The London Kill Zone in Crypto: Times, What Happens, What to Skip

The London kill zone is 02:00 to 05:00 New York time, which is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 MSK) in winter and one hour earlier in summer. It is a window picked by ICT-style traders to watch for the first real move of the European day. For London kill zone crypto traders the useful facts are the clock, what usually happens in it, and one result from our data: on Bitcoin, these three hours are not the busiest of the day.

This guide gives the times, the pattern people look for, a dated real example on BTCUSDT 1h, and a short list of things to skip. For how kill zones differ from sessions, read kill zones vs trading sessions first.

The London kill zone in crypto: times in UTC and MSK

ICT defines kill zones in New York time, so the window is fixed at 02:00 to 05:00 there. That is why its UTC time moves with the US clock change, not the European one. The US moves its clocks on 1 November 2026 (NIST, checked 28 Oct 2026), so from Monday 2 November the window is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC. Moscow stays on UTC+3 all year.

One caveat. There is no official standard. A kill zone guide we checked on 28 Oct 2026 says versions of these times differ by 30 to 60 minutes between sources (ictkillzone.com). Pick one version, write it down and keep it fixed while you test it. This article uses 02:00 to 05:00 New York time.

The kill zone is not the London session

The London session is the working day of London's markets. On the BiasNex sessions clock it runs 08:00 to 17:00 London time, which is 08:00 to 17:00 UTC in winter. The kill zone is three hours, and it starts an hour before London opens.

Read the figure by rows:

1. The London session bar is the wide one. It starts at 08:00 UTC in winter.
2. The winter kill zone starts at 07:00 UTC, one hour before the open, and ends at 10:00. Its first hour is the London pre-open.
3. The summer kill zone sits one hour earlier, 06:00 to 09:00 UTC, and the London open sits at 07:00. So the kill zone covers the same stretch of London's morning in both seasons.

If you also trade the US open, the session times in winter guide has the full table of changes for all three sessions.

What people look for inside it

The idea behind the window is simple. Asia trades quietly and leaves a range. Price has marked highs and lows that other traders can see. The expectation is that when London opens, the first move runs through one side of the Asia range before the day picks a direction.

On a chart this means:

1. Mark the Asia range. Take the high and low of the hours before the window. In this study we use 00:00 to 06:59 UTC.
2. Wait for a sweep. Price trades through the Asia high or low during the window. Our liquidity sweep guide defines it: a wick through the level and a close back inside, while the sweep vs grab post explains the vocabulary.
3. Look for structure to confirm. A change of character or fair value gap after the sweep gives an entry with a defined stop. Without it, a sweep is only a wick.

That is the pattern. It is a way to organise attention, not a guarantee. The data below shows how often the first half of it happens.

What our data says about BTC in these hours

We took every BTCUSDT hourly candle from 3 Nov 2025 to 7 Mar 2026 (Binance spot, 3,000 candles, 125 days, none missing). That block is entirely US winter time and UK winter time, so the London kill zone is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC throughout. We measured each candle's range as high minus low divided by open, in percent, and averaged by hour of day.

The result is not what the name suggests:

• The kill zone is below average. The 07:00, 08:00 and 09:00 UTC candles averaged 0.59%, 0.64% and 0.62%, a block average of 0.62% against 0.75% across all 24 hours.
• New York is the busy block. 13:00 to 15:59 UTC averaged 1.09%. The single busiest hour was 15:00 UTC at 1.30%, followed by 14:00 at 1.22%.
• It holds a small share of the day. The three kill zone hours make up 10.3% of the summed hourly range of a day. Equal hours would give 12.5%.
• Weekends are quieter. On weekdays the window averaged 0.66% (90 days). On Saturday and Sunday it averaged 0.50% (35 days).

This is one winter block and one coin, so it describes a period, not a law. The conclusion that holds is narrow: on Bitcoin, the London kill zone is not where the day's biggest candles are. If you want the whole 24-hour shape over a full year, see Bitcoin volatility by hour. To think about when to trade at all, read best time to trade crypto.

How often does the window sweep the Asia range?

On the 90 weekdays in the same block, we checked whether the 07:00, 08:00 and 09:00 UTC candles traded above the Asia high (00:00 to 06:59 UTC), below the Asia low, both, or neither.

• Above the Asia high only: 22 days.
• Below the Asia low only: 23 days.
• Both sides: 1 day.
• Neither: 44 days.

So the window took out one side of the Asia range on 46 of 90 weekdays, which is 51%. On the other 44 it stayed inside. A trader who waits for a sweep has nothing to do on about half the days, and that is a feature of the method, not a flaw: it is a filter. This count only shows that price traded beyond the level. It does not say whether the move reversed or what happened afterwards, and we make no claim about that.

How it looks on a real chart

Here is Thursday 5 March 2026 in BTCUSDT one-hour candles (Binance spot, fetched 28 Oct 2026). It is one of four days in the block that fit a filter we set: the kill zone took only the Asia low, the sweeping candle closed back above it, and the 10:00 UTC candle closed more than 0.4% above that low. We picked it as a clean example, not as a typical day. The shaded column is 07:00 to 09:59 UTC.

1. 07:00 UTC. The Asia low from the 06:00 candle is 72,037.56. The 07:00 candle wicks down to 71,759.95 and closes at 72,055.50, 18 dollars above the level. The 08:00 candle also wicks under, to 71,757.17, and closes at 72,333.70. This is a sweep by the wick-and-close rule, but a thin one: the 07:00 candle closed red and barely back above the line.
2. 10:00 UTC. The candle right after the window opens at 72,591.59 and trades up to 73,558.15, above the Asia high of 73,306.82, and closes at 73,388.92.

The rest of the day gave some of it back. By 13:00 UTC the close was 72,467.79, below where the 10:00 candle closed. One example shows what the pattern looks like. It does not show that it works.

Common mistakes

• Using summer UTC times in winter. The window is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC from 2 November, not 06:00 to 09:00.
• Treating the window as a signal. Being inside it says when to look, not which way to trade.
• Trading every candle in it. Without a marked Asia range and a sweep, there is nothing to trade.
• Assuming it is the biggest move of the day. On BTC in our winter block the New York hours were far wider.
• Mixing definitions. Another source may start at 02:30 or end at 04:00. Test one and stick with it.
• Ignoring the weekend. The window was about a quarter quieter on Saturday and Sunday in our data (0.50% against 0.66%).

What to skip

• The hour before 07:00 UTC if you are waiting for London: it is part of the Asia range you are measuring.
• Weekend mornings, unless you have tested them. Candles were smaller in our data (0.50% against 0.66% on weekdays), so a level break carries less information.
• Days with no clear Asia high or low. If the Asia range is a few candles wide and the levels are obvious only in hindsight, pass.
• Entries before the window closes its first candle. A wick is not a sweep until the candle closes back inside.
• Position sizing guesses. Size from the stop distance with the position size calculator before you enter.

The rest of the kill zones are covered in the Learn ICT section. The London window pairs naturally with understanding market structure first.

FAQ

What time is the London kill zone in UTC?

07:00 to 10:00 UTC in winter and 06:00 to 09:00 UTC in summer. It is defined as 02:00 to 05:00 New York time, so it moves with the US clock change. From 2 November 2026 it is 07:00 to 10:00 UTC, or 10:00 to 13:00 MSK.

Is the London kill zone the same as the London session?

No. The London session is the 8-to-9-hour working day of the market, 08:00 to 17:00 UTC in winter on our clock. The kill zone is a 3-hour window that starts an hour before London opens and ends two hours after it.

Does the London kill zone work for crypto?

It is a convention from forex, and crypto trades around the clock. In our winter 2025-26 BTCUSDT data the window was quieter than the average hour (0.62% against 0.75%), but it swept one side of the Asia range on 51% of weekdays. That says price often reaches the levels, not that the move pays.

Which kill zone is busier for Bitcoin, London or New York?

New York. In the same data, 13:00 to 15:59 UTC averaged 1.09% per hour against 0.62% for the London window. That is one winter block, so check your own data before building on it.

Times and counts as of 28 October 2026. Candle data: Binance spot BTCUSDT 1h, 3 Nov 2025 to 7 Mar 2026, BiasNex calculation.