A few days ago, Trump's tweets caused major chaos on the crypto market, evaporating billions of dollars from the market. On October 10, 2025, Trump announced a dramatic trade policy with 100% tariffs on Chinese tech exports and new export controls on critical software. Even though the trigger was non-crypto news, the crypto market responded violently with large price swings all over markets, creating one of the biggest blood baths for digital currencies. Over 1.6 million trader accounts were liquidated in this move, and over $19 billion was evaporated as a result, most of which were long positions in perpetual futures and other crypto markets. This event made traditional “Uptober” into a most dramatic bearish month. However, we still have some meme coins and other major crypto projects that showed large gains this month. Below, we break winners, losers, and major news of October that shaped the whole month’s crypto landscape. Top 5 Gainers Crypto expert trader Emil from WildRoll.com: “October 2025 was one of the most volatile months for crypto markets, a month with unexpected losses and rebounds. The event once again showed us that headline risk and macro-policy risk are now first-order for crypto. High leverage coupled with fast news can quickly turn markets into rollercoasters, making risk management critical. Despite all the bearish sentiment, we still got some winners, giving us hope for the future of crypto markets.” The top gainers in October 2025 were Zcash (ZEC) 347%, Humanity Protocol (H) 288%, Dash (DASH) 95%, Monero (XMR) 9.8%, and BNB (BNB) 8.5%. There were a few memecoins showing gains in multiple digits, but these coins are usually highly speculative, rising and falling at a moment’s notice; hence, our focus on dominant projects that are shaping the landscape of the whole crypto world. From the top 5 gainers this month, only BNB is among the top-10 cryptos by market capitalization (4th). This month was notable for the growing popularity of privacy coins. Crypto investors were scared away due to a major liquidation event, and the overall faith in crypto suffered a lot, but some prominent projects still gained traction among crypto enthusiasts who focus on long-term viability, rather than short-term price fluctuations. Zcash (ZEC) 347% This decentralized currency, focused on anonymity and privacy, showed exemplary resilience this month. Its shield supply reached 4.5M, triggering a massive rally. As a result, the price reached 376 USD per coin, rallying from just 66 dollars. Zcash is anonymous due to the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proof algorithm, meaning the nodes on the network verify transactions without disclosing any sensitive information about those transactions. Unlike BTC and many other decentralized currencies, ZEC transactions do not reveal sending and receiving addresses or the amount being sent, making it perfect for anonymous transactions, which regulators do not love. Zcash allows two types of addresses: transparent (t-addresses) and shielded addresses (z-addresses) using zero-knowledge zk-SNARK proofs. Shielded supply is just a portion of the ZEC token supply that has been moved into the shielded pool (into those addresses), and it is much harder to track on-chain. In other words, more coins in shielded supply means fewer coins are visibly circulating in transparent form, strengthening the core privacy value-proposition of Zcash. Since fewer coins are available for trading, the scarcity increases and price naturally moves higher, and coupled with a narrative shift around privacy resurgence, we get an incredible price spike in just 30 days. Rising regulatory pressure, together with large crypto liquidation for retail traders, resulted in more interest in truly private tokens. Humanity Protocol (H) 288% Humanity Protocol (H) is a rival to the Worldcoin project. H is a privacy-first blockchain identity network, which debuted with a reported valuation of $1.1B, which is a serious number for a newly launched crypto project. The project aims to connect Web2 credentials (like airline loyalty status, educational/career credentials) with Web3 identity services while preserving privacy — using an algorithm called “zkTLS”, enabling users to prove claims without revealing the underlying documents. Humanity Protocol avoids saving sensitive data in a centralized manner, which gives it an advantage over other projects with a similar identity focus. The main reason for its price to surge by 288% was the launch of the project’s mainnet, which triggered a buying frenzy, driving the price from 0.07 to 0.26 USD in the last 30 days. Two main price spikes occurred on 13 and 24 October, and the coin has been trading near the 0.26 price mark ever since. The fact that the project supports airline/loyalty/professional credentials gives it a real-world value, and it might be used for real-world applications in the near future, which makes the token very promising. The narrative around this coin is also very strong as it is focused on privacy, identity, the Web2 to Web3 bridge, making it among the privacy-focused tokens list, a crypto sector that gained traction in October. Dash (DASH) 95% Dash experienced a whopping 95% increase in the last 30 days. It is a fork of Bitcoin, designed for fast, low-cost digital payments. The coin enables very fast transaction confirmations and comes with optional privacy support. A portion of the block reward goes to development and community via decentralized governance, which supports ongoing ecosystem growth. Dash teamed up with Nym for private NymVPN payments; its privacy support, coupled with strong trading volume supported by privacy coin surge, enabled Dash to grow in price rapidly. Dash surged from around 20 USD in late September to over $50-60 in mid-October and was trading near 43 dollars at the end of this month. This is mainly caused by investors locking in a portion of their profits, which caused a price to rebound, but it is now testing the $40 zone, which is a strong support. Monero (XMR) 9.8% As privacy coins gain more attention from the crypto community, the next obvious privacy project is, of course, Monero. It experienced a mild price growth for crypto standards, but still, it is a robust price growth. The project was launched in 2014 with a simple goal to make fully private transactions possible. Unlike BTC, Monero’s transactions are not traceable, meaning there is no way to reveal who is behind any of the payments, and the algorithm also hides the amount sent or received. As a result, regulators banned it in many countries, and many large CEXs were forced to end support for this project, which made its price tank. However, the recent trend of privacy coins and various factors made XMR’s price jump by almost 10%. Monero employs ring signatures and stealth addresses, making transactions truly untraceable. As a result, XMR is the choice for users who prioritize strong privacy. Monero was integrated with THORChain, which enhanced its DeFi usability and boosted its liquidity, enabling more traders to expose themselves to XMR. The project’s latest update, called Fluorine Fermi, strengthened network security and blocked spy node activities, making it even more confidential. BNB (BNB) 8.5% BNB, as the native token of the Binance ecosystem, was usually used for fees on the Binance exchange, but now it serves a much broader use. The main use still lies in gas fees and transaction commissions. It also participates in governance and ecosystem initiatives and has a deflationary token model, meaning it regularly undergoes token burn events, reducing circulation supply and boosting its price. BNB saw several upticks in usability as tokenized US stocks were introduced to the BNB chain by Ondo Global Markets, which is a platform developed by Ondo Finance that enables the tokenization of real‑world assets (RWAs). This expansion to tokenized stocks and ETFs makes BNB even more crucial and necessary to trade those tokens. The project partnered with AEON, integrating AI for secure payments. BNB Foundation conducted its 33rd token burn, which is a quarterly event, making BNB supply even more scarce. Coupled with AI and tokenized stocks and we have all the fuel needed to propel BNB to new heights. Top 5 losers Among this month’s losers, Optimism (OP) -38%, Avalanche (AVAX) -36%, Worldcoin (WLD) -34%, Internet Computer (ICP) -30%, and Kaspa (KAS) -29% were losing their value. There were more losers than winners this October, and we struggled to select the top 5. Optimism (OP) -38% The optimism chart was looking pessimistic in the 2nd half of the month. The crypto lost some 38% of its value, which is a serious decline. However, in the crypto world, this is not the most romantic price fall. OP is a native token of the Optimism Superchain, which is an Ethereum Layer-2 solution that helps Ethereum scale, reduce fees, and process more transactions, basically trying to answer Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum trilemma. The token is used for governance, staking, and ecosystem incentives. The main driving force behind the OP’s fall is rather banal: there was a token unlock event where 166 million tokens went into circulation, inflating the price. As a result, investors tried to stop their losses by selling it, pressing the token’s bearish momentum even further. Token unlocks usually cause prices to fall, and Optimism was no exception from this universal rule. Add to this the unwind of leveraged positions and recent crypto bloodbath, and we see why OP nearly halved in price. There were a few fundamentals and events that supported the project’s price, which was not enough to push its price higher. Avalanche (AVAX) -36% Avalanche’s price fell like an avalanche this month, which is clearly visible on its price chart. It started the month strong at 28 dollars and fell all the way down to 18s, and is not showing a sign of slowing down, so its price might be even lower as you read this analysis. Avalanche is a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain platform designed for high throughput and scalable smart contract execution. Its native token is AVAX, and it is used for various purposes like staking, paying fees, and governance. Avalanche (AVAX) is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, meaning staking is central to its security. AVAX wasn’t the direct target but got caught in the wave. AVAX tokens were sold by large whales, which strengthened the downward move, and the lack of a short-term catalyst, despite strong fundamentals, drove its price to the current level. Avalanche’s strong fundamentals include its status as a leader in real-world asset tokenization, and it supports a multi-token platform launch (TIS Inc.). The project also enables a Japanese yen stablecoin, and it has very strong fundamentals, making us believe this price drop is short-term and that the project has a bright future despite these minor drawbacks. Worldcoin (WLD) -34% Worldcoin (WLD) is a digital identity and crypto project co-founded by OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. The main aim is to give every person a verified digital ID (“World ID”) using iris scans via a device called the Orb. In other words, you need a physical object to scan your iris and get access to coins and a digital identity. As a result, it is not flexible and not available everywhere around the globe. This scan proves that the user is real and not a robot, without revealing personal details. Once verified, users receive WLD tokens as rewards and can use them in their Wold ID for identity checks across apps. The fall of Worldcoin or WLD’s price was not a surprise as its major competitor, Humanity Protocol, launched the mainnet valued at around 1 billion dollars. As a result, investors' attention was shifted from Worldcoin to H token acquisition, not to miss the rally. WLD lost its central stage due to Humanity Protocol’s promises of offering Web2-to-Web3 identity without iris scans or centralized data storage, which was appreciated by crypto enthusiasts and investors. The confidence in Worldcoin’s controversial biometric model was lost, and privacy concerns were raised among users and regulators alike. Internet Computer (ICP) -30% Internet Computer or ICP is a Layer-1 blockchain network developed by the DFINITY Foundation, and it has a goal to run full-scale web apps and smart contracts directly on-chain, without relying on cloud servers like traditional apps. The ICP token is used for governance, staking, and computing power (gas fees) on the network. Internet Computer (ICP) uses a Proof-of-Stake–based model. In simple words, ICP wants to be a blockchain-based alternative to the Internet’s cloud infrastructure. Pepe (PEPE) -28% Pepe’s decline is a classical case of a meme coin. Its price suffered due to technical levels, whales selling the token, and waning investor interest. However, one of the biggest factors was the hacking of its X account. Frog-themed memecoin PEPE is very popular among the crypto community. It was launched on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-20) and trades like many community-driven high-volatility tokens. The massive crypto liquidation took away investors’ interests from memecins as they focused on crypto projects that offer real-world value and use cases. Since the fundamentals of the paper are only its community and meme trends, its price suffers from volatility, being sensitive to any significant crypto event. The bottom line In the end, October 2025 was one of the most volatile months in recent crypto history. Trump’s posts on X app caused massive shock, evaporating billions of dollars from leveraged crypto perpetual futures and turning Uptober into a bloodbath. Despite the chaos, several projects with real-world use cases gained traction and attention from investors, especially privacy-driven projects like Zcash, Humanity Protocol, and Dash. memecoins and high-risk tokens were hit the hardest. The main lesson from October is clear: headline risk, macro-policy events, and leverage remain serious market forces, requiring utmost attention from crypto investors and careful risk management. Investors should manage their crypto portfolios very carefully, especially leveraged positions, as volatility still remains as one of the main forces in crypto markets.