Market Mood Sours to Start the Week

The cryptocurrency market began the week with widespread losses, continuing a downward trend that marked one of the worst Octobers in recent years. Bitcoin’s price reflected the negative sentiment, falling 3.18% over 24 hours and extending its seven-day losses to nearly 7%.

The drop occurred without a clear external catalyst, leading some analysts to suggest that traders were taking profits over the weekend after a brief price increase the previous week. A perceived lack of fundamental drivers may have also contributed to the weakening market sentiment.

Schiff Highlights Underperformance, Clashes with Crypto Community

Long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff seized the opportunity to renew his criticism of the digital asset. On the social media platform X, Schiff argued that Bitcoin has failed to make progress, pointing out that it remained below its previous highs while assets like the Nasdaq and gold have posted significant gains.

His commentary drew a swift response from the crypto community. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, co-founder of Binance, challenged Schiff’s perspective by sharing a one-year Bitcoin chart from CoinMarketCap, which showed a yearly price increase of over 57%. In response to evidence of its longer-term gains, Schiff simply doubled down on his bearish outlook, stating, “Bitcoin has stopped going up. That’s my point. That likely means it’s only just starting to go down.”

On-Chain Data Suggests Profit-Taking by Major Holders

Adding context to the price action, analytics firm Santiment noted that large-scale investors have been selling their holdings. According to their data, key stakeholders holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have been taking profits, which likely contributed to the downward pressure on the price. These major holders, often called whales, currently control 13.68 million BTC, or 68.62% of the total supply.

This behavior mirrors trends in other markets, including precious metals. Gold’s price also steadied on Monday following a recent drop, partly triggered by policy changes in China that could reduce demand. The profit-taking among large Bitcoin holders suggests that, similar to gold traders, they are capitalizing on recent gains amid growing market uncertainty.