Crypto for Advisors: Digital assets outran stocks and gold in Q3

The CoinDesk 80 (CD80) led the multi-asset CoinDesk indices, rising 57.4% to 559 and outperforming bitcoin by roughly 14.7 percentage points, with Zcash extending its second quarter momentum as interest in privacy assets continued.

All 20 CD20 constituents finished the quarter positive. Uniswap (UNI) led with a 220% gain, followed by NEAR NEAR$4.9079 at 200%, last quarter’s top performer, while Chainlink LINK$12.82 and Aave AAVE$170.84 rose 100% and 87.5%.

Twelve assets outperformed the index, including Cardano (ADA, 71.0%), Ether (ETH, 70.9%), Sui (SUI, 68.8%), Avalanche (AVAX, 67.5%) and Solana (SOL, 60.5%). Despite strong gains across the board, there was a clear disparity across the return tails, with top performers breaking away materially.

CoinDesk 20 constituents: Q3 2026 performance

Looking ahead to Q4

Macro conditions still drive prices. While easing Middle East tensions helped risk sentiment, sharp long-end Treasury yield spikes tightened financial conditions once again. Treasury buybacks partially offset this, improving liquidity conditions for assets like bitcoin.

Institutional demand expanded into digital asset treasury companies (DATs). Despite earlier concerns over Strategy’s sale of ~7,000 BTC, the market recovered, and Strategy resumed net buying, pushing holdings above pre-sale levels by late September. Combined with renewed ETF inflows, DAT accumulation signals strong net demand.