Cryptocurrency valuations staged a modest recovery this week as investor appetite for digital assets returned after the recent market crash.
In a silver lining to the correction, the $19 billion liquidation event may be seen as a buying opportunity by investors, a dynamic that could fuel Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise above $200,000 before the end of the year, according to Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick.
However, a lack of inflows from the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continues to limit Bitcoin’s upside momentum.
Due to the lack of investment, Bitcoin is on track for its worst October performance since 2013, the last time it closed the historically bullish month in the red.
$19 billion market crash paves way for Bitcoin’s rise to $200,000: Standard Chartered
Bitcoin may still be on track to reach $200,000 by the end of the year, even after a record $19 billion market liquidation and renewed tariff threats from US President Donald Trump, according to Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick.
The crypto market experienced a record $19 billion liquidation event on the weekend of Oct. 10, which caused Bitcoin’s price to dip to a four-month low of $104,000 by Friday, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
As the dust settles after the massive liquidation event, investors may see it as a buying opportunity. This dynamic may fuel a Bitcoin rally to $200,000 by the end of 2025, Kendrick said. Despite the volatility, he remained confident that Bitcoin will rebound as markets stabilize.
“My official forecast is $200,000 by the end of the year,” he told Cointelegraph during an exclusive interview at the 2025 European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona.
Despite the “Trump noise around tariffs,” Kendrick said he still sees a price rise “well north of $150,000” in the bear case for the end of the year, assuming the US Federal Reserve continues cutting interest rates to meet market expectations.
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Hong Kong approves its first spot Solana ETF ahead of US
Hong Kong approved its first spot Solana ETF, marking the third spot crypto ETF approved by the city after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) granted approval for the China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Solana ETF, which will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to a report by the Hong Kong Economic Times.
The product will include Chinese yuan counters and US dollar counters, meaning it can be traded and settled in both currencies. Each trading unit will consist of 100 shares, with a minimum investment of about $100. The fund is expected to debut on Monday.
The ETF’s virtual asset trading platform will be operated by OSL Exchange, while OSL Digital Securities will serve as sub-custodian. ChinaAMC has set a management fee of 0.99%, with custody and administrative fees capped at 1% of the sub-fund’s net asset value, resulting in an estimated annual expense ratio of 1.99%.
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Aave DAO proposes $50 million annual token buyback using DeFi revenues
Aave’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) introduced a proposal to create a long-term, protocol-funded buyback program that would use up to $50 million in annual revenue to repurchase Aave tokens.
The proposal, submitted on Wednesday by the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), seeks to make buybacks a permanent component of Aave’s tokenomics. Under the plan, the Aave Finance Committee (AFC) and TokenLogic would lead the execution, repurchasing $250,000 to $1.75 million in Aave (AAVE) tokens weekly, depending on market conditions, liquidity and volatility.
If approved, the proposal will proceed through the Aave Request for Comment (ARFC) stage for community feedback, followed by a Snapshot vote and final onchain governance confirmation. Unlike short-term market interventions, the proposal aims to institutionalize buybacks as a recurring mechanism, making the DAO an active capital allocator.
The ACI said the program builds on the success of other buyback initiatives. In April, Aave soared by 13% as the community approved a $4 million token buyback.
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China’s budget AIs are trouncing ChatGPT and Grok at crypto trading
Chinese artificial intelligence models are outperforming their US counterparts in cryptocurrency trading, according to data from blockchain analytics platform CoinGlass, as competition between leading generative AI chatbots intensifies.
AI chatbots DeepSeek and Qwen3 Max, both developed in China, led the ongoing crypto trading experiment on Wednesday, with the former being the only AI model to generate a positive unrealized return of 9.1%.
Qwen3, an AI model developed by Alibaba Cloud, came in second with a 0.5% unrealized loss, followed by Grok with a 1.24% unrealized loss, according to blockchain data platform CoinGlass.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 slipped to last place, with a loss of more than 66%, taking its initial account value of $10,000 to just $3,453 at the time of writing.
The results have surprised crypto traders, given that DeepSeek was developed at a fraction of the cost of its US rivals.
DeepSeek’s success came from betting on the crypto market’s rise. The model took leveraged long positions across major cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), BNB (BNB), Dogecoin (DOGE) and XRP (XRP).
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BNB wins “Uptober” amid Binance market crash scrutiny
October is historically one of Bitcoin’s best-performing months, but this year, BNB is stealing the show.
“Uptober” — coined to describe Bitcoin’s typically bullish Octobers — began on a high note this year, when the US government shutdown had just begun. Now, as Washington’s funding deadlock stretches past three weeks, that optimism has faded amid trade tensions and the aftermath of a historic liquidation event.
Meanwhile, BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, has set new all-time highs twice this month. The network is experiencing a surge in memecoin trading and is competing directly with Hyperliquid in the decentralized perpetuals market through its Aster platform.
Although BNB has since retreated from its peak, it remains up about 6% since the start of October. Still, these gains are set against the backdrop of growing scrutiny over Binance’s alleged role in the recent market crash.
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DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
The Zcash (ZEC) privacy coin rose over 33% as the week’s biggest winner, followed by memecoin launchpad platform Pump.fun’s (PUMP) token, up 26% during the past week.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
