Crypto Rundown: Bitcoin & Ethereum at Resistance: What is Crypto's Next Move?!

On October 6, Brendan put Bitcoin at about $86,000–$87,000, roughly a year after its all-time high just above $126,000. He described the chart as an ascending triangle: resistance is flat while support rises, and the setup favors an upside move if support holds. Ethereum looked more bullish to him, with repeated closes above prior highs during consolidation, though both the pattern and outlook depend on those levels holding. Solana was also consolidating above prior highs and its short- and longer-term moving averages, while BNB had reached its highest level since January.

Altcoins had cooled after recently outperforming large-cap assets, but Brendan said the pause did not necessarily mean the bull market was ending. Leadership can rotate between large caps and the rest of the market, making the pullback a possible reload before another advance. An unnamed speaker said the fear-and-greed index had remained in greed for about a month, with its year-long chart around 70. The speaker viewed that as evidence of consolidation rather than a sharp retreat to neutral, but stressed that sentiment indicators offer context, not trading instructions: greed can persist in a bull market without proving prices are overbought.

The speaker argued that Bitcoin had shown resilience despite high bond yields, inflation and energy-price concerns, and fears of rate hikes. Bitcoin ETFs recorded their biggest weekly inflow of 2026, which the speaker thought was likely driven mostly by institutions; broad retail interest had not returned, in the speaker’s view. The absence of extreme price predictions was another reason the speaker thought the market might not yet have topped. Citi raised its 12-month Bitcoin forecast to $113,000 and expected Ethereum to rise above $3,000. Bear liquidations and continued whale buying were also cited as support. Tom Lee said his digital-asset holdings gained $21 billion in Q3, and his company bought another 334 Bitcoin the previous week; Bitmine kept buying ETH and was nearing its goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum, using staking income to fund further purchases.

The SEC approved the first 3x leveraged Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which use CME futures rather than holding the assets like spot ETFs. The speaker warned that daily rebalancing and volatility decay can erode returns, with leverage amplifying the effect: after a 30% decline, an asset may need about a 40% gain just to recover. Fees were not yet known, and the speaker was unsure whether the products would help crypto or redirect demand away from spot buying. The episode also noted that Hyperliquid perpetuals had gone live on the Bloomberg Terminal, a sign of growing institutional visibility and of crypto and traditional finance converging through access to 24/7 trading.

Michael Selig said the CFTC is exercising its statutory authority over crypto markets as the SEC develops a crypto framework. He said tokens themselves are not securities in most instances, while trading platforms need market-based rules. The CFTC is developing an optional federally regulated pathway with anti-manipulation and anti-fraud protections and separate broker, exchange, and clearing functions. Unlike state licenses limited to money-transmission activity, the proposed markets could offer margin, leverage, or financing. Businesses would be able to opt in and develop rules with the federal government, and Selig expects customers to want that option. Speakers expected the SEC and CFTC to work on implementation and argued that deeper adoption through the banking system over the next two or three years could make later reversal difficult and politically costly.

Velodrome, previously a major decentralized exchange on Optimism, is merging into Aerodrome, a major Base platform. Aerodrome says it will control inflation and cap token emissions; it has left open the possibility of buybacks but has not promised regular fee-funded purchases. The platform plans to expand to Optimism, Ethereum mainnet, and other networks. Coinbase said it supports migration of Aerodrome and Velodrome into the new Aerodrome token, with a migration-support window from November 2 to 4.