Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market went negative: Bitcoin dropped to $77,300, Ethereum held around $2,467, and the sentiment index fell to the lower edge of the greed zone. Against this backdrop, traders were watching several directions at once:
- On-chain perpetuals for real-world assets.
- Capital concentration in the largest coins.
- Preparation for the Glamsterdam update on the Ethereum network.
- The trading volume of RWA perpetuals on-chain exceeded $120 billion, increasing about 120 times in less than a year.
- The market capitalization of the top 100 excluding stablecoins once again concentrated around the largest assets: MAG7 accounts for 92.1%.
- Ethereum developers have tentatively chosen October 6 to launch Glamsterdam on the Sepolia testnet.
Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Largest Coins Came Under Pressure
As of 09:15 MSK, Bitcoin was trading around $77,276. During the day, the price moved between $76,550 and $78,500, with a final decrease of 1.19%.
Ethereum held around $2,467. During the day, ETH fluctuated between $2,405 and $2,485 and lost 0.26%.
Among the top 30 coins by capitalization, almost all closed the day with a decrease. Notable moves were as follows:
- Monero: +0.28%.
- Zcash: -9.35%.
- Bitcoin Cash: -8.78%.
- Avalanche: -3.70%.
In the top 100, the best performers were:
- Raydium: +21.79%.
- Falcon Finance: +12.42%.
- : +7.93%.
At the other end of the list were:
- Zcash: -9.45%.
- Bitcoin Cash: -8.78%.
- Midnight: -7.50%.
ETF, Fear and Greed: Investors Became More Cautious
Spot crypto ETFs in the United States ended the day with outflows from key directions:
- Bitcoin funds: -$282.56 million.
- Ethereum-based products: -$29.76 million.
- Solana funds: -$482,550.
Meanwhile, some products still saw inflows:
- XRP: $5.14 million.
- LINK: $4.27 million.
- HBAR: $817,770.
- DOT: $663,060.
The fear and greed index dropped to 56 points. Formally, this is still the greed zone, but already near the lower boundary. The day before, the indicator was at 69, a week ago — 74. A month ago, the index was at 27 points, so market sentiment remains noticeably better than 30 days ago, although the short-term momentum has clearly weakened.
In the past 24 hours, exchanges liquidated the positions of 94,216 traders. Key figures of the day:
- Total liquidations: $451.09 million.
- Long liquidations: $353.45 million.
- Short liquidations: $97.63 million.
- Largest single liquidation: $22.63 million on Bitget in the ETHUSDT pair.
This difference is logical: the market was falling, so participants betting on growth suffered more.
High volatility quickly turns a market drawdown into liquidations: the hardest hit are participants who enter leveraged trades and bet against the price movement.
RWA Perpetuals Surged Sharply
Castle Labs reported a rapid increase in on-chain perpetual trading for real-world assets. In October 2025, the volume of this segment did not reach $1 billion, but by August 2026, it had already exceeded $120 billion. Thus, the market grew about 120 times in less than a year.
In July, RWA perpetuals at times accounted for about 20% of all on-chain perpetual volume. In most months, their share held around 12–13%. Since June, the monthly volume has not dropped below $100 billion.
Open interest in this segment is now about $4.9 billion. Almost 90% is accounted for by TradeXYZ and Variational, indicating a high concentration of activity within the niche itself.
Capital Is Flowing Back to the Largest Coins
According to CryptoRank, the concentration of the crypto market has returned to 2021 levels. The share of MAG7 — the seven largest coins — in the total capitalization of the top 100 excluding stablecoins rose to 92.1% in 2026.
Bitcoin alone accounts for 66.6%. This is significantly higher than five years ago. Such a structure shows that market growth increasingly depends on a narrow group of large assets, while many altcoins receive a smaller share of capital.
Ethereum Prepares Glamsterdam, but Testing Is Challenging
The Ethereum team has tentatively scheduled the activation of Glamsterdam on the Sepolia testnet for October 6, 16:53 MSK. The date appeared in the notes from ACDC meeting #186.
However, the update has not yet been launched on the stable devnet. Devnet-9 cannot finalize, and earlier tests revealed a major consensus-level bug and an execution-level issue related to EIP-8037.
Developers are now preparing Devnet-10. If the new environment also proves unstable or shows serious bugs, the launch of Glamsterdam on Sepolia may be postponed. Dates for the Hoodi testnet and the mainnet have not yet been named, although the team is still considering a mainnet launch in December.
Why This Data Matters for the Market
For market participants, such signals are important when assessing investments: cryptocurrency has long ceased to be just a speculative currency and is increasingly seen as an asset on the balance sheets of major players. At the same time, interest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin remains tied not only to price, but also to the development of blockchain, mining, cryptography, and software around the networks.
Institutional infrastructure also affects the perception of the industry. Coinbase, led by Brian Armstrong, remains one of the most prominent examples of a public crypto business: for the market, it is important how such companies operate at the intersection of traditional finance and digital assets. Here, financial shares, bank transactions, on-chain settlements, and risks such as double spending — which blockchain mechanisms were created to combat — come together.
The more actively institutional players enter digital assets, the more the crypto market becomes linked to ETFs, public companies, bank settlements, and on-chain infrastructure.
A separate layer of demand is formed by new technologies. Artificial intelligence helps participants analyze data flows faster, but the current picture remains the same: the market has cooled, the largest coins hold the main share of capital, and promising segments like RWA perpetuals continue to grow even amid the overall downturn.
How the Crypto Market Works
The crypto market is an environment where digital assets are issued, bought, sold, stored, and used. It operates around blockchain networks, exchanges, wallets, market makers, analytics services, and users who transfer or trade coins.
The price of cryptocurrency is primarily determined by supply and demand. It is also influenced by news, liquidity, investor expectations, activity of large holders, macroeconomics, network updates, and the behavior of the derivatives market. Prices and capitalization can be tracked on exchanges, in wallets, and analytics services like CryptoRank.
Market capitalization shows the notional value of a cryptocurrency in the market. The basic formula is simple: the price of one coin multiplied by the number of coins in circulation.
Ways to Earn and Choosing Cryptocurrencies
People try to earn on cryptocurrency in different ways, but each is associated with risk:
- Trading: buying and selling assets on short-term price movements.
- Long-term investing: buying coins with the expectation that their value will grow over time.
- Mining: supporting the network with computing power and receiving rewards.
- Staking: locking coins in the network to participate in its operation and earn income.
- Working with derivatives: trading futures, perpetuals, and other high-risk instruments.
Cryptocurrencies are usually divided into several groups:
- Bitcoin: the largest and most recognizable digital asset.
- Altcoins: all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin, including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and other projects.
- Stablecoins: tokens whose value is usually pegged to a fiat currency or other asset.
- NFTs: unique tokens that can confirm ownership of a digital object or right.
When choosing an asset, investors usually look at liquidity, capitalization, team, technology, demand, regulatory risks, network security, and the share of capital already concentrated in the largest coins.
Risks, Security and Regulation
Cryptocurrency can generate income but remains a risky asset. The main threats are high volatility, fraudulent schemes, transfer errors, hacks, loss of wallet access, technical failures, liquidations of leveraged positions, and regulatory changes. Losses can occur due to a sharp price drop, an unsuccessful trade, liquidation of a long or short, or sending funds to the wrong address.
For buying and storage, it is important to choose platforms with a clear reputation, liquidity, and basic account protection tools. Hot wallets are convenient for frequent transactions but are always connected to the internet. Cold wallets are suitable for long-term storage because private keys are kept separate from the online environment.
Basic security is built on simple rules: enable two-factor authentication, do not share your seed phrase, check addresses before transfers, avoid suspicious links, and do not keep all your capital on one platform.
The market is heavily influenced by regulatory decisions, technological updates, macroeconomic data, ETF launches, exchange news, major hacks, court decisions, and analyst forecasts. Regulation varies by country: in some places, crypto businesses need licenses and reporting; in others, certain operations are restricted or require additional client checks.
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