Bitcoin's hold on $80K looked leveraged rather than bought, in Glassnode's read: after a failed attempt to reach $85k, long positions were paying high funding rates and options traders were hedging, while spot and ETF buyers had stepped back [1]. Ether carried a heavier version of the same story, with its US spot ETFs posting $1.07 billion of 30-day net outflows as the price neared $2,300 [2].
Leverage held the line
Glassnode's post paired that positioning with its on-chain gauges: a Volatility Spread reading of 32.32, an ETF MVRV of 1.40 and a Hot Capital Share reading of 21.14 [1]. Early in the window, at 01:57 UTC, Bitget's daily report put Bitcoin at $80,322.15, near its institutional cost basis, with short-liquidation zones at $81,100–$81,700 and long-liquidation zones at $79,300–$79,900 [3]. The same report had the crypto market cap down 4.33% to $2.68 trillion [3].
The options market priced a wider range than usual. A Coinbase Markets chart showed the 7-day options-implied move for BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP above each asset's historical median absolute move, with XRP highest at 1.55× and SOL closest at 1.19× [4].
Strategy kept reporting through it, disclosing a $205 million STRC repurchase and holdings of 848,517 BTC as of 10/25/26 [5].
Ether took the outflows
OKX's weekly brief for 19–25 October had already shown the split, with BTC at +0.50% on the week and ETH at -2.81% [6]. On 26 October the ETF outflow figure landed [2], and Ansem posted a daily ETH chart near $2,298 with resistance around $2,400, describing a weekly bearish engulfing candle that broke the prior bullish structure [7]. In a separate post Ansem described Bitcoin and Ether breaking down below 82k and 2,400 on a mid-term trend break, and warned of fourth-quarter volatility for traders, pointing to the FOMC and important earnings releases this week [8].
The institutional story on Ethereum ran the other way in the same OKX brief, which listed JPM Coin's Ethereum expansion among the week's moves [6].
The other side
Part of the counter-read came from the same on-chain feed. Glassnode said recent Bitcoin buyers had left the strong sell zone: short-term holder supply in profit had cooled from almost all of it in late September to about 70% as of 24 October [9]. Lark Davis said a Bitcoin short squeeze could be brewing [10]. Ansem, who called the majors lower, also argued that despite the negative mood on crypto Twitter the counter-consensus was to be bullish on on-chain activity [11], and their breakdown post noted some on-chain pockets may still perform well [8].
Mayne's weekly chart framed a range rather than a direction: a consolidation zone roughly between $76k and $80k, resistance near $82k and a neutral tone [12].
The dollar layer and the venues
Stablecoin supply moved in size. The USDC Treasury minted 250 million USDC at 18:38 UTC and again at 18:57 UTC [13][14]. Tether Treasury sent 130 million USDT each to Upbit and Bitfinex [15][16], while separate transfers ran from Bitfinex back to the Tether Treasury, including one of 202.6 million USDT [17]. Bitcoin also moved through Coinbase Institutional wallets in both directions, from 1,847 BTC (about $148.3M) arriving from an unknown wallet [18] to 1,141 BTC leaving for a newly created address [19]; Whale Alert gave no intent for either.
The venues kept widening what a crypto account can trade. Bybit listed perpetual contracts on AbbVie, TTM Technologies and Axe Compute with a 0% maker fee and 50% off taker fees [20], Bitget listed EIDO, STM and EQT stock perpetuals [21], and Bybit scheduled a 27 October walkthrough of Perp Options on TSLA, NVDA and QQQ [22]. Payward, Kraken's parent, said it intends to become the first CFTC-regulated HIP-3 deployer on Hyperliquid, with Bitnomial creating the markets and NinjaTrader Clearing as the registered FCM, pending CFTC approval [23].
Tokenization added to the picture. Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund, its largest fund at around £22 billion in assets under management, on the XRP Ledger [24]. CZ joined BNC's CEO at the Nasdaq opening bell, writing that he never thought he would ring the bell for a blockchain token treasury [25].
The calendar ahead
The OKX brief put the FOMC on 27–28 October with rates expected to hold at 3.75–4.00%, citing a Reuters poll in which 94 of 100 economists expected an October hold [6]. Bitget's daily noted PMI easing to 57.6 as inflation pressures rose [3], and Trader Mayne listed earnings, the FOMC meeting and the US midterm elections among the possible volatility events ahead [26].
