ICT Kill Zones in Crypto, Measured on BTC, ETH and SOL

ICT kill zones in crypto are not equally busy. In a year of hourly Binance candles for BTC, ETH and SOL (3 Nov 2025 to 2 Nov 2026), the 10:00 to 12:00 New York window, the "London close" kill zone, had the widest candles: 1.54 times the average hour for Bitcoin. The London kill zone was below average at 0.85 times, and the Asia window sat on average at 0.99. The busiest single hour was 10:00 to 10:59 New York time for all three coins.

This is a measurement of range, not direction. A wide candle says price travelled; it does not say which way it goes next, and we make no trading call from it. Below you get the four windows in New York, UTC and MSK time, the numbers per coin, what changes at weekends and with the US clock change, and what the data cannot tell you.

ICT kill zones in crypto: the four windows in New York, UTC and MSK time

ICT kill zones are fixed windows in New York time. There is no official standard. The kill zone guide at ictkillzone.com (checked 3 Nov 2026) lists Asian 19:00 to 22:00, London Open 02:00 to 05:00, New York Open 07:00 to 09:00 and London Close 10:00 to 12:00, and says versions of these times differ by 30 to 60 minutes. LuxAlgo (checked 3 Nov 2026) gives London 02:00 to 05:00, New York AM 07:00 to 10:00 and London close 10:00 to 12:00, and states that boundaries differ by 30 to 90 minutes across sources.

We had to pick one version and keep it fixed. This study uses:

• Asia: 19:00 to 22:00 New York time.
• London: 02:00 to 05:00.
• NY AM: 07:00 to 10:00 (the longer version, so it includes the 9:30 stock market open).
• Close: 10:00 to 12:00, the London close kill zone.

We did not test New York PM or Silver Bullet windows. Because the windows follow New York time, their UTC hours move when US clocks change (NIST, checked 3 Nov 2026: US daylight saving time ended Sunday 1 Nov 2026 at 2:00 a.m. local). Moscow stays on UTC+3.

• Winter (New York UTC-5, from 2 Nov 2026): Asia 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 MSK), London 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 MSK), NY AM 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 MSK), Close 15:00 to 17:00 UTC (18:00 to 20:00 MSK).
• Summer (UTC-4): one hour earlier in UTC and MSK. Asia 23:00 to 02:00 UTC, London 06:00 to 09:00, NY AM 11:00 to 14:00, Close 14:00 to 16:00.

The trading sessions tool shows the current session clock. For the difference between kill zones and sessions, read kill zones vs trading sessions.

How we measured: range per candle

We took every one-hour candle for BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT and SOLUSDT from Binance spot: 365 full UTC days, 3 Nov 2025 00:00 to 2 Nov 2026 23:00, fetched on 3 Nov 2026. That is 8,760 candles per coin and none were missing (Binance Spot API, kline fields open time, open, high, low, close). The range of a candle is high minus low, divided by its open, in percent. Each candle was assigned to a window by its New York hour, using the New York time zone rules, so summer and winter are handled correctly. The average candle range over the year was 0.62% for BTC, 0.85% for ETH and 0.97% for SOL.

To compare coins we divide each window's average by that coin's all-hours average. 1.00 means "an average hour". The site's data sources and limits are on the methodology page.

Which window has the widest candles

The order is the same for all three coins:

What stands out:

• No clear edge for London. The London kill zone is below the average hour for all three coins, and in both US winter and summer (BTC 0.82 in winter, 0.87 in summer).
• Asia is average. It is neither a quiet hour nor a busy one.
• The busy windows are the US ones. NY AM is 9 to 15% above average. Close is 45 to 54% above, and it has only two hours: on BTC it holds 12.9% of the total range of a day, where two equal hours would hold 8.3%.
• The rest of the day is a little quiet. The 13 hours outside all four windows average 0.92 to 0.95.

The clock matters more than the label. By New York time the busiest hours were 10:00 (1.04% on BTC), 09:00 (0.97%) and 11:00 (0.88%). They cover the end of the NY AM window and the start of the Close window, and they come right after the 9:30 a.m. stock open (NYSE, core session 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, checked 3 Nov 2026). We show that the timing matches. We make no claim about the cause.

The weekday and hour map for each coin

The next three charts split the year by weekday and UTC hour. Each cell is the average candle range as a multiple of that coin's average hour, so the three coins share one colour scale (0.47 to 2.09). Weekdays are UTC dates, and each cell averages 52 or 53 candles.

On Bitcoin the busiest cell is Tuesday 14:00 UTC at 1.30%, and the quietest is Saturday 10:00 UTC at 0.29%.

Ether has the same shape. Its busiest cell is also Tuesday 14:00 UTC, at 1.69%.

Solana's busiest cell is Tuesday 14:00 UTC at 1.76%. All three coins peak in the same hours.

Read the bands, not single cells: with about 52 candles per cell, one violent day moves a cell. And because the year mixes summer and winter, a UTC map smears the peak across 13:00 to 16:00 UTC. The next section removes that smear.

Summer and winter: the peak follows New York, not UTC

The US clocks move, UTC does not. If the busy hours are tied to New York, the peak should shift by one hour between summer and winter. We split BTC by US clock regime: 238 days of summer time and 127 days of winter time in the window.

The result is clean. The summer peak is 14:00 UTC (1.62 times the summer average hour) and the winter peak is 15:00 UTC (1.73 times). Both are 10:00 in New York. ETH and SOL show the same one-hour shift. The ranking of the windows also holds in each season: Close is 1.52 in summer and 1.57 in winter on BTC, and London is 0.87 and 0.82.

One more point. Winter candles were wider overall: the average BTC candle was 0.74% in winter against 0.56% in summer. That is a volatility regime of the period, not a clock effect, so compare windows inside one season, never summer against winter in raw percent. The session times in winter guide has the full list of clock shifts.

Weekdays against weekends

Crypto trades all weekend, and the US-hours premium shrinks most then.

On BTC the Close window averaged 1.14% per candle on weekdays and 0.49% on Saturday and Sunday, so the weekend value is 43% of the weekday value. For NY AM it is 50%, for London 62%, and for the hours outside all windows 66%. ETH and SOL fall less in the Close window (51% and 56%) but follow the same order. Over all hours, a weekend candle averaged 60% of a weekday candle on BTC. For more on this, read weekend crypto trading.

Saturday is the quietest day on all three coins (BTC 0.37% per candle against 0.70% across the five weekdays).

How it looks on real data

The three heatmaps above are real data: every cell is measured from the candles named in the caption. Read them in three steps:

1. Find the bright block on weekdays between 13:00 and 17:00 UTC.
2. Note that the block sits on a different UTC clock in summer and winter.
3. Note that Saturday and Sunday stay dark at the same hours.

For BTC alone, see Bitcoin volatility by hour. The best time to trade crypto guide explains the sessions behind it, and the London kill zone guide covers the quietest window.

What the data cannot tell you

• Direction. Range is the high minus the low. A candle that rises 1% and one that falls 1% score the same.
• Whether a setup works. We did not test sweeps, entries or win rates inside the windows. A wide window is a place where more can happen, not a signal.
• Other years and venues. This is one year on Binance spot, with windows fixed by our choice.
• Cause. The match with the US stock open is a timing match.

Common mistakes

• Treating UTC hours as fixed. The windows move one hour when US clocks change. Anchor to New York time.
• Believing the London kill zone is the busiest. On BTC, ETH and SOL it was below the average hour for the whole year.
• Reading a wide window as a trade. It tells you when to pay attention, not which side to take.
• Comparing winter and summer in raw percent. Compare each window with its own season's average hour.
• Using weekend candles to size weekday risk. Weekend ranges were about 40% smaller on BTC. Size from your stop distance with the position size calculator.

More guides are in the Learn ICT section. Coin pages: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana.

FAQ

What are the ICT kill zones in crypto?

Four fixed windows in New York time: Asia 19:00 to 22:00, London 02:00 to 05:00, New York AM 07:00 to 10:00 and London close 10:00 to 12:00. Sources differ by 30 to 90 minutes on the edges, so pick one version and keep it. In winter the London window is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC.

Which kill zone moves BTC the most?

In a year of Binance 1h candles, the 10:00 to 12:00 New York window: BTC's average candle range was 1.54 times the average hour, ETH 1.51 and SOL 1.45. That is 15:00 to 17:00 UTC in winter and 14:00 to 16:00 UTC in summer.

Is there a best time to trade crypto?

The data says the widest candles come on weekdays around 14:00 to 15:00 UTC, which is 10:00 in New York, and the weekend is about 40% quieter on BTC. Wider candles mean more movement, not a better trade. Fees, spreads and your own stop distance decide whether that movement is useful.

Do kill zones work for crypto?

Our data does not test that. It shows the US windows have the widest candles and the London window has below-average ones. Whether a pattern inside a window has an edge needs its own test with entries, stops and costs.

Data: Binance spot 1h klines for BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT and SOLUSDT, 3 Nov 2025 00:00 to 2 Nov 2026 23:00 UTC, 8,760 candles per coin, fetched 3 Nov 2026. Range = (high − low) / open. BiasNex calculation.