The crypto market has officially entered negative territory for September, despite Bitcoin holding on to a slight gain, after a brutal week that erased $162 billion from crypto valuations. The wipeout canceled out the gains generated from the bullish two-week start to the month, back when Bitcoin briefly notched its second-best September performance in 13 years.
The seasonal curse, though, doesn’t seem to be affecting traditional markets, despite September also being historically the worst month of the year for Wall Street. The S&P 500 gained 0.64% over the past 24 hours while gold retreated 1.2% from recent highs near $2,670 per ounce showing investors still want risk instead of hedge.
That risk appetite, however, does not appear to currently extend to crypto — outside of a few, recent overperformers, such as the still only-a-week-old Aster.
The crypto market’s longstanding correlation with broader risk assets is today offering little relief, with Bitcoin unable to hold the line at the crucial $111,000 support mark and Ethereum breaking below $4,000, triggering cascading liquidations across digital assets.
The crypto market as a whole has dropped 4.7% so far today, falling to $3.73 trillion and extending a seven-day decline that has revived talk of September’s notorious weakness for digital assets.
Bitcoin’s remaining 1% gain for the month, trading now at just above $109,000, represents the sole barrier preventing the entire crypto market from posting even bigger monthly losses — a precarious position given the asset’s 67% market dominance means minor selling pressure could flip the narrative completely red.
September has historically delivered negative returns for crypto markets in eight of the past 11 years, a phenomenon traders attribute to institutional portfolio rebalancing after summer holidays and fiscal year-end adjustments.
This year’s pattern seems to be following the script: Despite early buyings pushing the total market cap above $4 trillion with trading volumes surging 27% in the opening days of September, profit-taking mid-month could end up pushing performance to a monthly net loss.
The mechanics of the current selloff reveal how leverage amplified the damage. When Ethereum dropped 9% below the psychologically important $4,000 level — its first breach since August — it triggered $500 million in long liquidations on that asset alone. The contagion spread immediately to smaller tokens more prone to volatility.
