Crypto Currents: Markets eye Fed, China trade talks

Markets are preparing for a turbulent week, as a pivotal Federal Reserve rate decision and high-stakes trade talks between the United States and China top investors’ watchlists. Meanwhile, enterprise adoption continues as Western Union pilots stablecoin settlements, and in a clash of tech giants, AI models from Alibaba and Google are going head-to-head in a live crypto trading contest. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the “Crypto Fly By” weekly recap.

VOLATILE WEEK AHEAD: The crypto market is bracing for one of its most consequential weeks in months, with market direction set to hinge on major political and macroeconomic events. According to Coindoo, the spotlight is on high-level trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. A positive outcome could strengthen risk appetite, while a breakdown could spark volatility. Monetary policy will also dominate, with the Federal Reserve widely expected to deliver a 25-basis-point rate cut on Wednesday. Investors will also be watching for the SEC’s final decision on a spot ether (ETH-USD) ETF with staking, expected Thursday. The week will be rounded out by earnings from Coinbase (COIN) on Friday night, which will give investors a snapshot of trading activity during the recent market rebound.

BITCOIN RALLIES ON TRADE TRUCE HOPES: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) recovered to briefly reach a two-week high of more than $116,400 on Monday, driven by expectations of a temporary figurative ceasefire in the U.S.-China trade war. According to a report from Cointelegraph, sentiment recovered after reports emerged of a “prelimin­ary” framework for an import tariff deal. President Trump added to the optimism, stating he believes the two nations will “come away with the deal” after Thursday’s meeting, according to a CNBC report. A sign of de-escalation helped bitcoin recover above a key technical level for the first time since Trump’s renewed tariff threats in early October caused a $19B crypto market crash.

ETP INFLOWS DRIVEN BY RATE CUT OPTIMISM: Global crypto investment products saw net inflows of $921M last week, a significant bounce back from the prior week’s $513M in outflows, according to data from CoinShares. The inflows were dominated by U.S.-based products from asset managers like BlackRock (BLK), which added $843M. CoinShares’ Head of Research noted that lower-than-expected CPI data restored confidence that further rate cuts are likely this year. Bitcoin-based products led the way, adding $931M, while ether products saw their first net outflows in five weeks, totaling $169M. Flows into existing XRP (XRP-USD) and solana (SOL-USD) ETPs cooled to $84.3M and $29.4M, respectively.

WESTERN UNION PILOTS STABLECOIN SETTLEMENTS: Remittance giant Western Union (WU) is reportedly hard at work testing a stablecoin-based settlement system in an effort to modernize its treasury operations and cross-border money movement, Cryptonews reports. Speaking on the recent earnings call, CEO Devin McGranahan stated the stablecoin solutions would allow the firm to “reduce dependency on legacy correspondent banking systems” and “improve capital efficiency”. The move comes in reaction to the GENIUS Act passing, which seems to have spurred traditional financial institutions into considering the use of digital assets. Western Union is also looking to form partnerships that will facilitate the creation of on-ramps and off-ramps for digital assets. The pilot sees Western Union joining competitors such as MoneyGram and PayPal (PYPL), which have already launched their respective stablecoin initiatives. Reports indicate other traditional players, such as Mastercard (MA), have also expressed interest in the use of stablecoins for settlement.

CHINESE AI MODELS BEAT GOOGLE IN TRADING CONTEST: Two Chinese artificial intelligence models, DeepSeek and Qwen from Alibaba (BABA), have taken the lead in a live cryptocurrency trading competition, recording triple-digit gains in less than two weeks. Cryptonews reports that DeepSeek has so far turned its $10,000 in capital into $22,900 for a 126% gain. Alibaba’s Qwen 3 Max is close behind with a 108% return. In sharp contrast, its Western counterparts badly trail behind, with OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Google’s (GOOGL) DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro both posting near 60% losses. The “Alpha Arena” challenge, run by research firm Nof1, puts the artificial intelligence models up against one another trading major assets like bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin (DOGE-USD).

SHARPLINK GAMING EXPANDS ETHER TREASURY: SharpLink Gaming (SBET) has substantially expanded its stash of digital assets with the purchase of an additional 19,271 ether for $78.3M, according to on-chain data. The purchase, after a month of quiet, extends the sports gaming technology firm’s total holdings to almost 860,000 ETH. At the current prices, the company’s ether treasury is valued at more than $3.6B.

CLEARBANK PARTNERS WITH CIRCLE: United Kingdom-based ClearBank has inked a strategic partnership with Circle (CRCL), the issuer of USDC and EURC, to scale access to the stablecoins in the European market. In this regard, Cointelegraph points out that ClearBank also intends to join the Circle Payments Network. The move comes weeks after German securities marketplace Deutsche Börse (DBOEY) listed Circle’s stablecoins.

MT. GOX REPAYMENT DELAYED TO 2026: Creditors of the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox will have to wait much longer for repayment. The court-appointed rehabilitation trustee has extended the repayment deadline to October 31, 2026. The delay was granted by a Tokyo court due to the fact that many creditors “have not completed the necessary procedures” required to receive their funds. The trustee still holds around 34,689 BTC, close to $4B at the current prices.

OTHER INDUSTRY NEWS: Canada is reportedly accelerating its work on stablecoin regulations, and may announce an update in its November 4 budget, according to Bloomberg. It marks the country’s push to keep pace with the “GENIUS Act” in the U.S. The x402 token ecosystem, originally developed by Coinbase, saw its market cap surge over $800M after Pieverse launched a new protocol for the BNB Chain, home of the native BNB token (BNB-USD), Cryptonews reports. The price of BNB rose over 3% after the BNB Foundation completed its largest-ever quarterly token burn in U.S. dollar terms, destroying $1.69B worth of tokens, CoinDesk reports.

PRICE ACTION: As of this writing, bitcoin was trading at approximately $115,023.93 and ether was trading near $4,166.71, according to price data from CoinDesk.