By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
It’s a tough market to trade as bitcoin’s BTC$121,615.34 price swings sharply. Following a late Thursday drop from $123,000 to $120,000, BTC has recovered to trade around $121,400, with privacy coins such as ZEC$232.89 and DASH$20.57 rising sharply. The CoinDesk 20 Index has bounced to 4,178 points from the overnight low of 4,097.
BTC’s volatility has picked up, likely in expectation of another Fed rate cut later this month.
“Bitcoin volatility is poised for a breakout. Implied volatilities across 14, 30, and 90-day expiries have surged to their highest levels in the past 30 days, pointing to increased anticipation of big moves ahead,” Nick Forster, founder of decentralized exchange Derive, said.
Forster added that the so-called vol spike comes as markets price in a near-certain 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month.
Polymarket bettors price in a 91% chance that the Fed will reduce rates by 25 basis points at the Oct. 28-29 meeting, even as the ongoing government shutdown has delayed key data releases. The central bank cut rates to 25 bps to 4% last month.
In other news, State Street’s 2025 Digital Assets Outlook showed that nearly 60% of institutional investors are planning to boost their digital asset exposure in the coming year, with the average exposure expected to double within three years.
Several U.S. Democratic senators reportedly made a counter proposal to the market structure bill, involving a “restricted list” for DeFi protocols deemed too risky. Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsk said it could derail regulatory progress while undermining the bipartisan support for the Clarity Act seen in the House in July.
Meanwhile, Chainlink launched a Chainlink-grade RPC endpoint for the HyperEVM testnet, providing builders in the @HyperliquidX ecosystem with infrastructure for developers working on innovative solutions like HIP-3, vaults, liquid staking tokens (LSTs), and spot deployment.
In traditional markets, the dollar index continues to hover at two-month highs, as China tightened its grip on rare earth exports, ratcheting up trends ahead of an expected Xi-Trump meeting in South Korea later this month. Stay alert!
What to Watch
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead“.
CryptoMacroOct. 10, 8 a.m.: Brazil Aug. PPI YoY (Prev. 1.36%), MoM (Prev. -0.3%).Oct. 10, 8:30 a.m.: Canada Sept. Unemployment Rate Est. 7.2%.Oct. 10, 10 a.m.: Michigan Consumer Sentiment Oct. (Preliminary) Est. 54.2.Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead“.
Governance votes & callsDecentraland DAO is voting to replace the DAO Committee with a 3-of-5 multisig of ecosystem representatives, shifting execution-only duties while the council retains oversight. Voting ends Oct. 10.UnlocksOct. 10: LINEA$0.02546 to unlock 6.57% of its circulating supply worth $26.73 million.Oct. 11: APT$4.9571 to unlock 2.15% of its circulating supply worth $59.98 million.Oct. 12: ATH$0.05845 to unlock 16.08% of its circulating supply worth $67.7 million.Token LaunchesConferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead“.
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
The recent Chinese memecoin frenzy which sent tokens like GIGGLE, 四, and 哈基米 on PancakeSwap V2 soaring, has abruptly fizzled out.Within 24 hours, many of these assets lost more than 95% of their value, wiping out speculative gains built on hype and social momentum.The crash coincided with a broader memecoin market downturn that Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao described as a “blood bath,” fueled by FUD and false rumors about token listings.The plunge comes after Binance rolled out its “Meme Rush” platform that was supposed to provide a structured path for tokens before being tradable on various decentralized and centralized exchanges.However, much like how Solana memecoins faded in February following the launch of TRUMP and MELANIA, BNB Chain memes appear to be following the same route to demise.Pancake Swap trading volume has remained inflated at $18 bilion over the past 24 hours, with a handful of newly-launched tokens catching a bid, although it’s worth noting that liquidity remains relatively low; with wDerivatives PositioningData from Coinglass shows that many BTC perpetual short positions face the risk of liquidation above $121,600. So, a sustained move above the said level could trigger a short squeeze, leading to a quick rally toward record highs.The market is undergoing a leverage reset, with volatility flushing out excess positioning on both sides, Glassnode said. Still, the overall positioning in the global BTC futures market remains elevated, with open interest just shy of the record 755K BTC.BNB, XRP, ADA, and TRX have seen a drop in futures open interest (OI) in the past 24 hours, indicating capital outflows. BTC’s OI has risen by 1%, with ETH up just 0.4%.The XMR market is looking a bit overheated, with annualized funding rates nearing 60%, a sign of frenzied demand for bullish bets. Funding rates for other major tokens, including BTC and ETH, paint a bullish picture, but nothing out of the ordinary.On decentralized exchange Derive, open interest in the Oct. 31 expiry options is concentrated in calls at strikes $128K and $145K, reflecting a bullish bias. ETH options activity is equally bullish, with OI concentrated in $5K and $6K calls.On Deribit, however, the call-put skew for BTC and ETH remains mildly negative across timeframes, reflecting a bias for protective puts. Block flows on Paradigm featured ETH puts and straddles.Market MovementsBTC is up 0.17% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $121,389.27 (24hrs: -0.59%)ETH is down 0.37% at $4,323.41 (24hrs: -0.54%)CoinDesk 20 is up 0.4% at 4,162.46 (24hrs: +0.02%)Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 1 bp at 2.86%BTC funding rate is at 0.0045% (4.8968% annualized) on Binance
BTC’s dominance rate. (TradingView)
BTC’s dominance rate, or its share in the total market cap, is looking to establish a new uptrend, having risen from 57% to over 59% in two weeks. The increase indicates that capital is again flowing into the market leader. In other words, the altcoin season is still not here. Crypto EquitiesCoinbase Global (COIN): closed on Thursday at $387 (-0.07%), -0.22% at $386.15Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $150.48 (+0.01%), -0.19% at $150.19Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $42.22 (+2.01%), +2.08% at $43.10Bullish (BLSH): closed at $66.71 (-1.04%), +0.13% at $66.80MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $20.2 (0%), +1.53% at $20.51Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $22.28 (+1.32%), +0.4% at $22.37Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $18.04 (+2.91%), +1.16% at $18.25CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $20.09 (+5.85%), +4.03% at $20.90CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $57.57 (+3.95%), +3.42% at $59.54Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $29.67 (-1.33%), +1.08% at $29.99
Crypto Treasury Companies
Strategy (MSTR): closed at $320.29 (-3.18%), +0.53% at $322.00Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $28.32 (+0.43%)SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $16.95 (-3.53%), -1.47% at $16.70Upexi (UPXI): closed at $6.85 (-4.46%), -0.44% at $6.82Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $2.54 (+1.6%), +11.42% at $2.83ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
Daily net flow: $197.8 millionCumulative net flows: $62.73 billionTotal BTC holdings ~ 1.36 million
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: -$8.7 millionCumulative net flows: $15.1 billionTotal ETH holdings ~ 6.89 million
Source: Farside Investors
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