Uphold Market Commentary – Alts Focus The release of the September U.S. CPI report has been delayed until October 24 due to the ongoing government shutdown, leaving markets in a holding pattern. With inflation data postponed, crypto prices are trading sideways as traders await the next macro catalyst to determine the direction of both risk assets and interest rate expectations. Bitcoin is holding around $111,000, while Ethereum continues to defend the $4,000 level. Altcoins are trading in mixed fashion — Solana ($SOL) stands out as the only asset in the top 15 posting gains of more than 1%, up 1.63% on the day. After taking a hard hit, Plasma ($XPL) regained momentum, up 18.2% and trading back above $0.51 on Uphold Ascent. Morpho $MORPHO, a decentralized, non-custodial lending protocol that overlays existing DeFi platforms to match lenders and borrowers directly, continues to show strong growth. Its TVL has climbed to $7.7 billion, more than 2.4× higher since the start of 2025, with the token up 7% on the day, trading near $1.94 on Uphold Ascent. With BNB down 9.7% on the week, PancakeSwap has followed suit, sliding over 25%. However, Aster $ASTER — YZi Labs’ decentralized perpetuals DEX — remains in the green, up 3% on the day. Uphold is listing $ASTER today; please reach out if you’re looking to trade it on Uphold Ascent.