Bitcoin Soars in October: Uptober Trends and Testnets Emerge

Despite a global market selloff, the "Uptober" trend for Bitcoin has proven successful.

• Bitcoin's Performance in October
  Bitcoin experienced an approximately 11% increase, closing at its second-highest monthly level ever. The US Bitcoin ETFs attracted $2.28 billion in inflows this week, contributing to a total of about $5.63 billion for the month.

• Market Sentiment and Volatility
  As we transition into November, particularly with the US election week approaching, short-term BTC options volatility has risen, altering the term structure. Analysts suggest that this mirrors trends observed leading up to the launch of US spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year. Additionally, BTC futures open interest has seen growth in October, indicating steady demand amidst election positioning.

New Testnets Launch

• SXT Chain Testnet by Space and Time Labs
  At Chainlink SmartCon in Hong Kong, Space and Time Labs introduced the SXT Chain testnet. This development brings a zk-verifiable blockchain indexing platform closer to reality for developers. The SXT Chain utilizes the ZK Stack, facilitating decentralized, zk-proven data delivery to smart contracts, with potential applications like on-chain credit scoring.

• =nil; Foundation's Ethereum L2 Testnet
  The =nil; Foundation has launched its Ethereum Layer 2 powered by zkSharding. This release follows a successful devnet debut and showcases protocol upgrades along with several decentralized applications (dapps), including a demo of Uniswap v2's DEX functionality in a sharded environment. The zkSharding framework aims to address the fragmentation issues currently affecting Ethereum Layer 2 solutions.

• Nomic's Bitcoin Staking on Ethereum Testnet
  Nomic has introduced its Babylon bitcoin staking on the Ethereum testnet, offering a decentralized solution for bitcoin staking. This allows users to avoid reliance on centralized custodians. The Bedrock’s uniBTC, a liquid staking token with over 2,000 BTC staked, will be among the first to implement this protocol, with plans for mainnet and further EVM chain rollouts in the coming months.

A Twist on the Restaking Airdrop?

• Zircuit's EIGEN Fairdrop
  Zircuit has launched the “EIGEN fairdrop,” distributing 2% of its total supply equally among more than 190,000 eligible EIGEN holders. This airdrop is based on an October 8 snapshot and will benefit participants holding at least 3 EIGEN tokens, excluding the EigenLayer team and investors.

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