Bitcoin slides below $104K as crypto sell-off deepens.
$1B in crypto liquidations hit traders within 24 hours.
Aave, Flare, BCH sink; Jito jumps on a16z investment.

The cryptocurrency market has extended its unstable week with a broad sell-off, erasing gains from earlier in the period amid Bitcoin’s slump to under $104,000.

Meanwhile, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by more than 3% to $3.5 trillion – before a slight recovery as Bitcoin reclaimed the $107,000 level.

CoinGlass data showed the global crypto liquidations jumped to over $1.04 billion in 24 hours, with longs suffering the most pain.

Open interest was down 3.8% to $150 billion as Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and BNB all retested, and in some cases, dropped below key levels.

Bitcoin slumps to $103,598

Bitcoin led the market’s steep drop on Friday, October 17, 2025. While the sharp decline was not as bloody as the annihilation seen on Oct. 10, the fall to lows of $103,500 marked another big swing for BTC.

The benchmark digital asset had partially recovered to highs of $106,600 at the time of writing.

However, the slump injected fresh fears into a market that witnessed a historic $19 billion liquidation event a week prior.

Notably, Bitcoin’s dump came amid investor jitters across Wall Street following bad loans news from two US regional banks.

A spooked market reacted lower, and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes shared his view on what that could mean.

$BTC on sale. If this US regional banking wobble grows to a crisis be ready for a 2023-like bailout. And then go shopping assuming you have spare capital. I got my list, what’s on yours fam? pic.twitter.com/TbuQQI3njN

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) October 17, 2025

ETH, XRP, SOL and BNB mirror BTC’s woes

Bitcoin hogged headlines for its sharp drop, with an intraday range of $109,260 and $103,598. However, the rot was widespread and Ethereum, XRP, Solana and BNB all shed a significant portion of recent gains.

Specifically, Bitcoin’s woes that aligned with major ETF outflows saw Ether price drop to under $3,680.

This extended the decline below the key support level of $4,000, although bulls hovered near $3,800 at the time of writing.

Crypto analyst Lark Davis said Ethereum is poised at a make-or-break level.

Ethereum pulling back into a key zone here.

Price is testing the weekly 20 EMA — lined up perfectly with horizontal support and the 0.382 Fib.

Either this area holds and sends it back up, or we start eyeing the next leg lower toward the 0.618.

Decision time for $ETH. pic.twitter.com/JtdsBXsUNC

— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) October 17, 2025

Elsewhere, XRP price fell more than 4% to lows of $2.20, well off key support of $2.50 and the psychologically important $3.00.

Ripple’s acquisition of treasury firm GTreasury and reported $1 billion raise for XRP could be key to bullish sentiment.

Solana, which traded around $182, had declined nearly 5% as it touched lows of $174 to inject fresh bearish sentiment below the critical $200 mark.

The market also saw BNB, one of the top performers in the past months, suffer more profit-taking as the price touched lows of $1,024. BNB hit its all-time high of $1,370 on Oct. 13.

Aave, Flare, Bitcoin Cash among top losers

As the top altcoins mirrored the BTC downturn, with losses on Wall Street catalyzing the dump, Aave, Aster, Flare and Bitcoin Cash emerged as some of the top losers on the day.

Notably, AAVE was down 13%, ASTER -10%, FLR -9.7% and BCH traded -8% to lead underperformers among the 100 largest coins by market cap.

Earlier in the day, Zcash fell below $190 amid a 20% dip before a slight rebound pushed ZEC above $216. The privacy coin’s value was 7% down in the past 24 hours.

Ethena, ZORA and Jito were among the top gainers, with Jito benefiting from bullish news related to a $50 million investment by a16z.