Weekly Recap | Bitcoin Remains Volatile, ETF Outflows Persist, Echobit’s October Campaigns Continue
2026.10.19
Weekly Recap (October 12–18)
Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 last week before rebounding. By the weekend, BTC was down approximately 1%–3% for the week, while most major altcoins underperformed. U.S. spot crypto ETFs continued to record net outflows, although the pace of withdrawals eased compared with the previous week. Overall, the market has yet to establish a clear reversal signal.
This week, market attention will focus on U.S. housing data, initial jobless claims, manufacturing and services PMIs, and earnings reports from major technology companies. If oil prices retreat and the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields continue to decline, risk assets could receive some support. However, persistent inflationary pressure and renewed expectations of rate hikes could leave crypto assets vulnerable to further volatility.
This article provides a quick review of the key developments across the crypto industry over the past week, along with a preview of the major trends and events to watch in the week ahead.
Market Pulse
- U.S. CPI rose 3.7% year over year in September, exceeding expectations and strengthening market expectations of a potential Federal Reserve rate hike in October.
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $681 million in net outflows, while spot Ethereum ETFs saw around $542 million in net outflows, reflecting short-term pressure on institutional flows.
- Several whale addresses moved BTC to exchanges, while some investors sold BTC to buy ETH, highlighting shifts in large-holder activity.
- Data from Allium showed that stablecoin payment volume rose 45% year over year to approximately $482 billion in the first three quarters of 2026.
- Standard Chartered launched BTC and ETH trading services for professional investors in the United Arab Emirates.
- Morgan Stanley plans to support tokenized stock trading through an alternative trading system in the first quarter of 2027.
- Mastercard and BVNK launched the Global Money Platform.
- NEAR Intents disclosed a security incident involving approximately $3.8 million, with all affected funds subsequently recovered.
- Nine blockchain-related organizations established a quantum alliance to develop post-quantum security standards and migration guidelines for networks, wallets, and infrastructure.
Funding & M&A
The industry saw 6 funding deals last week, with a combined value of more than $54 million, primarily focused on infrastructure and DeFi:
- Fission, a startup focused on tokenized fund liquidity, announced a $10 million Series A round led by Pantera Capital.
- The Sui Foundation invested $30 million in DATA Network, an AI data protocol formerly known as Story Protocol.
- Tokenized asset settlement platform Multiliquid raised $8 million in a round led by Polychain.
- Stablecoin issuer Tether announced a seed investment in EFY Finance, a Latin American financial infrastructure company.
Policy & Compliance
- South Korea is considering introducing crypto asset taxation in January 2027.
- The Central Bank of Russia proposed banning direct peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions by individuals from July 2027.
- U.S. regulators are examining the costs of stablecoin issuance and its potential impact on the financial system.
- MSCI is considering changes to its index inclusion rules, which could affect companies holding substantial digital asset reserves, including Strategy and Metaplanet.
Echobit Highlights
- Echobit Earn continued to offer users a range of earning opportunities.
- Echobit October Futures Trading Competition continued, encouraging trading participation and market engagement.
- Echobit October Trading Carnival remained underway, providing users with additional trading incentives.
- Echobit BRKB/USDT TradFi Futures Trading Campaign continued, expanding trading opportunities in traditional financial assets.
- Echobit Lucky Draw Season launched, adding a prize-draw format to the user experience.
- Echobit Candlestick Challenge continued, bringing interactive candlestick-based challenges to the community.
- Echobit Hot Topics Discussion continued to encourage community conversations around market developments.
- Echobit Trading Mission remained underway, using task-based activities to encourage user participation.
- Echobit PPI Inflation Prediction Challenge launched, inviting users to predict inflation data and market reactions.
- Echobit Community Activity Suggestion Program continued to invite community members to contribute ideas for future activities.
- Echobit Find The Hidden Words launched, bringing a word-search challenge to the community.
- Echobit Guess The Crypto Words invited users to test their knowledge of cryptocurrency terminology through an interactive guessing game.
Next Week Preview (October 19–25)
- CME Group will launch Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Uniswap (UNI) futures on October 19.
- U.S.-listed Universal Safety will change its name to DeFi Capital Markets on October 19.
- South Korea will discuss virtual asset taxation with five major crypto exchanges on October 20.
- The Zcash development team plans to evaluate the NU7 testnet on October 20 before finalizing the mainnet upgrade and activation block height.
- Fables, a trading platform within the Robinhood Chain ecosystem, plans to conduct its token generation event (TGE) on October 20.
- Strive plans to increase its SATS preferred stock IPO to 7 million shares, targeting $630 million in proceeds, with closing expected on October 20.
- The Osmosis community plans to submit an on-chain proposal on October 20 to end OSMO inflationary emissions.
- Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade is scheduled to launch on mainnet on October 21, targeting a finality time of approximately 150 milliseconds.
- Bitwise’s spot Dogecoin ETF, BWOW, will be liquidated and closed, with investors scheduled to receive the net asset value of their holdings in cash on October 22.
- Firmus, an AI company backed by NVIDIA, plans to go public in Australia on October 23 at an estimated valuation of $30.6 billion.
- REX Shares and Osprey Funds updated their application for a SEI staking ETF, with an effective date proposed for October 23.
Echobit will continue tracking global crypto developments, focusing on market movements, regulatory trends, and funding opportunities to help you navigate every market cycle and stay ahead of what’s next.