After raucous weekend, Bitcoin naps

The U.S. election and Covid-19 are dominating headlines. Otherwise, Bitcoin’s rally would be a bigger story. At the same time, in financial media, BTC's run has obscured the DeFi narrative, which is losing some steam. Otherwise, the Chainlink rally would be massive crypto news. LINK turned in an up-20% October even after a difficult past seven days.

October hasn't been great for DeFi. Data from DeFi Pulse shows that the total value locked in protocols ended October lower than what had been locked as of the start of the month. That's the first decline in capitalization since DeFi caught fire this past summer.

As more investors focus on rising BTC prices, the largest crypto’s relationship with DeFi applications could come under more scrutiny i.e. BTC increasingly being wrapped and used as collateral on the Ethereum network (Bloomberg).

Bitcoin fell 2% in less than an hour earlier today. By 8:30 a.m. (EST) BTC was trading right around $13,350.

The sharp decline comes as the book on October closed with BTC having notched a 28% monthly return, the highest single-month increase since April.

On October 31, the 12th anniversary of the release of the Bitcoin white paper, BTC momentarily surpassed $14,000, a milestone not seen since January of 2018. As the cold winds of November blew in, BTC bulls froze up and their uphill charge fell short. Still, an all-time high monthly close, $13,820, had been attained.

And that matters, as trader Peter Brandt said, because financial institutions vigorously appraise holdings at the end of each month and position themselves ahead accordingly.

Electric vehicle startup Fisker has soared since it went public last week in a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal, structured as a reverse merger with Spartan Energy Acquisition (SPAQ).

Electric truck manufacturer Lordstown Motors also rallied after its recent debut in the public markets which was achieved, likewise, via a reverse merger with a SPAC, or "blank-check" company, DiamondPeak Holdings Corp.

Leading the way, Nikola and Hyliion Holdings. They both went from EV startup to spectacular SPAC deal target.

Nearly $60 billion has been raised across 160 SPAC deals in 2020, according to SPACInsider.com.

SPACs have become the new IPO, which are viewed as too cumbersome for companies looking to move fast – while the feeding is frenzied.

Perhaps if/when the wheels ever come off merged SPAC/EV entities, there will rise up a new form of public offering, say, General Purpose Initial Coin Offerings i.e. ICOs that widen their scope beyond some form of crypto-related enterprise.

Crypto markets today will be closely analyzing the implications of tomorrow's U.S. presidential election with an eye toward figuring out how possible administrations will treat digital assets. Also to be weighed, public health and economic policies and their implications.

Choose your own adventure. Bitcoin has been tricky to pin down in terms of how it gets impacted by macro conditions. Stronger/weaker dollar scenarios could be read a few ways, across time horizons, with short-range and longer-term opportunities unfurling in mysterious tandem. Most analysts agree more rapid than expected inflation is a possibility, and that could create a boom in safe havens such as gold, and possibly BTC, regardless of who gets elected.