October 2022 Market Recap & Outlook

Bouncing back from September’s performance, October 2022 trended positively for cryptoassets overall. All sectors saw positive returns ranging between +1% to +69% as BTC and ETH gained +6% and +20% respectively over the course of the month.

While the green candles piled up across all sectors, DeFi assets saw mixed returns, ranging from -17% to +49%. Meanwhile, Meme Coins massively outperformed all other sectors this month as it reported a +69% gain. The sector was led by Dogecoin’s rally, DOGE was rallying even before the Musk deal was confirmed. It was on the rise leading up to the deal being finalized.

To quote Taylor Swift: are we out of the woods yet? Find out in our latest market recap and outlook report as the team explores what happened last month and what lies ahead.

High uncertainty, low volatility

This month, Bitcoin’s volatility was at the lowest it’s been in months, well below its October historical median volatility of 58%. BTC’s annualized volatility started the month off at 65% and closed the month out at 32%.

In October, BTC’s positive correlation with gold, which is generally regarded as a safe haven during economic and geopolitical uncertainty, remained stable throughout the month and neared its all-time high for 2022.

DeFi Headwinds

On October 6 the BNB Chain suffered a $100M exploit on its cross-chain bridge and halted operations momentarily. Following this incident, Mango, a Solana-based decentralized platform, suffered a $100M exploit in an economic attack known as oracle price manipulation just five days later, contributing to DeFi’s underwhelming performance last month.

Sitting tight

Despite broader macroeconomic uncertainty and headwinds in the space, the industry performed positively for the month of October and recovered from September’s performance. 

Want to learn more about what went down and what’s ahead? Read the latest Kraken Intelligence report, Sit Tight, to understand what’s moving the crypto market.

These materials are for general information purposes only and are not investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell or hold any cryptoasset or to engage in any specific trading strategy. Some crypto products and markets are unregulated, and you may not be protected by government compensation and/or regulatory protection schemes. The unpredictable nature of the cryptoasset markets can lead to loss of funds. Tax may be payable on any return and/or on any increase in the value of your cryptoassets and you should seek independent advice on your taxation position.