Stablecoins are taking over
There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:
Bitcoin dipped under $110K amid volatility. Plus, crypto payments are a hot topic at a Fed conference, and a new firm plans to buy $1 billion of XRP.
The stablecoin market has boomed since summer. The GENIUS Act has helped clear the way for Wall Street to invest and build.
Prediction markets set a new record in weekly volume. And more key stats from around the cryptoverse.
MARKET BYTES
Crypto markets seesaw as volatility remains high
Just a few weeks ago, as the month crypto fans call “Uptober” was kicking into gear, the total crypto market cap soared to a new all-time high of $4.21 trillion.
In the weeks since, however, volatility has returned as the main crypto narrative, and by Tuesday, crypto’s market cap had shed roughly half a billion dollars in value.
The pivot point came on Oct. 10, when billions of dollars of leveraged trades began to unwind in a historic 24-hour crash. Prices have been zigging up and down ever since.
Bitcoin, which reached $126,000 earlier this month, dove below $105,000 this weekend, rebounded to $113,000 on Tuesday, and then slid under $108,000 on Wednesday.
What’s been driving all this uncertainty, and what might happen next? Here’s what you need to know.
What macro factors are causing all of this volatility?
Even in the best of times, crypto prices are a moving target, shifting up and down on market sentiment, an always evolving economic and geopolitical backdrop, regulatory changes, and much more.
Right now, uncertainty in a few key areas remains high, so it’s not surprising that markets have been unstable. The U.S. government shutdown is rolling into its fourth week (driving traders away from dollars and into other asset classes) and trade tensions between the U.S. and China remain elevated.
But traders are also optimistic about further interest-rate cuts this year. And Tuesday’s drop in precious metals markets — which coincided with a boost for crypto — may indicate some are shifting capital away from gold and silver and into BTC, ETH, crypto-related stocks, and more.
Pivot potential… Just a small reallocation from gold to BTC could dramatically boost crypto prices, according to a new report from Bitwise. “Only a 3% to 4% rotation would be enough to double BTC,” the firm noted, adding that even a 2% pivot could boost bitcoin past $161,000.
New firm plans to go public and acquire $1 billion in XRP
A newly formed company called Evernorth Holdings — with funding from Ripple, Pantera Capital, Ripple cofounder Chris Larsen, and several other deep-pocketed crypto backers — announced plans to raise $1 billion to “fund open-market purchases of XRP to build the world's leading institutional XRP treasury.”
The company’s shares should begin trading on the Nasdaq in the first quarter of 2026, according to the announcement. Evernorth joins a wide range of similar firms that primarily exist to acquire crypto for their corporate treasuries and sell shares of the company on public markets.
Buying the dip… BitMine Immersion Technologies, the leading Ethereum treasury company, took advantage of the recent dip to buy more than 200,000 ETH last week, bringing the value of its total holdings to more than $15 billion as of Tuesday.
Fed conference explores crypto payments
This week, at the Federal Reserve’s first-ever Payments Innovation Conference, the central bank discussed new ways of incorporating crypto into the broader payments infrastructure.
Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller kicked off the conference by “vowing the Fed will embrace the crypto sector's innovations,” reported CoinDesk. Waller is reportedly one of President Trump’s top candidates to succeed current Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends next year.
New era… “I wanted to send a message that this is a new era for the Federal Reserve in payments — the DeFi industry is not viewed with suspicion or scorn," Waller said on Tuesday. “Rather, today, you are welcomed to the conversation on the future of payments in the United States and on our home field — something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.”
STABLECOIN SPOTLIGHT
How the GENIUS Act is boosting stablecoin adoption
Stablecoins have been the topic of the year in crypto, thanks largely to Congress passing landmark stablecoin legislation this summer. (We’ll never forget you, stablecoin summer 🕶️)
In the months since the GENIUS Act became law, stablecoin adoption from individuals, fintech firms, and traditional Wall Street giants have all accelerated.
Stripe has invested heavily in using stablecoins – tokens pegged to the price of a reserve asset, typically the dollar — for cross-border payments; the total stablecoin market cap has repeatedly set new all-time highs, and institutional players like BlackRock have expanded their stablecoin-focused product suite.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Quick refresher: What is the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act (short for “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins”) is the first federal law in the U.S. specifically designed to regulate dollar-backed stablecoins. It provides a legal framework (via measures like reserve requirements, federal and state supervision, and more) to ensure transparency, safety, and regulatory clarity for all users, from consumers to businesses.
The stablecoin market cap hit another all-time high this month
The stablecoin market cap just hit a fresh high of $314 billion last week, with analysts pointing to crypto trading, institutional adoption, and onchain loans as major drivers.
Canadian bank Canaccord identified the GENIUS Act’s regulatory clarity as a major driver of stablecoin growth, saying the law strengthens the case for stablecoins to become the “money layer” of the internet.
And according to a new report from Citi, the stablecoin market could rise to $4 trillion by 2030, and stablecoin payment rails could support up to $300 trillion in transactions by that same year.
Stablecoin loans are becoming a major use case
Visa recently highlighted the rise of onchain stablecoin loans as a significant driver for growth. In August alone, more than $51 billion in stablecoins was borrowed across 81,000 unique wallet addresses.
“While it’s still the early days for integrating stablecoins as ‘programmable money’ into mainstream finance, the underlying smart contract infrastructure is being deployed, battle-tested and scaled publicly through the existing decentralized finance ecosystem,” said Visa’s report.
Stripe’s stablecoin-focused blockchain just raised $500 million
Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain being built by the fintech giant Stripe and the crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, raised $500 million in Series A funding last week. (Paradigm was co-created by Coinbase co-founder and current board member Fred Ehrsam.)
The blockchain, now valued at $5 billion, is “purpose-built for stablecoins and real-world payments,” according to Paradigm, with design input coming from companies including OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, and others.
Tempo is seeking to compete with public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, as well as traditional payments rails, by providing infrastructure for fast, 24/7 global payments; microtransactions; remittances; and even AI-enabled payments.
BlackRock is launching a new fund for stablecoin issuers
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is deepening its crypto-focused product suite with a new fund aimed at managing the reserves of stablecoins issued by companies like Circle. (Under the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuers are required to back every stablecoin 1:1 with cash or short-term treasuries, so managing these huge reserves is a vital part of the ecosystem.)
The company already manages more than $66 billion worth of USDC reserves for Circle. But following the GENIUS Act, the firm is rebranding an existing money market fund as the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund, with the purpose of catering explicitly to stablecoin issuers.
The fund is designed to be GENIUS Act-compliant and will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as the backing for tokens, in accordance with the law. Since the law’s passage, BlackRock has reported rising interest from stablecoin issuers seeking GENIUS-compliant reserve management options.
Zooming out...
The stablecoin boom shows no signs of slowing down, and is far from limited to U.S. companies. Three of Japan’s biggest banks have created a consortium to launch stablecoins (including Yen-denominated tokens), according to a new report, and a group of nine European banks announced a similar consortium earlier this year.
“As stablecoins embed themselves deeper into global payments … they can accelerate investment into core infrastructure,” Canaccord told CoinDesk. “This creates a reinforcing loop: as stablecoins become more integrated into the financial system, they also strengthen the rails upon which the wider crypto industry is built.”
NUMBERS TO KNOW
$2 billion
New all-time high in weekly prediction market volume, led by Polymarket and Kalshi. Sports betting accounted for the majority of activity, with $414.7 million in volume, while political markets saw $322.6 million in volume as November’s elections draw closer.
$375 million
Amount Coinbase paid to acquire onchain capital raising platform Echo. Founded by “crypto OG” Jordan Fish — better known as Cobie — Echo “makes raising and investing more accessible to community members … and gives founders more options for their cap table,” per a Coinbase blog post.
67%
Percent of surveyed institutional investors who said they have a “positive outlook for BTC over the next three-to-six months,” according to a new report from Coinbase Institutional and insights firm Glassnode. The report also found that 45% of institutions “believe we’re in a late stage bull market,” rather than still being in early innings.
7%
Percent drop in profitability that corporate BTC miners faced in September, as prices slipped and Bitcoin’s hashrate (the total computational power needed to mine BTC) climbed, according to investment bank Jefferies. At the same time, miners have been dedicating more of their computing energy toward AI infrastructure, in an effort to diversify revenue sources.
QUIZ OVER TOKENS
Which of the following firms is the largest ETH holder?
A
BitMine
B
Tesla
C
Sharplink Gaming
D
Fidelity
Zoek het antwoord hieronder.
Antwoord op trivia-vraag
A
BitMine
