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First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Gains as Trading Volume Surges
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Oct. 23, 2023.
Updated Oct 23, 2023, 4:20 p.m. Published Oct 23, 2023, 12:03 p.m.
This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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Bitcoin looked strong on Monday as the largest cryptocurrency by market value gained ground, rising just under 3% on the day. Bitcoin was trading around $30,600 at the time of writing. The rally comes as trading volumes have seen a surge. For centralized exchanges, the cumulative daily volume (based on a seven-day moving average) reached $16.24 billion from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22, according to a note from Matteo Greco, a research analyst at Fineqia. This is the third-highest trading volume recorded in the last 60 days, with the boost being primarily attributed to bitcoin trading, said Greco. Bitcoin’s total volume during this period was $6.4 billion, 68.4% more than the $3.8 billion recorded in the preceding week.
Hong Kong's financial regulator has relaxed earlier guidance that limited the sale of spot products to professional investors, allowing intermediaries to offer services to a wider range of clients. "The policy is updated in light of the latest market developments and enquiries from the industry seeking to further expand retail access through intermediaries and to allow investors to directly deposit and withdraw virtual assets to/from intermediaries with appropriate safeguards," the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a circular on Friday. The change comes amid mounting interest in spot bitcoin exchange-traded-funds (ETFs). Recently, JPMorgan said the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. could happen within months, and probably before Jan. 10, the final deadline for the Ark 21Shares application. It also comes after the authority accused crypto exchange JPEX of operating without a license, making arrests, and saying it would publish details of licensed applicants. The catch here is that Hong Kong still wants to avoid overseas virtual-asset products because it considers them "complex" and therefore particularly risky.
The first coins ever floated as an experiment by the creator of the decentralized exchange Uniswap are now trading at more than $3 million per token (yes, that's not a typo), with a supply of just 4.4 tokens. The original tokens were released by Uniswap creator Hayden Adams in 2019, back when the exchange was in its very initial stages. While the first-ever coins to be seeded and traded on the platform were never intended to hold any value, and a large part of the supply was destroyed soon afterwards, a group of crypto traders stumbled upon some of the surviving tokens earlier in this month. They were able to acquire all 4.4 tokens available to the market – and called it HayCoin (HAY). The rest of the undestroyed tokens were held in a wallet owned by Adams. The limited supply helped boost the price of the open-market coins to hundreds of thousands of dollars shortly after being traded, giving a market capitalization of under $10 million. Adams, however, burned his stash on Saturday, effectively destroying 99.99% of the total supply and sending the price skyrocketing.
Chart of The Day
- The chart shows changes in open interest in futures and perpetual futures tied to major cryptocurrencies in the past 24 hours.
- Topping the list of gainers is DOGE, with a 17% gain, followed by XRP, SHIB, MATIC and BNB. Open interest in BTC has increased just 2%.
- Increased inflow of money into meme cryptocurrencies often paves the way for price pullbacks.
- Source: Velo Data
- Omkar Godbole
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Japan’s Higher Rates Puts Bitcoin in the Crosshairs of a Yen Carry Unwind
A stronger yen typically coincides with de-risking across macro portfolios, and that dynamic could tighten liquidity conditions that recently helped bitcoin rebound from November’s lows.
What to know:
- The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to 0.75% at its December meeting, the highest since 1995, affecting global markets including cryptocurrencies.
- A stronger yen could lead to de-risking in macro portfolios, impacting liquidity conditions that have supported bitcoin's recent recovery.
- Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated a high probability of a rate hike, with officials prepared for further tightening if their economic outlook supports it.
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