The week from October 5 to 11 left its mark on every crypto portfolio, but to very different depths. Bitcoin trades at $82,922, or €74,020, on Sunday morning, 2.1 percent below the level of l
The week from October 5 to 11 left its mark on every crypto portfolio, but to very different depths. Bitcoin trades at $82,922, or €74,020, on Sunday morning, 2.1 percent below the level of last Sunday. Ether lost 6.8 percent, XRP 5.8 percent and Solana as much as 8.1 percent. Holders who mostly own Bitcoin got off lightly. Those spread widely across altcoins lost considerably more. Here is the week in review, with the reasons behind it and what to go through in your own portfolio today.
The week started strong. On Monday morning Bitcoin stood at $86,636, the high of the week. By Thursday evening the price had slipped to just above $80,000, and among the altcoins the sell-off was fiercer still. The market has steadied somewhat since then, without making up the losses. The figures rest on hourly prices from CoinGecko, calculated from Sunday, October 4, at 2 a.m. to Sunday, October 11, at 2 a.m. German time.
Coin A week ago Sunday morning Change Low of the week Bitcoin (BTC) $84,743 $82,922 (€74,020) minus 2.1% $80,652 on Thursday Ether (ETH) $2,687 $2,504 (€2,235) minus 6.8% $2,414 on Thursday XRP $1.49 $1.40 (€1.25) minus 5.8% $1.33 on Thursday Solana (SOL) $119.60 $109.91 (€98.18) minus 8.1% $106.41 on ThursdayA simple calculation shows what this means for a typical portfolio. A basket holding equal parts of these four coins lost 5.7 percent over the week: $1,000 became $943. A basket with 60 percent Bitcoin, 20 percent Ether and 10 percent each in XRP and Solana lost only 4.0 percent. The Bitcoin weighting, in other words, cushioned the fall. Both figures are calculated in dollars, because that is the currency the prices are set in.
Thursday brought the setback: Ether, XRP and Solana hit their weekly lows that evening.
The pattern of the week is a familiar one: when investors cut risk, they sell the smaller holdings first. Bitcoin counts as the safer harbour within the crypto market, relative though that is. Its share of total market capitalisation stands at 59.1 percent, according to CoinGecko. The market as a whole is worth around $2.81 trillion.
The trigger came from the US central bank. On Wednesday the Fed published the minutes of its September 15 and 16 meeting. They state that most members consider a further rate rise before the end of the year appropriate. In September the Fed had already lifted its key rate to 3.75 to 4.00 percent. Higher rates make safe assets more attractive and pull money out of risky markets. What the minutes say in detail is set out in our report on the Fed minutes.
The retreat shows most clearly in the US exchange-traded funds. On figures from Farside Investors, the Bitcoin ETFs lost around $680 million from Monday to Friday, with around $485 million flowing out on Wednesday alone, the most on any single day since June. The week before, around $241 million had still come in. For the Ether ETFs it is worse: they have recorded outflows on nine consecutive trading days since September 29. The detail on the funds is in our analysis of the ETF outflows.
Sentiment remains in greed territory, even though the Bitcoin ETFs lost around $680 million over the week.
Sentiment has nonetheless not turned. The Fear and Greed Index from alternative.me stands at 61 points on Sunday, still in greed territory. On Tuesday it was 73 points, a week ago 65. Many investors therefore read the setback as a pause rather than a reversal. Whether they are right will be settled in the coming week by the inflation data.
The holding period stays, for now. On Thursday the Bundestag rejected the Greens' bill to abolish the crypto holding period by 445 votes to 132. Anyone holding crypto assets for more than a year therefore continues to sell them tax-free. That does not settle the matter. The Federal Ministry of Finance put forward its own draft on the taxation of crypto assets on September 30, and according to the covering letter to the industry bodies the federal cabinet is to take it up on Wednesday, October 14. What the draft contains and which objections have been raised is covered in our piece on the tax draft. We summarised the outcome after the vote in the Bundestag. That same evening parliament also passed a law under which German tax authorities will automatically exchange data on crypto transactions with other states.
Two exchanges are clearing house. Coinbase is ending trading in the stablecoins USDT and DAI as of October 30, and anyone holding them there has to act. The detail is in our article on the Coinbase conversion. Kraken is dropping a series of smaller tokens as of October 23; the coins affected and the deadlines are in our overview of the Kraken delisting.
First, the holding periods. Bitcoin's record high is more than a year back; it was reached on October 6, 2025. Anyone who bought then is around a third down and has passed the one-year mark. A sale would be tax-free, but the tax office will then no longer recognise the loss. Holders sitting on purchases from October 2025 whose period is still running should work the numbers through beforehand. How to do that is explained in our piece on losses and the holding period. A portfolio tracker with a tax function shows the deadlines per purchase at a glance.
Second, leverage. On Wednesday the US publishes the September inflation data. Dates like that often move the market within minutes. Anyone holding leveraged positions should check beforehand how far away the liquidation price sits.
Third, where the coins are held. Coins sitting on an exchange hang on that exchange's decisions, as the cases at Coinbase and Kraken show. Whether yours holds a MiCA licence can be seen in the comparison of crypto exchanges.
Wednesday, October 14, bundles two dates at once. In Berlin the cabinet is to deliberate on the crypto tax draft; in Washington the US consumer price index for September appears at 2:30 p.m. German time. If inflation comes in higher than expected, the probability of a further rate rise at the end of October goes up, and that would hit above all the altcoins that already gave way the most this week. If it comes in lower, the market would have room for a recovery. For Bitcoin the first level to the downside is the weekly low just above $80,000, to the upside the weekly high of $86,636.
(As of October 11, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)
