Crypto market slides as Bitcoin falls below $77,000 and options expiry looms

The cryptocurrency market fell sharply on 30 October, with total market capitalisation down 4.32% over 24 hours to $2.71 trillion. Trading volume reached $253.7 billion, while Bitcoin dominance stood at 57.0%. Losses extended across most leading assets, with only a handful of tokens posting gains. The weakness was also visible over the seven-day period, particularly among major altcoins, although some assets retained positive weekly returns despite the daily retreat.

Stablecoins remained close to their dollar pegs. Tether traded at $0.998, down 0.10% over 24 hours, while USDC stood at $0.9998 and Dai at $0.9997, both slipping 0.01%. Their comparatively narrow moves contrasted with declines of more than 7% in several prominent cryptocurrencies, underlining the breadth of pressure across the market’s more volatile assets.

Bitcoin traded at $76,830.42, down 5.89% over 24 hours and 5.57% over seven days. Its daily decline exceeded the fall in overall market capitalisation. Wrapped Bitcoin and Coinbase Wrapped BTC tracked the underlying asset closely, trading at $76,794.34 and $76,847.82 respectively, with both recording daily losses approaching 6%.

The prevailing Bitcoin price contrasted with a separate report of a rebound towards $81,000 alongside gains in the Nasdaq and KOSPI. That account also highlighted concerns about an FOMC rate rise. The rebound narrative and the weaker market reading should not be treated as a single confirmed price sequence, but together they illustrate the competing signals surrounding Bitcoin and the continuing attention on monetary policy.

Ethereum changed hands at $2,228.65, losing 5.77% over 24 hours and 7.10% over the week. Its daily fall was marginally smaller than Bitcoin’s, but its weekly performance was weaker. Ether-linked assets moved broadly in line: Lido Staked Ether declined 5.45% to $2,228.60, while Wrapped eETH fell 5.75%. The pattern showed little divergence between Ether and its principal wrapped or staked representations.

Among notable movers, Solana fell 7.39% to $94.77, taking its weekly loss to 9.09%. BNB dropped 7.28% to $696.13, while Chainlink declined 7.40% to $11.04. Cardano lost 6.43% on the day and 10.63% over seven days; Near Protocol fell 6.19%, extending its weekly decline to 10.33%. These moves placed several established altcoins behind both Bitcoin and Ethereum over the week.

Zcash recorded a particularly sharp daily fall, dropping 7.75% to $1,235.16, although it remained 0.16% higher over seven days. Hyperliquid showed a different balance between short-term weakness and weekly strength: it slipped 1.85% to $92.11 but retained an 18.13% weekly gain. Rain Protocol’s daily decline was relatively modest at 0.58%, yet its seven-day loss reached 23.48%.

TRON and Bitcoin Cash were exceptions to the broad decline. TRON rose 1.55% to $0.3364 and was up 2.08% over the week, while Bitcoin Cash gained 0.65% to $286.12. Elsewhere, XRP fell 5.05% to $1.2409, Dogecoin lost 5.92% and Monero declined 2.58%. LEO Token limited its daily loss to 0.41%, preserving a weekly gain of 4.19%.

The news agenda combined near-term market uncertainty with longer-term institutional developments. Bitwise raised its Bitcoin price forecast to $1.6 million by 2036, citing institutional demand, limited supply and market growth. That projection remains a long-term forecast rather than an explanation for the day’s trading. Separately, BTCC reported $387 billion in third-quarter futures volume, including $16.3 billion in TradFi volume, with the latter rising sixfold.

Tokenisation, custody and payments featured prominently. Canton Network and DTCC opened access to $30 trillion in eligible securities, while Polygon and Solana announced cooperation connecting Solana’s stablecoin activity with Polygon’s banking, wallet and payment infrastructure. Ripple was reported to be approaching $1 billion in annualised revenue as BNY expanded XRP custody. Those developments sat alongside daily declines in SOL and XRP, with no direct price impact established.

Security remained another significant theme. Google MPC’s push into institutional custody coincided with attention on a vulnerability in Fireblocks MPC. Reporting on the Coinbase data breach and incidents involving Ledger also highlighted security risks extending beyond self-custody. Elsewhere, Grvt bought back and burned 1.1 million GRVT, close to 1% of circulating supply, ahead of planned product milestones. Justin Sun’s identified PEPE holdings reached $51.25 million, but no next memecoin purchase was established.

The immediate watchpoint is Bitcoin’s $11 billion options expiry following the FOMC decision. Call-heavy positioning has framed discussion of a potential rally, but it does not establish the direction of the next move. Monetary policy concerns and the contrast between Bitcoin’s reported rebound and its current sub-$77,000 price remain central to assessing whether market conditions strengthen or weaken.

Beyond derivatives, attention will centre on whether the few daily gainers retain their relative strength and whether weekly outperformers such as Hyperliquid withstand broader selling. Institutional custody, tokenisation and stablecoin payments also remain important developments to follow, alongside the security issues accompanying adoption. Further ahead, Blockchain Life 2026 and the new AI Future Forum are scheduled for 1–2 December in Dubai, bringing crypto, AI and robotics businesses into the same industry calendar.