Bitcoin's Best Q3 Since 2017, MetaMask Staking Incident Raises Security Concerns

Bitcoin posted its best third quarter since 2017, rising 42.71% according to CoinGlass. The asset finished the first two quarters of 2026 lower, down 22.2% and 14.09% respectively. Bitcoin's quarterly performance since 2013 shows a mixed record, but Q3 2026 was the best since 2017.

Despite the strong Q3, the main obstacle to further gains was a cluster of sell orders around $85,000-$85,500 on Binance's spot market. However, on October 2, buyers overcame this obstacle, with quotes climbing to $86,913, the highest since September 23. CryptoQuant analysts warned of a short-term pullback to $80,000 as short-term holders' unrealized profit hit a 21-month high.

Meanwhile, Citigroup raised its 12-month forecast for digital gold from $82,000 to $113,000, and for Ethereum from $2,240 to $3,028. The bank cited increased market activity, a supportive macro backdrop, and renewed investor flows into ETFs.

MetaMask, a popular Ethereum wallet, pulled its validators after a staking infrastructure incident. The company reported a security incident affecting part of its infrastructure, but noted that wallets and user funds were not affected. However, independent researchers estimated that around 17,000 validators with ~523,000 ETH were exited, with the attackers obtaining about 0.36 ETH.