DePIN Pioneers Helium and Filecoin Face Critical Challenges Amid Market Fears

The cryptocurrency market has recently experienced a significant recovery, bouncing back from a sharp decline that wiped out approximately $900 billion in value. This downturn was triggered by President Trump's threat of imposing 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, which led to Bitcoin plummeting to near $100,000 and resulted in around $7 billion in liquidations within just an hour. However, macro investor Raoul Pal described this event as a typical "flash crash," which often clears excess leverage from the market and sets the stage for a subsequent rally. As of now, Bitcoin has rebounded to over $115,000, while Ethereum has also regained its position above $4,100. Among the cryptocurrencies benefiting from this recovery are Mantle (MNT) and Bittensor (TAO). Mantle has surged by 31% in the past day, reaching $2.20, with trading volumes increasing by 117% to over $1.1 billion. The project has seen a significant rise in on-chain activity, with active addresses doubling last week, driven by demand for staking and bridge inflows. Meanwhile, Bittensor has climbed 33% to around $420, bolstered by Grayscale's filing for a Bittensor Trust and a $10 million investment from DCG. Both projects are at the forefront of the decentralized AI narrative, attracting renewed investor interest. As the market shifts towards altcoin rotation, several projects are emerging as potential beneficiaries of the ongoing bullish conditions. Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) aims to address Bitcoin's scalability issues with a Layer-2 network utilizing zk-rollups, while Synthetix (SNX) is making a comeback with its Perps V3 launch, allowing users to trade synthetic assets. Additionally, Best Wallet Token (BEST) is gaining traction with its non-custodial wallet that supports over 60 blockchains, offering unique features like no seed phrases and high staking yields. These projects are worth watching as they align with the current trends in the crypto market.

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a significant rebound today, following last week's historic crash triggered by President Trump's unexpected 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, which led to nearly $19 billion in liquidations. Bitcoin is leading the recovery, climbing over 3% to approach $115,000, while other major tokens like Ethereum are seeing gains between 10% to 20%. This positive shift comes as traders begin to buy the dip, indicating a belief that the worst of the trade war tensions may be behind us. A key factor behind today's surge is President Trump's calming message, where he reassured investors with a post stating, "Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!" This softer tone toward China has eased global fears and reignited optimism among investors. Additionally, institutional demand is playing a crucial role in the market's recovery. Grayscale's recent filing to launch a Bittensor (TAO) Trust aims to attract large investors into AI-linked crypto assets, while Morgan Stanley's expansion of Bitcoin access for its wealth clients marks a significant step towards mainstream adoption. Moreover, Bitcoin ETFs continue to be a bullish force in the market. BlackRock's IBIT ETF has now surpassed the $90 billion mark in assets under management, reflecting strong institutional inflows despite recent volatility. Altcoins are also bouncing back, with Ethereum trading above $4,130 and other cryptocurrencies like XRP, Solana, BNB, and Dogecoin seeing gains between 10% and 20%. Traders are optimistic as technical indicators suggest a market reversal, supported by on-chain data showing increased whale accumulation and a reduction in negative funding rates, indicating potential for further upside in the coming days.

IoTeX has recently announced a token buyback program and new liquidity partnerships in response to a market maker incident that temporarily disrupted trading and caused its price to plummet to near-zero on Binance. In a post on October 13, IoTeX clarified that the 'zero price' event, which occurred on October 10-11, 2025, was due to a malfunction of a third-party market maker and not a protocol exploit. Importantly, the network's core services, including the ioPay wallet, ioTube bridge, and DePINscan, remained fully operational, ensuring that no user funds were affected during the incident. The team explained that the issue was a user interface display problem rather than an actual market crash. Binance confirmed that the displayed '0.0000' IOTX price was a result of reduced decimal precision on certain trading pairs combined with extreme volatility that triggered long-standing limit orders. Throughout the market-wide sell-off, Binance's spot and futures engines operated normally, and the exchange compensated users affected by de-pegging or delayed redemptions within 24 hours, amounting to approximately $283 million across various assets. In light of the situation, IoTeX is collaborating with centralized exchanges and market-making partners to enhance liquidity and prevent future disruptions. To restore confidence among long-term holders, the foundation has initiated token buybacks and community reward programs. Following the incident, IOTX experienced a decline of about 15-20%, dropping from $0.015 to $0.0125, amidst a broader market downturn. However, trading volume surged past $24 million within 24 hours, and the token stabilized around $0.013 by October 13. The community's initial caution was alleviated by IoTeX's transparency and prompt communication, which helped restore trust among users as they praised the team's swift actions.

Akash, a decentralized compute project founded by Greg Osuri, has announced plans to deprecate its current Cosmos SDK-based chain and migrate to a new network that can better secure its operations. This decision marks the beginning of a public evaluation process for potential candidates both within and outside the Cosmos ecosystem. While the specific destination chain has not yet been disclosed, Osuri emphasized the importance of strong security, a vibrant community, deep liquidity, and growth potential in selecting the new home for Akash, which will maintain IBC compatibility. Originally launched as a Cosmos appchain, Akash operates a decentralized marketplace that connects AI and cloud buyers with independent providers of GPU and compute capacity. The recent Mainnet 6 upgrade introduced Nvidia GPUs, allowing users to benefit from lower costs compared to traditional centralized cloud services. Osuri also reassured users regarding staking concerns, indicating that while staking may appear to be disappearing, it is actually evolving into a more advanced model. He mentioned that Solana is a strong contender for Akash's new network, but the team will be cautious in making their final decision. This shift to a new base-layer represents a significant architectural change for a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN). Osuri's criteria for the migration reflect a broader search for scalable solutions as demand for AI compute rises. The Block's data indicates that DePIN is becoming a multi-billion-dollar asset class, with web3 cloud and AI compute identified as leading segments. However, challenges such as hardware access, network scalability, and regulatory uncertainties remain. The Akash team has not set a timeline for the migration, but they plan to engage the community in an open discussion about the trade-offs involved in the decision-making process.

In the wake of escalating trade tensions, the cryptocurrency market has experienced significant fluctuations, with a notable sell-off occurring recently. The total market capitalization plummeted from $4.14 trillion on October 10 to $3.65 trillion by October 12. However, the market has shown signs of recovery, rebounding to approximately $3.92 trillion as of now. Bitcoin (BTC) has played a crucial role in this recovery, climbing back to over $116,000 after dropping more than 16% during the sell-off. Ethereum (ETH) also saw a rebound, currently trading at $4,242 after a significant drop earlier in the week. Leading the charge in today's recovery are Mantle (MNT) and Bittensor (TAO), both of which have surged around 30% in the past 24 hours. The sharp sell-off created dip-buying opportunities, prompting buyers to seize the moment. MNT, which had fallen to a low of $1.20, has managed to recover above the $2 mark, indicating that the uptrend remains intact despite the recent volatility. Local support for MNT is now established around the $1.90–$2.00 zone, while immediate resistance is seen at $2.50. On the other hand, TAO faced a more severe decline, crashing to an intraday low of $140 before bouncing back to around $420. This recovery has brought TAO closer to testing its descending trendline resistance near $430. A successful daily close above this trendline could signal further upward movement, potentially reaching $460 and beyond. The current market dynamics highlight the resilience of certain cryptocurrencies amid broader economic uncertainties, showcasing the ongoing volatility and opportunities within the crypto space.

The Bittensor TAO price is currently experiencing a pivotal moment, suggesting a potential bullish trend that could shape its long-term trajectory. After enduring weeks of consolidation and volatility, TAO has recently attempted to break out of a descending triangle pattern on the weekly price chart. This week's price movements are particularly crucial, as TAO's effort to surpass the upper boundary of the triangle indicates a resurgence of momentum. However, the sustainability of this breakout will depend on whether TAO can maintain its position above this critical level by the end of the week. If successful, short-term targets around $470 seem attainable, while long-term forecasts suggest a price of $770 or more by the quarter's conclusion. The recent market turmoil, characterized by a significant liquidation event, has set the stage for TAO's recovery. The market experienced a dramatic shakeout, leading to the liquidation of numerous long positions across exchanges, resulting in millions lost in leveraged trades within a single day. Retail traders who had stop orders above $250 faced substantial losses, while more disciplined long-term holders managed to weather the storm by keeping their stops below $240. Interestingly, this capitulation phase may have inadvertently benefited TAO, as the market quickly absorbed the sell-off, indicating robust institutional demand. Following this, TAO rebounded impressively from a low of $245 to a peak of $429 within days. A significant catalyst for this recovery was Grayscale's announcement regarding its new Bittensor Trust ($TAO) filing with the SEC. This filing represents a crucial step towards making TAO an SEC-reporting asset, enhancing its transparency and institutional credibility. Grayscale plans to facilitate public over-the-counter (OTC) trading of TAO, reducing the private placement holding period from 12 months to just six. This move not only improves liquidity but also brings TAO closer to being an exchange-traded product (ETP). The timing of this announcement coincided with TAO's technical recovery, boosting market confidence and contributing to a 45% intraday price surge, bringing the current market cap to $4.17 billion with a trading volume exceeding $582 million. As the price chart holds above the breakout level, the path to $470 appears increasingly likely, with all eyes now on TAO's ability to maintain this momentum and transform the technical breakout into a sustained rally.