Crypto

Bitcoin Held Its Ground While the Builders Raised the Bar

By Crypt0 · Oct 23, 2026

Bitcoin closed the week steady near $81,700 after Thursday brought a 3 percent pullback led by technology stocks. Spot ETFs saw $635 million leave on Thursday yet still finished the week with $442 million of net inflows. The Federal Reserve meets next week with a hold priced at 91.7 percent, Ethereum gave its Glamsterdam upgrade more review time on the test network, and HSBC put a licensed Hong Kong dollar stablecoin in the pocket of more than 3 million PayMe users.

Bitcoin traded broadly flat on Friday near $81,700, recovering from Thursday lows near $81,000. Thursday's slide of about 3 percent tracked a technology selloff, with the Nasdaq Composite down 2.6 percent for its worst session since June, as investors questioned how the AI buildout gets paid for. About $440 million of leveraged positions, mostly longs, reset over 24 hours, and the Fear and Greed Index moved from 68 to 50 in a single day, from Greed to Neutral. Nexo's research desk notes the test ahead. Next week brings the Fed's October 27 to 28 meeting, with a hold priced at 91.7 percent per CME FedWatch while December still carries roughly 75 percent odds of a hike. The 10 year Treasury yield sits near 4.95 percent after its biggest daily drop since March 2023, and Brent crude trades near $114, a five month high, keeping inflation on the agenda.

The institutional bid stayed tactical but real. US spot funds took in more than $1 billion over the first three sessions of the week, then saw $635 million leave on Thursday as Bitcoin fell, per SoSoValue, leaving the week's net inflow at $442 million. Coinglass data shows bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows for three straight days totaling $1.07 billion, with more than $500 million arriving on Wednesday alone. Konstantinos Chrysikos of Kudo.com told Dow Jones Newswires that spot ETF flows signal improving institutional demand, which helped cushion recent losses. Under the surface, positioning is rebuilding with care. Open interest rose about 1 percent in both Bitcoin and Ether while prices held flat, Bitcoin liquidations fell by about two thirds, and demand for downside protection cooled in Bitcoin even as it built in Ether.

Ethereum chose careful engineering over speed this week. Developers gave the Glamsterdam upgrade more review time on the Hoodi test network, holding the activation scheduled for October 26 while researchers study a gas accounting change known as EIP 8037. The proposal changes how Ethereum charges for creating new records in its database, a way to keep state growth in check as the network processes more activity. Security firm ChainSecurity published an October 13 analysis showing that, combined with EIP 8038, the change could alter how existing contracts respond when a called contract runs out of gas, with new storage slot creation potentially needing 110,020 gas against 22,100 under current rules. ChainSecurity demonstrated the mechanisms and has yet to publicly establish that a major production protocol is exploitable. The upgrade already completed its Sepolia testnet activation on October 6, the planned increase of Hoodi's gas limit to 200 million was held alongside the activation, and a new date will be set once the review wraps. Glamsterdam also brings a new system for choosing block builders and improvements meant to let the network handle larger blocks, and a chain that tests this carefully is a chain building for the long term.

The week's most tangible crypto adoption story came from a bank. HSBC launched RedCoin, a 1 to 1 Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, on its PayMe digital wallet on Friday. More than 3.3 million PayMe users are set to get access to in app stablecoin wallets over the coming days, and the token can move instantly between friends and family or pay at more than 100,000 merchants. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted HSBC a stablecoin issuer licence on April 10, 2026, under the city's Stablecoins Ordinance, in force since August 2025. HSBC plans to add stablecoin wallet functionality to its Hong Kong mobile banking app later this year, including the ability to subscribe to tokenized investment products through RedCoin. John O'Neill, who leads digital assets and currencies at the bank, said more products are coming, including wholesale corporate and institutional use cases. A global bank putting programmable money in millions of pockets is the on ramp story playing out in real time.

A question I keep hearing. Why did Bitcoin slip if the week's news was this constructive? The short answer is that Bitcoin followed the technology tape this week, and the Nasdaq just posted its weakest session since June on doubts about AI funding. Look past the tape and the week was strong. ETFs added $442 million net, leverage got flushed in an orderly reset, Ethereum's engineers protected existing contracts before shipping new ones, and a licensed stablecoin reached millions of users. That is what a healthy market looks like while the price catches its breath.

For readers, the message of the week is straightforward. Prices move with headlines about chip funding and rate meetings. The foundations that decide where value flows over the coming years kept getting stronger. ETF plumbing deepened, Ethereum's safety culture held the line, and licensed stablecoins moved into everyday wallets. Size your positions for the swings, keep your conviction for the builders, and remember that red weeks on the chart have a way of looking like entry points in hindsight.

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