TL;DR
Major U.S. equity benchmarks ended the week mixed, with a strong Friday relief rally following a weaker-than-expected September jobs report partially offsetting earlier losses. For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.50% to close at 27,190.86, while the S&P 500 edged down 0.30% to 7,722.72 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.30% to 51,176.96.
Brent crude settled at US$106.446 per barrel, while WTI crude closed at US$93.680 per barrel, as the partial normalization of Persian Gulf shipping flows and late-week profit-taking eased some of the recent upside pressure on energy prices.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to an intraday high of 5.34% earlier in the week — its highest level since April 2002 — before retracing to approximately 5.24%–5.28% by the close, supported by renewed safe-haven demand late in the week.
September non-farm payrolls increased by 29,000, reinforcing signs of cooling U.S. labor market conditions and prompting markets to pare back expectations for further Federal Reserve tightening at the October meeting.
Spot gold (XAU/USD) closed at US$4,140.52 per ounce, remaining under pressure as elevated U.S. real yields continued to weigh on non-yielding assets.
ETF holdings increased by approximately 5,613 BTC and 1,304 ETH, led by IBIT (+5,795.7 BTC) and ETHA (+29,315.3 ETH), indicating continued institutional demand despite softer broader crypto market performance. Meanwhile, the top 30 crypto assets declined by an average of 0.5%, reflecting a modest altcoin retracement, with HBAR outperforming the broader market.
Kakao Pay and KakaoBank partnered with Fireblocks to develop stablecoin infrastructure, underscoring continued institutional adoption of blockchain-based payment and settlement rails.
The Bank of Korea launched a 24-hour KRW settlement pilot, marking a further step toward always-on financial infrastructure and real-time settlement capabilities.
Binance invests US$100M in Circle and expands USDC partnership.
Macro Overview
Equities Rally on Weak September Jobs Report as 10-Year Treasury Yields Touch 24-Year Highs
Global financial markets experienced intense volatility during the week ending October 2, 2026, driven by an aggressive bond market selloff early in the week followed by a dramatic late-week reversal catalyzed by crucial labor market data. Sovereign debt markets faced severe upward yield pressure as lingering inflation fears and heavy debt issuance pushed the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to an intraday high of 5.34% on Thursday — marking its highest level since 2002. Concurrently, the 30-year Treasury bond yield touched 5.68% intraday, reaching 24-year highs before paring gains as institutional buyers stepped in to lock in long-duration yields.
Macroeconomic sentiment shifted abruptly on Friday following the release of the September employment report by the Department of Labor. U.S. non-farm payrolls rose by just 29,000, falling well short of consensus expectations and prompting downward revisions to prior months, while the national unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%. While earlier data — such as S&P Global Flash PMI and robust earnings from semiconductor leaders like Micron Technology — had stoked overheating concerns, the soft jobs print offered the clearest signal to date that the Federal Reserve’s restrictive monetary policy is beginning to cool the labor market. Consequently, market-implied probabilities for an aggressive October rate hike receded, sparking a broad-based relief rally across risk assets.
U.S. equities recovered strongly on Friday, helping trim earlier weekly losses. For the full weekly session, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite outperformed, climbing 0.50% to close at 27,190.86, supported by robust AI semiconductor momentum. The S&P 500 dipped 0.30% to finish at 7,722.72, pulling within striking distance of its all-time highs. Meanwhile, cyclical and rate-sensitive industrial sectors lagged, leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.30% to settle at 51,176.96. (1)
Asset Class Highlights
U.S. Dollar Index (DXY)
U.S. Dollar Index (DXY)
The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) remained elevated near 101.90, sustained by multi-year highs in U.S. sovereign yields, though greenback gains softened slightly on Friday as rate-cut repricing reduced yield-differential momentum. (2)
U.S. Treasury Yields
U.S. Treasury Yields
Fixed-income markets experienced severe turbulence before closing mixed:
10-Year Treasury Yield: Touched a 24-year intraday high of 5.34% before settling near 5.24%–5.28% following late-week safe-haven demand.
30-Year Treasury Yield: Reached multi-decade highs near 5.68% intraday before retreating toward 5.63%. (3)
Gold
Gold
Spot Gold (XAU/USD): Finished at US$ 4,140.52 per ounce, weighed down by elevated global real yields earlier in the week. (4)
Crypto Markets Overview
Main Assets
ETH/BTC Ratio
BTC rose 2.4% over the past week, while ETH gained 1.5%. Spot BTC ETFs recorded net inflows of $241.1 million, whereas spot ETH ETFs saw net outflows of $138.1 million. (5)
Overall market sentiment remains firmly in the "Greed" zone, with the Fear & Greed Index holding at 70. (6)
Total Market Cap
Crypto Total Marketcap
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding BTC and ETH
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding Top 10 Dominance
Total crypto market capitalization rose 1.5%. However, market cap excluding BTC and ETH declined 0.4%, while the market cap excluding the top 10 assets fell 2.5%, indicating weaker breadth beyond the largest cryptocurrencies.
BTC/ETH ETF Performance
Over the past 7 days, IBIT recorded the largest increase, adding 5,795.7 BTC (+0.74%), followed by FBTC with inflows of 1,631.1 BTC (+0.93%). BITO saw the largest decline, shedding 728.5 BTC (-3.35%), while GBTC also recorded notable outflows of 685.6 BTC (-0.54%). Overall, the ETFs shown increased their BTC holdings by approximately 5,613 BTC, driven primarily by strong inflows into IBIT and FBTC. (7)
For ETH ETF, ETHA recorded the largest increase, adding 29,315.3 ETH (+0.84%), while FETH gained a further 6,224.0 ETH (+1.15%). ETHE saw the largest absolute decline, shedding 20,194.7 ETH (-2.69%); EZET posted the steepest percentage decrease, down 11.70% (2,621.8 ETH). Overall, the ETFs shown increased their Ethereum holdings by approximately 1,304 ETH, as inflows into ETHA and FETH more than offset broad-based outflows elsewhere. (8)
Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance
Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of 5th Oct 2026
Among the top 30 assets, prices declined 0.5% on average, HBAR led the gain.
Altcoins experienced a modest retracement last week, with most major assets, including Zcash and NEAR posting slight price declines.
The Key Crypto Highlights
Base completes Cobalt upgrade for tokenized-asset infrastructure
Base has activated its Cobalt upgrade, expanding the B20 token standard with issuer controls designed for tokenized financial products. The update enables configurable compliance checks, including KYC, accredited-investor verification and sanctions screening, alongside tools for corporate actions, such as stock splits, and authorized administrative transfers. It also introduces conditional "Validity Transactions," allowing transactions to execute only when specified onchain conditions are met. The upgrade strengthens Base’s push to position its network as infrastructure for tokenized finance. (9)
Singapore’s crypto economy reaches $284 billion on institutional activity
Singapore’s crypto economy grew 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, reclaiming its position as the largest market in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania, according to Chainalysis. Growth was driven primarily by institutional-platform activity, which rose 94% to $60 billion, while the wider regional crypto economy contracted 6.8%. The data reflects Singapore’s increasingly institutionalized digital-asset market, supported by tighter regulation and continued initiatives in tokenization, stablecoins and digital-asset settlement. (10)
South Korea proposes detailed tokenized-securities rules ahead of 2027 rollout
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has proposed regulations for issuing and trading tokenized securities, ahead of the country’s framework taking effect on February 4, 2027. The rules would permit stocks, bonds, funds and certain fractional investment products to be issued and circulated in tokenized form, while setting capital, compliance and technology requirements for issuers that manage client accounts. The proposal also introduces a new OTC license for debt securities and caps retail investors’ annual net purchases at 100 million won ($70,000) per OTC exchange. Public consultation runs through November 11, after which the measures will move into the approval process. (11)
Key Ventures Deals
Jeeves raises US$110M to scale its stablecoin-native banking platform
Jeeves raised 110 million in an equity financing led by CoinFund, with participation from AllianceBernstein, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, GIC, CRV, ParaFi, Wintermute and other investors. The company plans to use the capital to expand its stablecoin-native banking platform for global enterprises, including its proprietary stablecoin wallet, which supports payouts to 190 countries, alongside new AI spend-management and accounts-receivable tools. Jeeves said its stablecoin payment volume has reached an annualized US$1.5 billion within eight months, as it expands its stablecoin card and payment offering into 10 additional countries. (12)
PERPTools raises US$8M to build AI-native perpetual trading infrastructure
PERPTools, a perpetuals trading platform developed by the team behind DEXTools, raised US$8 million across two token rounds. The $3 million pre-seed round, led by DEXTools Ventures and Orderly Network, was completed at a US$30 million fully diluted valuation, while the US$5 million seed round valued the project at $80 million and included BigBrain Holdings, NEAR, Animoca Brands, Sfermion and Shima Capital. The funding will support PERPTools’ integration of AI-driven trading agents with Orderly’s omnichain liquidity infrastructure, enabling non-custodial perpetual trading without asset bridging. The platform has already processed US$240 million in beta volume and is targeting a token generation event in Q4 2026. (13)
Walapay raises US$4.6M seed round to expand cross-border payment infrastructure
Walapay raised US$4.6 million in a seed round led by Generative Ventures, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Polygon, Verda Ventures, NGC Ventures, FGV Capital, AAF, Jsquare, Knollwood, Big Brain Holdings and others. The company provides fintechs, payment service providers and financial institutions with a single API for multicurrency account issuance, collections, FX conversion and global payouts, supported by direct local payment-rail integrations across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Walapay will use the capital to expand its licensing footprint, deepen banking partnerships and grow its team; it currently processes US$2.5 billion in annualized payment volume across more than 180 countries and 60 currencies. (14)
Ventures Market Metrics
A total of 7 deals closed last week, led by infrastructure with 6 deals and Data having 1.
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 5th Oct 2026
Total disclosed funding reached $140.59M, with 2 deals not disclosing their funding amounts. Jeeves raised the largest round at $110M, while Infrastructure was the top-funded sector with $140.59M raised in total.
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 5th Oct 2026
Total weekly fundraising declined to $140.59M for the first week of Oct-2026, a decrease of 17% compared to the week prior.
About Gate Ventures
Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.
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Reference
https://www.jhinvestments.com/weekly-market-recap#market-moving-news
https://www.investing.com/rates-bonds/u.s.-10-year-bond-yield, https://www.investing.com/rates-bonds/u.s.-30-year-bond-yield
BTC & ETH ETF Inflow: https://sosovalue.com/tc/assets/etf/us-btc-spot
BTC Greed and Fear Index: https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index/
BTC ETF Top Gainer/Loser: https://www.coinglass.com/etf/bitcoin
ETH ETF Top Gainer/Loser: https://www.coinglass.com/etf/ethereum
Base completes Cobalt upgrade for tokenized-asset infrastructure: https://cointelegraph.com/news/base-cobalt-upgrade-tokenized-finance-b20-kyc
Singapore’s crypto economy reaches $284 billion on institutional activity: https://cointelegraph.com/news/singapore-crypto-economy-284b-institutional-activity-chainalysis
South Korea proposes detailed tokenized-securities rules ahead of 2027 rollout: https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-tokenized-securities-rules-2027?utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
Jeeves raises US$110M to scale its stablecoin-native banking platform: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-29/jeeves-raises-110-million-from-a16z-coinbase-for-crypto-push
PERPTools raises US$8M to build AI-native perpetual trading infrastructure: https://finbold.com/perptools-secures-8-million-to-develop-ai-native-perpetual-trading/
Walapay raises US$4.6M seed round to expand cross-border payment infrastructure: https://x.com/walapay_io/status/2105675240344789401
