Portofino Mint - 13 October 2025

🚀 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘁!

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📊 Week in Review: Crypto’s Wild Ride

‍What a week! Crypto markets experienced historic highs and staggering lows, with volatility reaching levels rarely seen before. Bitcoin (BTC) blasted past $126,000 on Monday, setting an all-time high, only to collapse nearly 18% by Friday evening. The catalyst? President Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on Chinese tech exports, triggering a cascading wave of liquidations that wiped out over $20 billion in leveraged positions — the largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history. The shock rippled through altcoins, with many briefly falling 30–80% on major exchanges before rebounding. We break down the mechanics of last weekend’s cascade in our latest post, When Liquidity Evaporates: Lessons from the Weekend Crash.

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🏢 Markets and Macro: Volatility Rules the Day

‍This week’s sell-off was structure-driven rather than fundamentally motivated. Explosive growth in perpetual DEXs and basis yield products over the past year left markets highly leveraged. When Trump’s tariff announcement landed, the leverage cascade triggered auto-deleveraging waterfalls, exchange halts, and fragmented liquidity, leaving even major venues temporarily out of sync. The structural fragility was also visible in stablecoins. Ethena’s USDe briefly depegged to $0.65 on Binance due to an internal oracle glitch — not a collateral failure — highlighting how fragmented liquidity and exchange-specific pricing can amplify systemic stress during volatile markets.

• BTC futures open interest fell from ~$77B to $67B, while altcoin open interest hit multi-year lows.
• High-beta altcoins shed 20–50%, while BTC and ETH saw selective accumulation from institutions.
• The macro environment echoed the shock: equities fell, the VIX spiked, and gold rallied 11% over the past month. The Gold/BTC market-cap ratio climbed from 9x to 11x, implying BTC could reach $150–160K if historical trends hold.

Looking ahead, a two-speed recovery seems likely: BTC and ETH leading as institutional flows re-enter the market, while altcoins lag amid lower liquidity. Any hint of tariff moderation or softer macro data could spark renewed risk-on buying.

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💎 Buying Amid Chaos

‍Spot trading flows painted a selective, opportunistic picture:

• Stablecoins saw off-ramping: USDC flows were largely sell-side, while USDT was 70% sell.
• Altcoins: XRP, ADA, and AVAX attracted meaningful buying interest, while ETH, HYPE, SEI, OM, FLUI, and L3 faced concentrated selling.

In short, capital is consolidating into majors and high-conviction narratives, while peripheral names are under sustained selling pressure.

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🪙 Crypto Movers & Ecosystem Highlights

Altcoins & Layer-2s:

• Optimism (OP): -30% to $0.48, breaching major support.‍
• Arbitrum & Story Protocol: fell 30–40% amid broader market rout.‍
• XRP: down 31%, but pending spot ETF approval could trigger future inflows.

DeFi & Layer-1 Ecosystems:

• Plasma/XPL: Despite a 47% drop in token price, TVL remains strong at $6.4B, with Aave vaults commanding $4.5B. Lending vaults currently yield 8% APY, reflecting robust network activity.
• BNB Chain: CZ’s meme season and YZi Labs’ $1B Builder Fund reinforce ecosystem growth, targeting DeFi, AI, RWA, and DeSci projects.
• Ethereum’s ‘Kohaku’ toolkit drove renewed excitement for privacy-focused coins.

Institutional Signals:

• Grayscale launched U.S.-listed spot staking ETPs for ETH and SOL, bringing on-chain staking yields to traditional investors.
• Coinbase and Mastercard reportedly vied for BVNK in a deal worth up to $2.5 billion.
• Lighter airdrop sparked a valuation buzz at $2B, positioning it as a competitor to Hyperliquid and Aster.
• Polymarket’s $2B ICE investment underscores growing institutional confidence in decentralized prediction markets.

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📆 What to Watch Next Week

Macro Events:

• Mon: US Columbus Day, Canadian Thanksgiving, Japanese Sports Day, OPEC MOMR, Chinese Trade Balance
• Tue: RBA Minutes (Sep), IEA OMR, UK Unemployment/Wages (Aug), German ZEW (Oct), US NFIB (Sep)
• Wed: Chinese CPI/PPI (Sep), EZ Industrial Production (Aug), US CPI (Sep), NY Fed Manufacturing (Oct)
• Thu: Australian Employment (Sep), UK GDP (Aug), EZ Trade Balance (Aug), US Weekly Claims, Philly Fed (Oct), PPI (Sep), Retail Sales (Sep)
• Fri: EZ HICP Final (Sep), US Building Permits/Housing Starts (Sep), Industrial Production (Sep)

Crypto Focus:

• ETF approvals, macro developments, and regulatory updates remain key market drivers.
• SOL, ETH, BTC, and high-conviction DeFi projects will be monitored for selective accumulation opportunities.
• Recovery trajectories for XPL and Layer-2 tokens will signal risk-on appetite.

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📌  Takeaway: Crypto roared back in style this week

Bitcoin smashed records, altcoins rallied, DEX volumes soared, and institutional adoption accelerated. ETF flows, tokenization initiatives, and strong market positioning suggest Q4 could be explosive for the sector.Markets are watching macro cues, derivative positioning, and regulatory developments, but the story is clear: crypto is thriving amid uncertainty.

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📅 Missed last week’s update? Catch up on all headlines in the previous Portofino Mint.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘎𝘗𝘛.

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