Bitcoin, Ethereum fall: Whales panic as market corrects

As October came to a close, Bitcoin and Ethereum faced challenges that fueled fear, doubt, and uncertainty among large holders. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 1.75% in the past 24 hours, trading at $68,500 at the time of writing, with a market cap of approximately $1.35 trillion and a daily trading volume of $23 billion.

Data from IntoTheBlock indicates that the daily volume of whale transactions—defined as those involving at least $100,000 worth of BTC—has started to decline in line with the asset’s price drop. This figure plummeted from $67.8 billion on October 29 to just $21.1 billion on November 2.

Ethereum (ETH), the leading altcoin, mirrored Bitcoin’s downward momentum. It declined 2.2% over the past day, trading at $2,450 at the time of writing, with a market cap nearing $300 billion.

The volume of large Ethereum transactions also saw a significant drop, falling from $8.1 billion on October 29 to $2.5 billion yesterday.

Sharp declines in whale activity often indicate fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), suggesting potential panic across the market.

Two main reasons

One factor contributing to the decline is the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential elections set for November 5. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, noted in a Friday report to crypto.news that the market is speculating whether a future administration, led by either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, might take a more favorable approach toward the cryptocurrency sector.

Another factor is the initiation of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows on November 1. According to a report from crypto.news, these U.S.-based investment products experienced a net outflow of $54.9 million on Friday.

Spot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. also faced net outflows, totaling $10.09 million on the same day.

The outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs followed a streak of seven consecutive days of inflows, during which these ETFs accumulated over $5 billion in October alone.