Another week, another period of eventful news in the cryptocurrency market. From October 12–19, digital assets went through yet another wild ride with major developments causing an even more volatile market. From geopolitical developments to major liquidations, investors were met with a whirlwind of market-changing news.
Institutions Continue to Bet on Crypto
Despite the cryptocurrency market taking a downturn this week, institutional investors continued to demonstrate confidence in the long-term potential of digital assets.
Citibank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, is reportedly preparing to launch a new platform that will allow the firm to offer cryptocurrency custody services to investors.
Meanwhile, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) continued to stockpile BTC even amidst the market drop. This week, Michael Saylor’s firm announced a $27.2 million acquisition in Bitcoin, the first purchase in over three weeks.
European crypto investment platform Bitpanda and Société Générale’s blockchain arm, SG-FORGE have expanded their partnership to offer even more cryptocurrency adoption in one of Europe’s largest banking institutions.
Dogecoin’s corporate arm, ‘House of Doge’, also announced plans this week to go through a reverse merger with Brag House Holdings (ticker: TBH), looking to become one of the first Dogecoin-focused firms on Nasdaq.
Finally, XLM is getting a new financial product by WisdomTree, which filed to launch a physically backed exchange-traded product (ETP) called XLMW, giving investors direct exposure to Stellar.
Market Movements of the Week
Aprehension and uncertainty were certainly the tone of the third week of October. At the start of the week, the same whale that profited millions by going short only minutes before Trump announced new tariffs on China made yet another bet that the market would go down even deeper.
While Powell’s speech, in which the Fed Chair all but confirmed future interest rate cuts still in 2025, gave markets a brief respite. Uncertainty and risk-off sentiment were still hovering around crypto.
Altcoins like Solana even showed signs of renewed buy strength. But even investor momentum wouldn’t be enough to hold off a geopolitical and economic-caused market crash.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new measure to impose price floors on rare earth materials in the U.S. Over here in the crypto world, investors took the news as a new measure by the U.S. government to prepare against future Chinese escalations in the U.S.
Gold hit another all-time high this week as investors seek a safe haven against volatility and uncertainty in financial markets.
Adding fuel to the fire, a string of troubling developments at regional U.S. banks intensified market-wide risk aversion. Analysts now warn that crypto sentiment is nearing its most bearish point since early 2024.
This upcoming week, key inflation data like the Consumer Price Index in the U.S. is bound to move markets again. On top of that, we could see new developments in the geopolitical clash between the U.S. and China, which would have important repercussions for risk markets.
