Canada’s Inflation Tops 3%. The Loonie Climbs. Bitcoin Slips.
Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 3.1% in September, Statistics Canada said this morning, pushing it back above the Bank of Canada’s 1% to 3% target range for the first time in four months. Energy did the damage: energy prices were up 19% from a year ago, and gasoline was up 27.8%. Core measures stayed soft, with CPI-trim at 1.8% and CPI-median at 1.9%.
The loonie rose on the news, climbing to about 1.409 per U.S. dollar, or roughly 71 cents U.S. That is its strongest level in about four weeks, and down from a peak near 1.43 earlier in October. It cuts both ways for Canadian crypto holders: Bitcoin is down about 1% in U.S. dollars this week but nearly 2% in Canadian dollars, because a stronger loonie shaves the Canadian price of anything priced globally.
South of the border, inflation is running hotter. U.S. CPI hit 3.7% in September, and producer prices jumped 1.3% in a month, the most since March 2022. The odds of a second Fed hike on October 28 swung to near 50% before settling around 28%. Bitcoin dipped to about $80,000 USD on Thursday, then bounced to $82,400 today, even as social media warned of a 1987-style Black Monday.
RapidEX is a Canadian company built for Canadians watching the loonie as closely as the market, with fast funding, real human support, and 100+ locations across the country.
Market Intelligence & Action
Weekly Snapshot (October 13 to October 19, 2026)
A second straight red week. Hot U.S. inflation data and an AI-driven stock selloff weighed on crypto, with Bitcoin touching $80,000 USD on Thursday before recovering. A stronger loonie made Canadian-dollar declines look bigger: Bitcoin is down 1.9%, Ethereum 4.5%, Litecoin 3.4%, gold 1.7%, and silver 4.8%.
| Asset | Week Open (CAD) | Current Level (CAD) | 7-Day Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC | $118,600 | $116,400 | -1.9% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $3,570 | $3,410 | -4.5% |
| Litecoin (LTC) | $88 | $85 | -3.4% |
| USD Coin (USDC) | $1.42 | $1.41 | -0.7% |
| Gold (XAU/oz) | $5,950 | $5,850 | -1.7% |
| Silver (XAG.oz) | $85.40 | $81.30 | -4.8% |
This Week’s Updates
1. Canada: Inflation Back Above 3% as the Bank of Canada Decision Nears
Statistics Canada’s September CPI came in at 3.1%, just under the 3.2% economists expected, but above the Bank of Canada’s 1% to 3% target range for the first time in four months. Energy prices rose 19% from a year earlier and gasoline 27.8%, while the Bank’s core measures, CPI-trim at 1.8% and CPI-median at 1.9%, stayed soft. Governor Tiff Macklem has said the Bank’s new forecasts, due with its October 28 decision, will show higher inflation, though there are still no signs it has spread to other goods. The policy rate sits at 2.25%, and the Fed announces its own decision the same day after a hot U.S. CPI of 3.7%.
Pro Tip: Check your holdings in Canadian dollars, not just U.S. dollars. Last week the weak loonie lifted Bitcoin’s Canadian-dollar gain above its U.S.-dollar gain. This week the loonie was roughly flat, so the drop is about 3% either way.
2. Industry News: Ether ETFs Lose $1 Billion in Three Weeks as JPMorgan Moves to Ethereum
U.S. spot Ether ETFs lost $320.1 million last week, their third straight week of net outflows and roughly $1 billion over that stretch, according to Farside Investors. BlackRock’s ETHA made up about 93% of last week’s total, and Bitcoin ETFs shed $228.4 million. Yet on Monday, JPMorgan said it is bringing JPM Coin, its dollar deposit token, to the Ethereum network for institutional clients, giving them settlement around the clock on a public blockchain. Ether sits near $2,420 USD, down about 3.6% since last Tuesday.
Market Insight: Funds and banks are moving in opposite directions on Ethereum. Investors are pulling money out of Ether ETFs, while a major bank is building payment infrastructure on the network itself. Prices follow sentiment in the short run, but the JPMorgan move shows how large institutions see the technology.
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The RapidEX Knowledge Centre
What Is Tokenomics? Why Some Cryptos Are Rare and Others Aren’t
Imagine two pizza places open up in your neighbourhood. One says it will only ever make 1,000 pizzas, then close the oven forever. The other will make as many as it wants, whenever it wants. If both taste the same, which would people treat as more precious? That is the basic idea behind tokenomics.
What It Is. Tokenomics is a mashup of “token” and “economics.” It describes the rules built into a cryptocurrency that shape its supply and demand: how many coins will ever exist, whether new ones are being created, whether coins can be permanently destroyed, and who controls it all. Projects set these rules upfront, usually in a whitepaper.
The Three Numbers. Maximum supply is the hard cap: Bitcoin will only ever have 21 million coins, while other cryptocurrencies have no cap at all. Circulating supply is how many coins are out in the world right now. Total supply is every coin created so far, including any locked up or reserved for founders and developers.
Red Flags to Check. A founding team that controls a huge chunk of the supply. No maximum supply, with new coins minted constantly for no clear reason. A whitepaper that is vague, missing, or copied from someone else’s. None are automatic dealbreakers, but all are worth understanding first. Scarcity alone does not make something valuable, just like owning a limited-edition pen does not make you a great writer.
The RapidEX View: Next time you are curious about a cryptocurrency, look up its supply on CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap. It takes two minutes. In this week’s table, Bitcoin has about 20.1 million of its 21 million coins in circulation, Litecoin about 77.7 million of its 84 million, and Ether has no hard cap. This is educational only, not financial advice.
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