TL;DR
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $635 million in one of the largest daily outflows in months, while over 82,000 traders were liquidated, mostly longs.
Grayscale’s Zcash ETF (ZCSH) posted a third straight day of inflows ($14.23 million) ahead of the NU7 hard fork on November 5.
Spot XRP ETFs added $3.55 million, with XRP outperforming the market ahead of Ripple Swell.
DFINITY founder Dominic Williams accused NEAR Protocol of building NEAR Intents on DFINITY’s proprietary technology; NEAR fell 1.29%.
The Friday morning session on the crypto market, October 23, 2026, is characterized by a large redistribution of institutional capital amid profit-taking in Bitcoin. The total capitalization of the crypto market stands at $2.75 trillion with a daily trading volume of $108.21 billion. Planned de-risking amid macroeconomic pressure triggered a wave of margin position closures.
The external factor is the correction of the U.S. stock market, where the S&P 500 index fell by 1.24%, and the price of gold was recorded at $4,029.80. A direct consequence of this dynamic was one of the largest daily outflows in recent months from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, amounting to $634.99 million.
The trading structure points to an intra-market rotation of capital rather than its complete exit into fiat. While retail traders lock in losses, large limit orders absorb the drawdown in alternative assets. Liquidity is flowing into utility blockchain platforms of the banking sector and regulated exchange-traded products based on privacy coins.
The key beneficiaries of the morning distribution of funds are XRP and Zcash.
The great capital migration: how the Bitcoin drawdown fed XRP and ZEC
According to the SoSoValue analytics dashboard, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $634.99 million. The trading session also ended in the red zone for Ethereum funds, which lost $26.13 million, and Solana ETFs, where the outflow amounted to $2.65 million.
Countertrend resilience is demonstrated by Grayscale's spot Zcash ETF (ZCSH), which absorbed a net daily inflow of $14.23 million. Accumulation has continued for the third consecutive day after injections of $23.16 million and $12.88 million in previous sessions, which raised the fund's total net assets under management to $681.39 million.
Through this regulated instrument, institutional investors directly control 3.11% of Zcash's market capitalization, with a daily trading volume of $63.33 million and an underlying asset price of $1,236.83.
In parallel, spot XRP funds recorded an inflow of $3.55 million, fully provided by the Franklin Templeton pool (FBIT). At the same time, issuers Bitwise, Canary, Grayscale, and 21Shares maintained a zero daily balance change.
Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee notes that this cycle represents a healthy correction, not a bubble: the short on big tech has become excessively consensus-driven, and the debt market is tightly limiting the inflow of speculative capital. The cumulative historical inflow into XRP ETFs has surpassed the $1.8 billion mark, with net assets under management at $1.49 billion (1.01% of the token's capitalization) at an estimated underlying asset price of $1.31.
Billionaires' race for privacy and code theft from ICP. Main stories of this morning
At the morning session, the focus of attention shifted from Bitcoin's price fluctuations to major corporate conflicts. In the U.S., a battle for control over privacy technologies is flaring up, accompanied by loud accusations of code plagiarism.
An open infrastructure war for Zcash has unfolded on the American market between Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Gemini) and DCG founder Barry Silbert. Demand for privacy has intensified due to AI tracking on public networks, so the miners they control, Cypherpunk Technologies and Fortitude Mining, each hold approximately 20% of the network hashrate. Big capital views the asset as a scarce alternative to Bitcoin with fixed issuance.
In parallel, a technology scandal is flaring up: DFINITY founder Dominic Williams publicly accused NEAR Protocol of patent theft. Williams claims that a key component of NEAR Intents is built on DFINITY's proprietary ECDSA threshold signature algorithm.
According to him, NEAR's solution runs on only 8 servers, is completely devoid of decentralization, and an emergency rollback to slower algorithms was recorded on NEAR's GitHub due to legal and litigation risks in the U.S. Against this background, the NEAR token decreased in value by 1.29%, trading at $4.96.
At the same time, a flow of capital toward regulated Asia is being recorded, where traditional financial giants and state regulators are massively introducing stablecoins into the real sector of the economy.
Briefly about other important events this morning:
HSBC launches RedCoin in Hong Kong: Banking giant HSBC, with $3.4 trillion in assets, has officially deployed RedCoin (RCHKD), a stablecoin licensed by the HKMA and 100% backed by the Hong Kong dollar. It is instantly available to 3.3 million users of the PayMe app for payments across a network of 100,000 merchants.
Legalization of stablecoins in South Korea: The South Korean government recognizes stablecoins as an official means of payment from December 3. For this purpose, LG Group's IT division (LG CNS) has entered into a strategic alliance with Chainlink to digitize the Korean won on the $68 billion local crypto market.
Zcash anniversary and AI verification: The Zcash project celebrates a decade since its launch, and a $1,000 investment made five years ago is equivalent to $7,178 today. The developers used Anthropic's Claude AI tools for formal verification of code security before the Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) hard fork on November 5.
Ripple liquidity based on RLUSD: Ripple announces a partnership with the Arf platform to provide cross-border liquidity for the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger network. The project is preparing to launch Web3 lending features ahead of the Ripple Swell conference, while traders on Kalshi are pricing in a scenario of XRP rising to $1.80 by the end of the year.
A healthy correction, not a bubble. What to expect from the market in the coming days
Bitcoin quotes are holding at $81,657.29 (-0.07% over 24 hours) with a market dominance of 59.63%. The current decline is accompanied by a shakeout of margin positions. Over the past 24 hours, the positions of 82,246 traders totaling $332.09 million were liquidated on the futures market. The decline is directed against buyers: 82.6% of the total volume of forced closures fell on long positions ($274.37 million), according to CoinGlass.
The main blow was taken by Ethereum derivatives ($59.54 million in liquidations, 82.1% longs) and Bitcoin derivatives ($52.28 million in liquidations, 87.3% longs). Binance's share is 45.5%, and the largest order was recorded on Hyperliquid in the XYZ:SOXL-USD pair, worth $4.34 million.
The correction is fully synchronized with the U.S. technology sector, where the SPDR index (XLK) fell by 3.6%, and semiconductors dropped almost 7% after Meta's reports on AI spending of up to $135 billion.
Amid Ethereum's drop to $2,403.04 (dominance of 10.72%) and Solana's stagnation ($104.46), the outperforming dynamics of XRP ($1.3172, daily growth of +0.66%) and Zcash confirm the local rotation. The scandal around the centralization of NEAR Intents is accelerating the exit of capital into regulated U.S. exchange-traded products (ETFs) based on protected protocols.
Indicators to watch:
Holding the BTC price corridor: Bitcoin's ability to lock in the $81,700 – $82,000 range will determine the speed of the market recovery.
Zcash hard fork (November 5): The launch of the NU7 upgrade acts as the main fundamental trigger for retaining institutional demand for ZEC.
Ripple Swell conference: Upcoming announcements on the RLUSD stablecoin could push XRP through local resistance at $1.32 – $1.50.
Legal consequences of the ICP/NEAR dispute: The dynamics of NEAR Protocol's quotes will directly depend on official responses to DFINITY's accusations in U.S. courts.
