Market Performance
- Bitcoin +0.16% 121,500
- Ethereum +0.14% 4,454
- Bitcoin Spot ETF: +$875 million inflow
- Ethereum Spot ETF: +$417 million inflow
- Dow -0.20%, Nasdaq -0.67%, S&P 500 -0.38%, Russell 2000 -1.12%
- 10-year US Treasury yield down 2.9bps to 4.123%
- DXY up 0.49% to 98.5859
- VIX down 1.68% to 16.37
- Brent Crude Oil up 0.40% to 65.73
- LBMA Gold up 0.64% to 3,984.34
US Government Shutdown Continues — October 15 Seen as Critical Date
As the government shutdown continues, Goldman Sachs identified October 15 as a “critical” date in a report it published. The White House issued a memo stating that there is no legal guarantee that federal employees will receive back pay after the shutdown. Trump said that if the shutdown continues for a long time, large-scale layoffs could become permanent.
New York Fed Survey: Inflation Expectations Rise
According to the latest New York Fed survey, the 1-year inflation expectation rose from 3.2% to 3.4%, while the 5-year expectation rose from 2.9% to 3%. Participants noted that price pressures have become persistent, particularly in the service sector, while volatility in energy prices was observed to have pushed up short-term expectations.
Mixed Messages from Fed Members
- Fed Governor Milan (dovish, has voting rights in 2025): Stated that inflation risks are under control and that the real neutral interest rate is around 0.5%. Therefore, he supports an additional 50 basis point rate cut. Milan said that “overly tight monetary policy” is putting pressure on economic growth, while Trump’s tariffs have a limited inflationary effect.
- Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari (hawkish, no voting rights in 2025): Opposed rate cuts, warning that early easing could reignite inflation.
Oracle’s Cloud Profit Falls Short of Expectations
According to media reports, Oracle generated $900 million in server rental revenue and $125 million in gross profit in the fiscal quarter ending in August. This equates to a 14% gross profit margin — well below the company’s 70% margin in its traditional software business. It was noted that approximately $100 million was lost in the leasing of Nvidia’s new Blackwell-architecture GPUs. This underperformance led to selling pressure on technology stocks, with Oracle shares falling nearly 4% in after-hours trading.
US Government Shutdown Delays Crypto Regulations
The ongoing government shutdown in the US has begun to directly impact crypto regulation processes. Preparations for a bill in the Senate Banking Committee on how digital assets will be shared between the CFTC and SEC have slowed due to the shutdown. The furloughing of federal agency staff has brought progress on the technical details of the bill to a standstill. Committee officials say the shutdown could “delay the legislative process for weeks.”
BlackRock IBIT Has Been Buying Bitcoin Nonstop for 7 Weeks
BlackRock IBIT has been buying Bitcoin nonstop for the past 7 weeks, accumulating a total of 54,423 BTC during this period.
The distribution of purchases is as follows:
- 15,177 BTC in the last two days,
- 15,121 BTC last week,
- 1,550 BTC two weeks ago,
- 7,500 BTC three weeks ago,
- 9,100 BTC four weeks ago,
- 3,750 BTC five weeks ago,
- 2,225 BTC purchased six weeks ago.
Bank of England Plans Flexible Upper Limit for Stablecoin Ownership
According to Bloomberg, the Bank of England (BoE) is considering adding “exceptional provisions” to the upper limit that will be imposed on stablecoin ownership. Under the draft plan, individuals’ stablecoin holdings could be capped at £10,000–20,000, while companies’ holdings could be capped at £10 million. However, major crypto platforms could be exempt from this rule. The bank also plans to allow stablecoins to be used as a payment instrument within the “digital securities sandbox.” The final form of the regulation has not yet been finalized.
Japanese Yen Loses Value as Interest Rate Hike Expectations Decline
With the likelihood of an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) declining, the Japanese yen lost value against G10 and Asian currencies. ING analyst Chris Turner noted that the market sees only a 20% chance of the BoJ raising interest rates at its meeting this month. If the rate hike is postponed, pressure on the yen is expected to increase further next year.
JPMorgan CEO: “Government Shutdown Will Not Affect Markets”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the U.S. government shutdown will not have a significant impact on financial markets. Dimon said the market views the shutdown as a “political process” and that it does not pose a significant risk to liquidity.
Sharp Link’s ETH Staking Revenues Increase
Sharp Link (NASDAQ: SBET) announced that as of October 6, it had earned a total of 4,723 ETH (approximately $13 million) from its Ethereum staking strategy. The company added 451 ETH to this gain last week. The firm, which uses all its ETH assets for staking, did not make any new ETH purchases or share buybacks last week.
According to Ark Invest Tracker data, Ark Invest sold another 17,828 shares of $SOL treasury company Brera Holdings through its ARKK fund on October 7. This brings the total number of shares sold by the company over the past two days to 72,228. Brera Holdings shares are being gradually reduced in Ark’s portfolio due to high volatility.
