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Heightened volatility continues to hamper Bitcoin’s price, which is currently hovering around the $86,000 threshold after falling from its all-time high. During this prolonged period of bearish price action, there has been an increase in long bets among investors, especially large holders, also known as whales.

Whale Dominates Bitcoin Long Positions

While the price of Bitcoin struggles to gain upward traction once again, an interesting divergence has been observed among BTC whales and retail investors. Specifically, the BTC derivatives market is showing a startling imbalance where retail traders are either wary or outright suspicious, and whales are stocking up on long bets at one of the most aggressive levels witnessed this cycle.

Joao Wedson, a market expert and the founder of Alphractal, shared this development on the social media platform X after examining the key Bitcoin Whale Vs. Retail Delta metric. Presently, an intriguing picture of market psychology is being painted by this growing gap between large holders and small investors.

Following the research, the expert found that whale investors are heavily positioned in long bets in comparison with retail holders for the first time in the history of BTC. This implies that institutional-sized wallets are exhibiting a strong commitment toward a possible significant upside move as retail continues to hedge, de-risk, or stay on the sidelines.

Another interesting part of this divergence between the two cohorts is the potential of a local bottom in BTC’s price. Wedson highlighted that whenever these levels reached this high in the past, it usually led to local bottoms, suggesting that a flip in Bitcoin’s current price trend might be on the horizon.

However, this could also result in the liquidation of large positions. In the meantime, speculations are whether retail is once again missing the signal before the next major swing or if the whales are early.

BTC 100+ Whale Wallets On The Rise

BTC whales are not only loading up on the flagship crypto asset via long bets. A recent report from Santiment, a leading market intelligence and on-chain data analytics platform, reveals a growing BTC accumulation trend on-chain among the cohort. Whales returning to the market hints at increased conviction in Bitcoin and its long-term prospects.

This renewed buying spree is evidenced by the ongoing rise of whale wallet addresses containing at least 100 BTC. Santiment highlighted that the number of the cohort has experienced a +0.47% increase since November 11, as 91 new wallets emerged within the time frame. 

Bitcoin whales may be rising, but this has not been the case for small or retail investors, particularly wallet addresses holding 0.1 BTC or more. During the same time frame, the group has decreased in numbers, signaling an impending capitulation among retailers. However, according to Santiment, retail capitulation will generally play out well for cryptocurrency prices in the long run.

Kevin Hassett has surged ahead in the race to become the next Federal Reserve Chair, as the crypto market watches closely. Hasset emerged as President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate while the administration accelerates its search ahead of a planned Christmas announcement.

With Jerome Powell’s term ending in May 2026, the stakes for markets, especially crypto, are enormous.

Hassett Leads the Pack as Trump Eyes Aggressive Rate Cuts

Multiple reports from Bloomberg, Reuters, and other outlets confirm that Hassett, the current director of the White House National Economic Council, has become the clear frontrunner among five finalists vetted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Others still in contention include Kevin Warsh, Christopher Waller, Michelle Bowman and BlackRock executive Rick Rieder. But it is Hassett’s alignment with Trump’s preference for faster and deeper interest-rate cuts that has put him in pole position.

In recent interviews, Hassett said he would cut rates “right now” based on current economic data, a sharp contrast to Powell’s more cautious approach. Prediction platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket now show Hassett with roughly 55%–57% odds of being nominated, well ahead of his rivals.

Crypto Ties Raise Questions, and Fuel Market Optimism

Hassett’s candidacy is drawing extraordinary attention from the digital asset world. Earlier this year, he disclosed holding more than $1 million in Coinbase stock, along with receiving over $50,000 for serving on Coinbase’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council.

He also chaired the White House’s digital asset working group, crafting key crypto-policy recommendations, including stablecoin regulation, taxation guidelines and elements of the administration’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve proposal.

These ties have sparked questions about potential conflicts of interest, given the Fed’s oversight of banking exposure to crypto and stablecoin frameworks.

Yet many industry analysts view his ascent as a major bullish catalyst. Bitwise strategist Juan Leon said a Hassett-led Fed would be “strongly supportive of digital assets,” citing his dovish monetary stance and direct industry experience.

Markets Brace for a Potentially Transformative Fed Shift

Trump’s dissatisfaction with Powell, combined with internal divisions over inflation, labor data and the pace of easing, has only intensified speculation. The Fed has already delivered two cuts this fall, with markets widely expecting a third in December.

If nominated and confirmed, Hassett would usher in one of the most crypto-friendly and pro-growth Federal Reserve leaderships in modern history.

With the announcement expected before Christmas, both Wall Street and the crypto markets are watching closely for what could be a defining moment for monetary policy and digital asset regulation.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

CME Group has confirmed through its official communications on X that spot-quoted futures for XRP and Solana will go live on December 15, subject to regulatory approval. 

The message was simple but clear, and these crypto heavyweights might see new institutional products hitting the market soon. The announcement quickly led to attention across the crypto market, given CME’s position as the leading venue for institutional-grade derivatives.

Understanding Spot-Quoted Futures For XRP And Solana

The crypto market is beginning to regain some upward momentum after several weeks of persistent declines. Prices have struggled since the start of November, yet the industry has continued moving forward in important areas. 

This trend is especially due to the launch of Spot XRP ETFs and Spot Solana ETFs in the US, with issuers like VanEck, Bitwise, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton all introducing altcoin-based products that are now competing for institutional attention.

The recent update by the CME Group shows that there are still many important crypto products to be launched. The introduction of XRP and Solana into CME’s expanding list of futures offerings arrives at a time when demand from professional investors is widening beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

Institutions have been searching for regulated pathways to participate in major altcoins, and CME’s timeline suggests that both crypto assets are about to enter into a new layer of market infrastructure comparable to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Spot-quoted futures are designed to follow the live prices seen in the spot market rather than using an index or blended reference rate. CME has structured these contracts to be smaller and easier to access, with the group noting that “good things come in small packages.”

Why This Launch Matters For Institutional Access

CME’s move demonstrates that institutional interest in altcoins has reached a new level. Providing spot-quoted contracts creates a simpler, more direct way for large investors to trade these assets without confronting the operational risks of holding them outright.

CME also disclosed earlier in the year that it plans to introduce full 24/7 trading by early 2026. This step was aimed at matching the continuous pace of the crypto market, rather than waiting for traditional market windows.

In terms of price action, both cryptocurrencies are starting to look good. XRP is now back trading above $2.20, while Solana has reclaimed $140. 

It’s important to note that the new Spot-Quoted XRP and SOL futures are still waiting for approval. As December 15 approaches, many altcoin traders will be watching for regulatory clearance. Once approved, XRP and Solana could experience a noticeable change in institutional interaction, and this will undoubtedly contribute positively to price action before the end of the year.

In a notable step forward, Cardano (ADA) has achieved yet another major milestone that cements its growing position in the broadening world of digital finance. Despite ongoing waning price performance, the leading altcoin is persistently viewed as a reliable asset in next-gen financial infrastructure, as evidenced by its recent confirmation as ISO 20022 Compliant.

CoinMarketCap Confirms Cardano as ISO 20022 Compliant

Amid increased recognition of crypto assets in the financial sector, Cardano continues to make its presence known. A recent report from Mintern, the Chief Meme Officer (CMO) at Minswap, shows that Cardano has just secured a major boost in terms of credibility. 

According to the report from Mintern, the altcoin has officially appeared on CoinMarketCap’s ISO 20022-compliant list. ISO 20022 is a global messaging standard used by banks and Traditional Financial institutions for payments and financial transactions.

The notable milestone now places ADA among a select group of digital assets that align with the global financial messaging standard of ISO 20022. This is more than just a cosmetic label for Cardano and the network’s ecosystem. 

Mintern highlighted that ADA’s inception into the ISO 20022-compliant category on CoinMarketCap is a big signal for Traditional Finance (TradFi) integration. Furthermore, it represents growing awareness of the network’s technological excellence and its potential contribution to the upcoming generation of interoperable, regulated financial infrastructure. 

Cardano’s inclusion could be a turning point in its development from a research-driven blockchain to a potential backbone for international digital finance. As established institutions move faster toward ISO-driven modernization, the leading altcoin is at the forefront of the change, bridging the gap between the cryptocurrency and financial sectors.

The chart shows that Cardano is the second-largest by market capitalization behind XRP. Other assets included in the list are Chainlink (LINK), Stellar (XLM), Hedera (HBAR), Algorand (ALGO), and XDC Network (XDC).

Why The ISO 20022 Standard Is Relevant To ADA

Cardano’s compliance with the ISO 20022 messaging standard could be beneficial to the asset. Mauro Andreoli, an ambassador and attorney of the Buenos Aires Bar Association, has outlined why this standard is relevant to the ADA.

As banks, payment systems, and fintechs migrate to ISO 20022, this standardized message layer will become increasingly important. This is where Cardano steps in, which intends to act as serious infrastructure for public services and real-world finance, and not just as a speculative asset.

For ADA, the significant topic of discussion is not whether the asset is an ISO 20022 coin. Rather, how Cardano-based protocols, bridges, and products can interact with the broader financial system by reliably speaking this language.

In the midst of the growing adoption of the ISO 20022 by traditional finance, governments and institutions’ choice of blockchain must comply with that requirement. Meanwhile, Cardano is well-positioned to accomplish this because of its architecture, focus on rigor, and robust technical community.

Coinbase Ventures has outlined a roadmap for where it expects the next wave of crypto value creation in 2026, centering on real-world asset perpetuals, specialized exchanges, “next-gen DeFi,” and the convergence of crypto with AI and robotics. The firm presents the document as an answer to the recurring founder question: “What should I build next?” and says it is “actively looking for the right teams to invest behind in these categories.”

The team argues that 2025 quietly reset crypto’s foundations. They highlight “stablecoin infrastructure reshaping payments,” cross-chain proofs collapsing settlement times “that once took days,” and new DEX models that enabled “markets for everything onchain.” Regardless of current price action, Coinbase Ventures writes: “We are as bullish as ever about what’s next.”

Major Crypto Trends For 2026

The first major theme is real-world asset derivatives. Kinji Steimetz argues that “RWA perpetuals” are emerging as the fastest way to bring offchain assets onchain, describing perpetuals as “crypto’s most proven trading product” and “a structurally faster and more flexible path than tokenization.”

Because perpetuals do not require custody of an underlying, Coinbase Ventures expects “the perpification of everything,” with “markets [forming] around virtually anything,” from private companies to economic data prints. Steimetz also links this to macro integration, noting that as crypto traders become more sophisticated, they will seek onchain exposure to “oil, inflation breakevens, credit spreads, and volatility.”

A second cluster focuses on market structure and trading interfaces. On Solana, Steimetz points to “Prop-AMMs” where resting liquidity is only executed via aggregators, insulating LPs from “predatory flow.” This “prop-driven approach,” the blog argues, could “meaningfully advance market structure innovation ahead of base-layer improvements” and is not limited to Solana spot markets.

In parallel, Coinbase Ventures sees prediction markets as “one of the leading consumer crypto applications,” but still hampered by fragmentation reminiscent of early DeFi. Jonathan King expects “prediction market aggregators” to become the “dominant interface layer,” consolidating more than $600 million in liquidity and providing an Axiom-like terminal for event contracts. He imagines trading terminals with “advanced order types, filters / charts, multi-venue routing and position tracking, cross-venue arbitrage insights, and more.”

Under “Next-gen DeFi,” the firm highlights three fronts: composable perp markets, unsecured credit, and privacy. Perpetual futures, it argues, are evolving from isolated venues into building blocks for capital-efficient systems where users can “simultaneously hedge, earn, and leverage without sacrificing liquidity.” Coinbase Ventures notes that perp DEX volumes have reached roughly $1.4 trillion per month and grown about 300% year-on-year, and expects 2026 to see deeper integrations with lending protocols so collateral can earn yield while backing leveraged positions.

On credit, King calls unsecured, credit-based money markets “DeFi’s next frontier,” pointing to $1.3 trillion in revolving, unsecured US credit lines as the addressable opportunity. The blog envisions models that blend onchain reputation with offchain data to unlock “unsecured lending at scale,” while warning that the core challenge is “designing sustainable risk models that scale.” If that can be achieved, Coinbase Ventures argues that DeFi becomes “genuine financial infrastructure that can outcompete traditional banking rails.”

Privacy is framed as a prerequisite for institutional and mainstream adoption. Ethan Oak notes that institutions and professional traders “cannot trade if they constantly leak their strategies,” and that ordinary users do not want “their entire financial history” exposed onchain. The team sees growing developer energy around privacy-preserving assets such as Zcash, private orderbooks and borrow-lend protocols, and “dedicated blockchains for payments touting privacy as a raison d’etre.” They highlight advanced cryptography – “ZKPs, FHE, MPC, TEEs” – as tools to let blockchains “maintain their verifiability while reducing user’s public exposure to bad actors.”

The final category connects crypto with AI and robotics. On robotics, Steimetz points to a shortage of “fine-grained physical interaction data such as grip, pressure, or multi-object manipulation,” and suggests that incentivized data-collection schemes inspired by DePIN “could offer a viable framework” for scaling these datasets.

On identity, Hoolie Tejwani warns that we are “approaching the tipping point where everything you see on an internet connected digital screen will be disassociated and indistinguishable from human provenance vs. AI generated.” Coinbase Ventures argues that “a combination of biometrics, cryptographic signing, and open source developer standards” will be crucial to any “proof of humanity” solution, noting that Worldcoin has been “ahead of the curve” but stressing they “would love to support multiple approaches.”

Finally, King describes AI for smart-contract development as nearing its “GitHub Copilot moment,” predicting that AI agents will let “non-technical founders [launch] onchain businesses in hours, not months,” by handling “smart contract code generation, security reviews, and continuous monitoring.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Coinbase Ventures says it is “energized by the builders taking big swings and pushing the onchain economy forward,” but concedes that “the most exciting projects often come from places no one expects,” leaving the door open for theses that have yet to be written.

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.96 trillion.

Strategy’s share price has taken a beating this year, but its Bitcoin hoard remains in the black and still changes the long-term picture for investors.

Strategy Bitcoin Holdings Still In Profit

According to BitcoinTreasuries.NET and company disclosures, Strategy bought its Bitcoin at an average cost of $74,430 per coin. With Bitcoin trading around $86,000, that basket is still up roughly 16% on paper.

The firm stepped up its buys on Nov. 17, adding 8,178 BTC for $836 million. Michael Saylor, Strategy chairman, said “I won’t back down.” That move pushed its total to 649,870 BTC, a stash currently worth nearly $56 billion. Short-term swings have hit the stock hard, but the crypto holding itself is not the same as the equity price.

I Won’t ₿ack Down

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) November 23, 2025

In markets, appearance matters. Shares that once traded near $300 in October slid to about $170 at the time of recent reporting. Over the last year the stock is down close to 60%, and it has fallen by more than 40% year-to-date. Those drops have worried some, yet the balance sheet tied to Bitcoin tells a different numeric story.

Investors Use Strategy As A Hedge

Based on reports and market commentary, the stock’s weakness is partly technical. In a recent interview, BitMine chairman Tom Lee pointed out that Strategy’s options market is very liquid, making the stock an easy tool for large players to hedge Bitcoin exposure.

Traders can buy puts or short the equity instead of wrestling with less liquid crypto derivatives. That choice can press the share price independently of whether the company’s Bitcoin position is healthy.

Analysts warned that a deep drop in BTC could force the firm to sell coins and that such a move would put extra pressure on both the stock and Bitcoin itself. He said the risk is there, even if it looks distant today. In plain terms: one day of panic could create a chain reaction. For now, it remains hypothetical rather than immediate.

Stock Returns Outpace Tech Peers

Five-year returns show a stark contrast. Strategy’s shares have climbed more than 500% over that window, compared with Apple’s 130% and Microsoft’s 120%.

Over two years the firm’s stock rose about 226%, while Apple gained 43% and Microsoft gained 25% in the same period. These numbers underline why long-term investors have supported the firm’s strategy despite recent turbulence.

Featured image/photo illustration by Alice Morgan/Getty Images, chart: TradingView

Quick Facts:

• Arthur Hayes believes Bitcoin can’t go under $80K in 2025’s Q4, but that it won’t go much higher either; he expects the bull in 2026.
• He suggests the real opportunity now lies in Bitcoin Layer 2s, DeFi rails, and on‑chain leverage exchanges rather than spot $BTC itself.
• Strong presale traction for Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) and Best Wallet Token ($BEST) suggests growing appetite for infrastructure projects as traders rotate beyond spot $BTC exposure.
• Meanwhile, Hyperliquid dominates decentralized perps volume with sub‑second on‑chain execution and HIP‑3 fee cuts, positioning it well if derivatives trading surges.

Arthur Hayes thinks Bitcoin has likely carved out strong support around the $80k region, hinting that the next leg of the bull market may be forming.

In Hayes’ view, the lowest we’ll see $BTC this year is ‘low $80K’s’. But, while Bitcoin may not fall any further, it will likely not go any higher either, at least until 2026.

If he’s right, this is the stage where liquidity returns, volatility compresses, and patient capital starts positioning for the next outsized moves.

When $BTC stabilizes after a major run, the easy trade is gone. At that point, you’re usually not early buying Bitcoin itself – you’re early rotating into the infrastructure and high‑beta plays that benefit most if the cycle resumes.

That means Bitcoin Layer 2s, core DeFi rails, and exchanges built for on‑chain leverage.

This backdrop is pushing more traders to look beyond spot $BTC toward projects that can scale usage, unlock new yield, or supercharge liquidity. In particular, fast execution environments plugged into Bitcoin, smarter wallet layers, and deep derivatives venues are emerging as prime hunting grounds for upside.

Below are three names to watch right now: Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), a high‑throughput Bitcoin Layer 2, Best Wallet Token ($BEST), a next‑gen access layer, and Hyperliquid ($HYPE), the dominant on‑chain perps engine riding this volatility wave.

1. Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) – First Bitcoin L2 with SVM Speed

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) pitches itself as the first Bitcoin Layer 2 to integrate the Solana Virtual Machine. It aims to deliver execution that’s even faster than Solana while still settling back to Bitcoin.

The architecture is modular: Bitcoin L1 handles settlement and security, while a real‑time SVM Layer 2 handles execution.

In practice, that means sub‑second confirmation for wrapped $BTC payments, DeFi trades, and NFT mints at a fraction of typical Bitcoin fees.

For users, the immediate draw is simple: high‑speed payments in wrapped $BTC with low fees. It also means DeFi primitives like swaps, lending, and staking protocols that finally feel responsive in the Bitcoin universe.

Under the hood, Bitcoin Hyper uses a single trusted sequencer that periodically anchors state to Bitcoin, plus a decentralized canonical bridge for $BTC transfers.

The $HYPER presale has already raised over $28.5M, with $HYPER valued at $0.013335, and staking rewards set at 41%. If you’re betting on Bitcoin regaining momentum, this is one of the more aggressive ways to get leveraged exposure to Bitcoin‑secured throughput.

Based on Bitcoin Hyper’s utility proposition and the presale’s performance, a realistic price prediction for $HYPER puts the coin at $0.20 in 2026. 2030 could see $HYPER at $1.50 once the ecosystem takes off and sees mainstream adoption.

For profit hunters, these numbers translate to an ROI of 1,399% and 11,145% respectively, if you buy at today’s price.

These numbers recommend $HYPER as one of the best crypto to buy today.

The $HYPER presale window will close between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. If you want in, read our guide on how to buy $HYPER.

Buy $HYPER on the presale page today.

2. Best Wallet Token ($BEST) – Aggressive Play on Wallet Market Share

If Bitcoin resumes its uptrend and new users flood back in, the battle for wallet dominance becomes critical.

Best Wallet is targeting an ambitious 40% share of the crypto wallet market by the end of 2026 by focusing on simplicity, security, and integrated on‑chain tooling.

The core stack centers on a fully integrated Fireblocks MPC‑CMP wallet, giving users institutional‑grade key management with retail‑friendly UX.

On top of that, Best Wallet lets you build custom multi‑wallet portfolios, so you can segment trading capital, long‑term holdings, and experimental positions while managing everything through a single interface.

The roadmap features a lineup of developmental milestones, from the Fiat Onramp to the Best Card and the Rubic-powered DEX aggregator, tapping 330 DEXs and 30 bridges.

The Best Wallet Token presale has raised over $17.5M so far, with $BEST priced at $0.026005. The project offers a dynamic staking model currently at a 75% APY.

Long-term, Best Wallet shows great potential.

Our price prediction for $BEST puts the token at a potential high of $0.62 in 2026 and $0.82 by 2030, considering the project’s utility and scope. These numbers suggest an ROI of 2,284% and 3,053% respectively, potentially higher if the wallet sees mainstream adoption.

The presale is set to end in just two days, so there’s not much time left. Read our guide on how to buy $BEST if you want in today.

Buy $BEST before the presale ends.

3. Hyperliquid (HYPE) – Dominant On‑Chain Perps Engine

While Bitcoin chops around key levels, derivatives volumes often tell you where traders are actually positioning.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) has quietly become the dominant decentralized perpetuals exchange, built on its own high‑performance Layer‑1 blockchain optimized for low‑latency, high‑throughput trading.

Hyperliquid uses an on‑chain order book with around 0.2‑second median trade latency, powered by its HyperCore + HyperEVM architecture.

This allows it to feel more like a centralized exchange, while maintaining full on-chain settlement, a combination that has historically been difficult for DeFi to achieve at scale.

According to a RedStone report, Hyperliquid processes up to $30B in daily volume and commands over 80% of the DeFi perps market share, underscoring just how far ahead it is of rival protocols.

The chain has begun evolving into a broader DeFi ecosystem, with new projects building on its liquidity and order‑book rails.

The recent HIP‑3 ‘growth mode’ upgrade introduced permissionless market creation with taker fees slashed by more than 90%, encouraging new markets and deeper liquidity in long‑tail assets.

For traders who see a renewed Bitcoin uptrend as fuel for derivatives activity, Hyperliquid is one of the clearest ways to get exposure to the on‑chain leverage layer.

$HYPE is selling at $33.28 and it’s on a 1.48% growth arc at the time of writing.

Recap: If Arthur Hayes is right about Bitcoin stabilizing near $80K, infrastructure plays like Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), access layers like Best Wallet Token ($BEST), and liquidity engines like Hyperliquid ($HYPE) could see outsized benefits as capital rotates beyond $BTC.

This isn’t financial advice. DYOR before investing.

Authored by Bogdan Patru, Bitcoinist: best-crypto-to-buy-as-hayes-expects-bitcoin-bull-2026https://bitcoinist.com/

Amid the market crash, the Solana price has taken a major hit, falling more than 56% from its $294 all-time high recorded back in January. Despite multiple attempts at recovery, each bounce has been sold off quickly, and the result has been steeper declines, ultimately affecting the broader Solana meme coin landscape. Even now, with some expecting the market to rebound, the Solana price is still facing major resistance, risking another 20% crash from here.

What’s Keeping The Solana Price Down?

Crypto analyst Paradise_Noir on the TradingView website has revealed that the Solana price is being suppressed by the Ichimoku Cloud. This has been happening as Solana has been slowly and steadily losing strength in the market, causing it to crash deeper with each fall, leading to lower lows and an ultimately bearish trend.

The analyst also explained that Solana has seen a lot of money leaving its shores, as large capital moves out of the altcoin. As the price struggles, each recovery is seen as an opportunity to get out of the cryptocurrency at a slightly higher price before it crashes again. A lot of these losses have been recorded between October and November, suggesting that the last quarter is closing in the red.

Pointing to the 4-Hour chart, Paradise Noir stated that Solana is now stuck inside a descending wedge pattern. Naturally, descending wedge patterns are bearish until the price breaks out, but every breakout attempt looks to have been suppressed by the Ichimoku Cloud.

Given this, the Solana price has an uphill battle ahead if it is to continue its recovery. With the trend of lower lows, it is likely that another attempt to break out of the descending wedge will be rejected by the Ichimoku Cloud once again, putting the altcoin in a perilous position.

How Low Can The Price Go?

In the event of a rejection, the crypto analyst sees the Solana price struggling due to its weak technical structure and the negative news surrounding the market. As a result, the next major level is the psychological support that lies at $100. Only then could reasonable support form, and buyers could step in.

As for investors, the analyst believes it is best to actually “follow the downtrend” for now. Until there is a major pullback toward the resistance levels, the setups remain quite bearish. “Wait for price to pull back into resistance to find cleaner entries, and avoid catching bottoms when the market shows no clear reversal signals,” the analyst stated.

On Tuesday, Acting Chair Caroline Pham of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a significant initiative aimed at enhancing guidance on crypto regulation. This initiative involves seeking nominations for the newly formed CFTC CEO Innovation Council, with a submission deadline set for December 8. 

During her prepared remarks, Pham emphasized that the council would help the agency effectively prepare for impending regulations as the Senate gears up to consider a new crypto market structure bill.

Key Priorities For CFTC’s Crypto Regulation Efforts

Under Pham’s guidance, the CFTC has made substantial strides in innovation and market structure. This includes initiatives such as the Crypto CEO Forum, the exploration of prediction markets, perpetual contracts, and the concept of 24/7 trading. 

Notably, the CFTC’s Crypto Sprint initiative, aiming to implement the recommendations from President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, is projected to continue until August 2026. 

Phạm outlined key priorities for the initiative, including enabling listed spot crypto trading on designated contract markets (DCMs), facilitating the use of tokenized collateral within derivatives markets, and proposing necessary technical amendments to CFTC regulations to accommodate blockchain and tokenization. 

Pham expressed optimism that the CFTC would implement listed spot crypto trading on DCMs by the end of this year, with guidance regarding tokenized collateral expected by early 2026.

“The US is leading a new era in market structure, and the CFTC is at the forefront of this renaissance accelerated by innovation and technology,” Pham remarked. 

She stressed the importance of engaging with industry leaders and visionaries to shape responsible regulations that will lay the groundwork for what she described as America’s “Golden Age of Innovation.”

Pham’s Tenure Nears End

Last week, Pham discussed the CFTC’s ongoing progress at an industry conference focused on futures and options, where she detailed the agency’s regulatory approach to digital assets. 

Drawing parallels to past developments in the financial markets, she mentioned that blockchain technology and tokenization are ushering in a “structural modernization” of market infrastructure.

In addition, Pham pointed to increased collaboration between the CFTC and the SEC, citing a recent joint roundtable focused on regulatory harmonization. 

She highlighted congressional efforts such as the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act, both of which aim to create a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets and stablecoins.

As the CFTC anticipates future developments, Pham’s tenure as acting chair is approaching its conclusion. Last week, US senators questioned Michael Selig, President Trump’s nominee to lead the agency, regarding his plans for revamping cryptocurrency regulations and addressing election betting. 

As reported by Reuters, Selig advocated for “clear, simple guidelines” for the crypto sector, emphasizing the opportunity to establish a framework that supports software developers and emerging exchanges, while ensuring investor protections.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

Stay Ahead with Our Timely Insights of Today’s Next Crypto to Explode

Check out our Live Next Crypto to Explode Updates for November 26, 2025!

Crypto is so unthinkably huge at the moment, a nearly $4 trillion industry that’s aiming for world domination.

Recent headlines talk of Circle and Mastercard planning to add USDC to global payment systems, Ethereum and Bitcoin treasuries in the billions of dollars, and Google building its own blockchain.

Bitcoin has an all-time growth of over 180,000,000%, Dogecoin over 43,000%, and some of the newest presale coins often pump 10x, 100x, or even 1,000x on rare occasions.

Explosive potential is probably the single best description for what we’re seeing today in crypto.

Quick Picks for Coins with Explosive Potential

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) - Real-Time Layer-2 Solution for Scaling Bitcoin Launch: May, 2025 Join Presale Maxi Doge ($MAXI) - High-Impact Meme Coin Built On Strength, Staking & Conviction Launch: July, 2025 Join Presale PepeNode ($PEPENODE) - A New, Gamified Way to Mine to Earn Meme Coin Rewards Launch: February, 2025 Join Presale Snorter Token ($SNORT) - Lowest-Fee Telegram Trading Bot for Solana and Ethereum Launch: May, 2025 Join Presale Best Wallet Token ($BEST) - Get Easy, Early Access to New Curated Presale Projects Launch: November, 2024 Join Presale

If you’re looking for the most recent insights on the next crypto to explode, stay tuned. We update this page frequently throughout the day, as we get the latest and greatest insider insights for chart sniffers and traders looking for the next coin to explode.

Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk investment, and you may lose your capital. Our content is informational only, and it does not constitute financial advice. We may earn affiliate commissions at no extra cost to you. Stellar Stablecoin Pilot by US Bank Positions Best Wallet Token ($BEST) Near the Next Crypto to Explode Narrative

November 26, 2025 • 14:00 UTC

US Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the country, is now piloting custom ‘bank-grade’ stablecoins on the Stellar ($XLM) network, testing features like asset freezes and transaction reversals together with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation.

‘When you are doing mission critical systems, when you are doing financial services, and you are moving consumers’ money, you need to make sure that your blockchain is going to be there. So we are very honored to have the confidence of US Bank and our partners at PWC. We take that confidence and that trust very very seriously.’

— José Fernández da Ponte, President and Chief Growth Officer, SDF

The goal is simple: see if regulated banks can safely issue programmable money on a public chain while meeting strict KYC and compliance needs.

With cross-border stablecoin payments projected to push toward the trillion-dollar mark by the end of the decade, the real bottleneck becomes the wallet layer that ordinary users and institutions actually touch.

Best Wallet Token ($BEST) aims to sit right at that interface. The utility backbone of a top non-custodial wallet that aggregates many blockchains, offering reduced fees, higher staking yields, and priority access to vetted presales from a single app.

With $17.52M already raised at $0.026005, you gain targeted exposure to the infrastructure that can route both DeFi-native and bank-issued stablecoin flows without depending on any single chain or issuer.

Read more in our $BEST Price Prediction.

XRP ETF Inflows and Creator Coins Put SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) Among the Next Crypto to Explode

November 26, 2025 • 13:00 UTC

Spot $XRP ETFs have pulled in roughly $587M of cumulative inflows in under ten trading days, overtaking $SOL products at $559M and flipping the altcoin ETF leaderboard almost overnight.

That pivot is powered by structural incentives: Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ charges a 0.19% fee that is waived on the first $5B in assets until May 2026, while Grayscale’s GXRP is waiving fees for its first three months. 

Inflows are no longer just about token tech; they chase liquidity, branding, and clear narratives institutions can underwrite. Read more.

That same logic applies further out on the risk curve, where application-layer tokens with real users and revenue potential can front-run the next ETF narrative.

SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) underpins a creator-focused platform for gated content, subscriptions, and on-chain publishing, using AI and Web3 rails to streamline how creators get paid and engage fans

With $1.36M raised so far at $0.057025, you position a small slice of capital in a focused play on the multi-billion dollar digital content economy rather than another generic altcoin ticker.

Find out all about what $SUBBD token is here.

Arthur Hayes’ $80K Bitcoin Thesis Highlights Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) as the Next Crypto to Explod

November 26, 2025 • 12:00 UTC

Arthur Hayes is framing the recent 35% $BTC drawdown as a liquidity event, not the end of the cycle, with whales shifting coins off exchanges and treating roughly $80K as a new line in the sand.

With total crypto market cap back above $2.9T and Hayes arguing that even small improvements in dollar liquidity can reignite flows, the base case becomes a choppy grind higher rather than a full-blown reversal. Read more here. 

In that environment, upside tends to compound faster on infrastructure that amplifies what Bitcoin already does well.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) fits that lane by building an SVM-based Bitcoin Layer-2 designed to fix slow transactions and high fees while letting you use $BTC directly in DeFi, NFTs, and on-chain apps.

Instead of only betting on spot $BTC reclaiming highs, you tilt part of your stack toward the rails that could host that next wave of activity.

With $28.5M raised at $0.013335, the presale already reflects credible early demand for that thesis.

Learn how to buy $HYPER here. 

Metaplanet’s $130M $BTC Loan Turns PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) into a Contender for the Next Crypto to Explode

November 26, 2025 • 11:00 UTC

Metaplanet just drew a $130M loan secured entirely by its $BTC stack, tapping $230M of a $500M credit line to buy even more Bitcoin while holding 30,823 $BTC on its balance sheet.

That is the full ‘Saylor playbook’: borrow against coins, acquire more, then let upside and time do the heavy lifting. It turns Bitcoin into productive collateral rather than a static treasury asset, signaling that corporates now view $BTC as long-term funding infrastructure, not a trade they’ll flip on the next drawdown. Read more. 

When that kind of balance-sheet leverage ramps up, the highest beta tends to show up in narratives sitting at the edge of speculation and utility.

PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) leans into that by turning meme exposure into a mine-to-earn game, where you build virtual rigs, add nodes, and earn meme coin rewards without hardware.

With $2.2M already raised at just $0.0011638 per token, you focus a sliver of risk on a narrative that historically reacts fastest to fresh Bitcoin collateral flows.

Read our $PEPENODE Price Prediction for 2025 and beyond.

Texas ETF Buy Signals Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) as the Next Crypto to Explode

November 26, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

Texas just bought $5M of BlackRock’s $IBIT spot $BTC ETF, with another $5M earmarked for self-custodied Bitcoin, using state treasury capital while $BTC trades about 10% below recent highs.

That puts Bitcoin in the same bucket as long-term reserves alongside bonds and gold, not just a high-beta trade, and gradually derisks holding core exposure for institutions and wealthy allocators. As more states follow Wisconsin’s earlier $100M IBIT move, flows shift from short-term speculators toward slow, rules-based mandates that can run for years. Read more here. 

That kind of sticky demand tends to reward ecosystems that plug utility directly into Bitcoin rather than competing with it.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is building an SVM-based Bitcoin Layer-2 where payments, DeFi, NFTs, and memes all settle back to $BTC, aiming to tackle slow transactions and high fees on the base chain.

With $28.5M already raised at $0.013335 per token, you front-run state-level accumulation while also adding exposure to infrastructure designed to capture that liquidity on-chain.

Learn more about what Bitcoin Hyper is here.

Kraken’s New Debit App Puts Best Wallet Token ($BEST) In Line as the Next Crypto to Explode

November 26, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

Kraken’s new Krak Mastercard debit app in the UK and EU lets users spend multiple crypto assets in real time and even route salaries in via IBAN, turning an exchange into a quasi-bank on your phone.

That pushes $BTC, $ETH, and stablecoins deeper into everyday payments, not just trading screens, and locks more value inside wallet-based rails instead of old banking stacks. Read more.

As more regulated players roll out cards, vaults, and yield products, the battle shifts to who owns the main wallet interface that routes all those flows.

Best Wallet Token ($BEST) is built exactly around that choke point.

It’s the native token of Best Wallet, a non-custodial wallet that offers reduced fees, boosted staking rewards, and priority access to curated presales from a single app, positioning it as a neutral router across chains.

With $17.52M already raised at $0.026005, you effectively add leveraged exposure to the wallet layer that stands to benefit from every new on-ramp card and payment integration, not just one exchange rollout.

Find out how to buy $BEST now.

Authored by Bogdan Patru, Bitcoinist — https://bitcoinist.com/next-crypto-to-explode-live-news-today-november-26-2025

Quick Facts:

• Kraken’s Krak Mastercard launch in the EU and UK underscores how regulated exchanges are pushing crypto beyond trading into real-world payments and merchant acceptance.
• Krak offers 1% cashback on every purchase and offers access to over 400 currencies across 160 countries.
• Best Wallet targets 40% wallet market share by 2026, pairing Fireblocks MPC security, presale access, and a planned ‘Best Card’ to challenge exchange-centric debit models.
• The Best Wallet Token ($BEST) presale has raised over $17.5M so far, and it’s set to end in just two days. Not much time left to get in.

Kraken has rolled out its Krak Mastercard debit app across the EU and UK, letting you spend multiple crypto assets in real time anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

The card offers a 1% cashback on every spend and allows you to spend 400+ currencies with 110+ merchants across 160 countries.

Kraken posted the official news on X, announcing several upcoming features, like the 10% flexible APY marked with a ‘coming soon’ tag.

Kraken’s move is big. Instead of shuffling funds between exchanges and banks, you can now tap-to-pay in fiat while Kraken handles instant crypto conversion in the background.

That shift matters. For years, crypto usage has been dominated by trading, yield strategies, and speculative NFTs. Everyday payments stayed stuck in the ‘coming soon’ phase, limited by clunky cards, latency issues, and regulatory gray zones.

Kraken shows that regulated exchanges are ready to compete directly with banks on payments and user experience.

It also raises a bigger question: if exchanges are becoming banks, what happens to wallets?

That’s where Best Wallet is trying to position itself. The team has hinted at a ‘Best Card’ product on its roadmap, aiming to pair a non-custodial, Fireblocks-powered mobile wallet with debit-style spending and curated token access.

If you want to support the project, Best Wallet Token ($BEST) is available in presale today.

Crypto Debit Cards Signal the Next Payment Rail Battle

Kraken’s launch lands in a crowded but still experimental field.

Binance, Crypto.com, and Coinbase have all tested card programs, but most rely on a single-asset funding model or slow top-ups that feel closer to prepaid cards than native digital money. Few deliver true multi-asset, real-time spending tied into a broader Web3 stack.

The direction of travel is clear: users want to hold volatile assets like $BTC, $ETH, or stablecoins, then spend seamlessly in fiat without managing FX, gas, or bridge risks.

That means whoever owns the ‘default spend’ experience – exchange app, neobank, or wallet – controls a powerful on-ramp to the rest of the ecosystem, from staking to NFTs.

Wallets such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Phantom are experimenting with card integrations, yet most still feel like developer tools with payment features bolted on top, not true consumer banking replacements.

In that context, Best Wallet is one of several new entrants designing their product around a card from day one, not as an afterthought.

The goal is to fuse the simplicity of a neobank app with the composability of DeFi – so your wallet + card becomes your main financial hub, not just a sidecar to a centralized exchange.

Read our full Best Wallet review here. 

Why Best Wallet’s “Best Card” Bet Stands Out

Where many wallets focus on a single pain point – like cheaper swaps or NFT galleries – Best Wallet is going after the full stack: custody, discovery, trading, and eventually payments.

The project is aiming for 40% of the crypto wallet market by the end of 2026, positioning itself as the easiest, safest option with the broadest benefits.

Technically, the platform leans on Fireblocks’ MPC-CMP infrastructure for its non-custodial wallet, targeting institutional-grade key management in a mobile-first app.

That means private keys are never stored in one place, reducing single points of failure while still letting you manage multi-wallet portfolios and thousands of tokens from a single interface.

The team is also building an Upcoming Tokens portal for vetted presales and early-stage launches, plus a Rubic-powered DEX aggregator routing orders over 330 DEXs, and 30 cross-chain bridges.

In practice, that could let you discover a new token, buy into its presale, then later spend profits through a future Best Card – without leaving the Best Wallet ecosystem.

The Best Wallet Token ($BEST) presale has already raised over $17.5M, with $BEST currently priced at $0.026005.

The long-term perspective is tempting to say the least.

Based on Best Wallet’s present and upcoming features and the high investor participation during the presale phase, our price prediction for $BEST hints at a potential $0.62 in 2026. This price point could turn to $0.82 by 2030, possibly higher once the service hits the mainstream.

In terms of raw profit, we’re talking about a 1-year ROI of 2,284% and a 5-year one of 3,053% or higher.

To get ahead of that curve, you can explore the ecosystem now and, if it fits your thesis, read our guide on how to buy $BEST today. The presale is set to end in two days, so the opportunity window is nearly closed.

Purchase your $BEST on the official presale page now.

This isn’t financial advice. DYOR before investing.

Authored by Bogdan Patru, Bitcoinist: https://bitcoinist.com/kraken-launches-crypto-card-for-eu-a-best-wallet-could-follow

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson used his late-November 25 livestream to argue that, despite the recent hack, FBI drama and social-media firestorms, “overall, Cardano is really healthy.” He insisted that the protocol side of the recent incident is largely behind them, saying, “we recovered… we’re on the other side of it, we’re in cleanup mode,” and claimed Cardano will “finish pretty strong towards the end of the year.” The revival he sketched rests on Midnight, RealFi, a renewed DeFi push and a more aggressive scaling roadmap.

Hoskinson Predicts A 2026 Cardano Revival

At the core is Midnight’s Glacier Drop. Reading from a “State of the Network” memo prepared by the Midnight Foundation, Hoskinson said the airdrop “was the largest distribution event in the history of cryptocurrencies,” stressing, “this is not puffery, we have the numbers.” The Scavenger Mine phase closed on November 20 “with over 4.5 billion NIGHT claims registered across more than 8 million participating addresses.” He called the architecture “a new standard for token distribution” that combines “a broad community-driven allocation” with mechanisms “to increase fairness and systemic integrity.”

The airdrop now shifts into a 450-day redemption phase starting December 8, during which NIGHT unlocks in four equal installments. A “lost and found” mechanism lets users who later recover private keys still claim, which Hoskinson openly framed as an incentive for custodial platforms: “

As Midnight goes up in value, they realize that they can redeem on behalf of their users and do an exchange distribution and take their cut.” He said Kraken, OKX, Bitpanda and NBX will distribute NIGHT to eligible KYC’d users, so “tens of millions potentially could be viable.” December 8 is also the token’s trading debut, which he described as bringing “tier one listings for the first time ever for a Cardano native asset,” ahead of a federated Midnight mainnet in Q1.

Hoskinson argued that Midnight is more than a high-profile airdrop; it is the lever that will force Cardano’s stalled DeFi pipeline to move. Looking back at 2024, he said there were KPIs they “hit very strongly,” such as launching the on-chain Treasury, making the first Treasury payout and fully decentralising the Constitutional Committee, but admitted that “we lagged behind in integrations and the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. It just couldn’t get coordinated and done.”

With Midnight in production, he claimed that in 2026 “there’s no optionality. It must get done. An exceedingly aggressive organization is basically forcing that to get done whether people like it or not, kicking and screaming.” He underlined the different posture he expects from the new entity: “The Midnight Foundation will be an active participant in DeFi, unlike the Cardano Foundation… that alone is going to bring a lot of TVL.”

RealFi is billed as the second engine of that revival. Hoskinson spotlighted RealFi, a lending platform that, he said, has already issued “over 1 million loans in Kenya and Uganda with my money just to test our credit model and our MFI relationships and how we process these types of things.” These are fast 30- to 90-day micro-loans that are now being “translated… into the DeFi world to be launched on Cardano.” He predicted RealFi “is going to be the single biggest driver along with Midnight for TVL and transactions on Cardano in the Cardano ecosystem.” RealFi, he added, represents “the aggregation of 10 years of careful thinking about how to do” banking the unbanked at scale.

Scaling And Cross-Chain Efforts

On the scaling side, Hoskinson said the Leios team is “building up faster than any other team we’ve had,” declaring, “we got to get Leios out next year, there’s no if, ands, buts about it.” Hydra, he noted, is already in mainnet use “with Delta DeFi, the Glacier Drop, Hydra Doom as well as the vending machine project,” and IOHK has been meeting with core contributors “about how we can unify the Hydra community and ecosystem together… so we can have dapp-by-dapp acceleration.”

He said upcoming work on StarStream, Plutus V4 and Aiken, together with Leios “at the base ledger,” is intended to “speed things up tremendously.” Having “learned our lesson,” he said, future base-layer and L2 components will be co-developed “hand and glove” rather than with the long lag that separated Cardano and Hydra.

Midnight’s reach is also meant to be cross-chain. Hoskinson reiterated that “the raison d’être of Midnight is it’s a layer two to everybody,” but said bridges will open gradually, roughly every two months, each one enabling “a hybrid dapp” on a new ecosystem and creating “a nice constant news cycle.” Behind the recent meme exchanges with Solana, he claimed, “we’re already talking about Midnight on Solana for privacy for Solana contracts and all types of RWAs,” before adding, “the reality is we’re all friends now.”

Hoskinson closed by acknowledging that 2025 “has been an incredibly, incredibly tough year,” citing more than 200 days of travel, four deaths “close to me” and an ongoing struggle with weight and stress, but insisted he is “doing okay.” The point of enduring that, he argued, is precisely the long-term revival he now claims has begun. “We can do anything if we put our mind to it,” he said. “We know our KPIs. We know what to do. And we know how to get it done. And we have wonderful products like Midnight to represent that. Lace to represent that. RealFi to represent that. Cardano to represent that.”

At press time, ADA traded at $0.4238.

Swedish fintech firm Klarna has entered the cryptocurrency space with the announcement of a USD stablecoin, set to roll out in 2026.

Klarna To Launch Stablecoin On Tempo Blockchain

As announced in a press release, Klarna has launched its stablecoin on Tempo’s testnet. The stablecoin, called KlarnaUSD, is backed one-to-one by the US Dollar, and will be available to the public in 2026.

Klarna is a global digital bank and payments provider headquartered in Sweden, with the US hosting its largest userbase. The stablecoin debut represents the first venture of the fintech company into digital assets.

KlarnaUSD is built using Bridge’s Open Issuance, a platform that allows businesses to launch and manage their own stablecoins. It runs on Tempo, a blockchain created by payments processor Stripe and crypto investment firm Paradigm that advertises itself as being designed for payments.

Stripe also owns Bridge after its acquisition earlier in the year. “The partnership deepens an already extensive relationship between Klarna and Stripe, which spans payments infrastructure across Klarna’s 26 markets globally,” noted the announcement.

Since the blockchain allows for quick and cheap payments, Klarna believes that stablecoins could be a way to cut down on cross-border transaction fee costs, which are estimated to cost merchants and consumers $120 billion annually.

Stablecoins have been gaining more adoption across the globe, with positive regulation coming from various governments this year. Management consulting firm McKinsey has estimated that transactions related to these fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies now touch $27 trillion a year, and could eclipse legacy payment networks before the decade is over.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna co-founder and CEO, said:

With 114 million customers and $112 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone

Currently, Klarna is prototyping the stablecoin on Tempo’s testnet, but it will not be open publicly until the mainnet launch next year. The move appears to only be a beginning in the cryptocurrency sector for the buy-now-pay-later firm, as the press release has teased the reveal of its next partner in the coming weeks.

In some other news, CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has spotted a curious transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain. The move in question induced a spike of 80,472 on the long-term holder SOPR, an indicator that tracks the profit-loss ratio of transfers involving coins from dormant hands (155+ days of holding time).

At the time the transaction occurred, BTC was trading around $84,000. Considering the profit-loss ratio of the move was 80,472, the coins must have had a cost basis close to $1.

Maartunn dug into blockchain data and found that the transfer came from a wallet that originally held 13 BTC mined back in 2013, and has been selling roughly 1 BTC every year since 2018.

BTC Price

Bitcoin recovered above $89,000 on Monday, but the coin has since seen a setback as it’s now back at $86,200.

South Korea’s long-awaited stablecoin legislation risks being delayed until next year, as financial authorities brawl with the Bank of Korea (BOK) over the role of banks in the sector.

BOK, Financial Regulators In Disagreement

On Tuesday, Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the highly anticipated stablecoin framework, which is expected to come by the end of 2025, seems unlikely to pass this year, arguing that while regulators aim to open the market to tech companies, the central bank insists that the financial institutions should hold a majority stake in the issuance of any won-pegged token.

According to the local news media outlet, the BOK and regulators agree that banks must be involved in the issuance of won-pegged tokens, but differ on the extent of the financial institutions’ role.

The central bank is pushing for a consortium of banks owning at least 51% of any stablecoin issuer seeking regulatory approval. Meanwhile, regulators are reportedly willing to take a chance at innovating Korea’s financial structure, involving diverse players in the process.

Korea JoongAng Daily affirmed that, “even if the two sides agree on the ownership issue, other issues remain unresolved, including limits on the total issuance amount and the regulatory framework.”

Moreover, the BOK is allegedly calling for a legally mandated interagency council to make stablecoin policy decisions by a unanimous vote. Nonetheless, financial regulators are seemingly pushing back, citing a lack of legal basis for this requirement.

In July, BOK Governor Lee Chang-yong expressed concerns about the issuance of stablecoins by non-bank entities, claiming that the digital assets could confuse monetary policies and foreign exchange regulations.

Lee asserted that “if multiple non-bank institutions issue won-pegged stablecoins, it could lead to confusion similar to that caused by private currency issuance in the 19th century,” adding that if won-pegged tokens are allowed to be issued “indiscriminately,” it may conflict with foreign exchange liberalization policies.

Last month, the central bank released a report warning that these digital assets could unlock new possibilities for the Korean economy but could also “sow the seeds of new instability.” In the report, the BOK affirmed that the promise behind stablecoin raises unrealistic expectations in the market.

“Allowing non-bank companies to issue stablecoins is essentially equivalent to permitting them to engage in narrow banking — simultaneously issuing currency and offering payment services,” the central bank claimed.

In addition, it warned that online platform companies issuing their own stablecoins could integrate payment and settlement services into their ecosystems, further consolidating “monopolistic power” and potentially altering banks’ profit structure.

Korea’s Stablecoin Sector Faces Regulatory Challenges

A BOK official, on condition of anonymity, told Korea JoongAng Daily that “banks, which are already under regulatory oversight and have extensive experience handling anti-money laundering protocols, are best positioned to serve as majority shareholders in stablecoin issuers.”

However, the report noted that financial authorities are concerned that giving a majority stake to banks could reduce participation from tech companies and constrain the Korean market’s innovation.

As reported by Bitcoinist, financial institutions in Korea have been preparing for two potential scenarios. Notably, the sector has allegedly explored a business model in which banks establish a joint venture to collectively issue stablecoins, while also contacting various non-bank companies to prepare for the upcoming framework.

The regulatory standoff has seemingly left the market in limbo, with some tech companies actively preparing to secure approval while others remain cautious due to the unclear regulatory direction.

An official at a fintech company revealed that “there’s doubt about whether a won-based stablecoin will catch on, and with no clarity on approval rules, most firms are taking a wait-and-see approach.”

Korea JoongAng Daily cited a recent report by Hashed Open Research, which argued that “to maintain competitiveness in the digital economy, Korea should adopt a capital market-led structure instead of a bank-centered one,” similar to major issuers such as Tether and Circle.

Kim Sang-bong, an economics professor at Hansung University, considers that “to earn public trust, stablecoins can’t be left entirely in the hands of tech firms, and financial institutions must be involved.”

“But if banks dominate, innovation could be stifled. A more realistic solution may be to start by granting licenses to card companies and other firms focused on payments,” Kim concluded.

Amid ongoing speculation regarding the true identity of Bitcoin’s (BTC) creator, new analysis suggests that Jack Dorsey, the entrepreneur known for founding Twitter and currently serving as the CEO of Block, could potentially be Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Surprising Links Between Jack Dorsey And Bitcoin’s Satoshi

During Square’s investor day last week, Dorsey was directly questioned about his possible connection to Satoshi. Jeff Cantwell, an analyst at Seaport Research, posed the pointed inquiry: “Jack, this probably is the most important question you’ll ever get asked from the sell side — are you Satoshi Nakamoto?” 

In response, Dorsey remarked that the identity of Satoshi has become irrelevant, emphasizing that Bitcoin is now an open protocol managed by a community. He added, “If it was important to Satoshi, there is a simple way they can prove who they are, so we’ll wait for that day.”

This response prompted analysts from Baird to investigate potential coincidences linking Dorsey to Satoshi. They discovered several notable parallels.

For instance, the first post on the BitcoinTalk forum by Satoshi was made on November 19, which also happens to be Dorsey’s birthday and coincided with the date of Block’s investor day. Block’s CFO, Amrita Ahuja, noted, “He may or may not be Satoshi, but it is his birthday today.”

Furthermore, the Baird team identified important early Bitcoin milestones that align with the birthdays of Dorsey’s parents. They pointed out that Dorsey was involved in the “cypherpunk” mailing list as early as 1996 and possesses programming skills in C and Python, languages featured in the initial Bitcoin codebase. 

Additionally, an early Bitcoin address reportedly includes a sequence, “jD2m,” which some interpret as “Jack Dorsey 2 Mint,” referencing Mint Plaza, where he lived.

Mining Patterns And IP Address

The analysts also observed a notable change in Satoshi’s mining patterns that allegedly coincided with Dorsey founding Block in February 2009. They highlighted that he visited Iraq with the State Department in April of that same year. 

Reports indicate that in early 2009, Satoshi inadvertently logged into an Internet Relay Chat using an IP address linked to California during a period when Dorsey resided in the Bay Area.

An essential aspect of this speculation centers around Satoshi’s wallet containing approximately 1 million Bitcoin, which have remained untouched since their mining. 

This fact aligns with Dorsey’s previous assertion that the mystery surrounding Satoshi’s identity could be resolved quite simply. Forbes estimates Dorsey’s wealth at around $4.7 billion, suggesting he has no need to access those long-dormant holdings, currently worth about $87 billion.

NewsBTC reported on Monday that Satoshi’s assets are now estimated to be valued at nearly $96 billion, positioning this mysterious figure just below US billionaire Bill Gates, who is estimated to have a net worth of about $104 billion.

The quest to unveil Satoshi’s identity has led to a variety of candidates, including the late software engineer Hal Finney, systems engineer Dorian Nakamoto, computer scientist Nick Szabo, and Hashcash inventor Adam Back. 

In 2016, Australian cryptographer Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi but failed to provide compelling evidence, leaving many skeptical of his assertions. A British High Court ruling last year further undermined Wright’s claims.

BTC is currently trading at $86,540, down more than 31% from its all-time high reached back in October and more than 8% year-to-date (YTD). 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

On-chain data shows Bitcoin sharks and whales have observed their population grow during the recent market downturn, while retail has capitulated.

Bitcoin Sharks & Whales Have Been Growing In Number Recently

In a new post on X, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has talked about the latest trend in the Supply Distribution of the key Bitcoin investors. The “Supply Distribution” is an indicator that tells us, among other things, the number of addresses that belong to a particular cohort.

Investors are divided into these groups based on the amount of the asset that they are carrying in their balance. For example, the 1 to 10 coins cohort includes all wallets with at least 1 and at most 10 BTC. The Supply Distribution for this group would determine the total number of addresses on the network that fall inside the range.

In the context of the current topic, the range of interest is the 100+ BTC one, equivalent to about $8.6 million at the current exchange rate. It includes two key investor cohorts known as the sharks and whales. The sharks and whales are entities that can carry some degree of influence on the blockchain due to their large holdings (with whales naturally being the more important of the two), so their behavior can often be worth keeping an eye on.

Since the all-time high (ATH) in October, Bitcoin has been following a downtrend, and as the chart below shows, the sharks and whales initially reacted by exiting as their Supply Distribution registered a sharp drop.

Interestingly, however, as Bitcoin’s decline has accelerated since November 11th, the Supply Distribution of the sharks and whales has witnessed a reversal. Today, there are 91 more investors of this size on the network compared to the low earlier in the month. This represents an increase of 0.47% for the metric, which, while not that high, is a sign that big money holders have been slowly coming back in to buy the crash.

Santiment has also revealed that the smallest of investors on the network (holding less than 0.1 BTC or $8,700) have seen their population shrink at the same time as this growth in the sharks and whales.

This trend could be a potential indication that the small hands have been capitulating after the bearish momentum, and large entities have been buying coins off them. “Retail capitulation will generally play out well for crypto prices in the long run,” explained the analytics firm.

BTC Price

Bitcoin displayed a brief recovery above $89,000 on Monday, but the coin has since retraced back to $87,000.

China has quietly worked its way back into the top three global Bitcoin miners, holding about 14% of the network’s total computing power.

Reports have disclosed that this share is roughly equal to 145 EH/s (exahashes per second), putting the country behind the United States and Russia in raw hashrate.

The shift comes despite an official crackdown on mining that started in 2021, when many operations moved overseas.

According to data from Hashrate Index and other tracking services, the rebound is real and measurable. Some mining activity now appears to be running in Xinjiang and Sichuan, where power costs can be low at certain times.

Based on reports, operators are using a mix of legacy farms, small private setups and cloud-like arrangements that mask mining as other forms of compute work.

Why Bitcoin Mining Returned To China

Cheap electricity is one driver. Another is that factory and data center capacity can be reused without large new investments. Manufacturers that supply mining rigs also report stronger sales back home.

Canaan, a maker of mining machines, has seen a pickup in Chinese demand. That suggests money is again flowing into hardware and setup, not just into restarting old machines.

At the same time, revenue from mining has been under pressure. Hashprice — the estimated payout per unit of hashrate — fell to record lows this year as Bitcoin prices and fees weakened and mining difficulty rose.

That decline puts strain on smaller players and makes efficiency and low-cost power more important than ever.

What This Means For The Network

A return of significant mining capacity to China raises two kinds of concern. One is over concentration: if too much hashrate clusters in particular regions or systems, the network’s geographic diversity shrinks.

The other is enforcement uncertainty. Mining remains banned on paper in many parts of China, yet enforcement appears uneven. As a result, some operations run under the radar while others run in partnerships with local firms that provide energy and space.

Publicly available maps track hashrate by country, but exact figures can shift fast. The best current snapshot points to China at 14% and about 145 EH/s of capacity, but those numbers will change as miners add or remove machines.

The United States and Russia remain the largest hosts, and that fact does limit immediate systemic risk.

What Analysts Are Watching

Analysts will watch three things closely: whether Chinese authorities change enforcement, how hardware makers like Canaan perform in coming quarters, and whether hashprice recovers if Bitcoin’s price strengthens.

If policy softens in some regions, more visible growth could follow. If enforcement tightens, activity could scatter again, just as it did after the 2021 ban.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin is now trading roughly 30% below its $126,000 all-time high, reflecting a market gripped by selling pressure, uncertainty, and fading confidence. The sharp downturn has shaken investors who expected continued upside, and many analysts are beginning to argue that the cycle has already peaked.

Price action remains fragile, with buyers struggling to regain control and momentum indicators pointing to exhaustion rather than strength. Yet, despite the bearish tone, there are emerging signs that the current phase may be approaching an inflection point.

According to top analyst Axel Adler, both the Bitcoin Bull-Bear Index and the Futures Flow Index remain firmly within a bearish regime, signaling that market structure still favors downside risk. However, Adler highlights that Bitcoin is currently trading 11% below its 30-day fair value of $99.2K, suggesting a notable disconnect between price and underlying derivatives positioning.

This divergence has historically appeared near corrective exhaustion zones rather than early-stage declines. Additionally, short-term dynamics across both indices indicate the first signs of an attempted reversal, with selling pressure slowly weakening and momentum beginning to stabilize.

Bearish Structure Weakens as Bitcoin Attempts to Stabilize

The daily Bitcoin bull and bear structure index shows a sustained shift to the bearish side since November 11, reflecting the strongest downside momentum of this cycle. The red BEAR line moved deep into negative territory at -36%, signaling persistent dominance of selling pressure.

However, the indicator is now starting to reverse, suggesting that the most aggressive phase of bearish control may be fading. At the same time, Bitcoin is consolidating around $87,000 after briefly plunging to $80,000, marking an early attempt to stabilize and rebuild support following the sharp decline.

Fast versions of the index highlight increased volatility, with the metric rising from -43 to -20 — a clear sign that bear pressure is easing. Although this does not yet indicate a trend reversal, it reflects a meaningful reduction in downside intensity. In the futures market, the index remains in a bearish regime as well, with values rising but still failing to break above the key 55 threshold. A move above that level would signal the first structural attempt to transition back into a bullish phase.

The fair value level, currently positioned at $99,000, shows Bitcoin trading $11,000 below equilibrium, reinforcing undervaluation. Together, both indices indicate that the market is attempting to exit the bearish regime it has been trapped in for more than a month, though confirmation will require stronger follow-through.

Weekly Structure Tests Key Support Amid Attempted Stabilization

Bitcoin’s weekly chart shows the market attempting to stabilize after a sharp decline from its all-time high near $126,000. Price is currently trading around $87,300, reflecting a significant drawdown of more than 30% from the peak. The recent candle structure highlights a temporary rebound after tagging lows near $80,000, suggesting that buyers have stepped in at a critical support zone.

The 100-week moving average, sitting close to current levels, is acting as an important dynamic support and has historically served as a threshold separating bullish continuation from deeper cyclical breakdowns. Despite the bounce, the price remains below the 50-week moving average, which is beginning to curl downward, signaling weakening trend strength.

Volume increased noticeably during the selloff, reflecting capitulation behavior and aggressive repositioning among market participants.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Loses $85K as Coinbase Premium Stays Negative for 21 Straight Days – Details

If Bitcoin maintains support above this zone and reclaims the 50-week moving average, a recovery toward the $95,000–$102,000 region becomes plausible. However, if selling pressure resumes and the price loses the 100-week moving average, the next downside magnet sits near the $75,000–$78,000 range.

The weekly structure shows a market in correction but not yet in a confirmed macro reversal, with the upcoming candles likely determining whether the cycle continues or breaks down further.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin’s (BTC) latest rebound from a seven-month low has revived debate over whether the market is nearing a deeper downturn or preparing for a fresh reversal.

With the price hovering around the $87,000 range after a brief dip to $81,000, on-chain data, macro shifts, and ETF flows are painting a picture of both caution and opportunity.

Whales Accumulate as Retail Capitulates

New on-chain figures from Santiment reveal a sharp divergence between large and small Bitcoin holders.

Since November 11, wallets holding at least 100 BTC have surged, adding 91 new large addresses even as prices trended downward. This growing whale accumulation has historically appeared near long-term market bottoms, suggesting that strategic buying occurs during periods of weakness.

Conversely, wallets holding 0.1 BTC or less continue to decline, reflecting elevated fear among retail investors.

Santiment notes that heavy retail selling often sets the stage for later recoveries, once large entities absorb the supply and market pressure eases. The pattern mirrors earlier cycles in which deeper retail capitulation preceded major trend reversals.

Mixed Bitcoin (BTC) Technical Signals

Several key indicators are offering conflicting signals on Bitcoin’s next move. CryptoQuant data indicate that Bitcoin’s Sharpe Ratio is dipping into its “green zone,” suggesting that risk-adjusted returns are becoming more attractive, similar to levels observed before major uptrends in 2019, 2020, and 2022.

Capriole Investments’ “Bitcoin Heater” metric has also returned to deep green, suggesting strong potential for upside movement.

Yet not all metrics signal immediate recovery. The aSOPR (Adjusted Spent Output Profit Ratio), a reliable cyclical indicator, has spent nearly two years consolidating without reaching the “red line” levels that marked tops in previous bull runs.

Analysts warn that a decisive breakout of this long consolidation pattern is imminent, though the direction remains unknown.

Macro Forces and ETF Outflows Fuel Uncertainty

Arthur Hayes believes that Bitcoin may retest the low $80,000s but expects the $80K level to hold as firm support, especially as the Federal Reserve ends quantitative tightening on December 1.

Markets are also pricing in a 77% chance of an interest rate cut at the December 9–10 meeting, driving renewed optimism across risk assets.

However, institutional flows tell a different story. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has recorded a staggering $2.35 billion in withdrawals this month, its largest outflow since launch. The wave of redemptions underscores weakening confidence among big-money players amid price volatility and macro uncertainty.

Even so, Bitcoin’s recent 1.3% recovery to $88K, alongside strong rebounds in Ethereum, XRP, and major altcoins, shows that buyers are stepping back in.

Analysts warn that volatility will remain elevated, however, if whale accumulation continues and macroeconomic conditions ease, Bitcoin may yet defend the crucial $80K support and attempt another push toward the $90K barrier.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Shanaka Anslem Perera, a crypto pundit and ideologist, has just unveiled a staggering financial miscalculation that could shake the Bitcoin (BTC) market. Perera has dissected the enormous Bitcoin holdings of business intelligence company, Strategy Inc., exposing structural flaws in the firm’s approach to corporate crypto accumulation. The pundit’s report details how a financial architecture designed to secure hundreds of thousands of BTC may be mathematically and operationally unsustainable, posing a risk to both Strategy and the market. 

Strategy’s $48 Billion Bitcoin Error

Perera’s report, published on Monday, November 24, highlights Strategy’s disclosure that it currently holds 649,870 Bitcoin, purchased at an average of $74,433 per coin, totaling $48.4 billion. This massive holding represents about 3.26% of BTC’s maximum supply. The crypto pundit noted that the accumulation was financed through complex capital market instruments, including $43.1 billion raised via convertible debt with near-zero interest, high-yield perpetual preferred securities, and equity offerings issued at market premiums. 

According to Perera, on paper, the mechanics behind Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation were flawless. However, in practice, the structure is now approaching levels of unsustainability that could break the crypto market. The analyst disclosed that Strategy’s accounting reveals a concerning reality for its future. He notes that the company has only $54 million in cash against $700 million in annual preferred dividends. 

Perera likens Strategy’s structure to a Ponzi Scheme, noting that the software business reportedly generates negative cash flow, forcing it to rely on continuous capital raises to service existing debt. He said that the firm’s business model worked previously because equity trades were at a premium to net asset value, enabling recursive Bitcoin accumulation. However, that premium fell to match its value in November 2025, stopping the cycle and putting the company at risk of dilution. 

Furthermore, Perera revealed that preferred stocks made Strategy’s situation much worse. According to his report, dividend rates rose previously from 9% to 10.5% to attract investors as share prices fell. However, he warns that any further declines could force the company to sell its Bitcoin holdings to pay dividends, which goes against the strategy behind its BTC bet. 

Moreover, upcoming events like the MSCI index in January 2026 could force Strategy to sell billions of Bitcoin, potentially becoming a nightmare for the crypto market. Perera highlighted that past events, such as the October 10 crash, when $19 billion in positions were wiped out, highlight the risk of large-scale corporate Bitcoin holding. 

Large-Scale BTC Sales Could Threaten Market Stability

Perera has also challenged Strategy’s recent claim of 71 years of dividend coverage, which the company calculated by dividing its total Bitcoin holdings by annual dividend obligations. The crypto analyst disclosed that these claims ignore market realities, tax implications, and the liquidity limits of sovereign-scale BTC sales. 

He pointed out that Strategy assumes they can sell $1 billion of Bitcoin annually without affecting the price. However, the October 10 crypto crash proved that this assumption is false, as the market is unable to absorb large-scale selling during periods of stress. 

Given the risky situation, Perera predicts that by March 2026, the market will deliver a verdict. Strategy may either have to restructure and shrink to survive, or the corporate Bitcoin treasury model could collapse as a failed experiment. During this period, Strategy could sell a portion of its Bitcoin, which could put pressure on the BTC price.