On Thursday, October 19, investors are being cautious in the cryptocurrency market as prices are mostly down. Despite this, major cryptocurrencies have seen gains this week. Bitcoin has been closely monitored by investors, reaching over $28,000 on Wednesday, October 18, but some analysts believe this may be due to fake news about a Bitcoin ETF approval.

After experiencing the most brutal year in its history last year, most cryptocurrencies have gradually recovered this year, but prices are still far below their historical highs. At the same time, data from AltIndex.com shows that the number of BTC ATMs worldwide has dropped by nearly 7,000 so far this year.

October 19th, the BitVol (Bitcoin volatility) index launched by financial index company T3 Index in collaboration with Bitcoin options trading platform LedgerX dropped to 43.78, a daily decline of 4.14%. BlockBeats Note: The BitVol index measures the 30-day expected implied volatility derived from tradable Bitcoin options prices. Implied volatility refers to the volatility implied by the actual option price.

According to data released by Santiment, the number of Bitcoin wallets holding at least 100 BTC has soared to 15,970 after setting the largest single-day increase in 2023 on Saturday. Since this accumulation, the price of BTC has risen by 5.3%, and these wallets may continue to accumulate.

Crypto custodian Copper.co has announced its integration with the Stacks blockchain, a network that allows for the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Through this integration, institutional clients can securely custody, trade, and utilize all existing and future SIP-010 tokens on the Stacks blockchain. In addition to the integration, Copper also announced as the first major custodian to support the anticipated Nakamoto upgrade and sBTC (a decentralized and 1:1 backed Bitcoin asset expected to launch on the Stacks layer in 2024).

CNBC article revealed more details about Jimmy Zhong, who was arrested last year for allegedly stealing over 50,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road market on the dark web. Zhong was ultimately charged with telecommunications fraud and had all of his bitcoins confiscated, and he was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. It is reported that 33-year-old Zhong began serving his sentence on July 14, 2023, at the Federal Prison in Montgomery, Alabama.

Lightning Labs, a developer of Bitcoin's second-layer infrastructure, has released the Taproot Assets protocol on the main network, supporting the issuance of stablecoins and other assets on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Ryan Gentry, the development director of Lightning Labs, wrote in a blog post that Taproot Assets will provide developers with the tools needed to make Bitcoin a multi-asset network, while maintaining the core value of Bitcoin in a scalable way. Gentry added that this release marks the arrival of a new era for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin financial services company Unchained has launched a consulting service for high net worth individuals aimed at addressing the lack of local registered investment advisors for Bitcoin. The service will provide a network of "Bitcoin-capable" financial planners to assist wealthy individuals in developing allocation and utilization strategies, as well as addressing potential tax and inheritance issues. 

Bitcoin's price briefly reached $29,000 on Wednesday, edging closer to the psychological level of $30,000. This rise in price is attributed to positive sentiment surrounding talks of a Bitcoin ETF in the market, particularly from institutional investors.

October 18th, according to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin's market share has risen to a new high since April 2021, currently reported at 49.31%; Ethereum's market share is currently reported at 16.72%; USDT's market share is currently reported at 7.43%. The current total market value of cryptocurrencies on the entire network is approximately 11.298 trillion US dollars, with a daily increase of 0.7%.