Bitcoin is back above $110,000, but analysts say they are now taking a more cautious approach after the $20 billion market disappeared.
Cryptocurrency markets started the week slightly higher, with market capitalization up 2% and nearly all of the top 10 assets in the green on Monday, October 20th. The gradual recovery came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank may soon stop shrinking its balance sheet and signaled an end to its quantitative tightening program.
Bitcoin (BTC) has rebounded from a brief dip below $105,000 last Friday and is now trading around $111,500, up nearly 3% on the day and the second-biggest daily gain among the top 10 large-cap stocks.
The biggest gainer among the top 10 in the past 24 hours was XRP, which soared more than 3% to $2.47.
Ethereum (ETH) rose a more modest 1.4% on the day to remain at $4,035. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), and Tron (TRX) are all up around 1-2%, but BNB stands out as the only top 10 asset that is slightly in the red today, trading at around $1,116.
Top gainers and losers
Among the top 100 crypto assets by market capitalization, Zcash (ZEC) and Chainlink (LINK) recorded the largest daily gains. ZEC has soared more than 16% as interest in privacy tokens continues, while LINK is up 8% ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on payments innovation scheduled for Tuesday, October 21st. The conference will include representatives from Chainlink, Fireblocks, Coinbase, Circle, Paxos, and traditional financial giants such as BlackRock and Ark Invest.
Meanwhile, today’s biggest losers among the top 100 are Ethena’s ENA and Bitfinex’s LEO tokens, both down around 5%.
Analysts at Coinbase Institutional said in their Oct. 16 “Crypto Charts 2025 Q4: Overcoming Uncertainty” report that they are taking a “cautiously optimistic stance” regarding the fourth quarter. Analysts said they believe there is “room to run” in the crypto bull market, but admitted they are now more cautious after the market wiped out about $20 billion on October 10, the largest single-day liquidation event in industry history.
“While we had a constructive outlook for the crypto market heading into the fourth quarter, the Oct. 10 leverage flash prompted some degree of caution,” the analysts wrote.
ETFs bleed amid “wildcard” macro environment
According to Coinglass, over $434.9 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with $248 million in short sales. ETH led the wipeout with over $146 million liquidated, followed by BTC with $139 million and ENA with over $35 million, mostly long positions.
Spot ETH ETFs saw more than $311 million in net outflows last week, according to SoSoValue. The Spot Bitcoin ETF recorded net outflows of over $1.23 billion over the same period, the largest weekly outflow since February.
On the macro front, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated that the US central bank will soon end its balance sheet reduction program, better known as quantitative tightening. Many expect the long-running program to end soon, with a survey of major banks predicting it will end in January 2026, Reuters reported last week.
Sean Young, principal analyst at MEXC Research, said in an interview with The Defiant that the macro environment remains “an important wildcard to watch out for in current market conditions.” Young explained:
“Traders should keep a close eye on U.S.-China trade developments and the Fed’s policy stance, as both could amplify or dampen ETF-related momentum.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported today that the Fed is expected to cut rates by another 25 basis points at its next policy meeting scheduled for October 28-29. However, the release of new economic data continues to be delayed as the government shutdown continues.
Coinbase analysts said in a report last week that they expect the Fed to cut rates two more times this quarter, which could “incentivize investors to tap into some of the $7 trillion currently sitting in money market funds.”