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• Uptober - Bitcoin defies September seasonality, stablecoin supply tops $300B, and Fed policy driving sentiment.

• Perp wars dominate DeFi - Aster captures half the daily perps market, Hyperliquid defends monthly leadership, and Lighter enters with viral points and zero fees. Solana-native Bullet pushes new perp architectures with ultra-low latency rollups.

• Larva Labs - NFTs experience a cultural shift as Larva Labs closes its Art Blocks chapter.

• Base Ethereum, and regulatory updates.

October has historically been a strong month for crypto. After BTC’s 5% gain in September defied seasonal weakness, and the total Stablecoin market cap surpassed $300B, sentiment is fueled by a widely expected 25bps Fed rate cut (90% probability on Polymarket). Q4 historically remains crypto’s strongest season, supported this year by ETF momentum and regulatory tailwinds. Price action will largely depend on liquidity, Fed policy, and progress on U.S. crypto legislation.

Decentralized perpetual futures hit a record $1.14T in September 2025 (+50% MoM), cementing perps as DeFi’s most dominant vertical. The past week highlighted both surging growth and questions around sustainability.

• Aster - By late Sept 2025, Aster seized nearly 50% of perp DEX daily share with ~$81.7B in volume and ~$120M in weekly fees, briefly surpassing Circle and Uniswap. Growth stems from liquidity mining, airdrops, and $ASTER staking discounts, though some see it as “fee mining 2.0,” raising sustainability concerns.

• Hyperliquid - Its share has fallen from ~45% to ~8% (~$10.3B daily) amid Aster’s surge. Still, Hyperliquid leads on aggregate metrics, with $380B+ in total trading volume and a record $106M in fees in Aug 2025, keeping it the top perp DEX on monthly volume and revenue.

• Lighter - Launched mainnet Oct 2, scaling to ~$7B daily volume and $816M TVL. With zero retail fees and “viral points” gamification, it already logged $165B in monthly volume pre-launch.

• Solana & New Architectures - Bullet (ex-Zeta) is building an app-specific rollup with 1.2ms latency and zk sequencing on Celestia DA, testing the thesis that perps infra must go beyond general-purpose L1s/L2s.

Source: Defi Llama

Larva Labs is set to release “Quine,” its final Art Blocks Curated project, on October 9, 2025. Quine embodies self-replicating, algorithmic generative art inspired by biological DNA. Larva Labs’ legacy includes the creation of CryptoPunks (2017), Autoglyphs (2019 - the first onchain generative art), and Meebits (2021 - 3D generative avatars).

This new release marks the end of an era and highlights the ongoing evolution of blockchain-based art.

• AI Agents for Group Chats - The Base app now allows users to level up group chats by adding AI agents like Bankr and Flaunchy for easier trading and money transfers.

• Mini-app Ecosystem Expands - Ohara, a software engineering agent company, launches as a mini-app within Base.

• Music Rights Integration - Through collaboration with Bolero, users can now collect, trade, and own music IP rights directly in the Base app.

• EF Report - The EF’s decade review highlights Ethereum’s transformation from speculative experiment to foundational financial infrastructure, detailing key upgrades like Pectra and Fusaka that boosted scalability and reduce costs. It also underscores governance reforms and growing institutional adoption, while acknowledging tensions between short-term pragmatism and the protocol’s founding vision.

• ETF Momentum Falters - $ETH ETF inflows collapsed by 92% in Sept ($3.9B to $285M). Bitcoin ETFs continue drawing larger, more resilient institutional inflows.

• Taiko Governance Launch - The Taiko Layer-2 is activating its governance board, progressing toward a more decentralized rollup ecosystem.

• Government Shutdown Delays ETFs - The U.S. shutdown has left the SEC operating with minimal staff, freezing routine approvals, including pending Litecoin, Solana, and XRP ETFs.

• NYDFS Chief Resigns - Adrienne Harris will depart next month, which could shake up regulatory approaches in one of crypto’s most influential markets.

• Storm Seeks Acquittal - Storm attempts to secure acquittal, as his defense team argues the DOJ is violating his First Amendment right by criminalizing open-source code.

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As Q4 unfolds, the balance between sustained innovation and regulatory uncertainty will set the tone for the next phases of this cycle.