Cryptocurrency markets opened October on a positive note, with Bitcoin climbing to $86,500 on Sunday, up 2.07% on the day and 8.57% over the past month. Ethereum reached $2,720, up 11.05% in thirty days, while nearly all top-ten cryptocurrencies posted gains.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds absorbed $31.7 million on Friday and $102.7 million on Thursday, totaling $134.4 million for the month. This marked a reversal after September closed with a $148.7 million outflow from Bitcoin funds.
Altcoins and protocol tokens showed stronger momentum. Pump.fun led notable gainers with a 26.2% increase, while LayerZero rose 19.8%. Protocol tokens including Sky and Aave posted double-digit weekly gains. Many of these assets support token buyback programs, which the SEC confirmed eight days earlier do not automatically classify a token as a security provided the underlying network functions properly.
Revenue-generating protocols dominated the gainers list. Pump led onchain protocols by weekly revenue with $17.86 million, followed by Hyperliquid with $14.64 million. Hyperliquid received its first $14.58 million in USDC fees available for token buybacks, potentially equivalent to roughly $193 million annually at current volumes.
Institutional and Regulatory Developments
Bank of America raised its Coinbase price target to $203 from $174 while maintaining a Buy rating, citing stronger stablecoin revenue projections following September's Federal Reserve rate increase.
OKX and the parent company of the NYSE announced plans to launch a tokenized stock trading venue covering 63 NYSE-listed companies, filing Sunday under the SEC's new regulatory framework.
The Ethereum Foundation launched zkAPI, a tool enabling privacy-preserving payments for artificial intelligence services. Users deposit ETH or USDC once and can prove account funding without revealing which specific deposit is theirs.
Notable Protocol Updates
Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 that once held $2.3 billion in total value locked, announced it will shut down on October 26 after determining operating costs exceed revenues. Users have been instructed to move funds to Ethereum before the deadline.
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan teased a potential token announcement coming this week at Token 2049.
Security and Hacking
Chainalysis attributed the $387 million Bitget hack to North Korea, using its own artificial intelligence to track funds as they moved across Ethereum, XRP, Zcash, and Tron in 23 transfers over three hours. North Korean-linked cryptocurrency theft has surpassed $1 billion for the year.
NEAR protocol recovered all $3.8 million from a recent exploit one day after informing the hacker of their identification and issuing a 48-hour deadline. The team subsequently ended its investigation and directed future security researchers to use the bug bounty program instead.
