Arp's Crypto Digest

General Digital Asset Market View:

The crypto market faced a severe sell-off over the weekend as Bitcoin (BTC-USD) plunged from around $120,800 to $102,000, erasing more than $19.3 billion in leveraged positions within 24 hours, the largest liquidation event since 2020.

The drop followed President Trump’s surprise announcement of a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, which sparked widespread panic across global markets. As of now, Bitcoin trades near $115,000, up roughly 13% from its intraday low, while Ethereum (ETH-USD) and Solana (SOL-USD) hover around $4,140 and $197, respectively.

On Sunday, Trump clarified that the proposed tariffs would not take immediate effect and were intended as a negotiating measure pending further trade discussions. The update helped ease some of the market tension, though sentiment across crypto remains cautious following the record wave of liquidations.

Macro:

The impact of the US government shutdown will continue to be in focus next week, with several US data releases affected by the ongoing shutdown, including the CPI (due Oct 24), PPI and retail sales. Elsewhere, notable data releases include inflation and trade in China, as well as the monthly GDP in the UK. Otherwise, the focus will be on the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings starting Monday, and the Fed will release its Beige Book on Wednesday. There is also an extensive list of central bank speakers on the docket this week. Finally, US banks kick off the Q3 earnings season on Tuesday.

More Crypto:

Grayscale has staked a massive $5.2B worth of ETH in just two days — pushing the Ethereum staking queue to a 24-day wait.

The rush hints at institutional confidence, but also congestion in the validator pipeline.

BTC balances on centralized exchanges have dropped to their lowest level since 2017 — a sign that more holders are moving to self-custody and thinking long-term.

Daily transactions on Solana have dropped sharply — from a peak of ~125 million on July 24, 2025, to just ~64 million now.

This nearly 50% plunge in network activity comes at a time when SOL’s price has been rallying, suggesting the surge might be driven more by speculative sentiment than organic network demand.

What Happened This Week:

• Binance covers $283M in user losses after token depeg.

• Crypto market sees record single-day liquidations.

• Morgan Stanley to allow all clients to invest in crypto, including through retirement accounts.

• Yzilabs launches $1B Builder Fund to back founders in the BNB ecosystem.

• China Financial Leasing (HK) raises HK$86.7M ($11M) to build crypto platform.

What to Look Out For:

• Trump reportedly considering pardon for former Binance CEO CZ.

• Michael Saylor hints at another Bitcoin purchase.

• VP JD Vance says Trump is open to reasonable tariff negotiations with China.

• Ten global banks, including Goldman Sachs and Citi, are teaming up on a joint stablecoin initiative.

• S&P launches Digital Markets 50 Index for diversified Bitcoin and crypto exposure.

What we enjoyed reading and listening to:

• Arthur Hayes: Trump’s Fed Takeover Will Send Bitcoin to $250K Before Year End — Link

• Stablecoins Don’t Win by Minting. They Win by Moving — Link

• Why China Builds Faster Than America & The Rest of the World — Link

• State Crypto Policy Playbook outlines 5 key actions for states to drive responsible crypto innovation — Link

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