Bitcoin trades at $78,186 on Friday morning. Overnight, Bitcoin slipped to $76,443, lower than any daily close since September 18. The 24-hour range runs from that low to $81,840, a gap of 7.
Bitcoin trades at $78,186 on Friday morning. Overnight, Bitcoin slipped to $76,443, lower than any daily close since September 18. The 24-hour range runs from that low to $81,840, a gap of 7.1 percent between high and low. Against the previous day the price is down 2.2 percent; the figures come from the CoinGecko market overview as of October 30.
Three numbers frame the morning. The price sits 4.6 percent below the 50-day line, which runs at $81,920. It sits 6.9 percent above the 200-day line at $73,125. And it sits 9.6 percent below the highest level of the past 30 days, which was $86,490.
That arrangement is the real finding of the morning: the medium-term trend is broken, the long-term one is not. As long as the price holds above the 200-day line, this year's uptrend remains formally intact, even with October closing at a loss. Bitcoin's market capitalisation stands at $1.57 trillion.
The trigger for the night is known: the attack on a Binance hot wallet hit the market on Thursday evening, and the exchange has paused withdrawals for some tokens. For Friday morning's price, though, the levels the event left behind matter more than the event itself.
$76,443 is the important new number. Bitcoin last closed below that level on September 18, six weeks ago. On paper, everything bought in those six weeks moves into the red as soon as the price drops under that line.
That is why the level is more than a number on a chart. Anyone who built a position over six weeks and sees the entry undercut makes the decision again. Points like these are where the selling waves start that stretch a decline out without any new piece of news arriving.
To the upside stands Thursday's last daily close at $81,274. Between $78,186 and $81,274 lie 3.9 percent. That gap opened in a few hours, and it is the first stretch the price would have to win back for Thursday evening to count as a slip.
The Fear and Greed Index for the crypto market stands at 30 points on Friday morning, which puts it in “fear” territory. On Thursday it read 51 points, neutral, and on Wednesday the same. The 21-point jump within a single day is the sharpest swing in sentiment this month, as recorded by the Crypto Fear and Greed Index at alternative.me.
What the reading measures is worth explaining, because it is often read wrongly. The index is not a survey result. It condenses several market variables into a single number from 0 to 100: the volatility of the price, trading volume relative to its average, Bitcoin's share of total capitalisation, search interest in crypto terms, and polls. A low reading therefore says first of all that the market is swinging harder and trading more than usual, not that a majority answers pessimistically.
In context, that means a reading of 30 describes last night's state, not tomorrow's direction. It only becomes information when set against earlier cases. An index below 30 with the price above the 200-day line is a different situation from an index below 30 with the price beneath it, and the first case applies right now.
Levels on a chart work like gauge marks on a dam: they count again only once the level stands above them.
The 50-day line is the average of the closing prices of the past 50 days and runs at $81,920, above the current price. That average has been falling since the start of October, because the high prices from the beginning of the month are dropping out of the calculation one by one.
A plain piece of mechanics follows, and many market participants watch it: as long as the price stays below a falling 50-day line, the medium-term trend counts as pointing down. The way back up would mean clearing 4.6 percent, measured from Friday morning's level.
The 200-day line sits at $73,125. This is the level where the year's trend is decided, and the distance to the current price is 6.9 percent. Between the overnight low and that line, 4.3 percent of room remains.
Anyone looking for a catching zone finds it in that area, then, and not just below the current price. If Bitcoin falls under $76,443, the next reasoned stop lies at the prices from September 18, and below that the zone around the 200-day line begins. That staggering is why the level at $76,443 is the more important one over the coming days.
On Thursday morning Bitcoin stood at $80,159, and the monthly comparison fell in its favour back then: among the large tokens, Bitcoin carried the smallest October loss in the whole field. Twenty-four hours have passed since, and two things have shifted in them.
First the price itself: $78,186 instead of $80,159, a decline of 2.5 percent. Second the position relative to the 50-day line: on Thursday the price sat 2.1 percent below it, now it is 4.6 percent. Bitcoin's relative edge over the altcoins has held, and that is where Thursday's story continues.
The position relative to the 200-day line is unchanged as well. That it never even came into sight despite the crash night is the most remarkable part of these 24 hours.
The month opened on October 1 at $83,576. At the current level of $78,186, October is down 6.5 percent, with two trading days left until the monthly close on Saturday evening. For comparison: September ended at $83,640.
Monthly closes carry a practical weight that goes beyond the statistics. Funds and index providers value their holdings at these prices, and futures on the month expire. The final hours of a month therefore often carry trading volume that holds no decision about direction. A weak monthly close says little about the first trading day of the new month.
Every sale at a loss needs a dated record, otherwise it is missing from the tax return later on.
Here lies the decision a German investor really has to take on a day like this, and it has nothing to do with the chart. Sales of crypto assets fall under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act, that is, under private disposal transactions. What counts is how long the coins being sold were held.
Selling within a year of the purchase makes it a taxable transaction. A gain has to be taxed as soon as the sum of all private disposal transactions of the year reaches the 1,000-euro threshold. A loss from such a transaction can be offset against gains from other private disposal transactions in the same year, and whatever remains is carried forward into future years.
After a year has passed, the calculation tips in both directions. The gain is then tax-free, but the loss can no longer be offset either. Selling coins bought in 2024 at a loss today means carrying that loss alone. Selling coins bought in September means the loss can be claimed. Our overview of the crypto holding period tracks where the political debate on that deadline stands; the December 31 cut-off still applies unchanged.
In practice, two things follow. You need the purchase date of the units sold for every sale, and with several purchases the order your exchange settles by applies. And the documentation should exist before the sale, not take shape in March of the following year. To see which tools carry the holding period for each unit, look at the comparison of crypto tax software.
The night showed what a 7.1 percent range between high and low does to leveraged positions. A position with tenfold leverage loses its stake on a price move of roughly 10 percent against it; with twentyfold leverage, roughly 5 percent is enough. Thursday night into Friday delivered those 5 percent between $81,840 and $76,443 alone.
Then there is the mechanism that amplifies such moves. When a leveraged position is closed by force, the exchange sells the posted coins into the market. That sale pushes the price further and reaches the next tier of positions. At the peak on Thursday evening, several trading venues reported positions worth $628 million liquidated within one hour.
Who this counts for: anyone holding a leveraged position knows two numbers or none. One is the price at which the position is closed, the other the amount that would have to be added to keep it. Both sit in the position overview of the trading platform, not in the chart. For how far providers diverge on fees and collateral, see the comparison of crypto brokers.
A look at the large altcoins shows the same pattern as every day this week: Bitcoin loses, the others lose more. Ethereum trades at $2,242 and gives up 3.2 percent. Solana stands at $97.16, down 2.7 percent, and so back below the $100 mark. XRP sits at $1.25 and loses 3.2 percent, Dogecoin at $0.0761 with a 2.4 percent loss.
The spread is small in these numbers, but large measured over the month. That is exactly why Bitcoin's share of the total market stays stable or even rises on nights like this, and that share feeds into the Fear and Greed Index. A high Bitcoin share lowers the index reading, because it is treated as a sign of caution.
Buying or reshuffling coins in this situation means paying the spread on top of the fee, and both come out wider when volatility is high than on quiet days. For which trading venues work at which costs under German conditions, see the comparison of crypto exchanges.
Three steps that can be worked through concretely on Friday:
(As of October 30, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)
