Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed that the BTC price action dipped further after hitting new November highs near $107,500.
That formed a key resistance zone that bulls were unable to overcome, with BTC/USD then reversing downward.
In doing so, the pair filled its latest weekend “gap” in the CME Group’s Bitcoin futures market, located at $104,000. As Cointelegraph reported, such gaps often form short-term targets for the BTC price.
“Another gap closed within the first few trading days of the week. This has become an incredibly reliable and predictable pattern by now,” trader Daan Crypto Trades wrote in a response on X.
“Most people are aware of this, so you’d assume at some point it would stop happening. Usually I’d agree, but this has been a high probability event for the past 4-5 years by now.”
With a rebound yet to occur, however, trading resource Material Indicators warned that a snap sell-off by Bitcoin whales worth $240 million had contributed to the comedown.
FireCharts shows a massive $240M market dump in the $BTC order book.
Open interest (OI) decreased by over 11% in just a week, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant revealed in one of its “Quicktake” blog posts.
“The 11.32% drop in OI over 7 days is a sign that the market is eliminating speculative risk, which has historically been a precursor to recovery,” contributor GugaOnChain wrote.
“While volatility may persist in the short term, the metric suggests that the market is consolidating on a more stable base, setting the stage for a subsequent rally and confirming the thesis that the current region represents a buying opportunity for long-term investor.”
BTC/USD with OI change (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
The post added that the current deleveraging event “signals a strong buying opportunity.”
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
2025 marked a turning point for crypto, as investors prioritized real utility and institutional integration over hype-driven speculation.
Bitcoin’s performance was supported by US spot ETFs, keeping it near or above the $100,000 mark for much of the year despite market pullbacks.
Ether rebounded after an early-year slump, supported by growing institutional interest and renewed confidence following the Ether ETF approval.
Privacy coins, such as Zcash and Monero, saw fresh demand, fueled by tightening supply and rising interest in financial anonymity.
2025 has been a remarkable year for crypto. It was the year the industry took a major step toward becoming an integral part of global finance. Instead of hype-driven tokens dominating the market, attention shifted to projects that delivered real economic value and onchain utility.
This article explores the coins that stood out in 2025, not for the hype they generated but for the way they shaped the future of digital money.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin’s (BTC) progress in 2025 was supported by the success of US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These funds began trading in early 2024 and maintained strong institutional interest throughout the year.
Bitcoin, which began the year at $93,425 on Jan. 1, 2025, climbed to $124,752 on Oct. 7 before slipping to $101,298 on Nov. 7. After crossing the $100,000 milestone several times in January and February, it briefly fell below the mark on Feb. 5 before rebounding above it on May 9 and maintaining levels above $100,000 through early November.
At the start of November, Bitcoin experienced a slight decline, with its price falling to around $100,000, while the broader crypto market remained bearish. Still, the cryptocurrency has a history of rebounding after each downturn.
Did you know? Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, released as open-source software in 2009. The first transaction took place that same January.
2. Ether (ETH)
The approval of spot Ether ETFs in the US on July 23, 2024, marked a turning point in how institutions viewed Ether (ETH). Large investment funds began closely monitoring Ether’s activity and started investing.
This triggered a sharp rally, but a price slump began in mid-December 2024. The decline continued through the Christmas holidays and into the following year. Ether, priced around $3,880 on Dec. 13, 2024, fell to about $1,500 by mid-April 2025.
When retail investors had grown pessimistic about Ether, the asset began another upward run. Aside from a brief pause in June, it climbed to around $4,500 by Aug. 15, 2025, before turning downward again.
The slump was linked to concerns over the US Federal Reserve rate policy, major decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks and more than $1 billion in crypto liquidations that hurt trader confidence.
3. XRP (XRP)
At the start of 2025, XRP (XRP) traded near $2. It climbed above $3 in January before dropping to its yearly low of around $1.7 in April. By November, it was back near $2.2.
After the settlement, the coin hovered around $3 for several weeks. At the start of October, it fell below the $3 mark and had not regained it by the first half of November 2025.
Did you know? After the 2025 SEC settlement, XRP became the first cryptocurrency to achieve clear US legal differentiation between institutional and retail token sales.
4. BNB (BNB)
BNB (BNB) began 2025 near $700 and stayed around that level through January. It dipped below $600 in early February and remained range-bound until late June, when momentum picked up. By Oct. 8, BNB had surged to its yearly high of about $1,310 before easing to around $990 in November.
In November, BNB Chain partnered with blockchain investigator ZachXBT to audit ecosystem projects and publish vulnerability reports. Coinbase also added the BNB Chain-based token ASTER to its listing roadmap, signaling the continued growth of the BNB ecosystem.
5. Solana (SOL)
Solana (SOL) began 2025 by slipping below the $200 level in early February. It stayed weak for months before regaining strength midyear, briefly crossing the $200 mark in July and again in late August. By mid-October, SOL had rallied to around $247, its highest point of the year.
In September, Forward Industries (ticker: FORD) adopted a Solana-based treasury model, signaling growing corporate confidence in the network. On Oct. 31, 2025, Solana rolled out its v2.0 upgrade, introducing parallel transaction processing and native Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility.
6. Hyperliquid (HYPE)
Hyperliquid (HYPE) delivered an impressive performance in 2025, especially as a newly launched token (Nov. 29, 2024). It began the year at around $23, dropped to its yearly low of $10.21 in April and surged to a peak of $58 on Sept. 19.
HYPE’s growth can be credited to strong onchain fundamentals, including rising revenue, a dominant position in decentralized perpetual trading and deflationary token burns. In August, the platform generated $106 million in fees from nearly $400 billion in perpetual contract volume, marking a 23% increase from July’s $86.6 million.
7. Zcash (ZEC)
Zcash (ZEC) saw a dramatic surge in late 2025, climbing above $640 and returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. From a modest $48 in early September, the coin soared past $600 within a month. The rally was fueled by growing demand for privacy-focused assets.
The mid-November halving of Zcash is set to reduce block rewards and tighten supply, potentially serving as a further catalyst for price growth. Earlier, in August 2025, the network activated its NU6.1 testnet upgrade, which introduced improvements to shielded transactions and critical bug fixes.
8. Monero (XMR)
Monero (XMR) began 2025 near $190 and climbed steadily through the first half of the year, reaching about $410 by late May. It later dipped to around $235 before regaining momentum and trading near $440 by November.
In 2025, capital rotated toward privacy coins, benefiting XMR. On Oct. 10, the network implemented the Fluorine Fermi upgrade, which strengthened protections against spy nodes. Monero remains one of the leading privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, featuring stealth addresses, ring signatures and RingCT technology.
What comes next for crypto assets
2025 proved that crypto’s long-term success depends on real-world use, transparency and institutional confidence rather than short-term hype. The year’s leading performers, from Bitcoin’s ETF-driven growth to the renewed strength of privacy coins, showed that innovation and utility now guide the market. The lessons of 2025 will continue to shape how investors, builders, and regulators define the next phase of digital finance.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has earned a reputation for making its weekly Bitcoin acquisitions near the local top in recent weeks.
On Nov. 10, CryptoQuant analyst JA Marturn noted that the firm’s most recent acquisition disclosure from Michael Saylor followed the same script.
According to an SEC filing, Strategy announced that it had acquired 487 BTC between Nov. 3 and Nov. 9 for $49.9 million at an average price of $102,557 per coin.
While the flagship asset spent most of the past week trading sideways, Bitcoin had reached a high of above $106,000 on Nov. 3 before sliding more than 9% to trade briefly below $100,000. It continues to battle with the $106,400 support-turned-resistance and the $100,000 local floor.
Bitcoin price movements (Source: TradingView)
However, Saylor’s firm was unable to buy at the market bottom. Instead, the purchases arrived at one of the highest prices the top asset traded last week.
This is consistent with the firm’s previous purchases, which coincided with short-term peaks, and raises the question of why the firm continues to “buy the top.”
Strategy’s Bitcoin Purchases Near Local Tops (Source: CryptoQuant)
While the consistency of this visual pattern fuels an impression of mistimed execution, it tells only part of the story.
Why Strategy tends to buy into BTC strength
Strategy’s purchases tend to cluster around moments of elevated liquidity for reasons unrelated to market enthusiasm.
The firm’s corporate treasuries deploy capital at specific points, such as after equity sales, convertible issuances, or internal liquidity events.
These windows rarely align with discounted market conditions. Instead, they often open during periods when Bitcoin is trading with deeper order books and lower execution risk.
Market analysts have noted that this structural reality explains why Strategy’s entries often align with local highs. Large corporate orders are executed when market depth is strongest, which typically corresponds with rallies rather than periods of drawdown.
As a result, acquisition filings can create an optical illusion of systematically buying at peaks, even when the timing is set by liquidity availability and internal controls rather than sentiment.
For Strategy, the marginal price of a given tranche is secondary.
Saylor has consistently framed Bitcoin as a long-duration monetary instrument, and the firm’s operations follow that doctrine. The objective is steady exposure, not precision timing.
So, the firm’s execution windows are defined by corporate processes, and consistency of accumulation is prioritized over opportunistic entry.
Long-term performance vs. structural risks
Over a longer horizon, criticisms of Strategy’s timing lose some force.
Since Strategy began buying Bitcoin in 2020, its treasury has grown into one of the most profitable corporate asset allocations in modern history.
The company now holds 641,692 BTC, valued at approximately $68 billion, which was purchased at an average price of $106,000, resulting in a total cost basis of $67.5 billion. At current prices, that position implies roughly $20.5 billion in paper gains.
Even more striking, Strategy has generated over $12 billion in Bitcoin gains in YTD 2025, despite slowing its pace of accumulation to a few hundred coins in recent weeks.
This is the paradox at the heart of the Saylor strategy: the entries look poor, but the results are exceptional. It shows a corporate dollar-cost averaging on a structural timeline.
Short-term volatility amplifies the impression that Strategy buys tops; the multi-cycle reality shows that those “tops” often become deeply profitable entries over time.
A broader comparison emphasizes the point. Over the past year, Strategy’s equity (MSTR) has shown 87% volatility, sharply higher than Bitcoin’s 44%, and more volatile than the company’s other digital-asset products.
Yet despite this intensity, the cumulative exposure to Bitcoin has turned that volatility into asymmetric upside.
However, the strong returns do not immunize the company from structural vulnerabilities. Barchart data shows that a $10,000 investment in MSTR during the dot-com peak would be worth $7,207 today, illustrating two decades of volatility independent of the Bitcoin strategy.
Strategy’s MSTR Price Performance Over the Past 2 Decades. (Source: Barchart)
Those concerns have intensified as the company’s balance sheet has evolved.
Chris Millas, an advisor at Mellius Bitcoin, Brazil’s first Bitcoin treasury firm, noted that during the last bear market, the firm carried no interest-bearing debt and had years before its earliest bond maturities. So, its equity volatility was painful but had a limited operational impact.
However, this cycle is different. Strategy now holds interest-bearing obligations that must be serviced regardless of market conditions.
Millas argued that a severe drop in MSTR’s share price, which is historically plausible given the stock’s drawdowns of 70–80% in prior cycles, would limit the company’s flexibility and increase the likelihood of dilutive capital issuances.
According to him, that dilution, in turn, could pressure the stock further, creating a feedback loop that magnifies downside risk.
Indeed, Strategy faces roughly $689 million in interest payments due in 2026. Without new capital, the company cannot meet that obligation.
Moreover, recent fundraises highlight how financing conditions have shifted, with preferred-share offerings pricing yields around 10.5%, above the initial guidance of near 10%. The widening spread signals that capital is becoming more expensive, complicating the economics of debt-funded Bitcoin accumulation.
Due to this, skeptics have pointed out that the model resembles a leveraged carry trade with limited margin for error. In fact, some have labeled the process “Ponzi-like”, while arguing that the firm’s liabilities are growing faster than operating income.
According to them, this leaves Strategy dependent on either rising Bitcoin prices or continued investor appetite for high-yield instruments.
Signal power and narrative strategy
Even with these risks, Strategy’s purchases continue to exert outsized narrative influence. The company files frequent and transparent disclosures, and its visibility allows the acquisitions to function as a form of market signaling.
So, Strategy’s buying into strength reinforces the message that Bitcoin is a long-term monetary asset rather than a timing-sensitive trade.
Moreover, as several of Strategy’s higher-price filings in recent weeks have coincided with periods of market hesitation, the filings contribute to stabilizing sentiment by demonstrating steady institutional demand.
This has allowed Strategy to effectively position itself as the market’s most consistent large-scale buyer, and its disclosures serve both operational and symbolic purposes.
This dual role explains why Saylor continues to accumulate through short-term peaks.
For Strategy, the purchase price of any given week is secondary to the multi-year trajectory of both Bitcoin and the company’s identity as its largest corporate holder.
The optics may draw criticism, especially during periods of elevated volatility. Still, the framework guiding the purchases remains consistent: Strategy is not positioning for the next quarter, but for the next decade.
Price remaining near the level suggests a succession of green days amid upside volatility will buoy buyers.
Given current bearish sentiment, coupled with global risk asset jitters in recent weeks also suggests the asset may be undervalued. If so, it could present a potential buying opportunity for investors.
That may be the flip point if AVAX strikes and sustains an upward trajectory.
A break above the $20 threshold is key, largely as the correlation that AVAX has with other proof-of-stake (PoS) networks like Ethereum and Solana further bolsters its case.
It is because these assets are expected to benefit from fresh regulatory clarity.
US crypto ETFs to stake nod
The US Treasury and IRS have introduced Revenue Procedure 2025-31, a landmark decision that establishes a tax safe harbor for crypto ETFs and trusts to engage in staking activities.
This guidance allows regulated funds to stake digital assets such as ETH and SOL while maintaining a pass-through tax status. Analysts say the move eliminates previous legal uncertainties.
Today @USTreasury and the @IRSnews issued new guidance giving crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) a clear path to stake digital assets and share staking rewards with their retail investors.
This move increases investor benefits, boosts innovation, and keeps America the…
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) November 10, 2025
Why is this important?
While key conditions include holding a single crypto asset type with a qualified custodian and distributing staking rewards directly to investors, it’s a development that could unlock significant capital inflows into PoS networks.
That includes Avalanche, whose native token could tap into institutional participation.
Add anticipated ETF hype, and this could transform staking into a mainstream investment strategy.
The convergence of Avalanche’s price potential and catalysts such as the US Treasury’s stance on crypto staking may turn out extremely bullish for AVAX.
China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center just accused the United States of carrying out the 2020 LuBian Bitcoin exploit.
However, Western research ties the event to a wallet random-number flaw and does not name a state actor.
Open-source forensics on the LuBian drain
The core facts of the episode are now well documented across open sources. According to Arkham, approximately 127,000 BTC were moved out of wallets associated with the LuBian mining pool over a period of about two hours on December 28–29, 2020, through coordinated withdrawals across hundreds of addresses.
According to the MilkSad research team and CVE-2023-39910, those wallets were created with software that seeded MT19937 with only 32 bits of entropy, which reduced the search space to approximately 4.29 billion seeds and exposed batches of P2SH-P2WPKH addresses to brute-force attacks.
MilkSad’s Update #14 links a cluster holding roughly 136,951 BTC that was drained beginning on 2020-12-28 to LuBian.com through on-chain mining activity and documents the fixed 75,000 sat fee pattern on the sweep transactions. Blockscope’s reconstruction shows the bulk of the funds then sat with minimal movement for years.
Those same coins now sit in wallets controlled by the U.S. government. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecutors are pursuing the forfeiture of approximately 127,271 BTC as proceeds and instrumentalities of alleged fraud and money laundering tied to Chen Zhi and the Prince Group. The DOJ states that the assets are presently in U.S. custody.
Elliptic shows that addresses in the DOJ complaint map onto the LuBian weak-key cluster that MilkSad and Arkham had already identified, and Arkham now tags the consolidated destination wallets as U.S. government-controlled. On-chain sleuths, including ZachXBT, have publicly noted the overlap between the seized addresses and the earlier weak-key set.
What the forensic record shows about the LuBian exploit
Regarding attribution, technical teams that first identified the flaw and traced the flows do not claim knowledge of who executed the 2020 drain. MilkSad repeatedly refers to an actor who discovered and exploited weak private keys, stating they do not know the identity.
Arkham and Blockscope describe the entity as the LuBian hacker, focusing on method and scale. Elliptic and TRM confine their claims to tracing and to the match between the 2020 outflows and the later DOJ seizure. None of these sources names a state actor for the 2020 operation.
CVERC, amplified by the CCP-owned Global Times and local pickups, advances a different narrative.
It argues that the four-year dormancy period deviates from common criminal cash-out patterns and therefore points to a state-level hacking organization.
It then links the later U.S. custody of the coins to the allegation that U.S. actors executed the exploit in 2020 before converting it into a law enforcement seizure.
The report’s technical sections track closely with independent open research on weak keys, MT19937, address batching, and fee patterns.
Its attribution leap rests on circumstantial inferences about dormancy and ultimate custody rather than new forensics, tooling ties, infrastructure overlaps, or other standard indicators used in state actor attribution.
What we actually know about the LuBian Bitcoin drain
There are at least three coherent readings that fit what is public.
One is that an unknown party, criminal or otherwise, found the weak-key pattern, drained the cluster in 2020, left the coins mostly dormant, and U.S. authorities later obtained the keys through seizures of devices, cooperating witnesses, or related investigative means, which culminated in consolidation and forfeiture filings in 2024–2025.
A second treats LuBian and related entities as part of an internal treasury and laundering network for Prince Group, where an apparent hack could have been an opaque internal movement between weak-key-controlled wallets, consistent with DOJ’s framing of the wallets as unhosted and within the defendant’s possession, though public documents do not fully detail how Chen’s network came to control the specific keys.
The third, advanced by CVERC, is that a U.S. state actor was responsible for the 2020 operation. The first two align with the evidentiary posture presented in the filings of MilkSad, Arkham, Elliptic, TRM, and the DOJ.
The third is an allegation not substantiated by independent technical evidence in the public domain.
A brief timeline of the uncontested events is below.
From a capability standpoint, brute forcing a 2^32 seed space is well within reach for motivated actors. At about 1 million guesses per second, a single setup can traverse the space in a few hours, and distributed or GPU-accelerated rigs compress that further.
Feasibility is central to the MilkSad-class weakness, explaining how a single actor can sweep thousands of vulnerable addresses simultaneously. The fixed-fee pattern and address derivation details published by MilkSad and mirrored in CVERC’s technical write-up reinforce this method of exploitation.
The remaining disputes lie in ownership and control at each step, not in the mechanics. DOJ frames the wallets as repositories for criminal proceeds tied to Chen and states the assets are forfeitable under U.S. law.
Chinese authorities frame LuBian as a victim of theft and accuse a U.S. state actor of the original exploit.
Independent blockchain forensics groups connect the 2020 outflows to the 2024–2025 consolidation and seizure, and stop short of naming who pressed the button in 2020. That is the status of the record.
China’s national cyber defense agency has made big claims around the alleged role of the US in the multibillion-dollar hack of LuBian, once a major Chinese Bitcoin mining pool.
The Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC), a state-backed cyber defense agency, on Sunday published a technical analysis report on the 127,272 Bitcoin (BTC) stolen in the LuBian hack.
Although the hack occurred in December 2020, it remained largely unknown to the public until recently, with Arkham reporting it in August as the “largest ever” Bitcoin hack.
The CVERC’s analysis came weeks after the US filed a civil forfeiture complaint for 127,271 BTC (worth around $14.5 billion) in a criminal case against Prince Group founder Chen Zhi, who reportedly owned the 127,272 BTC held by LuBian before it was hacked.
US already held seized Bitcoin, China says
While formally filing to seize the $14.5 billion fortune in mid-October, the US government had already been holding the assets in custody, according to the indictment statement.
“Those funds are presently in the custody of the US government,” the statement noted, adding that the complaint is the “largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.”
The CVERC highlighted that the US government has not disclosed in the indictment how it obtained access to the funds, and claimed the US had been in control of the assets for more than a year, citing Arkham data.
According to Arkham data, an address labeled “LuBian.com Hacker” sent 120,576 BTC — almost its entire holdings — to an address labeled “US Government: Chen Zhi Seized Funds” in a single transaction on July 5, 2024.
Transactions from “LuBian.com Hacker” addresses to “US Government: Chen Zhi Seized Funds” in July 2024. Source: Arkham
The CVERC said the stolen Bitcoin on the LuBian hacker’s addresses had remained dormant for nearly four years following the hack until the funds were “fully taken over by the US government” last year.
CVERC said the long dormancy of the stolen Bitcoin before the US seizure “is clearly inconsistent with the nature of ordinary hackers who are eager to cash out and pursue profits.”
It is more like a precise operation orchestrated by a state-owned hacking organization.”
The CVERC report also said Zhi and his Prince Group repeatedly sent messages to the hacker address via Bitcoin transactions of roughly $23 each, pleading for the return of the stolen BTC and offering a reward, but received no response.
The report adds a geopolitical dimension to one of the most mysterious crypto thefts in history.
Chen Zhi/Prince Group repeatedly asked the hacker to return the stolen funds using blockchain messages. Source: Blockchain.com/Arkham
According to Arkham, the batch of LuBian-derived Bitcoin holdings accounts for at least 39% of all 326.5 BTC ($34.2 billion) held in US government-associated addresses at the time of publication.
US President Donald Trump recently declared that the US is “far ahead of China and everybody else” in cryptocurrency adoption. “China is getting into it in a very big way right now,” he said in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Nov. 2.
BTC is down 1% and is now trading below $104,300 per coin.
The bearish performance comes after Bitcoin failed to overcome the $107k resistance level.
Bitcoin dips below $105k despite strong start to the week
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, has underperformed over the last 24 hours despite a positive start to the week. The coin is now trading above $104,300 after failing to overcome a key resistance level on Monday.
It now risks dropping below $104k despite growing institutional demand.
According to SoSoValue, US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a modest inflow of $1.15 million on Monday, ending the recent streak of withdrawals totaling $1.22 billion spanning over six days. If the inflow trend intensifies, it could serve as the momentum needed for BTC to extend its ongoing price recovery.
In addition to that, Glassnode reported on Monday that Bitcoin’s price action is beginning to stabilize, showing signs of a potential local bottom forming around the $100k support level.
In its report, Glassnode pointed out that the recovery towards the $106k resistance level suggests early signs of buyer re-engagement. Spot Bitcoin trading volume surged from $11.5 billion last week to $14.1 billion on Monday, suggesting strong investor participation and heightened liquidity.
BTC could dip below $104k if the bullish trend fails to build
The BTC/USD 4-hour chart is bearish and efficient as Bitcoin has found support around the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of $100,353. The support was established on November 4 and could serve as the springboard for BTC to rally higher.
If Bitcoin’s daily candle closes above the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement at $106,453, it could rally higher and hit the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $110,041 in the near term.
The RSI of 58 on the 4-hour chart shows that the bullish momentum is gaining traction. The MACD lines also converged into the bullish zone, flashing a buy signal for traders.
However, if Bitcoin’s correction continues and the daily candle closes below $106,453, BTC could extend the decline toward the key support at $100,353.
Zcash price has plunged 25% in 24 hours, erasing over $3 billion in market cap amid heavy liquidations.
Speculative unwind and profit-taking triggered the crash.
ZEC price is under pressure despite hitting a record 4.96 million in shielded coins in circulation.
Zcash price has dropped by more than 25% in the past 24 hours, dipping below the psychologically significant $500 mark.
Amid heavy trading that saw daily volume spike by 150%, Zcash fell to lows of $476, paring a notable chunk of the gains in an explosive rally that pushed ZEC to highs of $744.
Privacy coins, including Dash, have mirrored the sector lead’s movements.
Zcash price crashes 25% to under $500
On Nov. 11, Zcash traded near $484.
At the time of writing, this was off lows of $476 but still showed a 25% dip from intraday highs above $600.
This dip below $500 and threats of further bearish strength contrast with the outlook just days ago, when Zcash stormed to $744.
Investors were attracted by visions of ZEC reaching $1,000; therefore, they poured in billions.
This drove trading volumes to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, the coin’s rise mirrored a broader altcoin frenzy, with Zcash outpacing even established players like Stellar and Bitcoin Cash in market cap rankings.
However, amid profit taking, frantic selling has daily volume up 156% to over $5.14 billion.
On-chain metrics also show some shielded ZEC outflows. Per CoinMarketCap, Zcash has a market cap of $7.89 billion, while data on the network’s page show shielded pool transactions have fallen from near 5 million to about 4.84 million.
Zcash price: What’s next?
In terms of price, a bearish double-top pattern has emerged on the 4-hour chart.
The price is also below the 50-day exponential moving average, and RSI is dowsloping near 39 to suggest further room for bearish movement.
Arthur Hayes, a key proponent of Zcash gains in recent weeks, summed up investor sentiment in a post on X.
At the centre of this turmoil lies a confluence of speculative unwind, structural events, and external pressures.
Zcash’s rally, which ballooned from $40 in early September to near $750 by early November, came amid halving anticipation, capital rotation and the privacy narrative.
However, profit taking, with a whale’s deleveraging of a $12 million position on November 9, has exacerbated the slide.
US stimulus expectations, relief over the end of the government shutdown, and renewed ETF-related staking enthusiasm have put the crypto market on firmer footing.
Bitcoin has pushed above $105,000, with brief spikes driven by gains in the largest tokens.
At the same time, ZEC’s sharp rally has introduced a note of caution into broader sentiment.
ZEC could still regain momentum following its halving, particularly if interest in privacy tokens strengthens again.
But a decisive reversal in Bitcoin would likely trigger further outflows from the segment and deepen the correction.
In the near term, the key downside area to watch sits in the $400–$300 range.
Bulls are looking to bounce off the $470 level as of writing and the EMA hurdle sits at $530.94.
Argentina’s federal judiciary ordered a freeze of assets belonging to US promoter Hayden Davis and two alleged intermediaries tied to the collapsed Libra token, deepening an investigation into one of Latin America’s biggest crypto scandals.
The order, issued by Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, reportedly covers digital wallets, bank accounts and real-estate assets of Davis, Argentine operator Orlando Rodolfo Mellino and Colombian trader Favio Camilo Rodríguez Blanco.
Prosecutors said the asset freeze was necessary to prevent any transfer of assets that could represent the proceeds of fraud, as investigators work to trace a money trail estimated to be $100 million to $120 million.
The ruling directs the National Securities Commission (CNV) to notify all virtual asset service providers in the country, ensuring that the asset freeze is extended to local crypto platforms.
A new development in the LIBRA token scandal
The case centers on Libra, a memecoin that gained traction in February after Argentine President Javier Milei briefly promoted Davis in a social-media post as a blockchain and AI adviser. Within hours, the token surged and then crashed, wiping out about $250 million from more than 40,000 retail investors.
Davis, who also promoted other meme-based tokens, has been cast as the central figure in the memecoin scheme. In May, a US judge in New York froze $57 million in USDC stablecoins tied to Davis and his collaborators at the now-defunct Meteora exchange.
The judge later lifted the freeze, ruling that Davis and former Meteora CEO Ben Chow had not tried to move the funds and that restitution remained possible.
The lawsuit, led by American and Latin-American investors, accuses Davis, Chow and others of coordinating a “rug pull.” Plaintiffs invoked the RICO Act, alleging that Libra and M3M3, another project by Davis, formed part of an ongoing pattern of organized fraud.
While no criminal charges have been filed against Milei, the Argentine investigation drew attention as Davis’s crypto transfers allegedly coincided with high-level political meetings.
Court filings describe intermediaries converting tokens into cash when Davis met Milei at the Casa Rosada, fueling the broader “Cryptogate” controversy that dominated Argentine headlines.
Despite this, Judge Martínez de Giorgi emphasized that the asset freeze will only remain in place as long as necessary to secure evidence and preserve any potential restitution for investors.
The coordinated actions in Buenos Aires and New York mark a rare instance of courts across two continents targeting the same blockchain-based assets.
For regulators, the Libra scandal highlights how cross-border enforcement and political entanglement are becoming increasingly intertwined with crypto investigations.
Despite being entangled in the scandal, the Milei-led Argentina’s La Libertad Avanza party won the midterm elections, positioning the president as a leading contender for the October 2027 presidential race.
Uniswap’s UNI is the best performer among the top 30 cryptos by market cap, up 20% in 24 hours.
The rally comes after Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation submitted a “UNIfication” governance proposal on Monday.
UNI pump on UNIfication proposal
UNI, the native coin of the Uniswap decentralized exchange, is the best performer among the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The coin is currently up by 20% in the last 24 hours and is now trading above $8.5 per coin.
It had hit a monthly high of $10.2 on Monday but is currently retracing. The rally comes after Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation submitted a “UNIfication” governance proposal on Monday.
The proposal, co-authored by protocol founder Hayden Adams, Executive Director of the Uniswap Foundation Devin Walsh, and Uniswap researcher Kenneth Ng, will reduce the supply of Uniswap’s native UNI token in part by activating a burn mechanism.
If approved, this will mark a significant shift for Uniswap and its token holders as they have been calling for the so-called “fee switch” that would divert a portion of the trading fees that historically accrued to liquidity providers to the Uniswap protocol’s treasury or UNI token holders.
The proposal will use protocol fees earned by the Uniswap DEX and Unichain sequencer to burn tokens, while also directly burning 100 million UNI tokens currently sitting in Uniswap’s treasury.
Furthermore, the proposal would halt Uniswap Labs from earning fees on its interface, wallet, and API. However, it remains unclear the percentage of the fees will go towards token burns.
UNI could retrace to $7.2 as the bullish surge subsides
The UNI/USD 4-hour chart is bullish but inefficient as the coin pumped on the UNIfication news on Monday. The coin is now retracing and could gain efficiency in the near term.
The technical indicators remain bullish, with the RSI of 73 showing that UNI could soon enter the overbought region. The MACD lines are also within the positive territory, indicating a bullish bias.
If the retracement continues, UNI could drop to the $7.2 level to gain efficiency in the near term. An extended dip would see the bulls forced to defend the support level at $6.6.
However, if the bullish trend resumes, UNI could reclaim the $10.2 high created on Monday over the next few hours or days.
