ENS Monthly Community Update - October 2025
The October 2025 Endowment Report is now available on kpk’s website.
kpk is pleased to present its Community Update for September to the broader ENS Community to increase awareness and transparency of its activities.
Market Update
October was a reset month for crypto markets. Risk premia widened across majors, funding conditions softened, and market participants rotated more aggressively into stablecoin positions.
Market Performance
BTC traded lower throughout the month, with spot prices unable to maintain support above $105,000. It closed October at approximately $97,800, down 13.5% month on month. The repricing reflected slower spot ETF flow momentum, reduced marginal buying, and a weaker macro backdrop.
ETH underperformed BTC for a second month, closing October at approximately $3,130, down 23.8% month on month. The liquidation episode on 10–11 October triggered forced unwinds of high-leverage ETH perpetual positions. Liquidations during that 48-hour period accelerated the drawdown, with cascading sell pressure pushing ETH perpetual funding lower and driving double-digit intraday moves across several L1 and L2 tokens, as visible in Hyperliquid onchain perpetual data.
Across the broader market, mid-caps and long-tail assets lagged as traders de-risked into more liquid majors and stablecoins. Exchange-related tokens (OKB, CRO, MNT, KCS) also retraced after several months of prior outperformance.
Institutional Flows
ETF flows weakened materially in October. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded net outflows of approximately $940M, while ETH spot ETFs saw modest net inflows of $120M (BitMEX Research ETF Tracker). Market makers cited the 10–11 October liquidation window as the point where RFQ volumes and appetite for directional exposure contracted.
Market Structure & Dominance
Bitcoin dominance remained broadly unchanged month on month, holding in the mid-50% range. This indicated that the retracement was systemic rather than a rotation between majors.
Total digital asset market capitalisation closed October at approximately $3.36T, a 9.7% month-on-month contraction, reflecting the repricing across majors and the broader de-risking.
Funding & Derivatives
Funding rates moved lower following the 10–11 October deleveraging event.
Off-chain funding (Binance)
• BTC: ranged 1% to 7%
• ETH: ranged 2% to 9%
On-chain funding (Hyperliquid)
• BTC: ranged –2% to +18%
• ETH: ranged –5% to +22%
Open interest also compressed after the liquidations:
• BTC perpetual OI declined from approximately 127k BTC to 115k BTC by month-end.
• ETH perpetual OI declined from approximately 2.68M ETH to 2.41M ETH by month-end.
ENS Token Update
Token holder distribution among the top 50 ENS holders remained stable in October, with ownership concentrated primarily in centralised exchanges and ENS-affiliated wallets, including the DAO and ENS Labs.
The ENS token declined 27.73% over the period, materially underperforming both BTC, which fell 5.35%, and ETH, which declined 8.88%. The relative underperformance reflected continued rotation from smaller-cap assets into larger, more liquid majors.
Trading activity for ENS strengthened in October, with total monthly volume rising to 12.78M ENS (~$212.65M). On centralised exchanges, Binance’s ENS/USDT spot market saw average daily volumes increase to 412.2K ENS/day, up meaningfully from September levels (256.26K ENS/day).
DAO Financial Update
Endowment Update
Please refer to the October kpk monthly report for further details.
Asset Allocation
- Assets under management (AUM) of $133.37M, with a capital utilisation ratio of 99.9%.
- Endowment Allocation split into 67.63% ETH ($90.09M) and 32.37% stablecoins ($43.17M), in line with the 60/40 mandate and minimum stablecoin runway requirements.
- Yield Generation (“DeFi Results”): $367.22k gross yield generated in October.
- Marked-to-market (“MTM”) valuation: decreased by $7.26M, driven by the decline in ETH price.
Protocol Distribution
- The Endowment’s largest position (protocol exposure) consists of sUSDS (Sky Savings Rate), which accounts for 20.14% of the total funds. On the staked ETH side, staking in Stader (19.96%) and Stakwise v3 (19.76%), continue to be the largest ones.
- Following the approval of permission update #6, the Endowment successfully started to allocate Capital into Morpho markets with the following breakdown:
- cbBTC/USDC (86% LLTV): 2.54M USDC
- wstETH/WETH, (96.5% LLTV): 854.43 WETH ($3.28M as of October 31st)
- WBTC/USDC (86% LLTV): 2.54M USDC
These positions further allow the Endowment to diversify its protocol distribution and aim for more attractive yield opportunities.
- Across the Endowment’s various positions, no single protocol exceeds 30% of the Endowment’s total exposure.
As a complement to our financial accounting, please refer to the Financial Reporting Dune Dashboard and the October Steakhouse monthly report, which now presents financial statements both with- and without $ENS tokens.