bitcoinist.com

XRP is now moving into a new chapter marked by the arrival of Spot XRP ETFs, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes this is about to cause a rush toward the asset.

Garlinghouse’s latest comment about an incoming rush to XRP arrives at a moment when the cryptocurrency has been struggling with bearish price action. The cryptocurrency has spent the past several days trading in a downtrend, even as market participants continue to digest the recent launch of the Bitwise Spot XRP ETF on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Ripple CEO’s XRP ETF Rush Message

The market is still adjusting to the launch of Bitwise’s Spot XRP ETF on the New York Stock Exchange, a listing that marks a significant step forward for institutional access to the asset. Bitwise’s product now sits alongside Canary’s XRPC ETF on the NASDAQ, making it the second US-based Spot XRP ETF to go live. 

This expansion of regulated XRP investment vehicles has pushed XRP into a much smaller category of cryptocurrencies that have secured full exchange-listed status in the United States.

The arrival of a second fully regulated product is being viewed as an early sign that the XRP ETF surrounding is just beginning to take shape. It also signals that issuers are becoming more confident in the regulatory footing surrounding XRP, especially after years of uncertainty.

Responding to Bitwise’s launch on the social media platform X, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse described this moment as a turning point that could open the door to a rush of new interest in XRP ETFs. 

Ripple CEO’s message was a mix of congratulations for Bitwise and a hint that more activity may follow, and this is only the start of a much larger movement in the XRP investment landscape. “The pre-thanksgiving rush (shall we say, ‘turkey trot’!?) for XRP ETFs starts now,” he said.

What The Rush Could Mean For XRP Going Forward

The question now is how this new ETF environment will influence XRP’s market performance. Bitwise’s XRP ETF first trading saw $105.36 million in inflows, bringing the cumulative total net inflow of XRP ETFs to $410.76 million.

So far, the token has not responded with the kind of explosive rally that some expected around the ETF launches. Price action is somewhat restrained, having broken below the $2 price level despite the new investment access points.

The next phase could arrive sooner than expected because several additional XRP ETFs are positioned to launch in the coming days. 

One of the most closely watched is the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, which Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart confirmed is scheduled to begin trading as early as Monday, November 24th, alongside Grayscale’s Dogecoin ETF. Seyffart also highlighted that Franklin Templeton’s XRP ETF may debut on the same day. The clustering of these launches, arriving just days apart, reflects the wave of products Garlinghouse referred to as the “pre-Thanksgiving rush for XRP ETFs.”

At the Midnight Summit, Cardano founder and Input Output Global CEO Charles Hoskinson set out a staged rollout for Midnight, a privacy-and-identity network he describes as crypto’s next generational layer. In a Dapp Central interview, he positioned Midnight as an extender of existing ecosystems rather than a competitor: “We’re here to make your life easier and allow you to do new things your network doesn’t do… and you can pay in that network’s token,” pointing to interoperability with major chains such as Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin and XRP.

Cardano Sidechain Launches In Four Stages

Hoskinson’s deployment plan is a four-gate launch intended to move from distribution to full decentralization through sequential upgrades. The first gate is liquidity and token delivery. The Cardano founder said NIGHT claims and initial market trading begin on December 8, 2025, the point at which Midnight becomes price-discoverable: “They get the tokens, they can trade them on exchanges and DEXes… it creates a price signal […] it’s on CoinMarketCap, it’s a real thing.” He tied this to the Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine funnels, estimating participation at “well more than a million users,” while acknowledging wallet counts don’t map cleanly to individuals.

The second gate is a federated mainnet targeted for Q1 2026. Hoskinson described a production environment with mixed operators—some nodes run by IOG and some by external enterprises, including a Fortune 500 participant—so Midnight’s builder base can deploy applications with real users before final decentralization. He cited more than 100 partners already building for Midnight, and summit materials likewise list federated mainnet as the next milestone after NIGHT liquidity.

The third gate is an incentivized testnet to onboard stake pool operators and validate Midnight’s final consensus protocol. Hoskinson said the protocol has formal liveness and safety proofs and targets roughly 5,000 transactions per second with sub-second blocks, but has never been deployed on Substrate. “It would be irresponsible just to kind of launch that out,” he said, arguing that both the algorithm and operator tooling must be proven under incentives before mainnet adoption.

The fourth gate follows once the incentivized testnet is stable: a hard fork into the final mainnet consensus and a completed end-to-end network. The Cardano founder expects this phase to coincide with broad exchange access and a transition from Cardano-adjacent rollout to general cross-chain privacy services: “Midnight wakes up… to a Midnight-Ethereum, Midnight-Solana, Midnight-Bitcoin […] Midnight-XRP.” In his framing, this is when Midnight becomes a neutral privacy layer that other ecosystems consume rather than a single-community product.

Midnight’s adoption strategy hinges on dual-token economics. NIGHT holders generate DUST, a consumable fuel for computation. Through a “capacity exchange,” DUST can be sold for other chains’ tokens or delegated by DApp builders so users can interact without first buying crypto.

Hoskinson framed this as importing Web2’s frictionless payment expectation into Web3: “If you have NIGHT […] your users […] can use your DApp for free without having a token […] That’s an entirely new thing in the cryptocurrency space.”

Hoskinson also argued that AI makes privacy economically existential. He said models are “hoovering up… your likeness and your output,” enabling uncompensated digital replicas and accelerating job displacement: “People realize this is existential now […] it’s I no longer have a job.”

In response, Midnight’s selective-disclosure stack is meant to let users reclaim data ownership and use zero-knowledge proofs to verify properties—such as humanity or eligibility—without revealing identity, countering what he described as bot-heavy online participation.

Governance is presented as a correction to Cardano’s institutional friction. Hoskinson said Midnight’s code governance will be housed at the Linux Foundation and executed by a KPI-driven Midnight Foundation, aiming for clearer accountability and faster delivery.

Hoskinson summarized the endpoint as a “crypto triumvirate”: “Bitcoin is the trust and value layer […] Cardano the computation layer […] Midnight the privacy and identity layer.” If the four gates land as described—December 8 liquidity, Q1 2026 federated mainnet, Q2 2026 incentivized testnet, then a final mainnet hard fork—Midnight’s cross-ecosystem privacy thesis will move from roadmap to live infrastructure through 2026.

At press time, the Cardano (ADA) token traded at $0.3898.

Market expert and software engineer Vincent Van Code has issued a direct warning that investors may soon lose the ability to buy native XRP through direct traditional retail channels. He outlined an upcoming shift in how the cryptocurrency will be accessed, pointing to a future where the altcoin is obtained only through institutional products. 

Why Buying XRP Could Become Impossible In The Future

On Thursday, Van Code announced via an X post that XRP is on track to become inaccessible for direct retail purchase as the market transitions toward institutionally controlled vehicles. He predicts that within a couple of years, major custodians will hold nearly all native XRP, leaving retail investors to gain exposure only through ETFs or bank-managed market marker style products. 

The market expert ties this outlook to a broader 15-year roadmap he believes is steadily unfolding and expected to reach completion by 2030. He described a future in which XRP would eventually be held mainly by major custodians acting on behalf of banks, fund managers, and other large financial entities. According to him, retail investors would interact with XRP only through products managed by these institutions rather than holding the asset in their own wallets. 

Van Code also projected that the altcoin could become a wholesale token used strictly for settlement, custody, and transfers between financial institutions. In this model, the majority of retail market participation could shift away from the cryptocurrency itself, instead relying on ETF products that track its performance without granting direct ownership.

He referred to this potential evolution as the endgame for both the XRP Ledger and its native token, XRP. He also stressed that many holders have not fully grasped the scale of this potentially ongoing transition or the significance of the token they hold. 

Where To Store Your Coins Ahead Of The Transition

Following Van Code’s prediction, a crypto community member asked where XRP should be held ahead of these potential market changes, noting conflicting advice on exchanges, cold wallets, and possible bank custody. Van Code responded by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each option. 

He stated that crypto exchanges offer simplicity for users with limited technical knowledge but require trust that the platform remains solvent. On the other hand, cold wallets provide complete control and ownership of private keys but introduce higher risks of user error, permanent loss, and estate-planning complications.

Van Code noted that ETFs are likely the safest option from a security and inheritance standpoint because they rely on established stock-register infrastructure with bank-grade protection and compliance. However, they come with fees, may not allow conversion back to native XRP, and could trigger capital gain taxes if a holder sells their existing tokens to buy into an ETF. 

Ultimately, the market expert explained that the best place to store XRP depends on the holders’ comfort level, technical knowledge, discipline in managing seed phrases, and the amount of tokens held. He warned against buying secondhand cold storage devices and emphasized the importance of verifying authenticity before adding value to the wallet. 

The latest Bitcoin (BTC) price crash has brought renewed focus to alarming forecasts, including one from pseudonymous crypto market expert Symbiote. After exiting his BTC positions at $102,000, the analyst is now predicting a potential crash to $40,000. His bearish outlook comes as the leading cryptocurrency continues to weaken, recently falling below $85,000. 

A $40,000 Bitcoin Crash And A Massive Altcoin Season

After making headlines for selling his BTC at $102,000 in December 2024, Symbiote is now projecting a sharp market downturn, with Bitcoin potentially retracing to $40,000. Currently, the cryptocurrency is trading above $82,000, meaning a decline to this bearish level would eliminate more than 50% of its value. 

Symbiote predicts that the next significant buying opportunity could emerge near $40,000, highlighting a disciplined strategy of profit-taking over chasing the market top. He emphasized that selling his BTC at $102,000 may have seemed early to some, considering its price reached an ATH above $126,000 in October this year. However, exiting at that level allowed him to avoid risking a large portion of gains for an extra 20% profit—a mistake that often traps new investors. 

According to the analyst, new traders tend to enter the market with rigid targets, expecting Bitcoin or Ethereum to sell at extreme highs. This strategy often results in losses, as the market rarely follows perfectly predictable patterns. Rather than waiting for the top, Symbiote advises traders to take profits as prices gradually rise, helping them secure gains while reducing exposure to sudden downturns. 

Looking forward, the analyst expects two major trends to define the crypto market in the near term. Firstly, Bitcoin’s potential crash to $40,000, which the analyst initially forecasted in 2024. Secondly, Symbiote predicts the biggest altcoin season could trigger widespread rallies even as Bitcoin faces significant downward pressure. 

BTC Remains Under Pressure As Support Breaks

Bitcoin has broken its previous support level around $85,000 and is now trading more than 34% below its all-time high of over $126,000. Crypto analyst Ted Pillows highlights that over the past few weeks, Bitcoin has pierced major support zones with little consolidation, exposing deeper pockets of liquidity between $81,000 and $88,000.

He has identified $81,000 as the next critical support, warning that Bitcoin must reclaim $88,000 soon to prevent a continuation of its downtrend toward April lows. His chart outlines potential recovery paths from each red support band and shows the downside risk if the price fails to bounce. 

The lowest support band lies between $78,400 and $79,800, suggesting a potential correction area if the price continues to fall. On the bright side, if Bitcoin can recover and breach $98,000, the next upside target is around $101,972.

Even with the ongoing waning action in the price of Ethereum, interest and demand for the leading altcoin do not seem to be slowing down. Several investors are currently exhibiting heightened willingness to stake a portion of their ETH holdings, reaching one of its highest periods ever.

Record Ethereum Still Locked In Staking Contracts

Over the past month, Ethereum’s price has experienced significant volatility, resulting in a sharp decline. Despite the prolonged bearish movement, one thing is certain: there has been a steady increase in the amount of ETH being staked. 

Leon Waidmann, the head of research at On-Chain Foundation, has delved into the network’s performance over time, revealing a sustained willingness among investors to stake part of their ETH holdings. According to the market expert, ETH staking activity is showcasing strength, reaching a new all-time high. 

After hitting a new all-time high, Ethereum’s staking ecosystem has remained steadfast at the levels in the face of price swings, liquidity shifts, and shifting investor sentiment. Data shared by the expert shows that over 35 million is currently locked in validators, and the chart has barely experienced a decrease in the past few months.

In addition to remaining robust, staking participation is now emerging as one of the most powerful structural pillars bolstering Ethereum’s economic base. This large amount of ETH locked in staking contracts indicates that long-term holders, institutional validators, and infrastructure providers continue to exhibit confidence in the network’s security and reward model. 

ETH staking is not the only area witnessing heightened adoption and participation. There has also been a rise in accumulation among big or institutional investors. Large corporate firms such as Bitmine Digital continue to purchase the top altcoin at a significant rate and scale.

As of Wednesday, a wallet address linked to the treasury company was detected scooping up thousands of ETH. Executed in a single transaction, Bitmine Digital acquired more than 24,827 ETH valued at approximately $72.5 million. This massive acquisition, believed to be a strategic repositioning, suggests growing conviction in the altcoin’s long-term potential.

ETH Is Making Its Entry Into The Institutional Era

Given the heightened interest from corporate firms, Ethereum appears to be transitioning into a new era. Joseph Chalom, the Co-Chief Executive Officer (Co-CEO) of SharpLink Gaming, has commented on the current outlook of the asset, declaring that ETH is entering its institutional super cycle.

Chalom’s bold statement hinges on the fact that ETH is highly productive, yield-bearing, and increasingly becoming the backbone of finance. In the meantime, Chalom and the publicly traded company are actively working on this narrative by helping to push the transition forward.

According to the CEO, this institutional supercycle does not refer to the price, but rather to the adoption curve. One of the ways this super cycle is playing out is the tokenization of fiat currency into stablecoins, as evidenced by the substantial growth in Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.

Strategy Inc., the company long associated with Michael Saylor’s big Bitcoin bets, is facing the real risk of being dropped from major stock indexes — a move that could force billions of dollars of forced selling and change how investors get exposure to Bitcoin.

Reports show index providers are weighing new rules that would push firms with huge crypto treasuries out of traditional benchmarks.

Index Threat Looms

According to disclosures this week, JPMorgan warned that if Strategy is excluded from MSCI’s investable indexes and the Nasdaq 100, passive funds that track those benchmarks could dump close to $3 billion of the stock — and the total at risk could rise into the billions more if other index providers act.

MSCI is consulting on a proposal to exclude companies whose digital-asset holdings make up 50% or more of total assets, a threshold that would put Strategy squarely in the crosshairs of the review.

Never ₿ack Down pic.twitter.com/GZuZmR2SuL

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) November 19, 2025

Strategy Has Been Buying Aggressively

Strategy’s balance sheet is heavy with Bitcoin. Reports show the company owned about 649,870 Bitcoin as of Nov. 16, 2025, and that it bought another 8,178 BTC recently for roughly $836 million at an average price near $102,171 per coin. Those moves have kept the company tied tightly to Bitcoin’s swings.

Stock Pain And Funding Moves

The company’s stock has fallen sharply from its highs. Market coverage this week notes the company is down by roughly 68% from its record peak reached about a year ago, a drop that has tightened the link between Bitcoin price moves and Strategy’s market value. That weakness, combined with heavy crypto holdings, is what brought index providers’ scrutiny.

Capital Choices Raise New Questions

Strategy recently changed terms around equity issuance, giving itself wider leeway to sell stock even when its market valuation is weak. That can help fund more Bitcoin buys. It also raises concerns about dilution for existing shareholders and adds pressure if index-tracking funds must sell shares.

Possible Market Impact

If MSCI and others move to remove Strategy, the forced sales by index funds could push the stock lower and make it harder for the company to raise money without hurting existing holders.

JPMorgan’s analysis highlights a near-term date to watch: the index review process points to decisions expected by Jan. 15, 2026, which could mark a turning point for how public markets treat companies that sit mostly in crypto.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Crypto pundit Jake Claver recently drew XRP investors‘ attention to important tax information he believes could help them protect their wealth. Claver also offered a solution, which he indicated could help these investors even as they watch XRP potentially appreciate to as high as $100. 

Crypto Pundit Draws XRP Investors’ Attention To Important Tax Information

In an X post, Claver alluded to tax information from his company, Digital Ascension Group (DAG), which he said would become very important for XRP holders to understand. DAG explained how the IRS’s classification of crypto as property in 2014 changed everything for crypto wealth. 

The company stated that most people holding six or seven figures in XRP do not understand the implications. DAG noted that, because crypto is classified as property, every wallet is vulnerable to court orders, and that any incident relating to one’s personal life can warrant a judge ordering holders to hand over the keys to their wallets. 

 However, on the other hand, DAG stated that crypto’s classification as property also unlocked every wealth strategy that real estate families have used for centuries. This creates a step-up basis at death, allowing the heirs of XRP holders to inherit the crypto at its current market value with no capital gains owed. The company stated that this way, investors can buy XRP at $0.50, die when it hits $100, and their heirs get it at $100, with the entire capital gains eliminated. 

Meanwhile, DAG revealed that XRP holders can borrow against their holdings without selling their XRP. The company explained that these holders can take a loan at a reasonable interest rate and keep the asset while they avoid the tax bill and still have liquidity. The firm added that this was how Elon Musk bought Twitter with $40 billion borrowed against Tesla. As such, this will be the same playbook, though it is for crypto this time. 

Other Ways To Protect One’s XRP Holdings

DAG also proposed the transfer of one’s XRP holdings into a Wyoming LLC as a way to protect their crypto wealth. Investors transfer their coins into an LLC and then gain charging order protection, which means that creditors can’t touch their assets. The company explained that these creditors would have to get in line for distributions that investors never have to make, as the corporate veil protects these investors. 

Furthermore, DAG stated that investors could gift up to $13.6 million to family members without a gift tax by filing Form 709. These investors can also move their wealth out of the taxable estate while they are alive. Couples can transfer up to $27.2 million while avoiding the gift tax. 

The company also explained that investors would have to put the LLC into a revocable living trust, in which one’s spouse becomes trustee upon death and can skip the headache of probate. This eliminates the 6 to 24 months court delay and the 3% to 7% probate fees, while there won’t be public records showing what crypto assets were owned. 

DAG declared that retail investors are still treating crypto like lottery tickets while high-net-worth families are treating it exactly like commercial real estate. They are said to structure it, shield it, borrow against it, and never sell appreciating assets. The company added that property classification is the foundation for generational wealth if one actually understands what it unlocks. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.98, down over 7% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Placeholder co-founder Chris Burniske said in a Nov. 20 interview with Real Vision’s Raoul Pal that he holds a core Zcash position he “will never sell,” explicitly likening it to his long-term Bitcoin stash, even as he cautioned that ZEC’s current rally is not yet a proven structural breakout.

Pal opened by questioning whether Zcash’s surge is “just a rotational circle jerk within crypto again or is this something meaningful?” Burniske responded by foregrounding his conflict of interest: “I’ve been deeply involved within the Zcash community, so I have some bias here.” He cited personal ties and formal work with the ecosystem — “I’m friends with Zoko [Wilcox] […] I sat on […] a grants board” — and recalled that in 2016 Zcash was “the most anticipated coin” and initially traded as “a better Bitcoin,” a narrative he said “is coming back now.”

Burniske HODL’s ZCash And Bitcoin

On market structure, Burniske stressed that ZEC is not moving alone. “ZEC is ripping, but so is Dash and so is Monero […] a lot of these OG privacy coins.” While noting Zcash “has done the best,” he relayed industry chatter for why privacy assets often run late in cycles: “apparently […] some Bitcoin whales will use some of these coins to […] anonymize their profits, end of cycle, um juice a bit more return.” He emphasized this was not a firm claim: “I don’t have the hard data on this […] there’s kind of that explanation.”

For Burniske, the real signal won’t come from the current leg higher but from how ZEC behaves when liquidity compresses. “We are not going to know until or if we get a bear market and we see where these assets bottom.” His test is relative resilience versus peers: if “Dash and Monero […] go back to the bottom of their ranges but ZEC holds materially higher […] that is very strong signal to me.”

Despite that uncertainty, Burniske described a non-negotiable core holding. “I have an amount of Zcash […] that I will never sell. And I kind of treat it like an amount of Bitcoin that I will never sell.” He tied the reasoning to Bitcoin’s historical payoff curve: “The only way people did phenomenally well from Bitcoin […] is basically just being like never sell, right? The hodl mentality.” In his framing, that “portion of ZEC” is held outside cyclical trading logic.

At the same time, he separated that conviction from short-term price chasing. “Even if it keeps going parabolic, you know, I don’t trust that parabolic move. I wouldn’t chase that parabolic move.” He said he has avoided hyping the rally publicly because ZEC’s market narrative is still “unproven,” and he doesn’t want to be responsible for others buying into euphoria and later blaming him.

Burniske pointed to ZEC’s long-term chart improvement as a positive development, though not a verdict. “I love that it’s cleared its 2021 highs and it had a monthly close higher than anything it had in 2021,” calling that “a point in the right direction.”

But he also noted the asset is “basically back at its 2017 highs,” underscoring how much of Zcash’s history has been spent in violent ranges. “It’s been this wildly volatile ranging asset,” he said, describing ZEC as a “problem child” in a market where “most crypto assets are value destructive” and only a small minority are “value creative.” For now, ZEC is “kind of a Schrödinger asset.”

Fundamentally, Burniske anchored his long-term thesis in Zcash’s cryptographic pedigree. “Zoko and his team are as hardcore cypherpunks as you could come by,” he said, adding that their “contributions to zero knowledge technology are above anyone else in the industry.” Those attributes, in his view, make ZEC a credible candidate for a rising privacy premium over time, but only if markets eventually validate that premise through sustained higher lows.

In short, Burniske’s stance is two-layered: an untouchable core aligned with Bitcoin-style hoarding — “I will never sell” — and a refusal to treat the present parabolic move as confirmation. The decisive evidence, he argued, will be whether ZEC can keep its footing when the cycle turns and the privacy complex retests its real support.

Notably, Burniske highlighted ZEC relative strength in a X post on Nov. 17: “In the dying breaths of this cycle it doesn’t so much matter what ZEC goes to in USD terms from here; enough good work has already been done there. It does matter, however, at the next bottom where ZECBTC & ZECUSD consolidates. Over the last couple months, the work it’s done in ZECBTC terms is most notable to me.”

He added that Zcash’s performance is especially notable in BTC terms. “Put another way, this late cycle price action from ZEC is not all that unique in USD terms, but it is unique in BTC terms. At the same time, you have to always respect that, for now, BTC sets the entire mood of the cryptoasset market on a medium-to-long term time frame,” he concluded.

At press time, ZEC traded at $674.82.

Quick Facts:

• The US market caused Bitcoin to drop over 20% in November 2024, while Asian traders kept buying the dip, highlighting a deep regional sentiment divide.
• Large long-term holders like MicroStrategy and resilient on-chain data support the view that recent price action is a bull-market correction, not a new crypto winter.
• As liquidity rotates from $BTC into higher beta assets after corrections, mine-to-earn and gamified memecoins may capture outsized upside – especially in Asian markets – relative to more established altcoins.

In late 2024, you watched something unusual play out on the Bitcoin chart.

US trading hours drove a slide of more than 20% in November, triggering the classic question: Is the crypto winter back?

Yet, Asian sessions continued to step in and buy the dip in bitcoin, creating a sharp regional split in sentiment. On-chain analyst Ki Young Ju pointed to one key structural reason the market did not unravel more deeply:

“In classic cycle theory, the market should revisit the realized price around $56K to form a cyclical bottom, but because players like MSTR are unlikely to sell and those coins are effectively off the market, I doubt we will see $56K.”

MicroStrategy now holds around 649,870 $BTC, a strategic treasury position that effectively removes a huge amount of supply from circulation and dampens the kind of capitulation past cycle theory might predict.

Fidelity Digital Assets executive Chris Kuiper framed the move as a textbook 20% to 30% correction within a broader bull structure, not the start of a new bear market.

There was no major negative news catalyst, on-chain activity remained resilient, and Asian desks continued to average in, all of which suggested a confidence gap rather than a thesis breakdown.

If you believe this is a temporary dislocation rather than a macro top, the question shifts from “will bitcoin dip again?” to “what high-upside narratives could outperform on the next leg up?”

That is where PEPENODE, a “mine‑to‑earn” memecoin experiment, enters the conversation as a speculative bet on engagement-driven token economies.

You can also delve deeper into our PEPENODE price prediction, which outlines how prices could range from $0.0014 to $0.0023 in 2025, expand to $0.0021–$0.0072 in 2026, and potentially reach $0.0123–$0.0244 by 2030, representing upside scenarios as high as 2,282%.

Asia’s Dip-Buying And The Hunt For High-Beta Plays

The divergence between US sellers and Asian buyers matters because it tells you who is willing to fund the next wave of crypto risk.

When Asia accumulates spot $BTC into a 20%+ drawdown while the US derisks, liquidity tends to rotate into higher beta altcoins once downside pressure eases.

In past cycles, that rotation flowed into narrative leaders like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and, more recently, Pepe, with their combined market caps frequently adding billions of dollars within weeks after major Bitcoin reversals.

These memecoins offer no hard cash flow, but they do offer asymmetric upside when liquidity, leverage, and social media attention align.

This time, the memecoin sector is colliding with “play‑to‑earn” mechanics and engaging mining models. Projects such as Notcoin on Telegram, mining-themed clickers on Solana, and speculative node ecosystems on BNB Chain are all trying to turn casual interaction into token distribution.

PEPENODE positions itself as one of these experiments, focused specifically on a virtual mining experience rather than pure meme rotation.

Visit the PEPENODE website for a closer look at the project.

Why PEPENODE’s Mine-To-Earn Memecoin is Gaining Traction

One reason interest is shifting to mine‑to‑earn concepts is that classical mining has become almost unreachable for the average retail user.

• Bitcoin ASICs cost thousands of dollars,
• Home electricity prices have climbed,
• And institutional hash power now dominates block production.

The process is capital-intensive, technical, and, frankly, boring for most people.

Gamified mining flips that model. Instead of buying hardware, you buy virtual miners or nodes and interact through a web or mobile interface.

If the design is good, you get the psychological hit of “running a farm” with visible hash stats, boosts, and upgrades, while the protocol uses smart contracts to manage emissions and rewards.

The token becomes both a meme and an in‑game resource.

$PEPENODE leans into this by branding itself as the world’s first mine‑to‑earn memecoin, making it one of the best cryptos to buy now.

Rather than promising industrial-grade yields, it focuses on a virtual mining system, a gamified dashboard, and variable-strength nodes that reward early adopters.

Compared with static meme tokens that rely solely on community hype, it attempts to hook users with ongoing gameplay and progression.

For detailed presale instructions, read our ‘How to Buy $PEPENODE guide’. Is PEPENODE the Next Crypto to Explode?

When you look under the hood, $PEPENODE runs as an ERC‑20 token on Ethereum’s proof‑of‑stake layer.

Smart contracts control staking, rewards, and ultimately governance, but the front‑end experience is framed as a mining game:

• You buy and customize Miner Nodes,
• Upgrade facilities to boost performance,
• And earn meme coin rewards, such as PEPE or Fartcoin, in the process.

The upcoming model tries to fix three issues at once:

• First, it replaces passive, hardware-heavy mining with low-friction virtual mining that uses no electricity beyond regular internet access.
• Second, it directly addresses weak early incentives by giving initial PEPENODE supporters more powerful nodes and higher reward multipliers.
• Third, it strips away technical complexity so anyone with a wallet can participate.

The project’s timing is notable.

While traders argue over the next bitcoin dip level, the $PEPENODE presale has raised $2.17M, with tokens priced at $0.0011592. The staking rewards are also too good to ignore at 593%.

If Asian desks remain net buyers of $BTC and the pullback behaves like a standard 20% to 30% correction, high-beta plays could outperform once volatility compresses.

In that scenario, $PEPENODE offers a pure sentiment and participation bet on memecoins evolving from simple jokes into interactive mining-themed economies.

Join the $PEPENODE presale for $0.0011592 before the next price surge.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or trading advice; always do your own research.

Authored by Bogdan Patru for Bitconist – https://bitcoinist.com/asia-buys-bitcoin-dip-pepenode-mine-to-earn-memecoin

Durante la conferenza Devconnect di Buenos Aires, il co-fondatore di Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, non ha usato mezzi termini. Al centro del suo intervento c’è una preoccupazione crescente: il dominio sempre più soffocante dei giganti istituzionali come BlackRock sul mondo delle criptovalute, con un focus particolare su Bitcoin (BTC) ed Ethereum (ETH).

Secondo Buterin, questa influenza smisurata non è solo una questione di mercato, ma una potenziale minaccia esistenziale per la natura decentralizzata di queste reti.

Il Rischio Centralizzazione: Ethereum è “catturabile”?

L’intervento di Buterin nasce da una riflessione profonda sull’impatto degli investitori istituzionali, specialmente dopo il lancio degli ETF su Bitcoin ed Ethereum da parte di BlackRock all’inizio del 2024.

La domanda che Vitalik pone alla community è cruciale: come possiamo evitare che le crypto vengano “catturate” da entità colossali come BlackRock?

Il timore è che, se questi player dovessero continuare ad accumulare quote massicce di Ethereum, la voce di chi difende la decentralizzazione finirebbe per essere marginalizzata. Il rischio concreto è uno stravolgimento dei fondamentali della rete:

• Ottimizzazione per le Istituzioni: La rete potrebbe evolversi per soddisfare le esigenze di Wall Street.
• Esclusione dell’utente comune: Diventerebbe sempre più difficile per i singoli utenti gestire un nodo, trasformando la blockchain in un club per pochi eletti.

Buterin ha avvertito: “Questo allontana facilmente le persone”, ribadendo la necessità di concentrarsi su quelle caratteristiche che rendono le crypto uniche: protocolli globali, permissionless (senza permessi) e resistenti alla censura.

Non a caso, proprio questa settimana BlackRock ha fatto notizia registrando in Delaware un fondo Ethereum con staking, segnalando l’intenzione di espandersi ulteriormente nel mercato degli ETF, dove il loro fondo principale gestisce già circa 10 miliardi di dollari in ETH.

La Minaccia Quantistica: Il countdown verso il 2030

Ma le preoccupazioni di Buterin non si fermano alla finanza tradizionale. All’orizzonte si profila un’altra ombra: quella del calcolo quantistico.

Recenti scoperte di Google e Microsoft (che ha svelato un nuovo chip per l’abilitazione quantistica) hanno accelerato la corsa tecnologica, accendendo i riflettori sulla sicurezza crittografica di Bitcoin ed Ethereum.

Scott Aaronson, ricercatore nel campo quantistico, ha suonato un campanello d’allarme: la potenza di questi computer potrebbe presto essere in grado di eseguire l’Algoritmo di Shor, teoricamente capace di violare gli standard di crittografia che proteggono le blockchain attuali. Secondo Aaronson, il ritmo dell’innovazione hardware è tale che potremmo vedere un computer quantistico fault-tolerant (tollerante ai guasti) persino prima delle prossime elezioni presidenziali USA.

“Non serve il panico, serve serietà”

Alex Pruden, CEO di Project 11 (società che si occupa di rischi quantistici), ha sintetizzato così la situazione: “Non dobbiamo farci prendere dal panico, ma dobbiamo iniziare a fare sul serio”. Il messaggio è chiaro: computer quantistici sufficientemente avanzati potrebbero rompere le criptovalute al loro livello più fondamentale.

La discussione si sta spostando sulla necessità di misure proattive. Gli sviluppatori di Bitcoin sono stati esortati a prepararsi per un futuro post-quantistico, che secondo alcuni esperti potrebbe materializzarsi già nel 2030.

La dichiarazione più forte arriva da Théau Peronnin, CEO di Alice & Bob, durante il Web Summit di Lisbona: gli sviluppatori devono migrare verso blockchain più robuste entro la fine del decennio per proteggersi.

Il suo avvertimento finale è lapidario:

“Avete ancora qualche buon anno davanti a voi, ma io non terrei i miei Bitcoin a lungo termine senza un aggiornamento“.

Prices across the crypto market have crashed with the recent Bitcoin price decline below $100,000, and other major metrics have followed in accordance. One metric of note that has suffered a notable decline is the crypto market open interest. The total open interest fell sharply back in September, and the decline has been the trend since then. As a result, the crypto market open interest has now fallen to levels not seen in five months.

Crypto Open Interest Dumps Below $140 Billion

Data from the Coinglass website shows that crypto market open interest has declined significantly after hitting an all-time high in early October. The $233 billion peak was recorded on October 7, coinciding with the Bitcoin price also hitting a peak above $126,000. However, the momentum has not held up since then, and as the Bitcoin price has tumbled, the crypto open interest has suffered.

Earlier in the week, the open interest fell below $140 billion for the first time in five months, marking an over 40% crash in the space of one month. The market saw the first major decline following the infamous crash in the crypto market in a matter of hours. By October 12, only 5 days after the all-time high was recorded, the open interest had crashed by more than 25%, reaching $150 billion.

The current decline is a testament to the reduced participation from investors across the market, as crypto traders have taken a more conservative stance through the month of November. Not only has the crypto open interest been gravely impacted, but the daily trading volume has suffered as well.

Just like the open interest, the crypto daily trading volume has recorded a double-digit crash, going from almost $400 billion at the start of October to less than $260 billion at the time of this report. This constitutes an around 35% crash, showing notable similarities to the open interest.

What Happened To Bitcoin The Last Time?

While the rapid decline in the crypto open interest could be a cause for alarm, it is interesting to note what happened to Bitcoin the last time this metric was this low. Looking back to June 2025, when the crypto open interest was last below $140 billion, it essentially was the bottom before the price rallied again.

A bounce following the bottom in June saw the Bitcoin price rise from around $100,000 to $126,000 over the next few months, which translates to a 26% increase. If this trend holds and the bottom is marked with the crypto market open interest below $140 billion, then the Bitcoin price could be gearing up for another rally.

Stay Ahead with the Latest Insights of Today’s Best Presales News

Check out our Live Best Presales Updates for November 21, 2025!

Of all the crypto opportunities out there, presales are often the most promising and potentially the most profitable. These early-stage projects raise funds to launch community-driven meme coins, utility-heavy projects, and even degen shitcoins.

What defines crypto presales is the opportunity to join stage zero at the lowest possible price point. It can only go up from there, which it often does.

Pepe Unchained soared 550% post-presale, to name one presale. The potential is there, and if you’re looking for the latest crypto presale updates to get in early, you’ve come to the to right place.

Quick Picks for the Best Presales Today

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

We update this page regularly throughout the day with the latest insights on presales. Keep refreshing to stay ahead of the pack!

Disclaimer: No crypto investment comes without risk. Our content is for informational purposes, not financial advice. We may earn affiliate commissions at no extra cost to you.

Asia–US Bitcoin Split, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) and Positioning for the Best Presales

November 21, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

US trading sessions have driven more than 20% of November’s $BTC drawdown, while Asian hours keep quietly buying the dip and cushioning price, creating a clear regional divergence in risk appetite.

At the same time, large institutional holders like Strategy, sitting on hundreds of thousands of coins, effectively cap how deep corrections can go and turn sharp sell-offs into extended accumulation zones for long-term players.

That mix of structural demand and short-term fear shifts the real asymmetry away from spot Bitcoin and toward Bitcoin-focused infrastructure that can scale usage.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is building exactly in that lane. It’s a Layer-2 using Solana Virtual Machine tech to bridge $BTC into faster, smart-contract-enabled rails with its canonical bridge and multi-chain design.

With $28.22M already raised at a presale price of $0.013305, you get exposure to the ecosystem that benefits when those Asian buy-the-dip flows eventually demand more throughput, DeFi, and NFT rails around Bitcoin itself. 

Here’s how to buy $HYPER now.

Mid-Cycle Bitcoin Sellers, PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) and Rotating Into the Best Presales

November 21, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

VanEck’s latest on-chain report shows mid-cycle $BTC holders, whose coins last moved within five years, driving the current sell-off. Decade-plus whales keep their stacks untouched and futures positioning looks ‘washed out’ after open interest dropped roughly 20% in $BTC terms since October. 

That kind of cohort rotation usually marks a reset phase rather than a full structural breakdown. And this opens the door for you to redeploy risk from tired mid-cycle bags into new narratives with cleaner supply and community structures.

PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) leans into that shift with a ‘mine-to-earn’ memecoin model that swaps passive staking for gamified virtual mining.

You acquire Miner Nodes and Facilities, simulate hashrate and energy inside a dashboard, and earn tiered node rewards tracked by smart contracts, all without touching power-hungry hardware. 

With $2.17M already raised and the presale price at $0.0011592, you step into an early-stage ecosystem designed to reward long-term participants rather than jittery mid-cycle sellers exiting into weakness.

Join the PEPENODE presale now with our guide.

Authored by Ben Wallis, Bitcoinist — https://bitcoinist.com/best-presales-live-news-today-november-21-2025

PubKey’s Washington, DC opening yesterday would normally be filed under Bitcoin culture: a BTC-centric bar and meetup space planting a flag a few blocks from the institutions that write and enforce US financial policy. Instead, the launch became a market-relevant moment after Galaxy Digital’s head of firmwide research Alex Thorn posted photos from the event that show US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in attendance.

Is This The Hidden Bitcoin Bull Signal?

Thorn shared a few photos and only wrote, “PUBKEY DC IS ON THE MAP.” While Bessent has not acknowledged the visit on his own X account, the lack of an official readout keeps the episode informal. But in Washington, informality from senior officials is often where the earliest signals live.

Bitcoin-aligned commentators read the presence as overtly constructive. Analyst MacroScope (@MacroScope17) observed, “The Treasury Secretary was at tonight’s opening of PubKey DC. In this type of market, signals like this don’t matter much. Eventually traders look back and realize it mattered.”

Strive chief investment officer Ben Werkman framed it as a hindsight moment in real time, saying, “Having the Secretary of the Treasury at the Pubkey DC launch seems like a moment I could easily look back on and say ‘wow, it was all so obvious’.” Thorn replied, “agreed this is unabashedly bullish,” while Nakamoto’s vice president of investor relations Steven Lubka wrote, “The Treasury Secretary of the United States is at Pubkey. This is the sign you have been waiting for.”

None of those posts constitute policy, but they reflect a shared interpretation: a sitting Treasury Secretary showing up at a Bitcoin venue in DC is not a neutral optic in a cycle where state posture toward BTC is being repriced globally.

PubKey already carries political symbolism. On September 18, 2024, Donald Trump visited PubKey in New York City, bought cheeseburgers, and paid in BTC, becoming the first US president to transact on-chain in public.

Still No Update On The US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Yet the bullish optic lands amid a notable policy vacuum. President Trump’s March 6, 2025 executive order created a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, directing agencies to report their digital-asset holdings and transfer forfeited BTC into a reserve that “shall not be sold.”

The same order instructed Treasury and Commerce to develop “budget-neutral” strategies to acquire additional Bitcoin without new taxpayer cost. Those deadlines have passed without a public release of an audit of how much BTC the United States still controls from seizures, what portion is encumbered by restitution or legal claims, or how Treasury intends to operationalize any budget-neutral accumulation path.

Two weeks before the PubKey DC opening, Bessent surprised the community with an unusually direct Bitcoin endorsement on X: “17 years after the white paper, the Bitcoin network is still operational and more resilient than ever. Bitcoin never shuts down. @SenateDems could learn something from that.” The message, posted during a federal shutdown fight, was both partisan jab and institutional compliment, positioning BTC’s uptime as a governance benchmark. The PubKey appearance now extends that rhetorical posture into a physical one.

Put simply, Bessent at PubKey DC is bullish as a social signal, not as a confirmed policy pivot. It suggests that Bitcoin’s legitimacy inside the US fiscal establishment is deepening to the point where the Treasury Secretary can engage with BTC-native spaces without treating them as political risk. But until Treasury releases a full reserve accounting and clarifies whether any lawful budget-neutral acquisition route exists, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve remains more intent than instrument. Markets can price symbolism quickly; they will ultimately need numbers.

At press time, BTC traded at $85,670

A new Glassnode report has revealed that the Bitcoin Open Interest continues to decline, a sign demand from risk-taking futures cohorts is waning.

Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Has Shown No Signs Of Growth Recently

In its latest weekly report, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode has talked about the latest trend in the Bitcoin Open Interest. This indicator measures the total amount of BTC-related perpetual futures positions that are currently active on the various centralized derivatives exchanges.

When the value of this metric rises, it means investors are opening up fresh positions on the market. Generally, the amount of leverage present in the sector goes up when new positions appear, so this kind of trend can lead to more volatility for the asset.

On the other hand, the indicator registering a drop suggests positions in the market are going down, either due to investors pulling back on risk, or exchanges enforcing forceful liquidations. Either way, the reduced leverage can result in the coin acting in a more stable manner.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Open Interest over the past year:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Open Interest witnessed a huge plunge last month as the cryptocurrency’s price crash triggered a massive liquidation squeeze. Since then, the metric has continued to slide down as the BTC price has plummeted further.

The fact that the downtrend in the indicator has maintained implies that investors haven’t been opening new positions in place of the ones getting liquidated. “This absence of incremental leverage underscores a cautious stance among market participants and aligns with the broader theme of fading demand across risk-taking cohorts,” explained the report.

Bitcoin has faced another bearish blow in the past day, which has only unleashed a new wave of liquidations in the futures market. As the below table from CoinGlass shows, the cryptocurrency sector as a whole has observed $904 million in liquidations over the last 24 hours.

Prices across the market have dropped inside this window, so it makes sense that $690 million of these liquidations have come from the long contract holders alone.

In terms of the individual assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum have contributed the most toward the squeeze like usual, with $370 million and $235 million in contracts involved, respectively.

Solana has been the leader among the rest with $37 million in liquidations. Interestingly, while most of the market has dropped, SOL is among the few that still have a slight positive gain for the past day.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has returned to the $86,900 level following its latest drop.

In the past week, Bitcoin has continued to record new daily lows, culminating in a nearly eight-month low of just under $86,500 on Thursday. Market expert Shanaka Anslem, however, offers a contrarian perspective, labeling the current downturn as an “engineered collapse” and presenting a bullish argument despite the prevailing bearish sentiment.

Technical Indicators Suggest Potential Upside 

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Anslem stated that while mainstream media depicts the situation as a “crypto winter,” a significant and stealthy accumulation of Bitcoin is taking place underneath the surface turmoil. He outlines several indicators that support his viewpoint.

According to Anslem, Bitcoin’s correction of nearly 30% from all-time highs has triggered widespread panic selling. However, contrary to this atmosphere of fear, the data tells a different story. 

Notably, 231 new whale wallets were created in November, indicating that fresh capital is flowing into the market rather than established wealth exiting it. 

Furthermore, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate has reached all-time highs even as the price has dropped, a sign that miners are confident in future prospects and are investing in their infrastructure.

Additionally, he contends that there has been a notable acceleration in stablecoin inflows, with $70 billion in exchange-traded fund (ETF) infrastructure ready to absorb panic selling. 

Funding rates have flipped negative for the first time since the accumulation phase commenced, suggesting that market conditions are aligning in favor of institutional investors.

“The math does not lie,” Anslem emphasized, referencing various technical indicators that collectively indicate potential upside. The Pi Cycle remains green, and none of the thirty historical signals indicating market tops have been triggered. 

Meanwhile, the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio sits in mid-range territory, with on-chain metrics reflecting a classic mid-cycle shakeout.

Bitcoin Could Soar To $320,000 By Late 2026

Anslem stated that this situation bears a striking resemblance to the market conditions in 2018, just before Bitcoin skyrocketed from $3,200 to $69,000. He argued that this time around, institutional infrastructure exists that wasn’t available back then.

He suggests that market participants have “artificially” thinned liquidity by 50%, triggering a cascade effect designed to maximize fear among retail investors. 

The fear and greed index currently stands at 15, indicating extreme fear. Historically, such levels have marked significant buying opportunities for long-term investors. 

Anslem projects that this setup could lead to historical rallies ranging from 150% to 400% as the market moves toward its cycles’ peaks, with targets set between $220,000 and $320,000 by late 2026.

The reality, he asserts, is that the post-Halving supply shock, coupled with increasing institutional demand, creates an asymmetric market setup. According to Anslem, while retail investors are selling off their positions in fear, institutional players are discreetly accumulating Bitcoin.

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

An analyst has revealed how 2025 has been the year of OG Bitcoin whales, with hands older than seven years spending more than ever before.

OG Bitcoin Whales Have Maintained A High Selling Baseline This Year

In a new post on X, Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards has talked about the trend in the Bitcoin distribution from the “OG whales.” These are the investors who have been holding onto their BTC since more than seven years ago, without having transferred or sold the tokens once.

Below is the chart shared by Edwards that shows how the spending from Bitcoin holders of this age has looked over the past decade.

As is visible in the graph, Bitcoin OG whales have shown several spending spikes of a significant scale in 2025 so far, with one spike being particularly massive. But even during low-spending phases, selling from 7+ years old investors has remained at a notable level.

This stands out in the red-shaded chart, which shows the OG whale distribution as a percentage of the cryptocurrency’s market cap. This metric has consistently registered a value higher than 0.05%, which is a historically high level. The analyst has noted that the recent trend reflects “more selling than any other Bitcoin cycle.”

One reason behind this cycle’s distribution outweighing previous cycles could simply be the fact that Bitcoin is only getting older with each cycle, so there is a bigger part of the asset’s history today that now qualifies for that 7-year cutoff.

As for why these investors have been selling, it’s possible that the bull run profits have been high enough for them to cash in. Something to keep in mind is that while entities with a long holding time are considered “resolute,” the same may not actually apply to these “OG” whales.

This is because when coins cross the 7-year threshold, there crops up a real possibility that they have reached their long age by being lost, rather than through high-conviction “HODLing.” The spending this year may simply be a result of lost addresses being rediscovered, either by the original investor or someone who happened to obtain the wallet keys.

That said, some of these investors waking up to sell now would indeed be stalwart diamond hands who were silently biding their time until now. In past cycles, Bitcoin usually hit a top when selling from these investors became extreme. Whether the same pattern will follow this time around only remains to be seen, but the latest bearish trajectory could be a hint.

BTC Price

Bitcoin dropped under $89,000 on Wednesday, but it appears the coin has already bounced back as its price is now trading around $91,800.

A major legal showdown in the crypto world has taken a sharp turn after the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands granted Core Foundation an injunction blocking Maple Finance from launching syrupBTC, its upcoming Bitcoin yield product.

Related Reading: XRP Just ‘Flash-Wicked’ To $90 On Kraken — Expert Reveals Why

The ruling marks a significant escalation in a dispute centered on allegations of breached confidentiality, violated exclusivity agreements, and improper handling of lender assets.

Court Sides With Core Amid Confidentiality and Exclusivity Dispute

The injunction comes after Core Foundation argued that Maple Finance misused confidential information and internal work developed during their joint creation of lstBTC, a liquid-staked Bitcoin product unveiled in early 2025.

According to filings, Core invested heavily in technical development, ecosystem support, and go-to-market efforts, helping Maple attract more than $150 million in Bitcoin from clients earlier this year.

Core claims that from mid-2025, Maple began building a competing offering, syrupBTC, while still drawing on Core’s funding, engineering resources, and proprietary insights. The two were bound by a 24-month exclusivity clause, which Core says Maple knowingly violated.

Justice Jalil Asif KC determined that there are “serious issues to be tried,” ruling that financial damages alone would be insufficient. The judge highlighted two key risks, Maple potentially shedding or dealing in CORE tokens and the competitive head start it would gain by launching syrupBTC ahead of arbitration.

As a result, Maple is now prohibited from launching or promoting the product and from handling CORE tokens without written approval from Core Foundation.

Lender Asset Concerns Raise Further Questions

The conflict intensified after Maple informed lenders of potential impairments affecting millions of dollars in Bitcoin held through the existing Bitcoin Yield program.

Core Foundation disputes Maple’s claim, noting that Maple previously assured lenders funds were held in bankruptcy-remote structures with licensed custodians, meaning assets should have remained segregated and fully retrievable.

Core argues the impairment announcement contradicts those assurances and raises broader concerns about Maple’s asset management practices. Maple, however, denies all allegations, insisting the dispute affects only a pilot program and asserting that its wider operations remain unaffected.

A Case With Industry-Wide Implications

Beyond the courtroom, this clash highlights the increasing sensitivity of co-development partnerships in the maturing DeFi ecosystem.

As liquid staking and tokenized Bitcoin products become more competitive, the injunction sets a powerful precedent on enforcing exclusivity, protecting intellectual property, and clarifying legal obligations within decentralized finance.

Related Reading: Bitwise CIO Anticipates Crypto ‘ETF Palooza’: Over 100 New Funds Expected To Launch In 2026

With arbitration still ahead, the outcome could reshape how future crypto collaborations are negotiated, and how far courts will go to protect shared innovation.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Ethereum is barely holding above the critical $3,000 level as the broader crypto market battles intense selling pressure. Fear remains elevated, liquidity is thinning, and investors are bracing for more volatility. Yet despite the drawdown, some analysts argue that this environment is beginning to look like a classic oversold setup, one that has historically offered strong accumulation opportunities for long-term players.

Adding to the intrigue, new data from Lookonchain reveals unusual on-chain activity involving a wallet potentially linked to SharpLink Gaming. The move has sparked intense speculation across the market, as large OTC transactions often signal strategic repositioning by institutional players rather than panic selling.

This activity stands out at a moment when Ethereum is testing major support levels and sentiment is overwhelmingly bearish. The fact that significant OTC flows are still occurring suggests that smart money is active beneath the surface—even as retail panic dominates public markets.

SharpLink-Linked Wallet Sparks Sell-Off Speculation

According to new data from Lookonchain, a wallet potentially linked to SharpLink Gaming (address 0x70Dd) has executed a series of large transactions that are drawing attention across the Ethereum market. Over the past two days, the wallet transferred 10,975 ETH, worth roughly $33.5 million, to a Galaxy Digital OTC wallet. Shortly after, it received 10 million USDC back from the same OTC address, raising questions about the nature of the move.

Lookonchain openly asks the question circulating among analysts: Is SharpLink Gaming selling ETH? While the transactions resemble a structured OTC sale—where large holders offload assets without impacting public order books—there is still no confirmation that the funds belong directly to the company. However, the timing of the transfer is notable. Ethereum is trading near a crucial support zone around $3,000, and liquidity across the market is tightening as panic-driven selling accelerates.

Large OTC flows like this often signal strategic repositioning rather than emotional selling, yet they can still shape market sentiment. If this was indeed a sale, it adds to the narrative of institutions reducing exposure during the correction. If it was simply a treasury reshuffle, the impact may be far less bearish than it appears. For now, the market is watching closely.

Testing the $3,000 Support as Momentum Weakens

Ethereum is hovering just above the critical $3,000 support zone, a level that has become the battleground between buyers trying to defend the trend and sellers pressing for deeper downside. The daily chart shows a clear and persistent downtrend that began after ETH failed to reclaim the $4,000 region in late October. Since then, lower highs and lower lows have defined price action, with ETH unable to break above the 50-day moving average — a sign of weakening momentum.

The 100-day and 200-day moving averages are also trending downward, reinforcing bearish market structure. Price is currently sitting below all major moving averages, often a precursor to extended corrective phases in past cycles. However, the $3,000–$2,950 range has acted as a strong demand zone multiple times throughout the year, and buyers are once again attempting to defend it.

The candles show long lower wicks forming around this level, suggesting that some dip buyers are stepping in, though conviction remains limited. If ETH loses $3,000 decisively, the next notable support sits around $2,750–$2,800. On the flip side, reclaiming the 50-day MA near $3,400 would be the first sign of a potential momentum shift after weeks of selling.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Core, the reference implementation that underpins the majority of the BTC network, has undergone what Brink describes as the first-ever public, third-party security audit of its codebase. The assessment was carried out by security firm Quarkslab, coordinated by the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF) and funded by Brink with support from its donors.

Bitcoin Core Undergoes Historic Security Audit

Announcing the results, Mike Schmidt, co-founder and executive director of Brink, said the audit largely confirms the community’s long-held view of the project’s engineering standards. In his words, “The results confirm what long-time contributors and users already know: Bitcoin Core is a mature, conservatively engineered, and exceptionally well-tested codebase. Independent review only strengthens that confidence. This security assessment is a checkpoint in the mission to further secure Bitcoin, not a destination.”

Brink emphasized that this is the first public, external security review of Bitcoin Core. The organization stated that “as part of Brink’s mission to ensure the safety and robustness of the open-source Bitcoin Core software, we recently sponsored an independent security audit of the Core codebase. This represents the first public, third-party audit of Bitcoin Core.”

The motivation, according to Brink, is that “the project has a strong security track record, but it has never undergone an external security assessment. We wanted to provide an additional layer of assurance for developers, node operators, holders, and businesses who rely on Bitcoin Core every day.”

The scope of the audit focused explicitly on the most security-sensitive parts of the system. Brink explained that “the focus was on the most security-critical components of the software, including the peer-to-peer networking layer, mempool, chain management, and consensus logic.” To interrogate these areas, Quarkslab used “manual code review, static and dynamic analysis, [and] advanced fuzz testing.”

On findings, the result is unusually clear. Brink reported that “the auditors at Quarkslab reported no critical, high, or medium-severity issues. They identified two low-severity findings and thirteen informational recommendations, none of which were classified as security vulnerabilities under Core’s criteria.” That framing is deliberate: the issues are treated as hardening and quality improvements rather than vulnerabilities that could directly endanger funds or consensus.

Schmidt was careful not to present the report as a declaration that the software is bug-free. He wrote that “that isn’t to say there aren’t still bugs lurking in the software. More improvements still need to be made. But this audit is a nice step along the way to help ensure Bitcoin doesn’t break and continues to serve the world as a secure, reliable monetary network.”

Brink also highlighted the collaborative structure of the effort. The organization noted that “the assessment was conducted by Quarkslab (@quarkslab) and was coordinated with the help of the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF @OSTIFofficial). Funding was provided by Brink with the support of our donors, with technical collaboration from Niklas Gögge and Antoine Poinsot.” It publicly thanked “Quarkslab, the OSTIF, Niklas, and Antoine for their work on this project,” and made the full report freely available.

In its summary of the initiative, Brink tied the audit back to Bitcoin’s broader reliability guarantees. “Funding independent reviews like this is just one way we help ensure Bitcoin doesn’t break and continues to serve the world as a secure, reliable monetary network,” the organization said, repeating that “independent review only strengthens that confidence.”

At press time, BTC traded at $91,764.

Bitcoin is attempting to regain its footing near $95,000 after a turbulent week that sent the world’s largest crypto sliding below the $90,000 threshold. The sharp retreat, part of a broader risk-off wave triggered by shifting macro expectations, has rattled investors who just weeks ago watched BTC hit an ATH of $126,000.

Yet amid the volatility, institutional activity is quietly shaping a more nuanced picture. BlackRock’s recent $62.23 million Bitcoin purchase has reignited debate on whether large-scale buyers can provide a stabilizing force as markets attempt to reset.

Institutional Moves Offer a Pinch of Confidence

BlackRock’s acquisition, made through its subsidiaries, signals a deliberate and long-term approach to digital assets rather than a short-term speculative bet.

While $62 million is small compared to the firm’s massive global portfolio, the symbolism is powerful. Institutional interest, especially from a firm of BlackRock’s stature, often boosts confidence across the market and can attract additional inflows from other large players.

Analysts argue that such participation improves market depth, enhances legitimacy, and can soften the blow during periods of extreme volatility. Long-term holders, particularly on exchanges, continue to accumulate even as prices whipsaw, suggesting that conviction in Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition remains intact.

A Market Under Pressure: Macro, Liquidity, and ETF Outflows

But institutional buying alone hasn’t been enough to fully counteract the recent cascading sell-off.

Bitcoin plunged to the $88,000 range after a combination of collapsing expectations for a December Federal Reserve rate cut, deteriorating liquidity, and persistent outflows from Bitcoin ETFs. More than $559 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours, amplifying the downward move.

Fed uncertainty has also weighed on risk appetite. Minutes from the central bank’s latest meeting showed deep division on rate policy, while delays in crucial U.S. labor-market data have clouded macro visibility. This has left Bitcoin vulnerable at a time when broader markets are leaning defensive.

Can Bitcoin Rebound, or Is More Pain Ahead?

Technically, Bitcoin’s RSI has dipped toward oversold territory, hinting that selling pressure may be slowing, but indicators still point to weak momentum. Analysts from QCP Capital warn that unless Bitcoin reclaims the $94,000–$96,000 zone, the trend remains decisively bearish.

For now, Bitcoin’s stability above $92,000 is fragile. Fresh economic data and clarity from the Fed are likely to dictate the next major move.

And while BlackRock’s purchase underscores enduring institutional confidence, the question remains: is it enough to halt the decline, or merely a bright spot in a market still searching for footing?

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview