By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
The crypto market staged a fragile recovery after a violent flash crash on Friday erased more than $500 billion in value and forced nearly $20 billion in liquidations across derivatives platforms.
Bitcoin fell as much as 13% in an hour, bottoming near $102,000 before rebounding to now trade above $111,800. The broader market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index, climbed 11.8% from this week’s bottom, but dropped 3.5% in the last 24 hours to 3,727 points. It’s underperforming BTC, which dropped 2.8% in the same period.
Crypto market maker Wintermute said the sell-off unfolded in a tightly synchronized wave that tested perpetual contract trading platforms’ limits.
“Violent price movement quickly led to liquidity disappearing from the broader market,” Wintermute wrote. “As prices post the drawdown recovered, liquidity came back rapidly.”
Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs and a core contributor to the Spark protocol, told CoinDesk that the volatility “served as a real-time stress test for DeFi’s underlying infrastructure.” He added that “Blue chip collateral played a major role here, acting as a stabilising base through the market shakeout.”
Despite the chaos, signs point to continued institutional conviction. Citi reportedly plans to launch crypto custody services in 2026, aligning with a broader push by Wall Street to offer regulated digital asset products. At the same time, investment bank China Renaissance is raising $600 million for a BNB-focused investment vehicle in partnership with YZi Labs.
Fund flows also remain resilient. Crypto investment products saw over $3.1 billion in net inflows last week, according to CoinShares. Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $326 million of outflows yesterday, showing jitters among investors.
With the U.S. government shutdown ongoing, the macro front should have little influence over the market for the time being. Fed Chair Powell is speaking later today, and traders will be monitoring it for clues on the central bank’s views on tariffs.
The focus will instead remain on how China responds to Trump’s additional tariffs. Stay alert!
What to Watch
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.
- Crypto
- Macro
- Oct. 14, 12:20 p.m.: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pa.
- 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 & calls
- The Sandbox DAO is voting to enable estate sales by letting LAND owners bundle and sell multiple parcels via the GBM x Sandbox marketplace. Voting ends Oct. 15.
- Unlocks
- Token Launches
- Oct. 14: SANDchain, a zk-powered Ethereum layer-2, launches.
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
- Plasma fell another 13.5% on Tuesday, extending its losses to 52% since debuting in late September.
- The stablecoin-focused layer-1 blockchain faces skepticism over its tokenomics and large “ecosystem & growth” allocations.
- Circulating supply stands at 1.8 billion against a total of 10 billion, pointing to years of potential sell pressure as vested tokens unlock.
- Tokens were sold in the public round at $0.05 each, leaving ICO buyers comfortably in profit at current prices of around $0.41.
- Investors who bought after exchange listings are facing steep losses amid weak market sentiment.
- Analysts expect continued downward pressure once early investor tokens become fully liquid, ICOdrops data shows a major unlock will occur in Q2 of 2026.
Derivatives Positioning
- The BTC futures market appears to be stabilizing following its recent volatility. Open interest has settled around $25.5 billion, showing no major change from yesterday after the weekend’s significant drop. The 3-month annualized basis is now trading in a lower range of 5-6%, a drop from its earlier rebound and indicating a slight cooling of bullish sentiment. A key divergence remains in funding rates, with Bybit’s rate turning negative at -5%, while Hyperliquid’s remains positive at 10%. This suggests a mixed and complex market sentiment, with strong but isolated long and short conviction across different platforms.
- The BTC options market is showing a significant bullish acceleration. The 24-hour Put/Call Volume is now roughly balanced at a 50-50 split, a shift from being call-dominated, while the 1-week 25 Delta Skew has spiked dramatically to 12.62%. This high positive skew indicates a substantial premium for call options over puts, showing that traders are aggressively positioning for upside price action and are willing to pay a premium for bullish exposure.
- Coinglass data shows $627 million in 24 hour liquidations, with a 70-30 split between longs and shorts. ETH ($185 million), BTC ($125 million) and Others ($69 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations. Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $110,600 as a core liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price drop.
Market Movements
- BTC is down 3.86% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $111,363.19 (24hrs: -3.22%)
- ETH is down 7.01% at $3,991.50 (24hrs: -4.3%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 6.02% at 3,712.40 (24hrs: -3.74%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1 bps at 2.91%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0008% (0.8924% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is up 0.17% at 99.43
- Gold futures are up 0.14% at $4,138.90
- Silver futures are up 0.14% at $50.50
- Nikkei 225 closed down 2.58% at 46,847.32
- Hang Seng closed down 1.68% at 25,455.05
- FTSE is down 0.32% at 9,412.64
- Euro Stoxx 50 is down 1.02% at 5,511.68
- DJIA closed on Monday up 1.29% at 46,067.58
- S&P 500 closed up 1.56% at 6,654.72
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 2.21% at 22,694.61
- S&P/TSX Composite closed down 1.38% at 29,850.89
- S&P 40 Latin America closed up 1.72% at 2,833.94
- U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 3 bps at 4.021%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.91% at 6,633.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 1.14% at 24,638.75
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are down 0.57% at 46,032.00
Bitcoin Stats
- BTC Dominance: 59.52% (0.86%)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03572 (-3.07%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,052 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $46.91
- Total Fees: 2.87 BTC / $330,491
- CME Futures Open Interest: 140,690 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 26.9 oz
- BTC vs gold market cap: 7.59%
Technical Analysis
- TAO has been one of the top-performing assets over the past week, with prices rebounding to levels seen prior to the October 10 breakdown.
- The asset has successfully reclaimed the 50-week EMA and broken its daily downtrend, closing at $447 yesterday. However, this area aligns closely with the yearly open, which is currently acting as short-term resistance.
- For bullish continuation, traders will want to see a weekly close above the $390 level and for price to maintain support above the 50-week EMA, confirming the shift in trend strength.
Crypto Equities
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Monday at $356.99 (-0.01%), -3.83% at $343.31 in pre-market
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $137.47 (+3.41%), -3.09% at $133.22
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $41.23 (+4.7%), -4.22% at $39.49
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $59.55 (-1.42%), -4.2% at $57.05
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $20.24 (+8.53%), -3.95% at $19.44
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $21.70 (+3.28%), -4.52% at $20.72
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $19.21 (+3.73%), -2.6% at $18.71
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $20.04 (+3.94%), -5.09% at $19.02
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $60.86 (+9.97%), -1.61% at $59.88
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $28.64 (+0.49%), -0.14% at $28.60
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $315.47 (+3.5%), -3.96% at $302.98
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $26.33 (-1.75%), -1.71% at $25.88
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $16.13 (+5.32%), -6.08% at $15.15
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $6.48 (+2.05%), -6.64% at $6.05
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $2.15 (-12.96%), -2.33% at $2.10
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flow: -$326.4 million
- Cumulative net flows: $62.4 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~ 1.36 million
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flow: -$428.5 million
- Cumulative net flows: $14.49 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~ 6.84 million
Source: Farside Investors