There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

$91,298.67

󰢸

1.24%

Ethereum

$3,019.49

󰢸

0.15%

Tether

$1.00

󰍾

0.01%

XRP

$2.20

󰍾

0.69%

BNB

$898.64

󰢸

0.87%

Solana

$141.23

󰍾

1.09%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Bitcoin struggles under $90K after worst week since April

After struggling for more than a month, bitcoin and the broader crypto market took another major dip last week, with BTC falling to around $80,550 on Friday, its lowest price in seven months. “Altogether, about half a trillion dollars in Bitcoin value has been wiped out,” noted Bloomberg. “And that’s before tallying the carnage across the altcoin complex.” 

Prices rebounded some to start the week, with bitcoin revisiting $89,000 on Monday night, before dropping back toward $86,000 on Tuesday. Given that BTC had recently set a new record above $126,000 in early October, it’s been a dizzying ride for traders.

Unlike some past declines, there’s no one obvious trigger for the market’s current malaise. “The reasons behind the pullback are multifaceted, but a major factor is that investors have grown skeptical of two main bull cases: multiple Federal Reserve interest‑rate cuts and growing institutional adoption,” Bloomberg reported. 

Another factor could be the way that bitcoin, stablecoins, and other parts of the cryptoeconomy are now heavily traded on Wall Street via the rise of crypto ETFs, crypto treasury firms, and tokenized assets. 

Fadi Aboualfa, head of research at Copper Technologies Ltd, told Bloomberg that crypto’s popularity among individuals is distinct from its growing role on Wall Street. “They’re not here to hold,” Aboualfa said of institutional investors. “They don’t have that mentality. They rebalance their portfolio.”

But for regular HODLers with a longer-term mentality, some market watchers suggest that current prices — which are back down around where they were just before President Trump won the election in 2024 — come with a silver lining.

“I think it’s a generational opportunity for long-term investors, whether you’re looking at bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana,” said Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, speaking to CNBC. “To get in at these prices, I think, really is almost a gift for long-term investors.” 

Here’s some more stories you need to know this Thanksgiving week…

Bitcoin ETFs were on track for worst month ever 

One of the major drivers of historically high crypto prices over the past couple of years has been the rise of exchange-traded funds that buy BTC, ETH, and other tokens and sell shares via conventional stock markets. 

These ETFs have allowed everyone from Wall Street’s biggest hedge and pension funds to individuals saving for retirement to access crypto in a familiar package, and have resulted in BTC funds specifically becoming something of a bellwether for the broader crypto ecosystem.

So far in November, investors have pulled around $3.5 billion out of U.S. listed spot BTC ETFs, approaching the record $3.6 billion outflows from February.

“Spot Bitcoin ETFs have become synonymous with crypto sentiment since their debut in January 2024, reshaping how capital moves into — and out of — the asset class,” as Bloomberg put it. “They have also become self-reinforcing feedback loops: inflows tend to accelerate when prices rise, while outflows amplify declines when prices fall.” 

Crypto treasury firms struggled as markets dipped

Another driver of capital into crypto that’s unique to this market cycle has been the rise of digital-asset treasury companies like the BTC behemoth Strategy and the ETH-accumulating giant Bitmine, as well as a slew of smaller firms that hold a wide range of other tokens. 

While Strategy’s BTC holdings remained in the black, with more than $6 billion in unrealized gains as of Friday’s dip, Bitmine’s ETH represents an unrealized loss of roughly $4.52 billion. Both companies’ stocks were down around 38% for the month as of Monday.

One potentially significant concern that JPMorgan analysts have pointed to is that such companies could be dropped from key indices, resulting in their stocks leaving the index funds that passively track them. “JPMorgan analysts estimate that roughly $9 billion of [Strategy’s] $50 billion market value sits in passive funds that track these indices,” noted The Block. 

TABLE TALK

Four crypto questions your family might ask at Thanksgiving dinner

If you’re the unofficial crypto expert among your friends and family, you might be facing some questions at the dinner table this Thanksgiving about what’s been going with crypto this year, especially with the recent market downturn making headlines.

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s some key info to help you answer four questions that could come your way this holiday season.

Why is crypto down so much recently?

After a historic rally that saw bitcoin reach as high as $126,000 in October, the big story in crypto markets recently has been their sharp decline. Bitcoin touched as low as $80,529 last week, and the recent downturn has erased essentially all of the year’s gains. 

A major catalyst for the downturn was a selloff on Oct. 10 that saw $19 billion worth of futures positions get wiped out in 24-hours – the largest crypto liquidation ever. Futures are a type of derivative and a popular way to trade crypto. But since traders often leverage their positions with borrowed funds, large price swings can lead to forced liquidations which can draw prices downward quickly. 

Since then, other headwinds have emerged. The U.S. government shutdown contributed to a squeeze in global liquidity. And corporations that added ETH to their balance sheets, known as treasury companies, began selling off their holdings amid the price decline, adding to the selling pressure that brought ETH to as low as $2,620.

After the intense selloff, though, some analysts believe the stage could be set for a rebound for crypto markets. “Our view of the sell off is that this leverage flush was a necessary reset for crypto markets rather than a cycle top,” said Coinbase Institutional in their most recent monthly report. 

Is crypto really becoming part of the financial system?

2025 has seen crypto firmly move into the mainstream, with meaningful adoption from the federal government and the world’s leading financial institutions. 

The headline event was the passage of the GENIUS Act, a landmark federal law that regulates the stablecoin market. (Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged to a government-backed currency, often the U.S. dollar.) 

Already, a consortium of the world’s largest banks are considering launching a joint stablecoin venture. Stripe, which processed $1.4 trillion in payments last year, has allowed merchants in more than 100 countries to accept stablecoins and is launching a stablecoin-focused blockchain. And stablecoin loans have become a $50 billion market according to a recent Visa report, with small businesses among the largest beneficiaries. 

The overall stablecoin market cap reached as high as $314 billion, and stablecoin issuers have even emerged as a major buyer of U.S. treasuries, helping preserve the strength of the U.S. dollar. 

Where else is crypto being used?

Beyond stablecoins, crypto ETFs are continuing to dominate the market, with Blackrock’s bitcoin spot ETF becoming the fastest growing fund on record, Ethereum ETFs reaching highs of nearly $30 billion in assets-under-management, and a flurry of altcoin ETFs hitting the market this fall with relative success in spite of the market selloff. A recently launched Solana spot ETF from Bitwise crossed $500 million in AUM in less than three weeks, and Bitwise’s XRP ETF saw more than $118 million of inflows in its first week.

Wall Street has also become enamored with tokenization, which is the process of creating digital, blockchain-based tokens to represent pretty much any real-world asset. This market has grown to $35 billion this year, led by tokenized treasuries, gold, and equities. BlackRock’s CEO has identified tokenization as the future of finance, saying on an earnings call that “we need to be tokenizing all assets.”

Is now a good time to buy? 

After a brutal selloff that has seen bitcoin dip as much as 36% below its recent all-time high, many are wondering if further price declines are on the horizon. And while some analysts do think so — like Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, who says “I expect Bitcoin and most cryptos to keep falling” — others have a more optimistic outlook. 

Institutional buyers are starting to show interest in crypto at these price levels, analysts say, a sign that a bottom could be forming. Plus, there are some positive tailwinds on the horizon for crypto markets, including the prospect of further rate cuts from the Federal Reserve through 2026. For those with a long-term time horizon, Matt Hougan, the CIO at Bitwise, says that current prices could be attractive. 

“Could it go a little bit lower? Of course," he said. "But for long-term investors looking out to 2026 and beyond, these are compelling entry points.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$500 million

Valuation of crowdsourced crypto hedge fund Numerai, after a recent $30 million fundraise. Key backers now include JPMorgan and investor Paul Tudor Jones, signalling new interest in Numerai’s “wisdom of the crowds” model whereby traders compete for NMR token rewards by picking stocks. 

$146 million

Approximate size of Cypherpunk Technologies’ Zcash treasury after the newly public company recently added an additional $18 million of ZEC this month. Following the surge of interest in “privacy coins” and a nearly tenfold Zcash rally in recent months, Cypherpunk Technologies built the industry’s first ZEC treasury.

35%

Percent of young, high-income investors who indicated they had moved on from advisers that didn’t offer crypto exposure, according to a new report from Zerohash. The survey, which polled 500 U.S. investors aged 18 to 40 with incomes between $100,000 and $1 million, indicated that crypto “has become essential to modern portfolio strategy.”

1 in 180 million

Estimated odds an individual Bitcoin miner overcame last week to add a new block of data to Bitcoin’s blockchain and claim a 3.125 BTC block reward and fees (worth about $265,000 at the time). In Bitcoin’s early years, anyone with a decently powerful PC could feasibly participate in mining; these days the industry is powered by vast corporate mining farms full of specialized equipment.

TOKEN TRIVIA

Which central bank recently purchased bitcoin?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer