What Really Happened in the Crypto Market in October? Binance Offers Insights

The market recorded its first red October in seven years, but several sectors witnessed growth and development.

October was a very eventful month for the crypto industry. Besides marking negative returns for the first time since 2018, the month witnessed several developments that could affect the price trajectory of certain cryptocurrencies.

A monthly research report by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has offered insights into what really happened in October. Analysts have also identified trends that have begun to gain momentum in November.

The Rise of Privacy-focused Chains

The $19 billion liquidation on October 10, which resulted in the unwinding of excessive leverage, triggered a negative trend that led to the crypto market experiencing its first red October in seven years. The market ended last month with a 6.1% plunge amid heightened uncertainty from the U.S. government and a rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Notwithstanding the decline in total crypto market capitalization, Bitcoin’s dominance increased to 59.4%, while Ethereum’s fell slightly to 12.6%. Institutional interest in Ethereum waxed strong, with new altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recording significant inflows.

Additionally, privacy coins witnessed a significant surge. Transactions on the top three privacy-focused blockchains increased by more than 30%. Zcash led the trend with a 160% surge in daily transaction count. Ethereum is also working on integrating privacy features to balance confidentiality with regulatory compliance.

“Advances in zero-knowledge technology and adoption by decentralized apps highlight growing market interest and positive momentum for privacy-focused solutions in the crypto ecosystem,” Binance Research explained.

Will November End Positively?

Besides privacy blockchains, the industry also witnessed a rising interest in x402, an open payment protocol that reactivates the HTTP 402 code. Daily transactions using this standard surpassed 720,000. Analysts found that one-click HTTP mints initially drove the growth of the protocol; however, integrations by Google and Cloudflare reinforced the momentum.

You may also like:

Binance Research believes that the two narratives currently defining the ecosystem include the speculative and the structural. Memecoin-led mints fuel the former, while adoption from artificial intelligence (AI) agents for autonomous payments drives the latter.

As November progresses, an AI model trading competition is gaining traction. This competition has analyzed several trading behaviors, disclosing that success depends more on disciplined risk management than on prediction accuracy. Analysts believe the test serves as an example for AI-driven trading projects.

Meanwhile, easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, coupled with the Federal Reserve’s expected end to quantitative tightening in a few weeks, could provide positive market catalysts by December. It remains to be seen if November will end on a positive or negative note.