BTC surges past $72K amid strong ETF inflows, whale accumulation hits 4-year high, and AI memecoins steal the spotlight as election season approaches.
Market Overview
- Total Crypto Market Cap: $2.4 trillion (+5.7% - 30D)
- Total Volume: $47.8 billion (+115.7% - 30D)
- BTC Price: $72.3K (+11.7% - 30D)
- ETH Price: $2.6K (+0.30% - 30D)
Macro
October saw positive macroeconomic influences (including lower federal rates in the U.S. and easing measures in China) which contributed to a stabilized market sentiment and positive price movements. Stablecoins saw an influx of capital and reached new highs, suggesting a strong foundation for liquidity and potential price support for Bitcoin and other major assets.
Crypto is the talk of town in the upcoming US November elections, as this year’s campaign marks the first time cryptocurrencies are a prominent policy issue. The outcome of this election is expected to have a significant impact on the future of crypto, especially with the loosening of regulations after President Biden’s term.
ETF Inflows
Bitcoin ETFs have seen significant inflows in October 2024, attracting $901 million in inflows as recorded in the most recent week which demonstrates strong and sustained investor interest. Cumulative inflows into Bitcoin ETFs reached approximately $3.28 billion month-to-date. The positive sentiment was mainly focused on Bitcoin and was not reflected in Ethereum, which saw the largest asset outflows last week at $35 million.
Uptober Rebounds
Bitcoin saw a massive rebound this week, steadily marching outside the $70K range. The October rally shows signs of picking back up as election day draws near: BTC price peaked at $73.45K Tuesday, nearly topping its previous peak of $73.7K in March 2024, before retreating to $72K.
Bitcoin is still trading in the green for October, despite being down the prior weeks; While it’s still some ways off its historical average of 22.16% seen typically in October, it’s now up +13.99% for the month.
The US election dynamics, favorable Federal Reserve policy, and a surge in ETF inflows have all likely contributed in creating a renewed optimism in the broader market. With the recent price movements, will we see a new all-time high for Bitcoin before the year ends?
ETH Performance
ETH has underperformed the market by ~8% during this period, with its chance of reclaiming $2.8K support slowly diminishing. Onchain data suggests that spikes in transaction fees are pushing activity away from the Ethereum network, and consequently pushing staking demand downwards this month.
Growing Number Of Whales
October also saw the number of ‘whales’ (network entities owning at least 1,000 BTC) to rise up to 1,678, representing an +11.68% jump YTD. This figure reached a peak of 1,689 on 19 October — the highest it reached since November 2020. The growing accumulation by large holders alongside solid uptake for alternative vehicles, especially the U.S.-listed spot ETFs, suggests increasing confidence in bitcoin's price prospects.
Sector Performance
Memes lead the pack for the top 5 most popular sectors for October, ahead of Solana and Ethereum ecosystems, DeFi, and NFTs. Top coins per category can be seen below:
Key Themes and Narratives
AI x Memecoin Madness
Total market cap of Big Data & AI tokens dropped from $39.34 to $32.58 billion — down -17.18% within the last 30 days.
However, there is an increasing interest in the ‘AI’ and ‘crypto AI’ based on search volumes.
Though the broader AI sector is currently struggling, a new subsector emerged in the form of AI memes. The subsector is thriving, led by GOAT (+492%). GOAT marked the first instance of AI-blockchain integration that is attracting massive interest and capital from retail users.
Race to Layer-2 Supremacy
Arbitrum holds the top spot for Layer-2s, raking in over $13 billion in TVL. Challenging it, however, is Coinbase’s L2 Base which falls second in rankings. Base is seeing a surge in user activity this month, recording a high of 1.72 million daily active addresses on 27 October, and has announced the launch of fault proofs to the mainnet.
New entrants in the space made headlines this month, with the unveiling of World (Worldcoin), Unichain (Uniswap), and more recently Ink (Kraken) — all built in OP Stack. L2 activities are also ramping up in Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems, with the launch of Ethereum-based Fuel Ignition (Fuel Labs) and planned expansion of the B2 Network.
Decentralized Prediction Markets
As seen from Q3, the boom of prediction markets continues through to October, reflecting the growing interest of users in prediction platforms and their usefulness in the current political context.
Polymarket has hit a new record this October with $1.3B in monthly betting volume, marking an impressive 2.5x increase. Additionally, the Polygon-based betting platform has amassed 85% of the prediction markets' TVL in crypto.
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