A short-lived institutional interest triggered a short-term buying spree, but market-wide FUD soon neutralized the positivity.
The cryptocurrency market witnessed a sharp bullish momentum on Tuesday, Oct. 21, with strong institutional interest pushing the leading assets upward.
US-based spot Bitcoin BTC $88 932 24h volatility: 2.5% Market cap: $1.78 T Vol. 24h: $57.91 B exchange-traded funds recorded a net inflow of $477.2 million, led by IBIT and ARKB’s $210.9 million and $162.9 million inflows, according to data from Farside Investors.
These inflows came after a net outflow of over $1 billion in four trading days.
Spot Ethereum ETH $2 953 24h volatility: 5.0% Market cap: $356.77 B Vol. 24h: $32.08 B ETFs in the US also registered $141.7 million in net inflows on the same day.
Bitcoin almost reached $114,000, and Ethereum broke the $4,100 mark briefly at around 16:30 UTC on Oct. 21.
The buying spree started as the selling pressure on the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, started to decline, Coinspeaker reported.
Both assets, along with the broader crypto market, saw a selloff. BTC is currently at $108,000, and ETH is hovering around $3,850.
Volatility Triggers Liquidations
The sense of fear, uncertainty, and doubt has been surprising bullish traders since the $19.35 billion liquidations of Oct. 11.
Yesterday, on Oct. 21, the crypto market’s bullish momentum saw a $170 billion selloff, falling from $3.82 trillion to $3.65 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The fear and greed index has been roaming in the “fear” zone for the past 10 days.
Following the recent correction, the total crypto liquidations increased by 86%, reaching $651 million, as Coinglass data revealed. Of this tally, $352.4 million are long and $298.5 million are short positions that have been wiped out.
CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr posted on X that the Bitcoin volatility index reached 95%.
The Bitcoin volatility index has risen above 95% for the third time in a month. Essentially, this is a zone of sharp moves. 🌊 pic.twitter.com/QygEC0WFaT
— Axel 💎🙌 Adler Jr (@AxelAdlerJr) October 22, 2025
According to the chart he shared, this is the third time over the past 30 days that the indicator touched this critical level.
The high volatility suggests that investors and traders are still uncertain about the macroeconomic situation in the world, especially with the tension between the US and China.
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