Limited bitcoin outflows and heavier ether selling pointed to crypto-native liquidations as the driver of the drop.
Oct 17, 2025, 1:12 p.m.
The recent market sell-off was likely led by retail and other crypto-focused investors rather than traditional institutions, according to Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM).
While bitcoin BTC$106,010.56 and ether ETH$3,796.64 both fell after October 10, spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) BTC futures saw little forced selling, the report noted.
Bitcoin ETF outflows totaled just $220 million, or 0.14% of assets under management, compared to $370 million for ether ETFs, or 1.23%, analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in the Thursday report.
A similar pattern showed up in CME futures, with minimal bitcoin liquidations and heavier ether selling, which the bank’s analysts attributed to momentum-driven traders reducing risk.
The steepest losses came in perpetual futures, where open interest in bitcoin and ether contracts fell around 40%, outpacing the drop in spot prices, the report added.
JPMorgan said that the scale of unwinding points to crypto-native traders as the main driver of the downturn, with ether hit harder than bitcoin.
Read more: Bitcoin Network Hashrate Took Breather in First Two Weeks of October: JPMorgan
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