Ethereum (ETH) Slides 13%, Headed for Its Worst October in Eight Years

A Red October After a 9% September

Ethereum (ETH) has lost roughly 13% of its value since the start of October, a drawdown that would make this the asset's worst October in eight years. September told the opposite story: the second-largest cryptocurrency, a network secured by proof of stake, added close to 9% and left traders expecting the gains to carry into the new month. In crypto folklore the tenth month is a bullish stretch, and the record backs that up: October has delivered the asset an average return of +4.14%. October has closed in the red only rarely across the asset's history, which is why this year's drawdown draws so much attention. A third consecutive monthly gain in September had set up a shot at a fourth; a red close on Saturday, October 31, would end that run instead. The drop has already erased September's entire gain and then some, and a market that gains 9% one month and sheds 13% the next is left with badly bruised position sizes. Sellers still hold the tape with a week left in the month. Our live monitoring puts the Ethereum price near $2,317 at the time of writing, down 1.3% over the past 24 hours, after the market traded around $2,330 at 14:25 UTC on Monday; the level has drifted only about a tenth of a percent since the newest readings landed. The weekly damage is heavier, at roughly 4.3% over seven days. Several analysts who chart the asset expect the decline to extend before any durable recovery, and the strongest evidence for that caution is behavioral rather than technical: the institutional bid that supported the price through the summer has weakened. The monthly ledger now runs about 17 points below the October average, a gap that widens with every red day.

ETFs Shed $220 Million Last Week

Spot ETFs have become the bear case's clearest exhibit. Redemptions, not trader sentiment, drive the mechanism: when an ETF investor sells shares, the issuer must hand back Ethereum (ETH), and those coins then meet the open market. The funds bled another $220 million last week, and the composition of that outflow matters as much as its size: conservative holders such as pension funds and hedge funds have been trimming exposure, which forces issuers like BlackRock, Grayscale and Fidelity to sell ETH from their reserves to satisfy redemptions. The weekly figure sits inside a broader slide our earlier coverage measured at $1.07 billion for US-listed products, in net outflows over 30 days; at that pace, the weekly $220 million is a slice of a larger, ongoing exit. If redemptions continue, that mechanical selling stays in place and a recovery gets harder to sustain. On the chart, the analyst Alaoui Capital calls the current zone make-or-break and sees risk of a break below the $2,000 psychological level into the $1,850–$1,920 support and resistance belt. Their scenario cuts both ways: if price sweeps into that belt and meets a firm rejection, a relief bounce could arrive right when the bearish crowd leans hardest. A second market voice, Ted Pillows, expects a shallower slide: the asset printed another weekly candle close beneath $2,400, and unless it reclaims $2,350 soon, the next stop is $2,200. Supply-side positioning has shifted too. Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder, sold more than $15 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) and trimmed several other altcoin holdings, including Ethena (ENA) and Uniswap (UNI), a striking reversal given his call earlier this year that Ethereum could reach $10,000 by the end of 2026. Even the accumulation side has not gone quiet: corporate Ethereum treasury buyers kept adding, as our earlier coverage of Bitmine's 10,452 ETH weekly buy documented.

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Our composite scoring sharpens the map: the nearest support shelf sits at $2,306.56, rated 100 out of 100, with a second floor at $2,205.71 scored 88 out of 100; with the market near $2,317, price is holding just above the stronger of the two. Momentum leans against a quick rebound, as the relative strength index prints 33.76 and the trend reads as a downtrend; the full map sits in our Ethereum technical analysis section. Derivatives add caution: perp funding of 0.0026% and a 3.00 long/short account ratio show leveraged accounts leaning long into a falling tape. The confirmed sellers are the ETF redeemers and Hayes; if $2,306.56 gives way, the $1,850–$1,920 belt becomes the battleground, and the buyers who would have to appear there are the same conservative allocators now redeeming.