XRP Outshines Bitcoin and Ethereum with Record Q3 Surge and $170B Market Cap

Democratic Party senators have requested that US Attorney General Pam Bondi and the US Department of Justice provide additional information regarding the pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao by President Donald Trump.

In an open letter on Tuesday, seven Democratic senators wrote that the pardon “signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white-collar criminals that they can commit crimes with impunity.” The lawmakers accused Trump of encouraging criminal activity “so long as they enrich him.”

The letter follows similar criticism from US Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, earlier this week, who said that “Trump is doing massive favors for crypto criminals who have helped line his pockets.”

The signatories include Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, Bernard Sanders, Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Jack Reed and Jeffrey Merkley. They wrote that “this pardon will make it harder for Federal law enforcement to fight and deter crime.”

The second part of the year has seen a notable surge in the US stock market, while Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market has faced its share of uncertainty and significant corrections. 

With the Nasdaq recently surpassing the 26,000 mark, leading analysts are now suggesting that this milestone could be a clear indicator for Bitcoin to finish the year at new highs.

What Historical Patterns Indicate

According to experts at The Bull Theory, the pattern observed with the Nasdaq reaching all-time highs typically suggests a flow of liquidity, an increased risk appetite, and a shift of capital into growth assets. As this phase develops, it often sets the stage for Bitcoin’s next significant movement.

Data compiled by the analysts supports this assertion. Historically, in the first 30 days following a Nasdaq all-time high, Bitcoin has averaged a gain of approximately 7%. This return tends to grow, reaching about 14% within 60 days and climbing to an average of 25% by the 90-day mark. 

This pattern is not merely coincidental; it reflects a capital rotation where liquidity does not disappear but instead shifts from traditional markets into higher-risk assets like Bitcoin. 

The current situation appears to follow a similar trajectory. The Nasdaq’s rise to 26,000 indicates a wave of liquidity building beneath the surface. With rate cuts beginning and quantitative tightening coming to an end, global capital is once again seeking yield. 

This scenario mirrors the conditions that contributed to Bitcoin’s significant breakouts in previous years, particularly in 2017, 2020, and 2023.

As such, the analysts note that the next four to five months may represent an acceleration phase for Bitcoin, coinciding with a potential pause in equities, which could lead to crypto becoming the primary outlet for liquidity. 

Bitcoin Poised For Breakout Similar To 2020-2021 Cycle

Analysts like Ash Crypto also noted on social media that the BTC/NASDAQ weekly chart is revealing a repeating pattern reminiscent of the 2020-2021 cycle, during which Bitcoin significantly outperformed traditional tech stocks. In both cycles, the October to March timeframe has historically prompted major upward movements. 

After a period of consolidation within a rising wedge, the BTC/NASDAQ pair appears poised for another breakout. Should this pattern repeat, Bitcoin may see substantial gains compared to the Nasdaq in the fourth quarter and into early 2026, Ash Crypto noted. 

Notably, this sets the stage for a major rally that could see Bitcoin prices surpassing current records of over $126,000. However, the market is still characterized by increased volatility, and there is no clear path ahead for BTC.

The leading cryptocurrency is trading at $113,350 after a 2% correction in Tuesday’s trading session, following an initial surge above $115,000. This puts BTC 6.5% below record highs. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

Ethereum is gearing up for one of its biggest upgrades yet, the Fusaka fork, which has now gone live on its final testnet, Hoodi. This marks the last testing phase before the official mainnet launch scheduled for December 3, promising faster transactions, better security, and a smoother experience for users and developers.

A Smooth Final Test Before the Big Day

The Ethereum community celebrated another successful milestone this week as the developer team Nethermind confirmed that the Fusaka upgrade went live without any major issues. The test ensures the system is ready for the full rollout, keeping Ethereum on track for its year-end upgrade.

This latest step shows how much effort the Ethereum Foundation and its partners are putting into making the network more efficient and secure while preparing it for the next generation of decentralized applications.

What Fusaka Will Bring

The Fusaka update introduces several new features known as Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that aim to make the network faster and easier to use. A major highlight is PeerDAS (EIP-7594), which allows validators to read only small parts of data instead of full chunks, making Ethereum nodes run more efficiently, especially for Layer 2 networks.

Other proposals like EIP-7825 and EIP-7935 will increase the gas limit and prepare the system for parallel execution, which means Ethereum will soon be able to process multiple smart contracts at once, a big leap for scalability.

A Three-Stage Launch Plan

The rollout of Fusaka will happen in three stages. First will be the mainnet activation, followed by an increase in data capacity (blob capacity), and finally a hard fork to expand that capacity further. Once this process is complete, Ethereum will move on to its next upgrade phase, Glamsterdam, which continues the network’s “Surge” roadmap focused on scalability improvements.

Improving Ethereum’s Scalability Challenge

The goal of Fusaka is to make Ethereum more scalable without sacrificing its core strengths, security, and decentralization. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has often called this the “blockchain trilemma.” While Ethereum has always been secure and decentralized, it has lagged behind faster rivals like Solana and Sui in transaction speed. Fusaka aims to fix that.

The Fusaka upgrade comes just six months after Ethereum’s Pectra update, which improved staking and wallet usability. With Fusaka nearing launch and Ether trading strongly above ,000, excitement is building for Ethereum’s next phase, one that could make it faster, safer, and ready for even bigger adoption in 2026.

Market Impact

After the Fusaka testnet success, Ethereum is currently priced at ,021.19 with a circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens. Despite being down 18.8% from its peak, Ethereum has shown massive long-term growth. The 50-day SMA at ,229 signals short-term strength, while the 200-day SMA at $3,295 reflects long-term stability.. The upgrade shows how far Ethereum has come toward a more scalable and secure system.

FAQs

The Fusaka upgrade is Ethereum’s latest update focused on faster transactions, better scalability, and improved security for developers and users.

Ethereum’s Fusaka mainnet launch is scheduled for December 3, marking the start of its next phase in the network’s scalability roadmap.

Fusaka boosts speed and scalability by allowing nodes to process data more efficiently and execute multiple smart contracts at once.

Fusaka could strengthen Ethereum’s long-term growth by improving network efficiency, attracting more developers, and boosting market confidence.

Bitwise's new U.S. spot Solana exchange-traded fund, BSOL, notched $69.5 million worth of net inflows on its Tuesday debut, according to Farside and SoSoValue data, marking the first U.S. spot Solana ETF with 100% direct exposure to SOL.

Including $222.9 million in seed capital, the fund's total net assets stand at $292.4 million after day one. For comparison, Bitwise's BITB also saw the largest day-one inflows on the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs' debut in January 2024, at $237.9 million, while BlackRock's ETHA witnessed the largest U.S. spot Ethereum ETF inflows on debut, with $266.5 million, the following July.

BSOL hit $10 million worth of trading volume within the first hour of trading, going on to generate $57.9 million in volume for the day — the most of any ETF launch this year, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X.

"And what's amazing is it seeded with $220m. It could have invested seed on Day One, which would have resulted in $280m-ish, would be even more than ETHA's debut. Strong start either way," Balchunas said.

ETF inflows measure new money entering the fund, while trading volume measures how many shares are bought and sold on the market — so inflows can be higher when large new shares are created but few investors trade them afterward.

In July, REX-Osprey launched the first U.S. ETF offering SOL exposure with native staking rewards, SSK, under the Investment Company Act of 1940 rather than the more common Securities Act of 1933 route used by BSOL and the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. While SSK is not a standard spot ETF under the 1933 Act, the fund holds actual SOL — at least 50% directly staked — with the rest allocated to staking vehicles such as exchange-traded products and liquid staking tokens. SSK attracted $11.4 million in inflows on its debut, reaching cumulative inflows of $413.6 million since.

During the U.S. government shutdown, the SEC allowed ETF issuers to move forward without direct staff review by filing final S-1 registration statements without a delaying amendment, which automatically become effective after 20 days, submitting a Form 8-A to register shares for trading, and relying on newly approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares. These procedural changes enabled launches like Bitwise's BSOL Solana ETF to proceed despite limited SEC operations.

"Solana is headed into the mainstream — and we think it's just getting started," Bitwise said on Monday, confirming the Tuesday launch.

Grayscale's news spot Solana ETF, GSOL, is expected to debut on Wednesday.

HBAR and Litecoin ETFs witness zero flows on day one

Canary Capital also launched the first U.S. spot HBAR (HBR) and Litecoin (LTCC) ETFs on Tuesday, following the same procedural route as Bitwise's BSOL. However, the funds both witnessed zero flows for the day, per SoSoValue, despite generating $8.6 million and $1.4 million in trading volume, respectively.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart previously explained that ETF shares are created or redeemed in large units only when there's a meaningful imbalance between supply and demand — which is why it's common to see days with zero reported flows.

Meanwhile, the U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs brought in $202.4 million and $246 million worth of inflows on Tuesday, according to data compiled by The Block.

"In 2025, BTC ETFs have seen net inflows of $26.9bn, but excluding BlackRock, they've actually recorded $1.3bn in outflows," K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde said in a Tuesday report. "Parts of IBIT's dominance stem from its now dominant liquidity and scale, but BlackRock's reputation is likely an additional factor further contributing in attracting capital."

"BlackRock is absent from the upcoming altcoin ETFs, which may limit overall flows, while opening competition for other issuers to attract inflows and secure SOL ETF dominance," he continued. "Based on solid flows to existing leveraged ETFs, we expect SOL ETFs to attract the strongest demand, while more obscure altcoins are expected to face limited interest."

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A leading cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase has notified users of its decision to remove some popular trading pairs from its platform. In a post on X, the exchange clarified that the move is to improve the overall market health of the exchange and consolidate liquidity.

Coinbase shifts to USD-based markets for higher liquidity

The delisted trading pairs are MASK-USDT, MASK-EUR, MINA-USDT, GMT-USDT, AXS-BTC and SNX-BTC. Coinbase will suspend trading on these pairs effective 12:00 p.m. ET on Oct. 29, 2025. This means that after that time, holders will no longer be able to place new trades in these pairs.

Notably, the assets themselves will remain tradable, but only in pairs that the exchange has not delisted. It appears the figures from the trading pairs have not encouraged the exchange to continue offering it to its users.

However, users on Coinbase Advanced and those in select eligible regions can still trade these tokens. To do this, a user would need to employ USD-based trading pairs, such as and , among others.

This indicates that the tokens are not entirely delisted, but the less active pairs are. The goal is to allow Coinbase direct liquidity on the main USD market, which appears to be thriving more than other trading pairs.

Meanwhile, the exchange has also moved AXS-BTC to "limit-only mode." This implies that users can place limit orders and cancel existing orders. However, instant buying and selling have been disabled. The development suggests that this pair might face full suspension soon.

Market observers are closely monitoring the impact this could have on the delisted tokens. Notably, when Coinbase delisted the OMNI-Perp pair, the move caused a 17% price crash for OMNI token. In that instance, the exchange did not leave the Coinbase Advanced option open to users.

Coinbase's broader exchange strategy

As far as improving overall market health goes, Coinbase announced last week that it was providing support for BNB. It will allow users to trade the pair, which is a significant development given that BNB is the native token of the Binance trading platform, another competing exchange.

Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao acknowledged the listing offer on social media as a big win for BNB. The asset has managed to stay above $1,000 despite market volatility.

DUBAI, UAE , Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bybit, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced the launch of an automatic funding rate settlement frequency adjustment feature for its Perpetual Contracts. The feature becomes effective October 30, 2025, at 8 a.m. UTC, with full rollout expected by November 3, 2025, at 6 a.m. UTC.

The new functionality is designed to enhance trading efficiency and responsiveness by dynamically adjusting funding rate settlement frequencies in line with real-time market conditions. When a Perpetual Contract's funding rate reaches its preset upper or lower limit during settlement, the system will automatically shift the settlement frequency to once per hour. This adjustment allows funding rates to more accurately reflect prevailing market dynamics and volatility.

According to Bybit, future updates to funding rate limits and settlement frequencies will be implemented automatically and may occur without separate announcements.

Operational Example

If a Perpetual Contract initially settles every four hours—at 4 a.m., 8 a.m., and 12 p.m. (UTC+8)—and carries upper and lower limits of ±2%, the system will behave as follows:

• Scenario 1: If the funding rate reaches ±2% at 8 a.m. (UTC+8), the settlement frequency will automatically change to once per hour, with the next settlement occurring at 9 a.m. (UTC+8).
• Scenario 2: If the funding rate is 1% at 8 a.m. (UTC+8), the frequency remains unchanged.

Reversion and Adjustment Timing

Following an automatic change to hourly settlements, the system may revert to longer intervals—every two, four, or eight hours—depending on market conditions, without prior notice. The adjustment is typically completed within about four minutes. For example, if the rate reaches the limit at 8 a.m. (UTC+8), the new frequency will be visible by 8:04 a.m. (UTC+8).

Scope and Exceptions

Bybit noted that the automatic adjustment feature may be disabled for certain contracts based on liquidity or volatility considerations. The feature will not initially apply to BTCUSDT, BTCUSDC, BTCUSD, ETHUSDT, ETHUSDC, ETHUSD, ETHBTCUSDT, or ETHWUSDT Perpetual Contracts.

Funding Rate Settlement Schedule (UTC+8)

• Every 8 hours: 12 a.m., 8 a.m., 4 p.m.
• Every 4 hours: 12 a.m., 4 a.m., 8 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m.
• Every 2 hours: 12 a.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m., 10 p.m.

Bybit stated that traders can review the latest settlement frequency directly on the platform to adapt their strategies as market conditions evolve.

#Bybit / #CryptoArk

About Bybit

Bybit is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 60 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for everyone. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit partners strategically with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, empowering builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com.

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