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Crypto 28 OCT 2026 · 13:10 ET

Crypto Market Slides 2.8% as Bitcoin Stalls Near $80K, Small-Cap Tokens Post Wild Swings

While Bitcoin barely budged, obscure altcoins like Initia and Quack AI more than doubled search interest with 20%-plus price surges, showing just how much volatility is hiding beneath a flat-looking market.

Reporting by LoopWire
Crypto Market Slides 2.8% as Bitcoin Stalls Near $80K, Small-Cap Tokens Post Wild Swings

The total crypto market capitalization fell 2.77% over the past 24 hours to $2.71 trillion, with $60.5 billion in trading volume changing hands across the sector. Bitcoin, which commands 59.44% of total market share, traded at $80,444.40, down a modest 0.06% on the day — a sign that the broader selloff is concentrated outside the largest asset. Ethereum's dominance sat at 10.47% as the market's 22,562 active cryptocurrencies absorbed the pullback unevenly.

The trending charts told a story of sharp divergence among smaller tokens. Initia (INIT), ranked 505th by market cap, surged 23.58% to $0.2147, while Quack AI (Q) jumped 22.30% to $0.0673. Pepe also drew attention, climbing 7.21% in trending data and 6.95% on the broader gainers list to trade just above $0.0000048, reinforcing its position as the most-watched meme coin of the session. Pons (PONS) added 11.92% to reach $0.2828, and Quantus (QTC) rose 6.75% to $79.23. Not every trending name moved higher: USD.AI's CHIP token dropped 9.94% to $0.0485, and Venice Token (VVV) slid 6.53% to $23.97.

Bitway (BTW) was the session's standout gainer among larger-cap assets, climbing 17.63% to $1.75, the top mover on CoinGecko's gainers list. MemeCore (M) added 6.59% to hit $1.12, while Litecoin (LTC) rose 4.86% to $59.40 and LEO Token (LEO) gained 4.52% to reach $9.40 — a rare green showing among established, higher-ranked coins during a broadly red day.

On the losing side, Ethena (ENA) posted the steepest decline among tracked tokens, falling 7.78% to $0.1957. Zcash (ZEC), despite trading above $1,269, dropped 3.36%, while Quant (QNT) shed 2.65% to settle at $194.31 and Rain (RAIN) slipped 3.56% to $0.0069. BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) held flat at exactly $1, as expected for the tokenized money-market product.

The split between Bitcoin's near-stillness and the double-digit swings in smaller tokens underscores a market where capital is rotating through speculative names even as the headline index cools. With Solana (SOL) and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) both trading essentially flat — up 0.14% and down 0.13%, respectively — the action on Tuesday was clearly concentrated in lower-cap, higher-volatility corners of the market rather than at the top of the leaderboard.

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