The total cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell 9.1 percent in October to US$2.70 trillion, according to a monthly report from Binance Research. The research arm of the exchange attributes the decline mainly to macroeconomic repricing rather than to any structural deterioration in the sector. Rising inflation, higher odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December and a slide in technology stocks all weighed on risk assets that month, the report says.
Macro forces drove the sell-off
The report links the October move to concerns over AI spending and indebtedness, which hit technology shares. Alphabet shares fell 12.6 percent after its results, a move the report cites as part of that broader repricing. Digital assets moved on the same factors, the report says.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded net outflows of approximately US$516 million. The report presents those outflows as part of the same pattern of de-risking rather than as a separate shock.
Signs of demand in some segments
Catherine Chen, Head of VIP and Institutional at Binance, said the October move was a macroeconomic repricing across all risk assets. She added that utilisation of some investment products remained above the sector average. Capital, she said, is still moving toward segments with stronger demand and clearer utility.
The report also says global monetary tightening momentum has eased from its July peak. The G10 tightening impulse fell from 1.1 index points at that peak to 0.8 index points.
The five largest AI investors are expected to put about US$230 billion into the sector in the third quarter of 2026, 2.2 times the level of a year earlier, the report notes.
Source: Binance Research
