Binance Blog published a new article, reviewing October’s market conditions and OTC desk activity in its tenth edition of the monthly insights. The Federal Reserve held its policy rate at 3.75%–4.00% on October 28, but a 10–2 vote, with two officials favoring a hike, signaled a hawkish tilt. The Bank of Japan also held rates while leaving a December increase possible. U.S. Treasury yields remained elevated, with the 30-year above 5.6% and the 10-year near 5.05%; Brent crude traded above $105. Bitcoin failed to retake September’s $87,500 high, trading mostly between $80,000 and $85,000 during October before falling to about $77,000 on October 30. Bitcoin ETF flows were near zero early in the month and turned slightly negative. Decentralized-exchange volume fell below $10 billion, around half its first-half level, while tokenized real-world assets increased about 10% to $8.2 billion. The desk said it remained cautious ahead of the U.S. midterms, favoring low leverage and Bitcoin over altcoins, while retaining a medium-term bullish view.

OTC activity was led by Bitcoin, with notional volume rising sharply versus September and BTC/USDT the desk’s leading crypto/stablecoin pair. The altcoin roster broadened but almost completely rotated from September; only AR, POL, PUMP and STX appeared on both lists. Fiat off-ramp demand remained concentrated in MENA and LATAM: BHD and AED led MENA, while MXN, BRL, ARS and COP led LATAM. Settlements included USD, BHD, AED, MXN, BRL, KZT, ARS, EUR, TRY, COP and ZAR. The month also brought the desk’s first bStocks OTC trades, its first African market trade involving USDT/ZAR, and its first perpetual futures position transfer for a VIP9 client. In a Mexico case study, two USDC/MXN on-ramp trades enabled a client to buy about 10.4 million USDC with MXN; the USDC was settled to the client’s Binance Spot wallet within minutes of execution. The monthly insights also became available in Chinese.