Technical charts show ether, XRP and DOGE already testing support, with $82,206 the line that matters for BTC.
Crypto prices fell today (Wednesday) after a 20-minute sell-off in bitcoin wiped out more than $400 million in leveraged long positions. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 1.6% to $84,218 on Binance by 07:01 UTC, while ether lost 3%, XRP 1.5% and Dogecoin 3.1% on Bitstamp.
The flush hit between about 01:45 and 02:10 UTC, according to CoinGlass liquidation data.
It came as Brent crude climbed back above $101 a barrel and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 5.3%. Traders are also waiting for minutes of the Federal Reserve's (Fed) September meeting later on Wednesday.
On my charts, all four coins turned lower from resistance. Ether, XRP and Dogecoin are already testing their nearest support, and bitcoin is about 2% above its own.
On my daily chart, bitcoin turned lower again from resistance at $87,100, the barrier I flagged in my October 5 bitcoin analysis. Wednesday's low of $83,577 put the price 4% below that level.
As long as $87,100 holds, I see room for a correction to at least $82,206, the support set by the May highs, about 2.4% below the current price. If that local support gives way, the next stop is the 50-day exponential moving average near $79,608, about 5.5% lower.
Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, described the market as stuck in a range a day before the drop.
"Bitcoin remains range bound at the $85k level despite corporate buying notably from Saylor," Howard said on Tuesday.
Jeff Anderson, head of US at STS Digital, called $82,000 the level to watch on September 29 and said a breakdown "will probably yield a slip back into the high 70s," which would put the 50-day average in play.
Ether rejected resistance even more sharply. ETH fell from $2,756.8, the level I set as the next target in my September 19 ether analysis, and touched $2,591.8 on Bitstamp before recovering to $2,617.7.
That puts ether right on local support near $2,616. If $2,600 cracks on a daily close, my chart shows three supports below it: the 50-day EMA near $2,505, the September lows around $2,393 and the 200-day EMA near $2,296. They sit about 4%, 9% and 12% below the current price.
XRP was meant to be completing a bull flag aimed at about $1.97, roughly 34% above the current price. The pattern was already on pause when crypto last pulled back on September 24, and for now the move is stalling.
XRP is testing support near $1.46 again. It dipped to $1.431 intraday on Bitstamp before recovering to $1.474, so the level has not yet failed on a closing basis.
If it does, a cluster of supports sits around $1.40, where the 50-day EMA at $1.401 and the 200-day EMA at $1.379 converge, about 5% to 6% lower. A return above $1.56 would put the flag target back on the table.
Dogecoin also tried to build a flag after the breakout I described in my September 21 Dogecoin analysis. It is falling harder than the rest today, down 3.1% to $0.0908.
DOGE is now testing two levels at once: the 50-day EMA at $0.0885 and horizontal support at $0.0884. It dipped to $0.0881 intraday. A daily close below both would expose $0.0800, about 12% lower, while the recovery level is $0.0950.
Why Did a Small Drop Trigger $400 Million in Liquidations?
Leverage did most of the work. Bitcoin fell about $1,765 in roughly 20 minutes overnight, and more than 97% of the positions closed in that hour were longs, according to CoinGlass figures.
"Derivatives have become a larger part of the market and now push the asset price around rather than the reverse," Anderson said on Tuesday.
Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, said on September 29 that about $2.4 billion of the $3.0 billion in ETF inflows over the previous eight sessions arrived on days bitcoin closed above $84,000. Those flows came after the rally that took bitcoin back above $80,000.
A move below $80,000 "would likely put much of that buying at a loss," he said.
Howard sees the bigger picture differently. He noted that many traders are calling the end of the bear market despite a 32% drawdown from October 2025, which he said would make it one of the shallowest in bitcoin's history.
The Fed minutes are the next test. A bitcoin close below $82,206 and an ether close below $2,600 would turn today's flush into the correction my charts point to, while closes back above $87,100 and $2,757 would cancel it.
Damian Chmiel is a Senior Analyst & Editor at Finance Magnates with more than 15 years of experience in the CFD and online trading industry. Active as both a trader and journalist since 2010, he focuses on broker coverage, fintech innovation, and regulatory developments across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. His work includes interviews with C-level leaders at major brokerages and fintech platforms, as well as co-authoring Finance Magnates’ quarterly industry benchmarking reports. Damian’s reporting is data-driven, market-aware, and grounded in direct industry engagement. His analysis and commentary have also been cited by external media outlets, including Investing.com, Binance, The Asset, Stockhead, and Dispatch. Education: MA in Finance and Accounting, Cracow University of Economics
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