Executive brief
Digital asset markets are navigating a pivotal juncture characterised by macroeconomic consolidation and accelerating corporate realignments. Bitcoin pushed back above $81,000 as the Federal Reserve delivered a widely anticipated hold on interest rates within the 3.75% to 4.00% band, with markets parsing signals after the Fed leaves interest rates unchanged in a 10-2 decision. The broader market rebound received support from an equity rally across Asian technology and semiconductor shares, providing an upward directional cue as investors digested sustained corporate earnings.
Institutional infrastructure and tokenisation initiatives represent the dominant long-term drivers across the ecosystem. Market plumbing reached a substantial milestone as the DTCC tokenisation service went live on Canton Network alongside major banks. Parallel initiatives continue to encounter enterprise friction, however, with firms such as JPMorgan, Dell, and Coca-Cola formally opposing the OKX-ICE tokenised stock trading plan, expanding total corporate objections to 26. In the payments domain, stablecoin infrastructure gained further momentum as Coinbase added Ripple’s RLUSD across its trading platforms following Moody’s investment-grade rating.
A pronounced risk cue stems from lingering exchange custody and vendor security vulnerabilities. The industry faced multiple operational security concerns after Bithumb suffered an employee system breach, while Indian venue CoinDCX confirmed a $15.99m loss tied to deprecated wallet addresses. Meanwhile, corporate treasury risks surfaced as Datavault AI plunged 50% after reporting restricted access to $92.2m of balance-sheet holdings. While spot Bitcoin ETFs demonstrated renewed appetite with $175,993,377 in single-day inflows, ongoing vendor-related data incidents at platforms like Amplitude demand heightened counterparty diligence.
1) Top 20 news headlines
- Fed leaves interest rates unchanged, as expected; the central bank held policy rates in a 10-2 decision with two members voting for an increase.
- Wall Street backbone DTCC brings $30 trillion securities closer to blockchain with major banks; twenty institutions including JPMorgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley joined the live tokenisation service on Canton Network and Besu.
- JPMorgan, Coca-Cola, Dell also say ‘no’ to OKX-ICE tokenized stock trading plan; objections from major companies against listing their shares on the venue reached 26.
- Bitcoin rebounds above $81,000 as Asian chip rally spills into crypto, pepe jumps 9%; spot prices reclaimed $81,400 alongside regional stock gains while memecoin pepe gained 9%.
- Coinbase adds Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin across retail, exchange and Prime platforms; integration expands across all venues as Ripple targets an annualized product revenue run rate of $900m.
- Bitcoin treasury Datavault AI plunges 50% after firm says it can’t access its BTC; the firm recorded an accounting adjustment reducing reported assets by $92.2m after withdrawals stalled.
- Bithumb hacked through employee system as South Korean financial firms face cyberattacks; the exchange isolated its trading systems after an internal work tool breach amid 16 sector-wide cyber incidents.
- CoinDCX Confirms $15.99 Million Loss After Earlier Dismissal of Breach Reports; the exchange acknowledged losing 15.99m USDT following the failure of an automated transfer service on legacy addresses.
- Bitcoin ETF inflows climb to $176M as BTC rebounds above $80K; two consecutive sessions of net inflows generated $286m, trimming net monthly outflows to $26m.
- Bitwise raises bitcoin price target to $1.6 million by 2036, projects 34% annualized returns; updated investment projections model a 34% annualised return over the coming ten-year horizon.
- Galaxy Digital swings to $323 million quarterly profit, announces new $200 million share buyback; quarterly earnings reached $323m alongside board authorization for a $200m share repurchase program.
- Google to preview crypto custody security system as AI threats grow; Alphabet unveiled a multi-party compute custody framework currently deployed on Ethereum and Solana.
- Nearly 90% of large businesses are embracing tokenized cash to speed up payments: DBS; a commercial survey revealed stablecoin adoption at 63% and tokenised deposit implementation at 53%.
- Brazil’s largest lender becomes first bank to formalize crypto brokerage under new rules; Itaú Unibanco formally registered digital asset trading and custody operations with the central bank ahead of an October 30 deadline.
- Settlement concerns prompt Euronext to halt CoinShares’ Zcash ETP ahead of debut; exchange operators halted the ZCSH listing hours prior to launch pending central securities depository clearance.
- SoFi discloses 503,000 crypto products as gross crypto revenue hits $162 million; user disclosures revealed 503,000 accounts generating $162m in gross crypto revenues.
- Strategy shareholders approve daily dividends for four preferred stocks; investors ratified daily distribution payments for STRC starting November with three additional issues rolling out in 2027.
- USDC overtakes USDT in euro stablecoin trading as EU rules reshape market: Kaiko; USDC commanded a 56% market share of euro-denominated volume following MiCA regulatory shifts.
- Bitcoin mining infrastructure firm Luxor raises $16 million to expand AI business; Luxor secured $16m in venture funding from CMT Digital to scale high-performance GPU procurement.
- VanEck launches diversified ETF combining stocks, bonds and Bitcoin exposure; the multi-asset fund incorporates a targeted 2% spot Bitcoin allocation within a permitted 1% to 5% band.
2) BTC and ETH ETF flows
| Metric | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Net inflow | $175,993,377 | -$60,217,804.824999996 |
| Value traded | $1,575,156,229.7 | $392,325,416.5 |
| Net assets | $103,943,311,408.8796 | $14,184,192,243.5958 |
| Cumulative net inflow | $57,469,201,795.088 | $12,570,443,702.77085 |
3) X trending news
- Federal Reserve holds rates; the policy rate remains unchanged at 3.75% to 4.00% following the conclusion of the October meeting.
- Bitcoin reclaims $81,000; spot prices rebounded across major exchanges to cross the $81,000 threshold.
- Thirty-three firms oppose tokenisation; thirty-three prominent US corporations have registered objections to having equity shares traded on OKX and ICE platforms.
- Thailand legalises Bitcoin property status; the Supreme Court in Thailand officially recognised Bitcoin as legal property under national law.
- Ripple expands stablecoin access; a Coinbase partnership was announced to support RLUSD liquidity across institutional and retail channels.
- Fed overhauls policy meeting schedule; plans were outlined to reduce interest rate-setting sessions to 6 meetings per year by 2028, down from 8 currently.
- Congress targets AI bailouts; a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives seeks to bar federal bailouts for distressed artificial intelligence companies.
- Itaú Unibanco registers crypto services; Brazil’s largest banking institution lodged filings to provide digital asset custody and brokerage.
