VanEck Crypto Monthly Recap For October 2025

Summary Bitcoin’s rally reversed abruptly after a Trump tariff tweet triggered a swift liquidation wave that erased weeks of ￰0￱ errors and a trading engine freeze at crypto’s largest exchange magnified losses, underscoring systemic fragility in market infrastructure. Digital-asset treasuries kept accumulating through the drawdown while experimenting with new financing tools, and Zcash led a renewed push toward zero-knowledge privacy tech. October’s crypto rally unraveled after a Trump tariff tweet sparked liquidations, froze Binance’s trading engine, and left Ethereum L2s weak with Zcash leading a quiet privacy ￰1￱ note that VanEck may have a position(s) in the digital asset(s) described ￰2￱ key takeaways for October: Tariff shock ends “Uptober”: Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) rally reversed abruptly after a Trump tariff tweet triggered a swift liquidation wave that erased weeks of ￰3￱ breaks under pressure: Oracle (ORCL) errors and a trading engine freeze at crypto’s largest exchange magnified losses, underscoring systemic fragility in market ￰4￱ and innovation advance: Digital-asset treasuries kept accumulating through the drawdown while experimenting with new financing tools, and Zcash (ZEC-USD) led a renewed push toward zero-knowledge privacy ￰5￱ Returns October (%) YTD (%) MarketVector Global Digital Assets Equity Index 11.13 68.2 Nasdaq Index 4.7 22.86 S&P 500 Index 2.27 16.3 Coinbase (COIN) 1.86 38.45 Bitcoin -3.88 16.98 Ethereum (ETH-USD) -6.31 15.7 MarketVector Infrastructure Application Leaders Index -10.88 -45.88 MarketVector Smart Contract Leaders Index -11.51 -11.56 MarketVector Meme Coin Index -18.24 -57.88 MarketVector Decentralized Finance Leaders Index -21.84 -54.69) is designed to track the performance of the largest and most liquid smart contract assets, and is an investable subset of MarketVector Smart Contract ￰6￱ Futures Open Interest Drops -19% in 5 Hours).

The exchange handled 30–40% of global crypto spot and futures volume going into the ￰7￱ the worst of the volatility, multiple assets on Binance depegged from their redemption value - including the USDE stablecoin (- 35% ) and wBETH, a wrapped version of staked ETH that momentarily traded down 90%. The catalyst: a $90M market sell order that ripped through Binance’s internal order books, which also feed its own oracle ￰8￱ no external reference points, the price collapse became self-reinforcing. That’s the crypto equivalent of a clearing house marking collateral to fire-sale prices and calling in more margin just as liquidity ￰9￱ came the real problem: latency.

Binance’s trading engine seized under the ￰10￱ roughly 100 minutes, thousands of traders reported “order rejected” errors while watching their collateral ￰11￱ couldn’t sell; others couldn’t buy the ￰12￱ providers, normally the shock absorbers, were frozen ￰13￱ result was the kind of price dislocation that only happens when human and machine panic ￰14￱ the chaos, Binance triggered its auto-deleveraging ((ADL)) system, a last-ditch safety valve that forcibly closes profitable positions to cover losing ￰15￱ traditional markets, clearing members absorb defaults; in crypto, that role doesn’t ￰16￱ is an algorithmic clearing member of last ￰17￱ traditional finance, exchanges like the CME and CBOE rely on clearing members: firms that stand between traders and the exchange, absorbing losses if a client goes bust.

They’re effectively risk sponges that prevent the kind of forced winner-liquidations we saw on ￰18￱ crypto, that layer doesn’t ￰19￱ is peer-to-peer margining, automated and ￰20￱ decentralized markets or prime brokers evolve to take on that role, episodes like October 10 will keep exposing how thin the protection layer really ￰21￱ twist this time: Binance still had more than $1B in its reserve ￰22￱ prompted a heated debate among traders: why invoke ADL if the fund wasn’t exhausted? One answer might be that the ADL logic runs on price triggers, not judgment. It’s a system designed for survival, not ￰23￱ doubt the event was malicious; it was just a perfect storm of incentive misalignment, overconfidence, and self-referential pricing.

Still, reputational scars ￰24￱ Binance can rebuild trust with its heaviest users, particularly market makers, will be a key metric for ￰25￱ we’re watching next: Whether Binance diversifies its oracle sources Engine uptime under load Potential migration of professional traders toward exchanges that stayed online: Hyperliquid (HYPE-USD), CME, or even decentralized perps Winners and Losers While the market convulsed, one ecosystem actually printed gains: BNB ￰26￱ rose +13% in October, propelled by a new decentralized exchange ((DEX)) called Aster (ASTER-USD), which briefly topped all decentralized derivatives platforms by volume. Incentive-driven trading (“ points farming” by another name) drew users like moths to ￰27￱ one point, Aster processed more notional volume than dYdX and Hyperliquid ￰28￱ as always, the details ￰29￱ (a credible data aggregator) later excluded Aster’s volumes from its DEX rankings, citing probable wash trading.

We’re not ready to call that verdict final, but it reinforces a theme: liquidity in crypto often lives where incentives flow, not necessarily where organic demand resides. BNB’s fundamentals did improve, ￰30￱ revenue jumped +235% month-over-month, placing it second behind Hyperliquid’s $3M /day run rate. Meanwhile, Ethereum reclaimed its title as the top DEX chain by daily volume ($4.5B , edging Solana (SOL-USD) by just 1% ). The losers were concentrated in Ethereum Layer 2 tokens — governance coins without gas ￰31￱ fell 43%, adding to a brutal stretch for new L2 ￰32￱ structural problem is clear: users pay ETH, not LINEA, for ￰33￱ these tokens capture a share of network fees, they remain governance placeholders.

Ex-Mantle (MANTLE-USD) (+187% YoY), the group’s average one-year return sits around - 60% , compared with +65% for BTC and +62% for ￰34￱ divergence tells a story: real economic utility—blockspace, stablecoin velocity, fee throughput—is what holds up during volatility. Narrative-only tokens don’t. Top 5 Blockchains by Average Daily Revenue Top Chains This Month HYPE BNB ETH TRX SOL Avg Daily Revenue (%) 2,998,109 2,482,632 1,413,767 1,273,748 885,535 3 Months Ago HYPE TRX ETH SOL BTC Avg Daily Revenue (%) 3,053,961 1,969,500 1,622,759 1,373,473 533,495 6 Months Ago TRX HYPE SOL ETH BTC Avg Daily Revenue (%) 1,717,101 1,461,224 1,232,219 706,354 534,226 9 Months Ago SOL ETH HYPE TRX BTC Avg Daily Revenue (%) 8,184,682 4,947,904 1,974,547 1,820,250 663,422 12 Months Ago ETH SOL TRX BTC BNB Avg Daily Revenue (%) 4,597,496 2,311,049 1,583,214 1,420,527 350,757)) Updates Even as markets convulsed, the digital-asset treasuries (DATs) kept ￰35￱ ranked among the year’s strongest accumulation months for ETH and SOL.

Yet, despite that buying, DAT market values still slipped as token prices ￰36￱ added roughly +4bps of BTC supply, +59bps of ETH, and +39bps of ￰37￱ contrast was striking: the marginal buyer remained the public treasury, not the hedge ￰38￱ valuations compressed. BTC’s 30-day volatility jumped from 24% to 42%, but DAT share prices lagged, reflecting fatigue among investors still more enchanted by AI equities than crypto ￰39￱ can’t blame them: most AI names kept printing higher highs while pure-play miners and treasuries went ￰40￱ impressed us this month was the financing innovation inside the DAT cohort: DFDV issued tradable warrants (0.1 per share) that give holders upside exposure, a creative twist on traditional equity-linked ￰41￱ raised capital via a mix of stock and warrants, issuing roughly 5.2 million shares paired with 10.4 million warrants to expand its crypto holdings ahead of ￰42￱ Japan, Metaplanet (MTPLF) secured a $500M debt facility specifically to fund a share repurchase program, a rare signal of confidence amid sector ￰43￱ headline move came from Strategy (MSTR) (formerly MicroStrategy).

After years of lobbying rating agencies to consider Bitcoin collateral, S&P finally assigned Strategy a B- rating on its securities. That’s still speculative-grade, and the analysis gave MSTR’s Bitcoin holdings (!) zero credit, but it's still symbolically ￰44￱ time, these credit ratings could open a new buyer base: yield-hungry credit funds that might soon be exposed to MSTR converts or ￰45￱ years, DATs were considered equity ￰46￱ rating starts to move them into the broader capital-market ￰47￱ DAT Holding Growth Slows in October) Revival Amid the chaos, a quieter revolution brewed in ￰48￱ (ZEC), the oldest active zero-knowledge chain, rallied +162% in ￰49￱ things happened almost simultaneously: Grayscale reopened its Zcash Trust to accredited investors for the first time in years.

A Solana bridge went live, powered by NEAR’s (NEAR-USD) OmniBridge, allowing direct swaps between ZEC and SPL tokens with no centralized intermediary required. A protocol upgrade (“Orchard”) accelerated the migration to shielded transactions, which now represent ~29% of total circulating ZEC, up 456% since ￰50￱ privacy pendulum swings every few years in ￰51￱ 2016–2018, privacy coins were synonymous with regulatory ￰52￱ 2021, they were functionally ￰53￱ as blockchain surveillance has intensified, especially through Chainalysis-like forensics, the appetite for credible privacy options appears to be ￰54￱ isn’t about hiding illicit activity; it’s about reintroducing financial discretion into systems that have grown too transparent for ￰55￱ every transaction is public, even legitimate actors hesitate to move size.

Zcash’s revival is also symbolic. It’s proof that zero-knowledge proofs aren’t just for scaling; they’re also for preserving ￰56￱ integrations with NEAR and Brave Wallet broaden ZEC’s potential use cases beyond ideological ￰57￱ suspect the next regulatory wave - the one that tries to codify digital-asset privacy rather than ban it - could make ZEC and similar assets relevant ￰58￱ Hits Highs in Valuation and Liquidity Amid Institutional Investment This October)): A decentralized digital currency enabling peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries or a central ￰59￱ ((ETH)): A decentralized smart-contract platform used to build and run applications and Layer-2 ￰60￱ / USDE: A U.

S.-dollar-referenced stablecoin designed to maintain a ~$1 value; its market price can trade above or below the intended peg during stress. wBETH: A wrapped token representing staked Ether on Binance that tracks underlying staked ETH plus accrued rewards; its market price can deviate from reference ￰61￱ (BNB): The native asset of BNB Chain used for transaction fees, staking, and ecosystem ￰62￱ (ASTER): The token of the Aster perpetuals DEX on BNB Chain, used for incentives, fees, and ￰63￱ (DYDX): A governance/utility token for the dYdX derivatives protocol, supporting staking and ecosystem ￰64￱ (HYPE): The native token of the Hyperliquid L1 + perps DEX, used for staking/fee-sharing and protocol ￰65￱ ((SOL)): A high-throughput Layer-1 blockchain; SOL is used for fees and staking to secure the ￰66￱ (LINEA): A Layer-2 governance ￰67￱ (MNT): An Ethereum Layer-2 network token used for governance/utility within the Mantle ￰68￱ (ZEC): A privacy-focused blockchain using zero-knowledge proofs; ZEC enables optional shielded ￰69￱ ((NEAR)): A Layer-1 smart-contract platform; NEAR is used for transaction fees, staking, and ￰70￱ Considerations This is not an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities, financial instruments or digital assets mentioned ￰71￱ information presented does not involve the rendering of personalized investment, financial, legal, tax advice, or any call to ￰72￱ statements contained herein may constitute projections, forecasts and other forward-looking statements, which do not reflect actual results, are for illustrative purposes only, are valid as of the date of this communication, and are subject to change without ￰73￱ future performance of any assets or industries mentioned are ￰74￱ provided by third party sources are believed to be reliable and have not been independently verified for accuracy or completeness and cannot be ￰75￱ does not guarantee the accuracy of third party ￰76￱ information herein represents the opinion of the author(s), but not necessarily those of VanEck or its other ￰77￱ performance is not representative of fund ￰78￱ is not possible to invest directly in an ￰79￱ in digital assets and Web3 companies are highly speculative and involve a high degree of ￰80￱ risks include, but are not limited to: the technology is new and many of its uses may be untested; intense competition; slow adoption rates and the potential for product obsolescence; volatility and limited liquidity, including but not limited to, inability to liquidate a position; loss or destruction of key(s) to access accounts or the blockchain; reliance on digital wallets; reliance on unregulated markets and exchanges; reliance on the internet; cybersecurity risks; and the lack of regulation and the potential for new laws and regulation that may be difficult to predict.

Moreover, the extent to which Web3 companies or digital assets utilize blockchain technology may vary, and it is possible that even widespread adoption of blockchain technology may not result in a material increase in the value of such companies or digital ￰81￱ asset prices are highly volatile, and the value of digital assets, and Web3 companies, can rise or fall dramatically and ￰82￱ their value goes down, there’s no guarantee that it will rise ￰83￱ a result, there is a significant risk of loss of your entire principal ￰84￱ assets are not generally backed or supported by any government or central bank and are not covered by FDIC or SIPC ￰85￱ at digital asset custodians and exchanges are not protected by SPIC and are not FDIC insured.

Furthermore, markets and exchanges for digital assets are not regulated with the same controls or customer protections available in traditional equity, option, futures, or foreign exchange ￰86￱ assets include, but are not limited to, cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, assets stored or created using blockchain technology, and other Web3 products. Web3 companies include but are not limited to, companies that involve the development, innovation, and/or utilization of blockchain, digital assets, or crypto ￰87￱ investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you ￰88￱ with any investment strategy, there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be met and investors may lose ￰89￱ does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining ￰90￱ performance is no guarantee of future performance. © Van Eck Associates ￰91￱ Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.