Blockchain Equities Fall 4.2% as Narrow Breadth Pressures Risk Assets

Blockchain equities fell 4.2% during the week ended Oct. 9, outpacing Bitcoin’s decline as narrow participation, higher Treasury yields and inflation pressure weighed on U.S. risk assets despite record index levels.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell 2.1% over the same period. Nu Holdings led the blockchain-equity index with a 15.7% gain, followed by MercadoLibre at 10.2% and Mastercard at 4.5%. Metaplanet declined 16.1%, Bit Digital fell 16% and CleanSpark dropped 15.1%.

Market participation remained limited. As of Oct. 7, 29% of S&P 500 companies traded above their 50-day moving averages, while 47% were above their 200-day averages.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield reached approximately 5.36% on Oct. 7 before easing around a $39 billion Treasury auction. Higher borrowing costs can reduce the expected returns of companies funding large artificial intelligence and high-performance-computing projects.

The Federal Open Market Committee raised its federal-funds rate target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4% at its Sept. 15-16 meeting. Most participants believed another increase would probably be appropriate by the end of 2026.

The September Institute for Supply Management Services PMI fell to 54.9 from 55.4 in August. Its prices index rose to 74.0, the highest level since July 2022.

Crypto-related corporate activity continued during the market decline. Strategy disclosed Oct. 5 that it bought 334 BTC, repurchased approximately $176 million of STRC preferred stock and held 848,000 BTC as of Oct. 4.

Metaplanet’s Oct. 5 disclosures included a notice concerning the sale and reacquisition of Bitcoin. Its tracker showed holdings of 44,000 BTC as of Sept. 30.

Samsung Electronics America plans to launch stablecoin functionality in Samsung Wallet during the last week of October for eligible Galaxy users in the United States. The service will initially support USDC and enable transfers to eligible bank accounts in more than 60 countries. Samsung said the feature could reach 82 million U.S. Galaxy devices.

Bastion will operate the service with Coinbase, while Coinbase Prime Vault will provide custody. Samsung listed Solana and Sui among its infrastructure partners. “Sending money abroad should feel as convenient as using the wallet already on your phone,” said Woncheol Chai, executive vice president and head of Samsung Electronics’ Digital Wallet Team.

Circle plans to integrate USDC and EURC into enterprise workflows through Tereina, beginning with the SAP ecosystem. Circle described SAP’s wider ecosystem as representing 84% of global commerce, a figure that does not represent payment volume secured by Circle.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas expects to publish a report on state and community impacts from certain data-center projects no later than Dec. 10, 2026.