October recap - what happened in crypto

October saw mainstream adoption and major developments within the crypto space. MANTRA (OM) officially launched its blockchain, which is focused on bringing real-world assets (RWAs) on-chain. Its token, OM, migrated to the MANTRA Chain, which now enables users to stake and earn rewards within a RWA-focused ecosystem.

The Ethena protocol, a yield-bearing stablecoin protocol, proposed using Solana as a reserve asset to back their synthetic dollar, USDe. The move opens up new revenue opportunities and unlocks new interest from the Solana DeFi ecosystem.?

Throughout the month, many new Layer 2 blockchains were announced from recognised industry names. The first was Apechain from Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Their Layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum introduces native staking yields for APE and additional utility for holders. Uniswap also launched its own blockchain as a Layer 2 network called Unichain. Additionally, crypto exchange Kraken is planning to launch its own Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain called "ink" early next year. This follows the lead of Coinbase, who have had major success with Base, their Layer 2 blockchain.?

Also, in one of crypto’s biggest acquisitions yet, Payment processor Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal. It’s expected that Bridge, a stablecoin issuer that allows users to create their own tokens, will expand stablecoin payments to wider audiences.

The identity of pseudonymous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was supposedly revealed in October thanks to a new HBO documentary. The identity of Nakamoto became the subject of a powerful predictions market, Polymarket, which has seen bettors put their money on HBO naming the late Len Sassaman as Nakamoto. However, Canadian developer Peter Todd was “unmasked” as the elusive Nakamoto.?

For Bitcoin, it was a good month. MicroStrategy’s CEO, Michael Saylor, revealed that he wants to turn his company into a Bitcoin bank in the future. He said “This (bitcoin) is the most valuable asset in the world. The endgame is to be the leading bitcoin bank, or merchant bank, or you could call it a bitcoin finance company,” in a recent interview. Elsewhere, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs crossed $20 billion in total net flows in the last week, with inflows driven by massive institutional interest in the asset.?

The BTCFi (Bitcoin Finance) ecosystem is also growing as Chainlink, the market-leading oracle provider, integrated into an Layer 2 network called Spiderchain. The BTCFi space is set to smart contracts and decentralized apps such as DeFi and DEXes, much like Ethereum and Solana, to Bitcoin.

October was the month for meme coins, which saw massive volume and interest from the entire crypto space. The meme coin space now encompasses above a $60 billion market cap and has seen over $170 billion in volume across major DEXs since the start of the month, with tokens such as WIF, POPCAT and Moo Deng stealing the headlines. WIF and POPCAT emerged as the new frontrunners in the animal-themed space, with WIF taking the dog crown and POPCAT becoming the leading cat meme coin by market cap.?

Moo Deng, a token based on a popular baby hippo that spread across social media, reached a peak market cap of $320m, and reinvigorated the latent meme coin space with fresh enthusiasm for popular crypto tokens.?

Crypto markets reacted strongly to a China fiscal stimulus announcement from China. The announcement renewed optimism in the market that fresh capital may be on the way and bolstered market sentiment, with increased demand for assets such as cryptocurrencies expected from investors. Additionally, Blackrock purchased over $1 billion of Bitcoin and increased their ownership of MicroStrategy in October, which signals an attempt to further diversify into the crypto space. Bitcoin surged to over $73,500 in late October, the first time it has traded this level since June, and closes in on the March all-time high of $73,700.?