Morning Minute: Bitcoin Clears $120,000 as Uptober Begins with a Bang – Decrypt

Morning Minute is a each day e-newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The evaluation and opinions expressed are his personal and don’t essentially replicate these of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

At this time’s high information:

• Crypto majors proceed to grind up as Bitcoin breaks $120,000
• BNB hits new ATH over $1,100 kicking off BNB SZN (Cake + memes soar)
• CME 24/7 will launch 24/7 crypto futures and choices buying and selling in early 2026
• Moonbirds tease BIRB token for first time, ground passes 4 ETH earlier than retracing
• Artwork Blocks publicizes Quine by Larva Labs as last Artwork Blocks Curated

🟠 Bitcoin Clears $120K as Uptober Begins With a Bang

The bears had been loudly calling for $90k earlier than $120k. Their “guts” mentioned crypto had topped.

Nicely, appears like they had been flawed.

📌 What Occurred

BTC pushed above $120,000 on Thursday, hitting a stage not seen since August 13.

That’s a full 10% up transfer on the week.

So what’s driving the motion?

ETFs inflows are definitely serving to, with over $2.25B in inflows up to now this week.

The opposite key issue?

Saylor’s tax invoice (or lack thereof).

Technique and the remainder of the U.S. received information on Wednesday {that a} Biden-era AMT tax of as much as 15% on unrealized asset beneficial properties wouldn’t come to fruition, as digital property had been excluded.

That seemingly freed up a whole lot of money for Saylor and it will likely be very fascinating to see subsequent Monday if he has certainly put that to work this week (or perhaps it was extra ETF pushed).

Plus the federal government shut down means no extra financial information to return earlier than FOMC, seemingly which means a fee minimize is a finished deal (90% on Polymarket).

Nevertheless it wasn’t simply Bitcoin.

Looking at the remainder of the majors and their weekly beneficial properties:

• ETH +15% to $4,480
• BNB + 18% to $1,100 (new ATH)
• SOL +20% to $230

And another high winners on the week:

• Zcash + 180% to $151
• PUMP +42% to $0.00714
• SPX +33% to $1.28

So whereas Bitcoin is grinding up, it’s not a Bitcoin-led rally. All of the majors are transferring.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“The steep rise within the gold value over the previous month has made bitcoin extra engaging to buyers relative to gold, particularly because the bitcoin to gold volatility ratio retains drifting decrease to beneath 2.0. By taking into consideration this volatility ratio, which means that bitcoin at the moment consumes 1.85 instances extra danger capital than gold, then mechanically the market cap of bitcoin at $2.3tr at the moment must rise by near 42% (implying a theoretical bitcoin value of $165k), to match on a vol-adjusted foundation the round $6tr of whole personal sector funding in gold by way of ETFs or bars and cash… …This mechanical train thus may indicate vital upside for bitcoin.” – JPMorgan

🧠 Why It Issues

Breaking $120k once more certain feels good.

And the velocity of its reclaim, together with October seasonality + the broader this autumn setup (extra fee cuts, more cash printing) looks as if a really sturdy one for greater.

Don’t simply take my phrase for it although.

Main banks have put out some critical forecasts for Bitcoin’s close to and mid-term future.

• Citi: $133K by year-end, $181K in 12 months, pushed by ETF demand and broader adoption
• JPMorgan: ~$165K on a catch-up commerce versus gold and the “debasement commerce”

Nice level by JPMorgan there, as Bitcoin has been significantly lagging Gold over all of 2025.

Merely catching Gold on yearly improve (+45% on the yr) would imply one other 16% from right here for Bitcoin ($140,000), and that doesn’t take note of every other elements.

The writing is on the wall for an enormous October (Uptober).

Now we simply need to fade any huge monkey wrenches or (unhealthy) surprises…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A couple of Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are inexperienced once more, as Bitcoin breaks $120k; BTC +1% at $120,350, ETH +2% at $4,480, XRP +2% at $3.03, SOL +2% at $230
• CAKE (+24%), ETHFI (+15%) and ASTER (+8%) led high movers
• BNB hit a brand new ATH over $1,100 whereas Pancake Swap (CAKE) was the highest mover on the day and BNB memes outperformed
• Trump mentioned he’s contemplating giving taxpayer rebates of $1,000-$2,000 utilizing tariff cash
• The Bitcoin ETFs have seen $2.25B in internet inflows up to now this week, with ETH seeing $1.06B
• The CME is ready to launch 24/7 crypto futures and choices buying and selling in early 2026
• In Arthur Hayes’ newest weblog he argues Eurozone cash printing may drive the subsequent leg up for Bitcoin
• New York lawmakers moved to tax Bitcoin miners, proposing an energy-use excise tax to fund affordability packages
• FG Nexus is partnering with Securitize to tokenize Nasdaq-listed equities on Ethereum, providing on-chain inventory buying and selling with real-time settlement

In Company Treasuries / ETFs

• Avalanche Treasury Co. introduced a $675M SPAC merger with Mountain Lake, making a public car to build up $200M AVAX from the Basis with extra plans so as to add $1B AVAX post-IPO

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are largely crimson; DOGE -1%, Shiba -2%, PEPE -1%, PENGU -3%, BONK -3%, TRUMP even, SPX +5%, and FARTCOIN -5%
• BSC memes exploded led by 4 (+100% to $140M), Giggle (+140% to $80M), 1 (+550% to $9M), Priceless (+250% to $21M) and PUP (+43x to $4M)

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Right here’s a rundown of main token, protocol and airdrop information from the day:

• DoubleZero launched its mainnet beta, successfully offering a brand new web for blockchains to speak (2Z token at $5.2B fdv)
• Sui TVL hit a brand new ATH at $2.43B, now ninth amongst all blockchains
• Moonbirds teased the BIRB token coming quickly on Solana, which briefly drove Moonbirds NFTs over 4 ETH earlier than retracing (now 3.24 ETH)
• Justin Solar touted Tron’s perps trade “SunPerp” with personal darkish swimming pools and sponsored charges as Tron’s reply to Hyperliquid and Aster

🚚 What is going on in NFTs?

Right here is the listing of different notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders had been largely crimson; Punks even at 47.3 ETH, Pudgy -4% at 9.5, BAYC -5% at 8.3 ETH; Hypurr’s even at 1,520 HYPE
• Memeland Potatoz +23% had been a notable high mover
• Artwork Blocks introduced the last Artwork Blocks Curated launch titled ‘ Quine’ from Larva Labs; 500 whole provide, 477 obtainable and beginning at 0.25 ETH, coming Oct 9
• OpenSea added $500k to its prize pool on Thursday throughout 5 totally different memecoins
• A gold Plush Pepe bought for ~$50,000 on Thursday as TON NFTs proceed to see success