Crypto Markets Stall as Traders Bet Government Shutdown Will Extend into November

Crypto markets hold out around $4.2 trillion as traders increasingly bet the U.S. government shutdown could last into next month.

Crypto markets are trading flat today, Oct. 10, and most large-caps are posting moderate losses on the week. Total market capitalization is holding out around $4.24 trillion, up less than half a percent on the day, as traders increasingly bet that the United States government shutdown will last into next month.

Bitcoin (BTC) is flat on the daily and weekly time frames, trading just above $121,000.

BTC 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinGecko

Ethereum (ETH) is also flat today above $4,300, but is down 3.2% over the past seven days.

Except for Dogecoin (DOGE), which is up 1.6% on the day, all of the remaining top-10 assets by market capitalization are flat or in the red today. Solana (SOL), XRP, and BNB are all up about half a percent over the 24-hour timeframe, with BNB performing the strongest on the weekly chart, up 10%. The remaining top-20 assets are down 2-8% over the past week.

Within the top-100 assets by market cap, Zcash (ZEC) is soaring for the third day in a row as the biggest daily gainer, up nearly 30% today amid broad calls for privacy, followed by AI-focused blockchain Bittensor’s TAO, which is up 21% today.

Meanwhile, Mantle (MNT) is today’s biggest loser among the top-100 assets, down over 14% on the day, correcting from its surge to new all-time highs earlier this week. MNT is followed by Aster (ASTER) among today’s biggest losses, which is down 6.2%, continuing to slump after its extended rally following its TGE last month, which was surrounded by massive hype and kicked off a perpetual futures DEX mania.

Even though Bitcoin has lost all weekly gains and retraced from its recent all-time high at just above $126,000, analysts at Glassnode explained in a Friday X post that BTC futures open interest “remains elevated as both longs and shorts are being whipsawed by sharp price swings,” adding that the market is now “undergoing a leverage reset, with volatility flushing out excess positioning on both sides.”

BTC futures OI. Source: Glassnode

Liquidations, ETFs, and Macro

In the past 24 hours, over $351 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated, with $214 million in long positions, according to Coinglass. BTC saw over $110 million, while ETH liquidations were lower at $62.6 million.

Crypto 24-hour liquidations by asset. Source: Coinglass

On Thursday, spot BTC ETFs saw over $197.6 million in net inflows, according to SoSoValue, continuing their now multi-week streak. As Glassnode pointed out, BTC ETF inflows have continued despite the recent pullback, showing that “institutional demand remains steady even as derivatives traders get chopped.” They added in an X post this morning:

Meanwhile, spot ETH ETFs reversed their inflow streak, seeing more than $8 million in net outflows yesterday, the first net outflow day since Sept. 26.

U.S. stock futures edged higher on Friday after a mild pullback earlier in the week, as traders bought the dip ahead of a key consumer sentiment report and next week’s earnings kick-off.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke at a community banking event but didn’t offer any new clues on interest rates, leaving markets in limbo. Meanwhile, Polymarket bettors are heavily leaning toward the U.S. government shutdown dragging on until mid-October or later.

Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/markets/crypto-markets-stall-as-traders-bet-shutdown-will-extend-into-november