Crypto markets head into the week of October 12–18 with Bitcoin trading near $83,000 and Ethereum around $2,500, while traders brace for a dense calendar of U.S. economic data, ETF flow updates, token unlocks, and industry events.
Institutional demand has cooled at the start of the week. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $21.1 million on October 9, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $22.4 million of that inflow. However, total flows over the previous five sessions remained negative by roughly $679 million. Spot Ether ETFs were weaker, losing $56.1 million on October 9—their ninth straight session of net outflows, totaling about $697 million across those nine days. Those outflows included $201.9 million on October 6 and $160.9 million on October 7, though net inflows since launch still stand near $13.3 billion.
The most anticipated macro event arrives Wednesday, October 14, with the release of U.S. September Consumer Price Index data. Headline annual inflation is expected near 3.7% in one estimate, while another survey points to 3.6% after the prior 3.4%. Core CPI is forecast around 2.5% annually and 0.2% monthly. The report is the last CPI print before the Federal Reserve’s October 28 decision, following the Fed’s September hike—the first since 2023. As of October 9, traders priced about a 19% chance of another rate increase. A hotter-than-expected reading could push Treasury yields higher, while softer inflation may reshape rate expectations.
Thursday brings the Producer Price Index, U.S. retail sales, initial jobless claims, and regional manufacturing data, alongside the Fed’s Beige Book. The IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings run October 12–18 in Bangkok, with the IMF releasing its updated World Economic Outlook on Tuesday. Energy prices, government debt, inflation, and Middle East tensions are expected to dominate discussions.
On the altcoin calendar, Aptos faces a supply event on October 12 with about 11.31 million APT scheduled for release. It also ends the four-year investor and contributor vesting cycle, and monthly releases are set to fall sharply afterward. Arbitrum follows midweek with roughly 92.65 million ARB worth between $17.5 million and $18.75 million set to unlock for investors, team members, contributors, and advisers. Filecoin’s six-year token vesting period for Filecoin Foundation and Protocol Labs ends on October 15, and new FIL supply is expected to decrease by approximately 75%.
Other notable unlocks include about 127 million STRK on Starknet, 55.56 million SEI, 618.3 million DBR on deBridge, and a large 1.17 billion CRO unlock on Cronos. Sonic Labs plans to burn about 32.69 million unclaimed S tokens, while SPACE ID performs snapshot operations for .g domains. In exchange-related news, Upbit will delist Ravencoin, and Thailand will implement crypto ETF regulations initially covering Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Deribit data shows about $1.25 billion in Bitcoin options open interest and $247.5 million in Ether options open interest tied to Friday’s expiry. Conferences include Paradigm Frontiers in San Francisco and EDCON 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, rounding out a week that could set the tone for crypto heading into the Fed’s late-October meeting.
