Why Is Crypto Going Down? Bitcoin Tests $80,000 as Ethereum, XRP and Dogecoin Sink to August Lows

Crypto prices kept sliding today (Monday), with Bitcoin (BTC) at $79,979 on Binance at 08:22 UTC, about 6% below last Wednesday's high of $84,898. Ether, XRP and Dogecoin fell to their lowest prices since August.

The selloff started on Thursday, when worries about how artificial intelligence spending will be funded hit technology stocks. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6%, its worst session since June, and Meta Platforms lost about 7%.

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On my daily charts, bitcoin and ether have both broken the supports that held them for most of October, and Dogecoin has lost its own. XRP is the last of the four still sitting on support.

Why Is Crypto Going Down This Week?

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US lost $635.6 million on Thursday and another $137.9 million on Friday, according to Farside Investors data. That reversed more than $1 billion of inflows over the previous three sessions.

Bitcoin gained more than 40% in the third quarter, its best quarter since late 2024, and was still only 0.4% lower in the month to October 20, according to FM Intelligence data.

Leverage made the drop sharper. CoinGlass data showed $440.9 million in crypto liquidations over 24 hours by Thursday evening, $397 million of them long positions.

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Oil added to the pressure. Brent crude jumped 4% to $113.17 a barrel on Thursday amid Middle East tensions, keeping inflation risk in play before the Federal Reserve (Fed) announces its next decision on Wednesday.

The Fed raised its target range by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4.00% in September, and consumer prices rose 3.7% in the year to September. A hold is priced for this week, but Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo, said on Friday that CME FedWatch still put the odds of a December hike at about 75%.

Lorris Beziers, senior DeFi analyst at Tesseract Group, said on Thursday that the move looked like equity risk spilling into bitcoin "rather than a fresh crypto-specific shock."

How Low Can Bitcoin Go?

In my October 13 bitcoin analysis, I treated $81,355 as the support that kept the bullish case alive. Bitcoin closed below it on Friday at $81,189 and fell under the 50-day exponential moving average, now near $80,793, over the weekend.

That puts bitcoin back inside its August-September range. It now sits on the psychological $80,000 level, and Saturday's low reached $79,221.

If $80,000 gives way, I expect a move back toward the lower edge of that range at $75,055, about 6% below the current price. The 200-day EMA near $76,344, about 4.5% lower, could still slow the decline, but bitcoin now has plenty of room to correct.

Jeff Anderson, head of US at STS Digital, said on Friday that a break below $80,000 "will force selling and liquidations," but his desk sees that level as a place to buy.

"We favor buying dips to $80k and owning tail risk puts on these prices," Anderson said.

Can Ether Hold $2,300?

Ether looks much the same. It broke its October support near $2,393 and has closed lower four days in a row, with Monday's candle red again at $2,314.

The supports I listed in my October 7 crypto analysis have now been reached. The last of them, the 200-day EMA near $2,318, has stopped the decline so far, and ether is testing it again now. Saturday's dip to $2,280 did not end with a daily close below it.

A daily close below that average would send ether back toward the psychological $2,000 level, about 14% lower. Below that sits the $1,819 to $1,919 zone, where ether consolidated in July and August, 17% to 21% under the current price.

Is XRP Heading Back to $1?

XRP is still holding support between $1.28 and $1.32, but it now trades below both its 50-day and 200-day EMAs, which leaves it in a downtrend. It was at $1.277 on Monday, down 1.3%.

The bull flag I described in my September XRP analysis did not play out. Instead, the chart drew two almost identical falling boxes. XRP dropped out of the second one and then retested it from below, which confirmed the breakdown.

That leaves the trigger from my October 15 XRP update in place. If $1.28 fails on a daily close, I see XRP returning to the $0.99 to $1.01 area, about 21% to 23% lower.

How Low Can Dogecoin Go?

Dogecoin has already broken support at $0.080 and trades below both its 50-day and 200-day EMAs, near $0.077 on Monday. Local lows may slow the selling, but my main downside target is just under 7 cents, at $0.0684, about 11% below the current price.That is the 2026 low, last tested on August 1 and the lowest level for the meme coin since November 2023.

What Could Stop the Crypto Selloff?

Not everyone expects a deeper slide. Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, said on Thursday that he still sees bitcoin range-bound between $80,000 and $85,000 until the US midterm elections.

For Tesseract's Beziers, the test is whether ETF inflows return while bitcoin holds the $80,000 to $81,000 area into the Fed meeting.

The Fed decides on Wednesday, core personal consumption expenditures inflation data follow on Thursday, and about $11 billion in bitcoin options expire on Deribit on Friday. For my charts, the line that matters is a daily close below $80,000.