Crypto markets climbed slightly higher to start the week, with total market cap up 2%, and almost all of the top-10 assets in the green on Monday, Oct. 20. The moderate recovery comes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted that the Fed might soon stop reducing its balance sheet, signaling a possible end to its quantitative tightening program.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) bounced back from last Friday\u2019s brief dip below $105,000, and is now trading around $111,500, up nearly 3% on the day \u2014 the second-biggest daily gainer among the top-10 large caps. <\/p>\n XRP<\/a> saw the most gains among the top-10 in the past 24 hours, surging over 3% to $2.47.<\/p>\n Ethereum (ETH<\/a>) is changing hands at $4,035, up a more moderate 1.4% on the day. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE<\/a>), Solana (SOL<\/a>), and TRON (TRX<\/a>) are all up around 1-2%, while BNB<\/a> stands out as the only top-10 asset slightly in the red today, trading around $1,116. <\/p>\n Within the top-100 crypto assets by market cap, Zcash (ZEC<\/a>) and Chainlink (LINK<\/a>) posted the biggest daily gains. ZEC jumped more than 16% amid continued interest<\/a> in privacy tokens, while LINK is up 8% ahead of a Federal Reserve conference on payment innovation scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21, which will include<\/a> representatives from Chainlink, Fireblocks, Coinbase, Circle, Paxos, and traditional financial giants such as BlackRock, Ark Invest, and others.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, today\u2019s biggest losers among the top-100 are Ethena\u2019s ENA<\/a> and Bitfinex\u2019s LEO<\/a> token, which are both down about 5%.<\/p>\n Analysts at Coinbase Institutional noted<\/a> in their \u201cCharting Crypto Q4 2025: Navigating Uncertainty\u201d report from Oct. 16 that they have a \u201ccautiously optimistic stance\u201d for Q4. The analysts said they believe that the crypto bull market \u201chas room to run,\u201d though they admitted they\u2019re now more cautious after the market wiped out<\/a> around $20 billion on Oct. 10, the largest single-day liquidation event the industry has seen to date.<\/p>\n \u201cHeading into Q4, we had a constructive outlook on crypto markets, but the leverage flush on October 10 has led us to urge some caution,\u201d the analysts wrote.<\/p>\n In the past 24 hours, over $434.9 million in leveraged positions were liquidated, with $248 million in shorts, according to Coinglass<\/a>. ETH led the wipeout with over $146 million liquidated, followed by BTC at $139 million and ENA with more than $35 million liquidated mostly in long positions.<\/p>\n Last week, spot ETH ETFs saw over $311 million in net outflows, according to SoSoValue<\/a>. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded over $1.23 billion in net outflows over the same timeframe, the largest weekly outflow since February.<\/p>\n On the macro side, Fed Chair Powell indicated that the U.S. central bank will soon wrap up its balance sheet reduction program, better known as quantitative tightening. Many expect this long-running program to end soon, with a survey of big banks predicting a January 2026 finish, Reuters reported<\/a> last week. <\/p>\n Speaking with The Defiant, Shawn Young, chief analyst of MEXC Research, said that macro conditions remain the \u201ckey wild card to watch out for in the current market landscape.\u201d Young explained:<\/p>\n \u201cTraders should keep a close eye on the U.S.-China trade developments and the Fed\u2019s policy stance as both of them could amplify or dampen ETF-related momentum.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n![\"the-defiant\"](\"https:\/\/thedefiant.io\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.thedefiant.io%2Fpasted-1760977071571-png-8c35baa7-11a1-4585-8280-8392f5dfa7af.png&w=3840&q=100\"\/)
Top Gainers and Losers<\/h2>\n
ETFs Bleed, amid \u2018Wild Card\u2019 Macro Conditions<\/h2>\n