Blockchain Market Wrap October 2025
October: institutional on-chain adoption climbed, while ETF reversals, unlocks and flow concentration drove volatile, choppy prices.
Key Trends
October closed with a bifurcated picture: accelerating institutional on‑chain adoption (tokenization, custody, staking, validator upgrades and RWA growth) alongside elevated price volatility driven by macro uncertainty and concentrated trader flows. Stablecoin and payments‑rail activity expanded, and tokenized gold and other RWA instruments drew inflows, even as DeFi and Layer‑1 tokens experienced short‑term selling into month‑end.
Notable Events
- 10/27–10/29: Renewed institutional momentum — Ant Group ecosystem moves, a yen‑pegged stablecoin proposal and multiple validator upgrades coincided with NFT atomic‑swap pilots and increased ETH institutional deployments. - 10/28–10/31: ETF dynamics and treasury actions diverged: earlier institutional accumulation and treasury buybacks flipped into visible treasury sell‑offs and ETF outflows. - 10/31: Token unlock schedules, concentrated holder profit‑taking and flow concentration precipitated broad token weakness despite rising on‑chain activity.
Performance
Token prices weakened into the final two trading days, with DeFi and several L1s notably underperforming as unlocks and profit‑taking accelerated sell pressure. Intraday and cross‑asset volatility was elevated—driven by ETF flow reversals, treasury transactions and rising altcoin derivatives activity—while stablecoins and tokenized assets recorded net positive on‑chain inflows and increased custody/staking deployments.
Outlook
Near term, expect continued choppy price action as macro catalysts (policy decisions, liquidity) and scheduled unlocks play out. Medium term, institutional infrastructure build‑out (tokenization, stablecoin rails, custody, staking) should underpin on‑chain demand; market direction will hinge on ETF flows, treasury behavior and regulatory developments around stablecoins and RWA.