Crypto, Bitcoin Loses $81,000 Support as Traders Watch Monday's Confirmation

Video: Bitcoin Loses Major $81,000 Support, Bear Market Returns? Key Levels To Trade

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Oct 30, 2026 · based on the channel Gareth Soloway

Bitcoin has lost its $81,000 support, sliding to just above $79,000 in a weekend flush, but the breakdown is not confirmed until institutional money shows up on Monday. If BTC cannot reclaim $81,000 by then, the next downside target is $75,500. That is the framework Gareth Soloway, Chief Market Strategist at VerifiedInvesting.com, laid out in his latest crypto breakdown, and it sets the tone for every major altcoin this week.

The move did not come out of nowhere. Bitcoin sold off alongside stocks on Thursday, paused on Friday, then flushed on Saturday to just above $79,000. The $81,000 level had been flagged as key for two weeks, and losing it shifts the burden of proof onto the bulls.

Why a weekend breakdown in crypto needs Monday confirmation

Weekend price action happens on thinner liquidity, so a break below a major level is a warning rather than a verdict. Soloway's point is that the $81,000 loss only becomes a real breakdown if institutional buyers fail to step in when traditional markets reopen on Monday. Until then, the move sits in limbo.

• Bullish resolution: BTC reclaims $81,000 by Monday, which neutralizes the weekend flush and keeps the $87,200 level in play as the next upside reference.
• Bearish resolution: BTC stays below $81,000, which Soloway assigns a high probability of a move down to $75,500.
• The trigger to watch: whether large buyers treat the dip as an opportunity or as a reason to de-risk further.

That distinction matters because crypto is the only market open when traders want to reduce risk over a weekend. A geopolitical escalation in the Middle East, for example, gets priced into Bitcoin first, before stocks, gold or oil can react. Weekend candles therefore tend to overshoot, and the Monday open is where the real information arrives.

Bitcoin key levels: $87,200, $81,000 and $75,500

Three numbers define the Bitcoin chart right now, and each one tells you something different about who is in control. The $81,000 line is the pivot: above it, the weekend break looks like noise; below it, the path of least resistance points lower.

1. $87,200 — the upside reference. Reclaiming this area would signal that buyers have absorbed the flush and put the bearish scenario on hold.
2. $81,000 — the broken support and the Monday deadline. A close back above it invalidates the weekend breakdown.
3. $75,500 — the next downside target if $81,000 is not recovered. Soloway frames this as the high-probability destination rather than a worst case.

A move to $75,500 from the weekend low near $79,000 would be roughly a 4.5% decline, but the psychological weight is larger than the percentage: it would mark a clean lower low on the daily chart and feed the bear-market narrative. That is also why Soloway describes Bitcoin as close to a 50/50 setup at the moment. When a chart reads 50/50, he stays on the sidelines rather than forcing a position, because a coin-flip trade offers no edge regardless of conviction.

Ethereum buy zone at $2,000 to $1,950

Ethereum is testing a trend line that has already been touched nine times, which makes it one of the more defined setups on the board. Soloway marks his buy zone at $2,000 to $1,950, a retest of the old breakout level. A retest of a prior breakout is a classic continuation pattern: price breaks resistance, rallies, then returns to the same level to confirm it as support.

The risk is straightforward. Nine touches of a trend line show that the level has been respected repeatedly, but each touch consumes some of the buyers defending it. If ETH slices through $1,950 instead of bouncing, the retest has failed and the setup is void. For traders working the level, that makes $1,950 the line that defines the trade rather than an arbitrary stop.

Solana: $97 to $95 buy zone and a head-and-shoulders risk

Solana is sitting near Soloway's $97 to $95 buy zone, with a second level near $84 if the first one fails. The complication is a head-and-shoulders pattern he is watching, a formation that typically signals a trend reversal when the neckline breaks.

• First buy zone: $97 to $95, where price is currently trading.
• Second buy zone: around $84, the deeper support if the first zone gives way.
• Pattern risk: a head-and-shoulders breakdown would argue for patience rather than catching the first dip.

The practical takeaway is position sizing. When a chart carries a valid reversal pattern, scaling into a small starter position at the first zone and reserving capital for the second is a more disciplined approach than committing fully at $97.

Zcash at $680 to $700 and Hyperliquid near $67

Two smaller-cap names round out the watchlist, and both come with conditional buy levels rather than immediate entries. Zcash has a buy level at $680 to $700 if support breaks, meaning Soloway wants to buy the flush into that band rather than chase strength. Hyperliquid sits on a long-term trend line with a buy level near $68 to $67, which makes the trend line itself the deciding factor.

He also showed the HBAR chart, where he added to a small existing position. The distinction is worth noting: adding to a position is different from opening one, because the original entry already provides a cushion and the add is sized accordingly. Small adds around a long-term level are a way to average into a thesis without turning a modest idea into an oversized bet.

Discipline rules: never fall in love with a coin

Missed trades do not matter, and the best trades come to you. That is the operating principle behind Soloway's approach to a week like this one, and it addresses the most common frustration among newer traders: watching a level get hit while hesitating, then chasing price higher out of regret.

1. Do not marry a position. A coin does not know you own it. If the level fails, the thesis is wrong, regardless of how long you have held.
2. Let the setup come to your price. Buying at a predefined zone beats chasing a green candle, because the risk is defined before the entry.
3. Skip the coin-flip charts. When a setup is 50/50, waiting is a position. Soloway explicitly stays out of Bitcoin at current levels for that reason.
4. Treat adds differently from entries. A small add to an existing position, as with HBAR, is not the same decision as opening a new one.

This is also why the weekend breakdown is not a call to action in itself. The information that matters arrives on Monday, when the market reveals whether the $81,000 loss was a liquidity artifact or the start of something larger.

What to watch next in crypto

The next 48 hours of trading decide whether Bitcoin's weekend flush becomes a confirmed breakdown or a failed probe. A reclaim of $81,000 keeps $87,200 in play and takes pressure off the altcoin buy zones; a failure opens the door to $75,500 and likely drags Ethereum, Solana and the smaller names toward their lower levels. Traders holding the $2,000 to $1,950 ETH zone, the $97 to $95 SOL zone, the $680 to $700 ZEC band or the $67 to $68 HYPE area should treat those levels as conditional entries, not guarantees. The full breakdown, including the chart walkthroughs and discipline rules, comes from Gareth Soloway on his YouTube channel, where he publishes weekly crypto and swing-trade analysis through VerifiedInvesting.com.

Source: Bitcoin Loses Major $81,000 Support, Bear Market Returns? Key Levels To Trade · Markdown version