Coinchange October 2025 Market Recap

Institutional adoption continued to accelerate all throughout October 2025, major infrastructure launches went live, and stablecoin markets remained remarkably stable amid volatility. Below is our recap of key developments shaping the crypto-macro landscape.

1. Market Trends & Macro Context

A. Citi partners with Coinbase for institutional payment rails
Citigroup and Coinbase announced a collaboration to enable institutional clients to deposit, withdraw, and convert fiat and crypto more seamlessly via Coinbase’s infrastructure. (Reuters)

This lowers frictions for institutions moving capital between fiat and crypto rails.

B. State Street survey: institutions plan to double crypto allocations
A survey by State Street shows 60% of institutional investors intend to increase digital asset allocations within a year, with tokenized private markets viewed as a near-term adoption vector. (CoinDesk)

Capital inflows into digital assets will likely accelerate from traditional investment pools.

C. IBM launches “Digital Asset Haven” platform
IBM released its Digital Asset Haven platform, enabling custody, transaction orchestration, compliance, and settlement across 40+ blockchains for banks, governments, and enterprises. (The Paypers)

Institutions gain turnkey infrastructure to move from pilots to scale operations.

D. Deutsche Digital Assets & Safello launch Staked TAO ETP
Deutsche Digital Assets, together with Safello, launched the Safello Bittensor Staked TAO ETP, to be listed on SIX Swiss Exchange under ticker STAO. (Deutsche Digital Assets)

More tokenized yield products become available via regulated exchanges.

E. BlackRock adds ~$22 bn to crypto holdings
BlackRock reportedly increased its crypto exposure by $22.46 billion in Q3 2025, signaling a major institutional bet on digital assets. (The Pajaronian)

Large asset managers are making crypto a core portfolio component, not just an experiment.

F. Global regulation gap in stablecoins & crypto-asset markets
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a peer-review showing significant gaps and inconsistencies in jurisdictions’ implementation of its crypto-asset and global stablecoin regime recommendations. (FSB)

Regulatory uncertainty remains a material operational risk for asset-managers, although there has been a major push towards clarification.

G. October leveraged unwind & market reset
Over $19 bn in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in mid-October, which sparked a ~14 % drawdown in Bitcoin and ~12 % in Ethereum. (ChainUp)

Levered strategies are more vulnerable in volatility; risk overlay matters.

H. Japan launches JPYC, the first fully yen-backed stablecoin
Japan launched JPYC on October 27, 2025, the world’s first fully yen-backed stablecoin issued, which is pegged 1:1 to the yen and backed by domestic bank deposits and Japanese government bonds. (Cryptopolitan)

Japan is integrating stablecoins into its financial system.

I. Crypto Derivatives Volume Surge

Q3 2025 crypto-derivatives volume exceeded US $900 billion with open interest hitting US $39 billion, up 22% quarter-over-quarter as institutional participation reached record highs. (CME Group)

Institutional crypto markets are maturing rapidly, shifting from niche into scalable infrastructure.

2. Crypto Asset & Yield Insights

• Rise of stablecoins & digital cash allocations: According to State Street’s October study, digital cash and tokenized assets are driving allocations in institutional portfolios, with target allocations rising toward 16%. (State Street)

Stablecoins are being treated more like a digital cash equivalent.

• Yield dispersion widens post-volatility: On-chain partnerships such as Anchorage Digital and Bybit enabling staking of SOL via institutional-grade custody highlight an evolution of on-chain yield for institutions. (Bitget)

On-chain yield strategies need institutional custody and risk-frameworks to scale.

• Tokenization momentum accelerates: According to a 27 October 2025 report, 63% of custodians are already offering tokenized  assets and another 30% plan to within two years — evidencing that tokenization is moving from pilot to production. (Broadbridge)

Operational models and back-office systems must scale to support tokenized  instruments rather than treat them as experiments.

3. Expert Insight from the Industry

• “There is a role for crypto the same way there is a role for gold.” — Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock (13 October 2025)
• “Crypto and traditional finance have been living in separate worlds, but they’ll fully merge. In the future, everything will be on-chain in some form, and the distinction will disappear” — Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets (3 October 2025)
• “Digital assets are rapidly evolving, and U.S. Bank is well-positioned as they grow and become more common across financial services.” — U.S. Bank (Oct 15)
• "If it creates value for the clients, you should lean into it, and not try to defend an old product or an old business model... My view is that, in some form, this [stablecoins/digital finance] will be with us." — Gunjan Kedia, CEO of U.S. Bank (Oct 28)
• “We are doing a lot to support infrastructure solutions as we think about the institutional adoption of digital assets.” — Adena Friedman. CEO of Nasdaq, Inc. (Oct 24)
• “Our belief, which I think is shared by the leadership of Hong Kong, is that pretty much all transactions will settle on blockchains eventually, and that all money will be digital." — Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered (Nov 3)

These comments capture the tone of the market, all of them showing an institutional recognition of digital assets becoming the backbone of the traditional financial system.

4. Stablecoin Movements of the Month — (Oct 1 → Oct 30, 2025)

Oct 1 snapshot (historical data):

• USDT: ~$1.0005, market cap $175.0 bn (ChainUp)
• USDC: ~$1.00, market cap $74.17 bn (State Street)
• Aggregate stablecoins (Q3 ending): ~$287.6 bn (State Street)

Late-October snapshot (latest public data):

• USDT: price ~$1.00, market cap ~$180-185 bn (The Paypers)
• USDC: price ~$1.00, market cap ~$75-80 bn (State Street)
• Aggregate stablecoins: ~$300-314 bn (State Street)

Movement summary:

• USDT saw modest cap growth.
• USDC roughly stable with slight upward drift.
• Total stablecoin supply expanded by ~4–10 %.

Stability held; inflows into safe liquidity vehicles persisted even during market stress.

5. What to Watch

Key developments to monitor in the months ahead:

1. Regulatory timelines for tokenized  securities platforms and stablecoin-issuing banks (eg. rule-making under MiCA in Europe, stablecoin-issuer charters in the US).
2. CBDC / token‑deposit pilots (e.g. a planned test by the European Central Bank for digital euro‑denominated bank token deposits in Q4 2026)
3. Institutional yield products on chain — launches of tokenized  money-market funds, staking vehicles and tokenized  short-duration credit.
4. Infrastructure rollout and adoption metrics — go-lives of platforms such as IBM’s Digital Asset Haven, and bank-client onboarding velocity.
5. Stablecoin issuer models and bank-backed stablecoins — e.g., banks racing to issue stablecoins under clearer rules.
6. Capital flows into tokenized  real-world assets — tracking size, investor type, secondary market liquidity and product issuance trends.

6. Final Takeaway

October underscored that digital assets are transitioning from niche to foundational. Institutions are scaling allocations, infrastructure is being commercialized, and stablecoins continue to underpin liquidity across markets.

The coming quarters will likely be defined by regulatory clarity, the first live CBDC integrations, and the institutionalization of on-chain yield — setting the stage for the next phase of the on-chain financial ecosystem.

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Read More:

2025 LATAM Crypto Regulation Report

Crypto & Stablecoin Regulation in 2025: Overview

Stablecoin Usage Surging: Use Cases & How to Capitalize on It