Monthly Crypto Roundup by CoinsDo: October 2025

October saw the crypto market continue its strong upward trajectory, with Bitcoin briefly touching a new all-time high above US$125,000 before retreating amid broader risk-off sentiment.The rally was propelled by record inflows into U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, which collectively absorbed almost US $6 billion in a single week.

Ethereum outperformed most altcoins on renewed optimism ahead of its Fusaka upgrade scheduled for early December. Futures open interest on major venues rose more than 20% month-on-month, while volatility indices tightened, signalling a more liquid, mature market structure.

Regulatory Developments

Regulators worldwide shifted from policy design to implementation.

United States

The SEC and Treasury released joint guidance on crypto-ETF custody and market-structure obligations, clarifying how broker-dealers should handle digital assets (Bloomberg). States such as New York and Texas expanded sandbox frameworks for stablecoin issuance under trust charters, signalling consolidation at the state level.

United Kingdom

Arnold & Porter broke down the proposed regime for the issuance and custody of “qualifying stablecoins” in the Consultation Paper CP25/14 published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Under the proposal:

• Issuers of qualifying stablecoins must be authorised by the FCA, not merely registered under AML regulations.
• Backing assets must be fully segregated, held in statutory trusts, and kept with independent third-party custodians.
• Firms must perform daily reconciliations, maintain at least 5 % of backing assets in on-demand deposits, and ensure redemption at par value by the next business day.
• Stablecoin issuers may retain interest income from backing assets but cannot pay yield to consumers.
• Transparent quarterly disclosures and annual independent audits of reserves will be mandatory.

This approach stops short of bringing stablecoins into the payments regime for now; instead, it focuses on issuance standards, backing-asset safeguards, and redemption certainty, aligning the UK with EU MiCA principles while preserving flexibility for innovation.

Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched Project BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) on 16 Oct 2025. BLOOM extends Project Orchid by enabling settlement in tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins, with standardised compliance controls.

Initial members include DBS, OCBC, UOB, Partior, Circle, Stripe, Ant International, StraitsX and Coinbase. Focus areas:

• Distribution & clearing of settlement assets across networks.
• Programmable compliance controls to automate AML/KYC checks.
• Agentic payments using AI agents for treasury automation.

Across regions, regulators now emphasise operational readiness and cross-border interoperability, marking the execution phase of digital-asset policy.

Industry Trends

October underscored how tokenization, interoperability, and infrastructure reliability are converging into the next growth phase of digital finance.

Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs)

The tokenized-asset sector surpassed US $23 billion in circulating value (a 260% increase year-to-date), driven by tokenized U.S. Treasuries, private-credit pools, and real-estate vehicles.

Asset managers such as Franklin Templeton and Hamilton Lane broadened their on-chain offerings, while regional banks in Asia began exploring tokenized money-market funds for liquidity management.

Custodians are adapting by integrating on-chain settlement APIs and real-time NAV feeds to accommodate these hybrid instruments.

Interoperability & Layer-2 Innovation

With Ethereum’s PeerDAS approaching launch, Layer-2 ecosystems—Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and zkSync—announced technical upgrades to leverage cheaper blob-data storage. This will expand throughput and lower rollup fees by 30–40 % according to developer estimates.

At the same time, cross-chain bridges like Chainlink CCIP and Axelar GMP saw record transaction volumes, becoming the middleware for multi-chain settlements between custodians and exchanges.

Security Watch

October recorded one of the lowest total on-chain exploit losses of 2025 — approximately US $18.18 million across about 15 distinct incidents, representing an ~85.7% decline from September’s ~US $127 million.

The largest breach in the month involved Garden Finance (~US $11 million) via a compromised solver account on 30 October. Smaller incidents included Typus Finance (~US $3.4 million) through an oracle-manipulation attack, and Abracadabra Money (~US $1.8 million) exploiting solvency/vulnerability vector.

While exploit frequency and severity fell, industry commentary warns that low numbers may reflect fewer high-value targets or reduced network activity after major liquidations, rather than a permanent shift in attacker incentives.

Final Thoughts

Overall sentiment entering November is cautiously optimistic. Analysts expect rotation toward Ethereum-based assets ahead of Fusaka, sustained RWA growth, and a calmer macro backdrop if inflation readings stabilize. Long-term drivers—clearer regulation, scalable infrastructure, and institutional participation—remain intact.