Crypto Market Update: Bitcoin Shakes Off "Black Monday" Fears

Bitcoin price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$81,773.88, trading 0.8 percent higher over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin and altcoins edged higher on Monday as US tech stocks rebounded.

More traders betting on a fall than on a rise were forced out of their Bitcoin positions.

Investors are now looking ahead to third quarter results from big tech companies, including Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) on Wednesday (October 21); focus is also on the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on October 28.

Bitcoin price chart

Ether and altcoin price update

• Ethereum (ETH) was priced at US$2,391.93, trading 0.4 percent higher over the last 24 hours.

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.30, trading 2 percent higher over the past 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$103.87, trading 1.6 percent higher over the past 24 hours.

Today's crypto news to know

Read on for a round-up of the biggest crypto market news:

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs shed nearly US$1 billion, traders shake "Black Monday" fears
• Saylor blames Bitcoin weakness on macro pressures, AI capital
• JPMorgan expands JPM Coin deposit token to the Ethereum Network
• Coinbase and Thunes partner on global payouts
• South Korean government to meet with exchanges

Spot Bitcoin ETFs shed nearly US$1 billion, traders shake "Black Monday" fears

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered another week of heavy capital flight, shedding US$82.4 million on October 16 to cap off a rough stretch where redemptions outpaced inflows on three out of five trading days.

Data from SoSoValue reveals that these funds suffered a net loss of US$228.6 million for the week, piling on top of the US$681.1 million drained during the previous seven day period.

Over the last fortnight, investors have pulled roughly US$910 million from spot Bitcoin investment vehicles.

On Monday, cryptocurrency traders faced heightened anxiety over potential market instability following abrupt weekend price swings across Bitcoin, Ether and perpetual futures related to artificial intelligence (AI).

Social media channels erupted with speculative chatter regarding a potential "Black Monday" scenario, drawing historical parallels to the infamous 1987 stock market crash that occurred exactly 39 years ago.

Despite the intense anxiety, Bitcoin demonstrated relative resilience, holding at US$82,161 with a modest 1.4 percent weekly decline and remaining up approximately 1 percent over the past 30 days.

However, the broader altcoin market suffered significant damage, with the average decline outside of Bitcoin hitting 7.5 percent across major digital assets. For Institutional products, combined weekly outflows from spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs reached US$548.5 million, pushing total October redemptions for both product lines to US$1.86 billion.

Saylor blames Bitcoin weakness on macro pressures, AI capital

Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) Executive Chair Michael Saylor has attributed recent Bitcoin price weakness to restrictive trade policies, surging bond yields and massive capital diversion into AI infrastructure.

Speaking at ParaFi Capital's Investor Day, Saylor argued that sudden risk-off macro shocks penalize digital assets more severely than traditional equities because "Bitcoin is pure capital."

He noted that yield curves rising by 100 basis points alongside persistent trade disputes have tightened global liquidity conditions over the past year. Furthermore, Saylor identified the estimated US$1 trillion corporate AI buildout as a major drain on investment capital that would otherwise flow into alternative asset classes.

Despite Bitcoin trading roughly 35 percent below its October 2025 all-time high of US$126,080, Saylor has an optimistic long-term outlook, expecting widespread bank adoption to drive the next structural bull market.

He also expects bank custody solutions to build out credit networks over the next 12 to 24 months, noting that every US$10 billion in bank credit equals roughly one year of fresh supply absorption.

JPMorgan expands JPM Coin deposit token to the Ethereum Network

Wall Street banking titan JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is expanding its US dollar-denominated deposit token, JPM Coin, to the Ethereum public blockchain for its institutional client base, Bloomberg reported.

Managing over US$5 trillion in assets under management, the lender selected Ethereum due to the network's established depth of onchain liquidity and existing pool of tokenized assets.

JPM Coin represents commercial bank US dollar deposits held at JPMorgan, enabling corporate clients to execute real-time, 24/7 cross-border transfers. The deposit token originally debuted last year on the Layer-2 network Base, backed by Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), before making the jump to Ethereum's mainnet.

Through the expansion, JPMorgan adds a dedicated cash settlement leg to complement its existing tokenized money market funds, MONY and JLTXX, which already operate on the network.

Following the announcement, Ether's price rose over 1 percent to reach a 24 hour high of US$2,445, accompanied by a 42 percent spike in daily trading volume.

Coinbase and Thunes partner on global payouts

Coinbaseand Singapore-based payments company Thunes announced a partnership on Monday at the Money20/20 USA conference in Las Vegas. Coinbase will supply stablecoin technology to Thunes and connect to Thunes’ payment network, which links to local banking systems and mobile wallets.

Thunes will handle the last step of delivering money to bank accounts and mobile wallets. The companies say this will let Coinbase customers send money to more countries, including places with limited banking.

The companies named payments to suppliers, payouts to gig workers and money sent home by workers abroad as uses. Thunes says its network reaches more than 140 countries and 90 currencies.

The companies did not say when the service will launch or which countries it will cover.

South Korean government to meet with exchanges

Kwon Dae-young, first vice minister of Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Yoo Young-jun, digital finance policy director at the Financial Services Commission, will hold an on-site meeting on Tuesday (October 20) with the heads of the five biggest crypto exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Digital X and Gopax — as well as executives of DAXA, the exchanges' joint industry group, to hear their views on a crypto tax that is due to take effect in January.

The meeting comes as lawmakers from both major parties push to delay the 22 percent tax, which would include local income tax and a tax on yearly profits from selling or lending crypto above a basic deduction of 2.5 million won. It was written into law in 2020 and has been delayed three times. It is now set to start on January 1, 2027.

Pressure for a fourth delay is coming from both sides of the National Assembly. Park Min-gyu of the ruling Democratic Party filed a bill on October 16 that would tie the start date to South Korea's first exchange of crypto tax data with other countries under an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reporting system.

If that exchange happens in 2027 as planned, the tax would start on January 1, 2029. An exchange official told NewsTomato, a prominent South Korean daily economic newspaper and media publication, that the rules for taxing trades are still unclear and that there is not enough time to prepare. Members of the opposition People Power Party have filed four bills of their own since March, eToday reported. One would scrap the tax. The others would push it back to 2029 or 2030, and one of those would also require exchanges to give traders records of their trades.

Several of the exchanges have ties to larger companies. Upbit's operator, Dunamu, plans to merge with Naver Financial, part of internet company Naver (KRX:035420,OTCPL:NHNCF). Dunamu said on October 7 that the share swap has been pushed back to March 31, 2027, while regulators review the deal.

OKX's investment arm, OKX Ventures, became a joint third largest shareholder of Coinone in July with a stake of about 20 percent after regulators approved its investment.

The government has not said whether it will delay the tax.