CMC Market Pulse: The Return of Crypto Fear

CMC Market Pulse: The Return of Crypto Fear

Market Overview

Data as of October 9, 2026 at 6:45 a.m. UTC. This week, Bitcoin (BTC) finally gave in to sellers, falling 3.96%, while Ethereum (ETH) performed even worse, plunging 8.47% over the same period. The total market value of cryptocurrencies fell to US$2.79 trillion, down 4.45% from US$2.92 trillion the previous week.

As Bitcoin lost its key support level, liquidations surged this week, with long positions exploding over $2.1 billion in two days on Wednesday and Thursday. Funding rates for major assets fell slightly, although most remained in roughly the same range as the previous week.

• Michael Saylor's Strategy acquired 334 BTC and bought back US$176 million worth of STRC, bringing its total holdings to 848,000 BTC and US$5.7 billion worth of USD assets.
• Robinhood added $25 million in Bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet, the first time it announced a purchase of Bitcoin.
• Ethereum treasury company BitMine announced that it will stop buying ETH when the hard top reaches 5%, which is currently about 100,000 ETH short of the limit.

Why is it important?

This week, both the crypto and traditional markets have been hit, and yields have shown no sign of slowing down. As traditional markets began to pull back and fall, the crypto market also fell after trying to break through its highs of the past two weeks. The S & P 500 index rose 0.51% this week, while the Nasdaq fell 0.46% over the same period.

Outstanding altcoins this week include iExec RLC (RLC), StarkNet (STRK), The Sandbox (SAND), Orca (ORCA) and Meteora (MET).

Narrative of the Week

Famous Ethereum researcher Justin Drake tweeted warning cryptocurrency investors that artificial intelligence may crack ECDSA signatures earlier than expected, posing potential risks.

• Justin Drake issued a warning pointing out the possibility of ECDSA crashing ahead of Quantum Day, urging users to migrate to new addresses to prevent financial losses, which sparked panic and discussion in the crypto field.
• Coinbase's Yehuda Lindell refuted this claim, claiming there was no evidence that elliptic curve cryptography posed a potential collapse risk.
• Cryptocurrency security expert Tayvano highlighted the risk of panic now, which could lead to losses due to other attack vectors.

Why is it important?

Since cryptographic signatures are at the core of all cryptocurrencies, any warning about an ECDSA crash threatens the underlying ownership of every wallet on the main chain, forcing the industry to accelerate its move towards quantum computing resistance.

Major project updatesˇ

• Ethereum L2 Blast closed after three years of operation. Users need to withdraw funds through the front end before October 26, 2026.
• Abstract announced plans to phase out its operations, requiring users to withdraw funds from the chain before December 15, 2026.
• The Hyperliquid HYPE repurchase program, backed by USDC reserves, was launched this week and received its first payment of US$14.58 million under the AQAv2 framework.
• Near Intentions, which fully recovered $3.8 million in stolen funds, reportedly identified the attacker and issued a 48-hour ultimatum.
• Virtuals Protocol has launched Virtuals App, a personal AI agent with wallet and market access.
• Prediction market Polymarket has released Polymartket V2, rebuilding its smart contract system to improve modularity, resolution options, and smoother cross-chain bridging.
• Aptos has launched MonoMove, its latest execution engine and the largest scalability upgrade to date.

Why is it important?

The wave of closures of on-chain projects continues, and market share is gradually concentrated in a few key winners as part of the industry cleanup.

DeFi Briefing

Data as of 6:45 am UTC on October 9, 2026.

• Samsung Wallet integrates Solana and Sui to allow users to send USDC directly from their wallet on selected Samsung devices.
• Lido has launched Lido Lend, a segregated lending market for professional borrowers and long-term lenders designed to complement existing solutions.
• EtherFi has launched ether.fi USD, its own U.S. dollar stablecoin backed by its Etha-based white label service.
• Theo Network, a RWA protocol based on Hyperliquid-has launched thSLVR, an on-chain interest-bearing tokenized silver token backed by silver financing.

Why is it important?

The integration of cryptocurrencies into Samsung's millions of devices around the world continues to bridge the gap between crypto adoption and its target users, making crypto payments seamless and effortless.

Financing News

• Tokenization platform Spiko Finance completed a Series B financing with an amount of US$90 million, led by NEA, with Mirana, Index Ventures, Blockwall, White Star Capital and others participating.