Uptober Starts with $28.5k BTC as Exchange Volumes Hit 2021 Low

Bitcoin and the whole crypto market started the month of October strong, with BTC only missing the US $28,500 ($44,852) mark by a few dollars. The market has since experienced a slight correction, with Bitcoin trading at US $27,543 ($43,349), Ethereum at US $1,666 ($2,623), and XRP at US $0.512 ($0.806) as per CoinMarketCap.

October, often referred to as ‘Uptober,’ typically experiences bullish market performance. CoinGlass data shows that markets only reached negative monthly returns two times since 2013.  

According to data platform Santiment, 10,000 wallets have accumulated a combined US $1.17 billion ($1.84 billion) since the start of September. Santiment believes that Bitcoin will continue the upward trajectory unless these wallets start selling their Bitcoin.

Macro Market Move

The uptrend in the crypto market comes as the U.S. Government avoided a shutdown in the eleventh hour. Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a last-minute funding bill which President Joe Biden signed on Saturday. The dodged shutdown is seen as a positive signal to the financial markets.

Additionally, there are several Spot Bitcoin ETF approvals pending. Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed some of these applications the market most likely has these delays priced in by now. On the other hand, Valkyrie got approval for a Future Ethereum ETF last week. The fund which started trading this week among others, saw only weak inflows of capital.

However, this may not carry significant meaning, and it likely takes some time for the volume to increase. Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg, Eric Balchunas said it was not advisable to draw conclusions to the launch of the Bitcoin ETF as that was at the height of a bull market. Also, Bitcoin is more popular and well-known among the average investor than Ethereum. He said on X:

DeFi Volumes Down

Decentralised Exchange (DEX) volumes have meanwhile dropped to lows not seen since January 2021. As per data from DeFi Lama, September saw a DEX volume of just US $44.28 billion ($69.76 billion). This came after the rise at the beginning of 2023, when centralised exchanges experienced regulatory pressure in the United States.  

In addition, Venture funding into crypto overall and into DeFi specifically is down 33% from last quarter. In the end, it is important for investors to be aware that historical price data is not a reliable indicator of future performance. September is usually seen as a month that historically performs poorly, yet it finished with a gain of almost 4%, as seen in the CoinGlass graphic above.