October proved to be a challenging month for the cryptocurrency market. Unexpected macroeconomic headwinds and escalations in the US-China trade war resulted in significant losses, despite traders anticipating a strong rally following the month's historically bullish performance. On October 10 alone, $19 billion in long positions were liquidated, marking the largest liquidation event in crypto history. However, rather than dwelling on past performance, savvy traders are now focusing on brighter prospects in November and December.
Several key factors suggest that the Q4 bull run may be approaching. This outlook is more than just speculation; the market is currently experiencing an unprecedented sequence of bullish drivers. Let's explore the reasons why a bull run might begin now and identify which projects could emerge as the best cryptocurrencies to buy. We will examine market dynamics, potential narratives arising from the current outlook, and areas where liquidity could have the greatest impact.
3 Reasons a November Bull Run is Close
The cryptocurrency industry may never have been in a more favorable position to attract liquidity from major financial players than it is right now. Here are three compelling reasons why this is the case and how it could lead to a historic bull run this November.
US Government Support
When the world's largest economy aims to establish itself as the "crypto capital of the world," it is generally unwise to bet against it. Currently, the United States is actively pursuing this goal. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessnet recently described Bitcoin as "more resilient than ever" in a tweet, suggesting that the US government should learn from the Bitcoin network, alluding to its ongoing partial shutdown.
Additionally, Trump has nominated Mike Selig to become the new Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Selig responded on X by underscoring his commitment to "help the President make the United States the Crypto Capital of the World." Such support not only dispels the legal uncertainties that crypto firms grappled with in previous cycles but actively encourages institutional players to get involved. This allows them to tokenize, trade, and build on-chain without fear of regulatory pushback. The US government is undergoing restructuring, and crypto proponents are being fast-tracked to top positions.
An End to Quantitative Tightening
Quantitative tightening (QT) is a monetary policy tool used by central banks to combat inflation by selling assets from their balance sheet, thereby slowing growth in asset prices. The Federal Reserve has been implementing QT since June 2022, but pledged to end it at October's FOMC meeting. This development is widely regarded as a major catalyst for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies, as it will result in less liquidity flowing into bonds, thereby allowing more capital to enter other markets like stocks, Bitcoin, and altcoins.
Altcoin ETFs
October was anticipated to be "ETF month" for the crypto market, with over a dozen application deadlines scheduled. However, the ongoing government shutdown has put many of these deadlines on hold until the situation is resolved in the coming weeks. Despite this, BitWise's spot Solana ETF managed to gain approval last week and has already seen $197 million in net inflows, reflecting strong institutional demand for altcoins.
As more ETF products gain approval in November, it could pave the way for billions of dollars to flow into the altcoin market, helping to fuel the crypto bull run. Other influences, such as improved diplomatic relations between the US and China, continued corporate demand for crypto, and the tokenization of real-world assets, further bolster these factors and create an explosive launchpad for price growth this month.
With that in mind, let's explore four cryptocurrencies that could be poised for the biggest gains as the bull run unfolds.
Bitcoin Hyper
Bitcoin Hyper is a Layer 2 blockchain designed to address Bitcoin's most pressing issues of slow transaction speeds and limited functionality. Currently, the fastest Bitcoin Layer 2 is Rootstock, which can process 300 transactions per second (TPS). While impressive, it doesn't come close to the performance of the fastest blockchains. Bitcoin Hyper, a Bitcoin scaling solution, runs on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), thereby inheriting Solana's scalability to support thousands of TPS.
Additionally, Bitcoin Hyper will support smart contracts, opening the door to decentralized finance (DeFi), meme coins, tokenization, and much more. As Bitcoin continues to gain global recognition for its robust infrastructure, Bitcoin Hyper could establish itself as a next-generation hub for more advanced operations.
Adding to the excitement, HYPER is currently in a presale and has already raised $25.5 million so far. This fundraising success demonstrates a strong market appetite, but it still leaves ample room for growth, given its vision to unlock new possibilities for Bitcoin.
Ondo
Traditional finance (TradFi) players are increasingly dominating the crypto space. Investors are closely watching ETF flows, regulatory developments, and central bank policies to gain insights into the market's next moves, with retail interest playing a much smaller role this cycle. This means that those who can effectively anticipate where institutional capital will flow next stand to gain disproportionately.
One project making significant strides in the institutional arena is Ondo, an Ethereum-based protocol that enables the tokenization of real-world assets such as U.S. Treasuries and stocks. The protocol has over $300 million in total value locked (TVL), demonstrating strong adoption.
Moreover, Ondo announced a partnership with Chainlink last week to enable financial institutions to access on-chain capital markets. Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov hailed Ondo as "the future of our industry," reflecting the high regard that the leader of one of the top cryptocurrencies holds for this project.
PEPENODE
While narratives centered around institutions have largely dominated recent headlines, plenty of lucrative opportunities remain in the retail space. Pippin has surged by more than 80% over the last week, and several Pepe-themed meme coins, such as PepeCoin and Apustaja, are showing positive performance even as the broader market struggles. Yet, the Pepe-themed meme coin showing the most potential is PEPENODE, which is building the world's first "Mine-to-Earn" ecosystem. Its setup blends meme culture with Play-to-Earn dynamics, while also incorporating deflationary mechanisms.
Here's how it works: Users begin with a virtual mining rig and must spend PEPENODE tokens to buy and upgrade Miner Nodes, which generate power. The more power they generate, the more PEPENODE tokens they earn. Furthermore, 70% of PEPENODE tokens spent in the store will be burned, creating deflationary pressure that could fuel price growth.
PEPENODE is currently in a presale and has already raised over $2 million, demonstrating strong investor interest. But with a use case at the intersection of Pepe and Play-to-Earn, the project has the potential to rally far higher as the bull market advances.
Virtuals Protocol
Virtuals Protocol is another project that has recently experienced major growth, soaring 47% over the past week. It is an AI agent launchpad on the Solana and Base networks, allowing anyone to deploy an agent with just a few lines of code. It functions similarly to Pump.fun but focuses on agentic technology rather than memes.
Its price surge follows an integration with Coinbase, in which Virtuals' AI agents will be embedded in Coinbase's Retail DEX. This setup could fuel fresh liquidity flows into the Virtuals ecosystem, boosting the prospects for both agent tokens and VIRTUALS. More importantly, this integration signals that Virtuals Protocol is aligned with a publicly-listed company and one of the biggest players in the space. Currently, the VIRTUALS token is valued at $1.1 billion, leaving considerable upside should this new partnership fuel adoption.