Ethereum closes October 16% lower as ETF outflows reach record $1.61B

Ethereum trades at $2,250 today

• A record $1.61 billion in October outflows marked ETH ETFs' weakest month since launch, as Ethereum closed the month down 16%.
• The continuing bull market explains ETH's muted response to the Binance hack, according to BitMine's Thomas Lee.
• The $2,204-$2,256 support zone is being tested by ETH.

Record October outflows from US spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and last week's Binance hack form the backdrop as Ethereum (ETH) trades just above $2,200 on Monday.

ETH ETFs post their weakest month since launch

A 16.06% fall in October brought Ethereum's three-month winning run to an end, Coinglass data show. For the leading altcoin, the monthly loss also represented a third successive negative October return.

SoSoValue data put monthly outflows from US spot ETH ETFs at $1.61 billion, the largest since their July 2024 launch, preceding the price decline. Only three days in October brought modest inflows into the products. Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, by contrast, registered net outflows of $515 million over the month.

Alongside those outflows, the $6.3 billion exploit of Binance carried out by North Korean hackers last Thursday weighed on ETH's performance last month. The incident briefly sent the price below $2,200 and prompted more than $400 million in futures liquidations.

BitMine's Tom Lee credits bull market for ETH's muted response to Binance hack

Despite the hack, ETH has proved resilient, according to Thomas Lee, Chairman of crypto treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR).

"While this is a terrible development, in my view, the relatively muted crypto market reaction is very constructive, particularly compared to the market's response to prior sizable crypto thefts," Lee said in his Monday statement.

By way of comparison, he pointed to the February 2025 cyberattack on ByBit, when DPRK stole $1.5 billion in user funds. ETH dropped 8% on the day the attack was announced and 20% within a week, he noted.

Lee added: "By contrast, since the Binance theft was disclosed, ETH went down 4%. We believe this is a far more muted market reaction despite the size of the theft being approximately quadruple the size,"

Among the factors he said had contained the decline were Binance's substantial reserve to cover losses, the lack of a DeFi cascade of the kind that followed the Bybit theft, swift industry efforts to freeze assets and a continuing "bull market."

Following purchases of 8,537 ETH last week, BitMine's holdings stand at 6.06 million ETH. The company is now roughly 50K ETH short of its target of owning 5% of Ethereum's circulating supply.

Ethereum technical outlook: ETH puts $2,204-$2,256 support to the test

Trading below the 20-, 50-, and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), at $2,359, $2,415, and $2,346 respectively, leaves ETH's near-term daily chart outlook bearish. Its position close to the $2,256 horizontal pivot points to fragile consolidation following the recent retreat. Although both have edged up from oversold levels, the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) at around 33 and the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) near 23 are still in bearish territory, indicating that downward pressure continues to prevail.

The first upside resistance area lies between the 100- and 20-day EMA, alongside the horizontal barrier at $2,355, with the 50-day EMA next in line. Further resistance levels stand at $2,548, $2,636, $2,781 and $3,075. Support at $2,204-$2,256 is currently under test, with a more significant floor below at $2,107. Should that give way, $1,971 and $1,827 would become the next downside targets.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)