reasons

According to Jinshi reports, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes show that several officials stated that the oil shock could lead to further inflation, providing a reason to raise interest rates.

The infrastructure developer behind Optimism, OP Labs, announced the layoff of 20 employees, accounting for approximately 19.6% of the total team. Jing Wang, co-founder of Optimism and CEO of OP Labs, stated in an internal letter that the layoffs are not due to financial pressure, as the company currently has sufficient funds and years of cash flow reserves. This move aims to "streamline operations, accelerate decision-making, and reduce collaboration costs."Currently, Optimism is undergoing a transformation. Last month, Base, the largest chain in the OP Stack ecosystem, announced a shift to a self-developed unified tech stack, which raised market concerns about Optimism's long-term sustainability, leading to a roughly 37% drop in the price of OP tokens over the past 30 days. Despite the challenges, OP Labs has established a roadmap for 2026, focusing on faster block times, native interoperability, custom compliance controls, and a zero-knowledge proof (ZK Proof) system aligned with the Ethereum roadmap. Additionally, OP token holders had previously voted to allocate 50% of Superchain sequencer revenue for token buybacks.

According to official social media news, the decentralized contract trading platform SunX will hold a live stream today at 20:00 (UTC+8) titled "Gold and Silver Reach New Historical Highs | Is This a Flight to Safety or a New Round of Asset Pricing Reconstruction?" At that time, prominent crypto KOLs such as Big Brother, Xiao Zhi, Cong Ge, and Xihe will be invited to discuss the macro background of the recent historical highs in gold and silver prices, focusing on analyzing the risk-hedging logic behind the strength of precious metals, inflation expectations, and changes in liquidity. They will also further compare the pricing differences between gold, silver, and risk assets like Bitcoin in the current cycle.

Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital) founder Yi Lihua expressed on social media:"The community is confused. Trend Research is buying heavily, BMNR and MicroStrategy are buying, Zhao Changpeng is calling for a super bull market cycle, yet the coin prices remain weak and volatile. What is the reason for this? After all, the stock market and gold/silver are skyrocketing. We see several main reasons including:Four-year cycle and the 1011 crashYen interest rate hikesNo new purchases in the U.S. BTC strategic reservesShort sellers taking advantage of the current situation to drive prices downSafe-haven funds in gold, silver, and the stock marketHowever, analyzing from a contrarian perspective, at a time when so many bearish factors are present, ETH remains stable, oscillating around 3000. This is also the reason we decided to build positions after liquidating at 4500. Many people suggested we wait to buy, as there would be better entry points, but investment trading does not have a god's eye view; it is difficult to know what the lowest point will be. The difference between investment and speculation is that we find it hard to engage in short-term trading; even if we have significant unrealized gains, we remain inactive, setting our buy and sell strategies based on a medium to long-term timeline."

According to Cointelegraph, Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador stated that nearly 80% of crypto projects that suffered significant hacks never fully recover. The main reason is not the initial financial loss, but rather the collapse of operations and trust during the response process.Most protocols go into a state of paralysis the moment a vulnerability is exploited, leading to additional losses due to the lack of a predefined emergency plan. Data shows that crypto-related hacks will result in total losses of $3.4 billion in 2025, the highest level since 2022, with three incidents, including the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit, accounting for 69% of all losses as of early December.

According to The Block, U.S. Congress members Maxine Waters, Sean Casten, and Brad Sherman sent a letter on Thursday to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins, requesting an explanation for why the agency has paused multiple cryptocurrency enforcement cases, including the lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun.The lawmakers pointed out in the letter that since early 2025, the SEC has dismissed over a dozen crypto-related cases, including those against Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, coinciding with a surge in political donations from the industry, raising concerns about a "pay-to-play" scheme. The letter mentioned that crypto companies donated at least $85 million to President Trump's re-election campaign, and the companies whose cases were dismissed had each contributed at least $1 million to Trump's inauguration.They specifically highlighted the Justin Sun case, noting that it has been on hold for 11 months, signaling that enforcement may be selective and that political influence could affect accountability. The legislators also issued a separate document preservation request, asking the SEC to provide all communications related to the decision to pause the Justin Sun case.

According to Jin Ten, Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economic Strategist at Annex Wealth Management, stated that while some may view the inflation cooling report as "unreliable," ignoring it comes with risks. He pointed out that indicators such as rental costs and used car prices suggest that the sources of current inflation are different from those in the past. The Federal Reserve may consider rising unemployment and moderate inflation data as reasons to cut interest rates again.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have erased all gains for the year—this is a sharp turnaround for a market that witnessed Bitcoin soar to a historic high of $126,000 just two months ago. VCs point out that there are two main reasons behind this round of correction: the liquidation event on October 11 and an increasingly difficult macro environment.Rob Hadick, a general partner at Dragonfly, stated that this deleveraging event, triggered by low liquidity, poor risk management, and weak oracle or leverage mechanisms, has caused significant losses and brought about tremendous uncertainty.Boris Revsin, a general partner and managing director at Tribe Capital, shares the same view, calling it a "leverage wash" that has created a ripple effect throughout the market. Meanwhile, the macro environment has also become less friendly: expectations for short-term interest rate cuts have faded, inflation remains stubborn, the job market is weakening, geopolitical risks are rising, and consumer pressures are increasing. VCs note that this series of factors has led to weak performance in most risk assets over the past two months.Anirudh Pai, a partner at Robot Ventures, further emphasized concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy. Key growth indicators—including the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index and the 1-year inflation swap (a derivative used to hedge against inflation risk)—have begun to weaken. Pai noted that this pattern has also appeared before previous recession concerns, driving broader risk-averse sentiment.Dan Matuszewski, co-founder of CMS Holdings, stated that aside from tokens supported by buyback mechanisms, the crypto market has seen almost no "incremental capital inflow," except for DAT (Digital Asset Treasury) companies. With new demand drying up and ETF inflows no longer providing effective support, price declines have accelerated.

According to Jinshi, Federal Reserve Governor Waller stated that the Federal Reserve needs a more compelling reason than inflation being above the target for five consecutive years to decide against cutting interest rates.

According to Jinshi, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, stated that there are not many reasons to avoid lowering interest rates given the current economic situation.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi, a dozen leaders in the cryptocurrency industry met with leaders from both parties in the U.S. for nearly three hours on October 23, discussing the core issue of the cryptocurrency market structure bill, which aims to establish regulations for the industry. The bill was originally scheduled for review in late October but has been postponed due to the ongoing government shutdown. Participants in the meeting stated that lawmakers raised questions about illegal finance and decentralized finance during discussions with Democrats, while expressing support for the industry and the bill during talks with Republican lawmakers.

ChainCatcher news, OKX founder and CEO Star posted on the X platform, stating that the entire crypto industry should take some time to reflect on what the real cause of the global market crash is. Is it really just a tariff issue, or are there deeper structural problems at play?

ChainCatcher news, Binance co-founder He Yi posted on social media that due to significant market fluctuations in the past 16 hours and high user traffic, some users experienced issues with their trades.We sincerely apologize for this. If you have suffered losses due to Binance, please contact customer service to register, and we will review account activities one by one, analyze the situation, and provide appropriate compensation. However, losses caused by market fluctuations and unrealized profits are not eligible for compensation.The reason Binance is Binance is that we never shy away from problems. When issues arise, we take responsibility—no excuses or justifications. Binance is committed to serving every user to the best of our ability and properly handling the responsibilities we should bear. Currently, the market is highly volatile, so please be mindful of investment risks.