has been trading cryptocurrencies since 2013.

Wan started selling bitcoin short, betting on its decline, once the token touched $106,000. He borrowed on a crypto exchange to give him 20 times leverage on his trade. When bitcoin fell, Wan said, he made about $120,000.

"I've learned from previous cycles to put money away in places where you can't really access it," he said. "Because it's really easy to get into a mindset of revenge trading and then just having a downward spiral of performance when the market is hard."

Bitcoin's recent crash has also pulled down the shares of crypto-treasury companies. For much of the year, these companies sold stock or borrowed money to plow the proceeds into bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies.

Strategy, a firm that pioneered the use of corporate funds to accumulate bitcoin, has tumbled 29% in the past month. BitMine Immersion Technologies, an ether-treasury company backed by Peter Thiel and run by veteran Wall Street strategist Tom Lee, is down 35%. Both stocks are well off the pace of bitcoin itself, which has fallen 13% in that same period.

Regulated institutions and fast-money traders alike are now pushing complex strategies such as options and futures, so-called treasury stocks and even crypto lending.

In years past, U.S. investors haven't had access to many of the riskier strategies that crypto investors have used in other markets. But that began to change this year, with Trump's re-election ushering in a more crypto-friendly Washington.

This summer, Coinbase, the largest U.S. exchange, launched perpetual futures, a type of financial contract that never expires and lets traders bet on digital tokens' rise using up to 10 times leverage. Cboe plans to launch bitcoin and ether continuous futures with 10-year expirations in December.

Crypto lending is also making a comeback. The practice, a staple in the market's 2021 run-up, looks a lot like traditional banking. A lender takes in deposits from one set of customers, and then lends those funds out to a different group at a higher interest rate than it pays depositors.

But in the crypto markets, lenders typically offer depositors much higher yields than those available in dollar-based bank savings accounts. When crypto markets tumbled in 2022, many of these lenders collapsed.

The dollar-denominated value of outstanding loans from centralized crypto lenders and decentralized lending platforms ballooned to a record high around $74 billion at the end of September, exceeding the previous record of $69 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to research from Galaxy Digital.

While bitcoin's recent selloff has wiped out some leveraged bets, traders expect it to tick back up.

"Until there's some sort of overriding body that says this is where you have to cap leverage, I just can't see that changing," said Jake Ostrovskis, head of over-the-counter trading at crypto firm Wintermute.

Write to Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com and Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com

Kraken says it’s now valued at $20 billion after an $800 million funding round it said would support the US-based crypto exchange’s global expansion. 

Kraken said on Tuesday that it raised the capital across two tranches, with the second tranche including a $200 million strategic investment from US market-making giant Citadel Securities at a $20 billion valuation.

It also included a strategic partnership with Citadel, which also pitched in to Ripple’s $500 million raise earlier this month, which will see the firm offer Kraken expertise on differentiated liquidity provision, risk management and market structure insights.

Kraken’s primary tranche included backing from Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG and Tribe Capital, alongside a “significant commitment” from the family office of Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi.

U.S. Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said Tuesday that he aims to have the committee vote on the crypto market structure bill next month.

"By the end of this year, next month, we believe we can mark up and vote in both committees and get this to the floor of the Senate early next year so that President Trump will sign the legislation," Scott said Tuesday on Fox Business' Mornings with Maria.

The market structure legislation requires approval from both the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees, as it deals with both securities and commodities regulations.

Scott said the legislation would protect consumers while helping cement America's dominance as the world's most powerful economy for the next century. The Republican senator unsuccessfully pushed to pass the bill by September this year, for which he blamed the Democrats.

"The Democrats have been stalling and stalling and stalling because they don’t want President Trump to make America the crypto capital of the world," Scott said in the Tuesday appearance on Fox Business. "It’s not just for President Trump, it’s for the American people."

The Senate has been working on its own crypto market structure legislation after the House passed its version — the CLARITY Act — this summer. 

The Republican-led Senate Banking Committee seeks to delineate jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while creating a new term for "ancillary assets" to clarify which cryptocurrencies are not securities. Republicans would need Democratic support to advance the bill. 

Amid ongoing bipartisan discussions on the legislation, a proposal from Senate Democrats was leaked. The six-page proposal focused on decentralized finance and would task the Treasury Department and other financial regulators with defining when an entity or person "exercises control or sufficient influence." This draft drew heavy criticism from many in the crypto industry, with some arguing it would essentially ban DeFi. 

Following the incident, both the Senate Democrats and Republicans each held meetings with industry leaders. Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith, who was present at the Democrat meeting, told The Block that there is a group of Democratic Senators that want to "get this done."

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© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The crypto market is showing signs of life again after a dramatic shakeout earlier today. Bitcoin, which briefly fell below $90,000 for the first time in seven months, has bounced back toward the $94,000 zone. The recovery comes as the broader market turns slightly positive, with global crypto market capitalization rising 1.4 percent to $3.16 trillion.

Most altcoins are trading in the green, including Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Cardano, Dogecoin and BNB. The rebound follows a wave of volatility triggered by heavy liquidations, a macro-driven sell-off in tech stocks, and speculation surrounding political and regulatory risks.

Bitcoin Reclaims Ground After Liquidations

Bitcoin is now trading near $92,500 after recovering from its morning low of $89,000. Analysts say the plunge was driven by forced liquidations and investors fleeing risk assets. More than $620 million in positions were wiped out in 24 hours as BTC tested key support.

Despite the panic, Bitcoin quickly stabilized. Traders point out that BTC’s earlier fall mirrored this month’s broad sell-off in AI-related tech stocks, suggesting a shift toward “risk-off” behavior in global markets.

Ethereum and XRP Follow the Bounce

Ethereum is up around $3,110 with a 3% gain in the past day, while XRP trades near $2.21 after rising more than 3 percent. XRP’s move follows strong interest in the newly launched spot XRP ETF in the U.S., which recorded nearly $60 million in first-day volume, this year’s highest opening for any ETF.

Altcoins including Solana, TRON, Dogecoin and Cardano have also turned positive after the early-morning chaos.

Why the Market Dropped And Why It’s Recovering

Experts say the downturn was caused by a mix of macro stress and crypto-specific pressure:

• Investors dumped speculative tech and crypto assets as markets weakened.

• U.S. senators demanded an investigation into World Liberty Financial over alleged token ties to North Korea and Russia.

• Rising token supply, new listings, and the growth of memecoin markets added downward pressure.

• Expectations shifted around how much the U.S. Federal Reserve might ease rates.

But the quick rebound shows that underlying interest in digital assets remains strong. 

ETF Growth Adds Support Across the Market

New spot ETFs, including XRP, Litecoin and upcoming Avalanche products, are giving both institutions and retail investors more ways to enter the market. This increased access is helping stabilize prices during moments of panic.