Ether trades at $2,297.96, down 4.38 percent from where it stood 24 hours earlier. Bitcoin lost 2.41 percent over the same period, to $79,543. The second-largest cryptocurrency is falling almost twice as fast as the largest, and in doing so it has slipped below the $2,300 mark that traders have treated as a floor for weeks.
For investors, the gap between the two moves matters more than either percentage on its own. It decides whether you are looking at a broad market decline or at weakness that mainly concerns Ether. This article sets out where things stand, names the levels below and above, and says what counts right now for leveraged positions, for the German holding period and for the October 30 expiry.
Ether at $2,297: a 4.38 percent loss against 2.41 percent for Bitcoin
The intraday high was $2,410.86. From there to the current level is roughly $113, a good 4.7 percent within a single trading day. The market value of all ether adds up to $280.8 billion, and turnover over the past 24 hours to $9.13 billion.
Over a week, Ether and Bitcoin sit closer together than the day suggests: down 3.31 percent for Ether, down 1.55 percent for Bitcoin. Only the monthly comparison opens the gap wide. Ether has lost 12.25 percent over 30 days, Bitcoin 4.78 percent. That is two and a half times as much, and it says more about the situation than any single session.
Ether is 53.5 percent below its own all-time high. Anyone who bought at that high needs more than a doubling to get back to break-even. The arithmetic sounds harsher than it is meant to, but it explains why every recovery runs into selling pressure from older holdings.
Why the ETH/BTC ratio is the tougher yardstick
Ether trades not only against the dollar but directly against Bitcoin. This ratio, quoted on exchanges as ETH/BTC, shows the relative strength of the two networks without the dollar as an intermediate step. One ether currently costs 0.02890 bitcoin, 2.03 percent less than 24 hours ago.
ETH/BTC explained: The ratio says how many bitcoin you get for one ether. When it falls, Ether is losing value against Bitcoin even if both are rising in dollar terms. For the question of which of the two to overweight in a portfolio, that is the decisive figure.
A ratio that slips on a day when both prices give way is the normal case in a decline: the larger market holds up better. The scale is what stands out. At 2.03 percent in a single day, this is a marked move between the two largest cryptocurrencies.
15 of 19 top coins fall harder than Bitcoin: our own count
To test whether Ether is an isolated case, cryptoticker.io counted the 25 largest cryptocurrencies by market value and removed the stablecoins, whose prices are pegged to the dollar. That leaves 19 assets with a price of their own.
The result: 15 of those 19 lost more than Bitcoin over 24 hours. For nine of them the decline is at least twice Bitcoin’s. At the bottom are NEAR at 10.2 percent and Zcash at 8.07 percent; at the top, LEO holds a gain of 0.06 percent and Tron is down 0.24 percent. cryptoticker.io compiled this count itself on October 24, 2026.
Ether sits in the middle of the weak group, not at its end. That argues against news specific to Ether and in favour of a broad retreat from risk. Cardano is down 6.31 percent, Solana 5.09 percent, Chainlink 5.77 percent, Dogecoin 5.86 percent. A portfolio spread widely across altcoins is not looking at an Ether problem today, but at a market problem.
$340 million in long liquidations: how the cascade builds
According to CoinGlass data, positions worth $498 million were closed out across the crypto market within 24 hours. Of that, $340 million fell on long positions, meaning bets on rising prices, and $158 million on shorts. The figures are reported by the industry service ChainCatcher, citing CoinGlass, in a market note dated October 24.
The ratio is the real finding. More than two thirds of the positions closed out were betting on rising prices. In a calm market that split is far more even.
Liquidation explained: Anyone trading with leverage puts up only part of the position’s value as collateral. If the price falls far enough that the collateral no longer covers it, the exchange closes the position automatically and sells. The money is gone at that point, whatever the price does afterwards.
Because each of these forced closures is itself a sale, they push the price down further and bring the next position into trouble. That is how a cascade of liquidations builds and accelerates the decline. It is also what makes the first hours of a slide more turbulent than the days that follow.
What this means for leveraged positions
If you work with leverage, the liquidation price is the number that counts, not your entry. Every exchange shows it in the position overview. On a day with a drop of more than four percent those levels close in quickly, and adding margin in a falling market is the most expensive decision of all.
Holders of perpetual futures should also keep an eye on the funding rate. Funding rate explained: It is the payment that holders of long and short positions make to each other at regular intervals, so that the futures price does not drift too far from the spot price. When it is positive, the longs pay, and over a long holding period that noticeably eats into returns. Which platforms charge which rates and demand which collateral is set out in the comparison of the best perp DEXs.
For the far larger share of investors the opposite applies: without leverage, no decline can force you to sell. That is the structural advantage of a held position, and on days like this it becomes an argument. Where to buy and store ether without leverage and under MiCA supervision is shown in the overview of the best crypto exchanges.
ETF inflows are not carrying Ether at the moment
Part of the explanation lies with exchange-traded funds. The American spot ether ETFs saw net outflows of $110.50 million on October 22. The largest single item was BlackRock’s ETHA at $75.45 million, followed by ETHB at $17.17 million and the two Grayscale products at $10.69 million and $9.56 million. Only Fidelity’s FETH recorded an inflow, of $2.37 million. How the outflows break down across the individual funds is shown by TokenPost, using data from SoSoValue.
On October 23 the picture turned positive, but only narrowly: a net inflow of $4.35 million on the same data. A sum of that size moves nothing against a market value of $280 billion. Institutional demand is not supporting the price at present; it is simply absent.
That matters more for the assessment than it first sounds. Through the upward phases of recent months it was precisely these fund inflows that carried the price. When they fall away, there is no counterparty for sales. For the product side behind this, the basics are set out under buying crypto ETFs in Germany.
Options expiry on October 30 and the Fed meeting in the same week
Two dates are imminent. On October 30, according to our count of October 23, 322,586 ETH options expire on the Deribit derivatives exchange, 21.1 percent of total open interest. The details are set out in our analysis of the October 30 options expiry.
Ahead of a date like this, traders who have sold options hold offsetting positions in the spot market to hedge themselves. Once the options expire, they unwind that hedge. This can move the price in either direction and raises volatility in the days before and after.
The American central bank meets in the same week, from October 28 to 30 according to our reporting of today. For holders, that means the next trading days depend less on Ether itself than on expectations for interest rates and the dollar. Anyone planning to build a larger position in this situation has good reason to stagger the purchase rather than buy everything on one day.
The levels below: $2,300, then $2,200
The first level has already gone. $2,300 counted as a floor, and Ether is trading beneath it. That brings the next round number, $2,200, into view, around 4.3 percent below the current level.
Round numbers are not technical quantities, they are behavioural ones: stop orders and liquidation prices cluster there because many market participants pick the same figures. That is exactly why the price often reacts abruptly at these points, downwards as well as upwards.
Important for the assessment: a broken level is no verdict on the coming weeks. It says that buyers did not muster enough volume at that point. Whether they do so lower down will only show in the trading.
The levels above: $2,410 as the first hurdle
On the upside, the day’s high of $2,410.86 is the first level against which a recovery can be measured. Above it, at around $2,500, lies the next round number.
A durable recovery takes more than a jump in price. It takes volume to carry the move, and it takes an end to the outflows from the funds. As long as the ETF figures hover around the zero line day after day, every counter-move stays technical and therefore fragile.
A look at the ETH/BTC ratio helps here too. If Ether rises in dollars but keeps falling against Bitcoin, that is not Ether strength, only a general market upswing. Only a rising ratio shows that capital is coming back into Ether specifically.
Holding period and loss offsetting: what counts in Germany
For investors in Germany, a decline has a tax side that is independent of the price. Private capital gains from cryptocurrencies are tax-free after a holding period of more than one year. Within the first year, gains are taxable, and losses from such sales can be offset against gains from other private disposals in the same year.
That gives a plain rule of thumb: before you sell into a decline, look at the purchase date. If the purchase was eleven months ago, selling now may cost more in tax than the price difference you risk by waiting. If it was thirteen months ago, the gain is tax-free and the loss is worthless for tax purposes.
Matching acquisition dates to the quantity sold is the point at which most portfolios turn messy, especially with many small purchases from a savings plan. Tools that track purchase dates and holding periods for each position are in the comparison of crypto tax software and portfolio trackers. The tax treatment of your individual case remains a matter for your tax adviser.
Ether below $2,300: without ETF inflows the recovery stays thin
The day shows no Ether event but a broad retreat from risk, in which Ether is among the weaker assets. Three steps make sense now:
- Check your leverage. In every open position, look at the liquidation price and the funding rate, not at your entry. How the platforms differ on this is set out in the comparison of the best perp DEXs.
- Sort out your purchase dates. Lay out the acquisition date for every position before you think about selling. The tax software and portfolio trackers take over the matching.
- Stagger your purchases. Ahead of the options expiry and the central bank meeting, there is much to be said for spreading a planned entry across several dates. Which exchanges bring savings plans and MiCA authorisation is shown in the overview of the best crypto exchanges.
(As of October 24, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)
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