US Bancorp is running a stablecoin pilot on the Stellar blockchain, joining the growing number of banks experimenting with the technology.
The bank is partnering with consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Stellar Development Foundation to run the pilot.
“The bottom line is institutions have arrived. New financial infrastructure is taking shape now, and US Bank, PwC, and SDF are working to unlock the next wave of digital banking,” said the Stellar Development Foundation on Tuesday.
US Bancorp is the publicly traded parent company of US Bank, which holds more than $664 billion in assets under management and reports annual revenue of over $27.5 billion, according to the bank.
Stablecoin test to demonstrate the promise of blockchain to banks
Kurt Fields, director and blockchain lead at PwC, said the primary objective of the pilot was to demonstrate the promise of blockchain in a trusted, bank-grade environment during a Tuesday episode of the US Banks podcast, Money 20/20.
“We’ve been talking about blockchain for years and we’re at a point now where it’s not about innovation anymore,” he said.
José Fernández da Ponte from the Stellar Development Foundation, Mike Villano from US Bank and Kurt Fields from PwC. (Left to right) Source: YouTube
“It’s about practical application in a rigorous, highly regulated environment where we’re taking advantage of the tooling onchain in this case on the Stellar network to demonstrate that the promise of programmable money actually yields benefits for not only the institution but the customers that they serve.”
Stellar blockchain chosen for its ability to freeze assets
The Stellar network launched in 2014 as an open-source, decentralized blockchain designed for cross-border payments and asset tokenization.
Mike Villano, the head of digital assets products at US Bank, said his organization chose Stellar for its pilot because it allows transaction unwinding and clawbacks.
Villano said the Stellar platform has the “ability at their base operating layer to freeze assets and unwind transactions,” which was a key consideration for customer protections.
“Often, you might write that into the business logic in itself, but in this instance, you could do it at the core blockchain layer. So that was very interesting to us,” he added.
Tokenized asset research is also in the works at US Bank
Villano also said US Bank is looking at tokenized assets and is in the research phase.
“We’re also doing some additional research around tokenized assets, where if you could take the value proposition of moving quickly, moving 24/7 and moving it very efficiently, you can apply that to all sorts of other asset classes that come along with it,” he said.
“So we’re excited to see where that research goes for us as well.”
Zcash surged more than 10x within weeks, briefly returning to large-cap territory with a valuation above $10 billion.
On Coinbase, ZEC became the most-searched asset in mid-November, surpassing both Bitcoin and XRP.
The rally is supported by several real shifts: the 2024 halving, rising shielded balances and the NU6.1 holder-controlled funding model.
Analysts are divided, with some calling the move a blow-off top and others viewing it as a repricing driven by renewed interest in “responsible” privacy coins amid stricter AML rules.
Zcash wasn’t expected to become a major story this market cycle. For most of the past few years, the privacy coin remained in the background while Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and a rotating cast of memecoins dominated headlines and trading activity.
Then November arrived.
In just a few days, Zcash (ZEC) climbed to the top of Coinbase’s search rankings. A screenshot shared by Zcash adviser Thor Torrens showed ZEC drawing around 52,000 searches on the platform. This was ahead of both XRP and Bitcoin, which recorded roughly 41,000 and 39,000 searches, respectively.
Zcash tops search charts on Coinbase
At the same time, ZEC’s price had already surged, delivering a four-digit percentage gain over the past year and briefly pushing the token back into the large-cap bracket.
For a coin many traders had written off as a relic of the previous privacy cycle, the question now is simple: How did Zcash go from low-profile to most-searched in a single month?
Did you know? Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox is a longtime cypherpunk who worked on DigiCash in the 1990s and helped create projects such as Tahoe-LAFS, the BLAKE2 hash function and the concept known as Zooko’s Triangle long before ZEC launched.
How Zcash slipped into low-profile relic status
For readers who haven’t looked at it in years, it is worth remembering what Zcash actually is.
Launched in 2016 as a Bitcoin-style proof-of-work (PoW) chain with a hard cap of 21 million coins, it was built around cutting-edge zero-knowledge proofs. These allow users to send either transparent transactions, similar to Bitcoin, or fully shielded transactions where amounts and addresses are hidden but still mathematically verifiable.
For a while, it was treated as a kind of “science project with a price,” backed by heavyweight cryptographers and privacy advocates.
Then the spotlight moved on. As regulators increased scrutiny of privacy coins, several major exchanges delisted or restricted them, and Monero (XMR) gradually became the default choice for die-hard privacy users.
ZEC slid down the market capitalization rankings, daily volumes thinned out, and social chatter faded. By early 2024, despite having survived two halving events and multiple network upgrades, it looked more like a legacy token from an earlier era than a contender for a new narrative.
The slow turnaround: Halvings, shielded usage and a governance reset
The November spike did not come out of nowhere. Zcash spent the past two years quietly reshaping its underlying story, while most of the market was not paying attention.
On the monetary side, the most recent halving on Nov. 23, 2024, cut the block reward from 3.125 ZEC to 1.5625 ZEC, reducing daily new issuance from roughly 3,600 coins to about 1,800. With a fixed supply of 21 million and halving cycles now running on a tighter post-Blossom schedule, ZEC began to be discussed in “sound money” terms by parts of the community.
Under the hood, actual usage was shifting as well. Coinbase research notes that the amount of ZEC held in shielded addresses climbed from about 1.7 million coins to roughly 4.5 million over the past year, with more than 1 million coins moving into shielded pools within a three-week window.
Overall, more than 27% of the circulating supply is now shielded, and other trackers show the peak shielded supply briefly rising above 5 million coins. This suggests that users are not just trading the ticker.
At the same time, the new funding and governance structure went live. The NU6.1 upgrade, activated on Nov. 24, 2025, allocates 8% of block rewards to community grants and 12% to a coinholder-controlled fund. This gives ZEC holders a formal say in how millions of dollars in development capital are deployed between now and the next halving in 2028.
Together, these changes laid the groundwork for a rerating long before search volumes surged.
Did you know? The Electric Coin Company commissioned Rand Europe to study criminal use of Zcash. The researchers found that ZEC had only a minor presence on the dark web and that Bitcoin remained the dominant currency for illicit activity.
Privacy revival, Monero exploit and new AML rules
The spark for all this was a mix of narrative and timing.
Privacy suddenly returned to focus after a high-profile exploit in Monero shook confidence in the sector’s default choice. Commentators began looking for an alternative with active governance and a clear upgrade path. With a scheduled network update underway and a halving narrative in the background, Zcash positioned itself as a candidate to fill that vacuum.
At the same time, regulators continued tightening oversight on opaque money flows. New Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, stronger Travel Rule enforcement and increased scrutiny of mixers made “total darkness” harder to defend, whereas Zcash’s model of optional privacy and auditable view keys appeared more compatible with compliance-minded institutions.
A rival stumbling, a returning theme and a protocol that could be positioned as a “responsible” privacy coin gave ZEC a fresh story just as traders were looking for the next big narrative.
About the Coinbase surge: What 52,000 searches really mean
According to figures shared by Zcash adviser Torrens, ZEC logged around 52,000 individual searches on Coinbase in mid-November, compared with roughly 41,000 for XRP and 39,000 for Bitcoin.
That is a clear snapshot of retail curiosity, with tens of thousands of users typing “Zcash” into the search bar on one of the largest fiat on-ramps in the world.
Off-exchange, social data from X and Reddit showed a similar rise in mentions. Taken together, November was the month Zcash reentered retail consciousness.
Blow-off top or real repricing
Look only at the chart, and it is easy to call this a blow-off top. From late September to early November, ZEC climbed from the mid-$70s to more than $700, at one point rising over 1,000% this fall and more than 500% in a single month, before sliding about 30% from its local high.
Coinbase notes that Zcash futures volume approached $10 billion on Nov. 7, and derivatives platforms have reported rising open interest as traders piled into the move. For anyone who has lived through past altcoin manias, those indicators often appear in periods of heavy speculative positioning.
But there is also a case that November was more of a repricing rather than a pure mania spike. Supply growth has already been cut in half by the 2024 halving, shielded usage now accounts for more than a quarter of the circulating supply, and NU6.1 has introduced a clearer and more transparent funding model through the next halving cycle.
If those fundamentals hold, some analysts argue that any sharp correction could represent a reset within a higher range, although outcomes remain uncertain. The hard part, as always, is separating narrative from lasting change in real time.
Did you know? Before Zcash launched in October 2016, futures contracts tied to the coin on over-the-counter (OTC) platforms jumped from about $18 to $261 in six weeks, a roughly 1,300% gain driven purely by anticipation of its privacy technology.
What Zcash’s November moment tells us about crypto narratives
Zcash’s November moment says as much about the broader crypto market as it does about one older token.
Markets have a habit of rediscovering assets that quietly improve their economics, strengthen governance and wait for the right macro story to catch up. In this case, the story centered on privacy. Rising concern over data exposure, tighter AML enforcement and fatigue with fully transparent chains created space for a “partial privacy” alternative that did not appear to be an immediate regulatory target.
For readers, the takeaway is twofold.
First, exchange search data is a useful early signal for where retail attention is drifting, but it often appears just as fear of missing out (FOMO) peaks.
Second, themes never truly disappear in crypto; they cycle. If Zcash can turn a legacy reputation into a fresh narrative, other forgotten categories may not be as dead as their charts suggest.
A high-conviction Bitcoin whale placed a $2 billion wager that the worst is over and the market bottom might be in after a brutal leverage washout stripped speculative froth from the crypto market.
On Nov. 24, Deribit, the Coinbase-owned crypto options trading platform, reported a 20,000 BTC notional block trade, which appears to signal that institutional capital is pivoting from damage control to strategic accumulation.
According to the platform:
“[The] trader lifted a long-dated 100k/106k/112k/118k call condor for Dec ’25. Signal is clear: a structured bullish view – expecting BTC to reach the 100–118k zone, not explode past it.”
What does this trade signal?
This position effectively bets that the recent liquidation cascade marked a cycle-defining bottom that has cleared the runway for a march toward six figures.
Indeed, the trade structure is precise. By buying call options at $100,000 and $118,000 while selling calls at $106,000 and $112,000, the investor is targeting a specific profit corridor.
Bitcoin Block Trade (Source: Deribit)
It represents a bet that the BTC will recover and settle into a high valuation band, but without the chaotic volatility that characterized the recent crash.
Meanwhile, this positioning arrives at a critical juncture. While retail investors remain hesitant, the derivatives market is signaling that the structural damage has been repaired.
So, the trade implies that the recent $27,000 plunge from the highs was a necessary cleansing event, resetting the board for the next leg of the cycle.
The 1.3 Million BTC flush
To understand the conviction behind the $1.7 billion bet, one must look at the scale of the wreckage left behind. The market has just endured its sharpest contraction in open interest of the entire cycle.
According to data from CryptoQuant, open interest in Bitcoin terms has plummeted by roughly 1.3 million BTC over the last 30 days. The vast majority of this unwind occurred on Binance, marking a decisive end to the speculative fever that had earlier driven aggregate open interest to record highs.
Bitcoin Open Interest (Source: CryptoQuant)
This scale of capitulation mirrors the depths of the 2022 bear market. As a result, BTC’s recent drop from $106,000 to roughly $79,500 was primarily driven by mechanical liquidation cascades rather than fundamental decay.
This means that traders holding long positions were swept from the board in a violent feedback loop, turning a healthy correction into a crash.
However, historical patterns suggest these “cleansing phases” are often bullish signals.
By forcing the closure of overly optimistic positions and flushing out weak hands, the market builds a more stable floor. The reduction in speculative exposure implies that selling pressure from distressed leverage is now exhausted.
Whales accumulate, retail flees
Meanwhile, beneath the surface of the derivatives flush, on-chain data reveals a distinct shift in ownership that supports the bottoming thesis.
The market is transitioning from aggressive selling to an orderly unwind. Key stress metrics such as transfer volumes and realized capitalization change have subsided, a hallmark of late-cycle corrections.
More importantly, a clear divergence has emerged between investor cohorts. While retail investors (holding less than 10 BTC) have been net sellers over the last 60 days, mid-sized “sharks” and institutions are stepping in.
CryptoQuant data shows that BTC cohorts holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC, as well as those holding more than 10,000 BTC, have been steadily accumulating throughout the dip. These sophisticated players are absorbing the supply being distributed by fearful retail hands.
However, the one remaining headwind is the 1,000 to 10,000 BTC cohort, which continues to distribute.
So, for the recovery to transition into a confirmed reversal, this group must slow its selling. As such, the $1.7 billion options bet is an early indicator that the “smart money” believes this shift is imminent.
Macro pivot points
At the same time, the whale’s trade timing anticipates a favorable shift in the macro environment. The week ahead is loaded with heavy economic data releases, including US PPI and PCE figures, which will anchor expectations for the Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting.
With markets pricing in an 81% probability of a rate cut, a dovish data skew would provide immediate liquidity support for risk assets.
Coin Bureau co-founder Nic Puckrin told CryptoSlate that the increased odds of a rate cut had helped push Bitcoin’s recent upward trend above $87,000.
“We could see further upside in the short term if sentiment holds, especially with longs underweighted,” he said, while cautioning that optimism is “tenuous” with the FOMC divided and no confirming data yet.
Puckrin added that the Fed’s next decision could decide whether year-end brings a “Santa rally” or a “Santa dump,” and he expects jitters to persist into the Dec. 10 meeting.
In this context, the Call Condor acts as a strategic vehicle. The sheer size of the position creates massive dealer hedging flows. As prices move toward the $100,000 activation zone, dealers who sold the structure will be forced to hedge their exposure, creating a magnetic pull toward the profit band.
Caroline Pham, acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, called for nominations of CEOs to fill seats on a council to discuss policies, including those related to digital assets.
In a Tuesday notice, Pham said the CFTC would be accepting submissions until Dec. 8 for a “CEO Innovation Council,” referencing the regulator’s previous efforts to regulate digital assets, including its “Crypto Sprint” initiative, a crypto industry forum, and Congress’ progress with a market structure bill. The acting chair said the council would focus on the CFTC’s “expanded mission over crypto and prediction markets.”
“The CFTC stands ready to carry out our mission over expanded markets and products, including crypto and digital assets, and ensure our markets remain vibrant and resilient while protecting all participants,” said Pham. “In order to hit the ground running, it is critical that the CFTC drives public engagement with the support of expert industry leaders and visionaries who are building the future.”
It’s unclear when the CFTC will officially form the council, but it could occur after Pham leaves the commission. The acting chair could soon be replaced by SEC official Michael Selig, whose nomination as a Senate-confirmed chair of the commission is expected to be headed for a floor vote soon. Many lawmakers will not return to Washington, D.C., until after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Selig signals crypto priorities as CFTC faces leadership void
Though the Senate has not yet voted on Selig’s nomination, his testimony before lawmakers in the Agriculture Committee last week offered a preview of how he might approach digital asset regulation if confirmed.
Selig said it was “vitally important” to have a “cop on the beat” for regulating spot digital asset commodity markets. He also said it was “very valuable to have a diversity of viewpoints,” referring to the dearth of leadership at the CFTC — Pham has been the sole commissioner for months, and the White House had announced no additional nominations from US President Donald Trump as of Tuesday.
MegaETH’s pre-deposit event unraveled on Tuesday after a cascade of technical failures disrupted what was meant to be a controlled opening for verified users.
In an X post, the team said that configuration errors and rate-limit issues caused the platform’s Know Your Customer system to fail. The pre-deposit was an early window for verified users to lock in MEGA token allocations.
In addition to the KYC failures, a fully signed Safe multisig transaction — prepared for a later cap increase — was executed prematurely, allowing new deposits to flow in and pushing the raise past its intended $250 million limit.
“The $250M cap is filled by people who were spamming refresh on the Pre-Deposit Website and were able to catch the random opening time,” the protocol said.
MegaETH ultimately froze deposits at $500 million and scrapped plans to expand the raise to $1 billion. A retro and a withdrawal option will be released shortly.
“At no point were assets at risk, but that doesn’t matter; we expect higher of ourselves and there are no excuses,” the team added.
MegaETH is an Ethereum layer-2 protocol designed to deliver ultra-low-latency block processing and throughput, comparable to a real-time Web2 application.
Some users praised MegaETH’s transparency in explaining what happened, but others were far more critical. AzFlin, a developer and DAO founder, argued that the mistakes could have been prevented if engineers had been more careful.
The pre-deposit window came on the heels of MegaETH’s MEGA token auction, which opened on Oct. 27 and was fully subscribed within minutes.
That sale offered 5% of the 10-billion-token supply, with bids ranging from $2,650 to $186,282 and an optional one-year lock-up that provided a 10% discount.
The auction closed on Oct. 30, ultimately drawing more than $1.3 billion in commitments and becoming one of the year’s most crowded raises.
Because contributions far exceeded the cap, MegaETH said it would rely on a “special allocation mechanism” to determine the amount each participant ultimately receives.
MegaETH is built by MegaLabs, a team backed by major industry figures including Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin.
Following its testnet launch in March, the project is now targeting 100,000 transactions per second with sub-millisecond latency. The MEGA token is set to launch in early 2026.
Timechain Index founder Sani reported 87,464 BTC flowing out of institution-tagged wallets between Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, adding that he hadn’t seen such movement in months.
Yet, as Sani clarified in a note, the headline figure overstates actual selling pressure. Most of the movement represents internal reshuffling rather than institutions exiting Bitcoin positions.
Sani explained that pre-processed data can show extreme volatility when large holders move coins between custodians or wallets, but after reconciliation, the net flows often land near zero.
Strategy accounted for 49,907 BTC of the tracked outflows, but CEO Michael Saylor confirmed the company sold no Bitcoin that week. In fact, Strategy added 8,178 BTC last week, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.
Sani’s assessment indicates that Strategy transferred holdings to new custodians to diversify risk, with some coins appearing in addresses linked to Fidelity Custody. Additionally, that’s the second time the firm has performed such a movement.
This is not unique to Strategy. Sani shared that BlackRock moved Bitcoins out of their known addresses twice as well. The first time happened last year, and the second occurred a few weeks ago, when they moved nearly 800,000 BTC to new addresses. Additionally, Coinbase also reshuffled a similar amount this weekend in a UTXO consolidation exercise.
Back to the over 15,000 BTC in outflows, Bitcoin ETFs bore the brunt on Nov. 21, shedding 10,426 BTC as issuers processed redemptions tied to $903 million in net withdrawals reported Nov. 20.
ETF outflows translate directly to liquidations, as fund managers must sell the underlying Bitcoin to meet shareholder exit requests. Still, the scale fell within normal bounds given the prior day’s redemption activity.
Timechain Index tracks 16 entity categories, including centralized exchanges, miners, ETFs, publicly traded companies, custodians, governments, OTC desks, and payment processors.
The platform aggregates known addresses for each cohort and monitors balance changes in real time.
Sani’s “LiveChangesSummary” data showed Strategy’s 49,907 BTC outflow, Coinbase’s 11,762 BTC outflow, and ETC Group’s 6,973 BTC outflow as the largest movements, with smaller flows across custodians, exchanges, and miners.
Timechain Index data shows 87,464 BTC left institution-tagged wallets on Nov. 21, with MicroStrategy’s 49,907 BTC transfer representing the largest single movement.
Routine custody operations vs. directional bets
The distinction matters because Bitcoin’s on-chain transparency makes wallet movements visible before context arrives.
When 87,464 BTC appears to leave institution-tracked addresses in a 24-hour window, the immediate read can suggest panic selling or a coordinated retreat from crypto exposure.
The post-processing showed the opposite: net institutional holdings remained stable after accounting for internal transfers and standard ETF mechanics.
Strategy’s custody diversification aligns with treasury management best practices for large holders. Concentrating nearly 650,000 BTC with a single custodian creates operational risk, and spreading holdings across multiple qualified custodians reduces exposure to any single point of failure.
Bitcoin ETFs operate under different constraints. When investors redeem shares, authorized participants return creation units to the issuer and receive the underlying Bitcoin, which they then sell on the market to close out arbitrage positions.
The Nov. 20 outflow figure of $903 million corresponded to roughly 10,400 BTC at prevailing prices, matching the ETF-cohort outflow Timechain Index recorded the following day. The lag reflects settlement timing rather than discretionary selling.
XRP is leading the race for altcoin supremacy in the US crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) market with its record performance since last month.
In less than 10 trading days, the new crop of US spot XRP ETFs has registered cumulative inflows of roughly $587 million, compared with approximately $568 million for their Solana counterparts.
This surge turns the sector’s hierarchy on its head, establishing XRP as the primary venue for non-Bitcoin and Ethereum risk appetite in a market otherwise defined by outflows and defensive positioning.
Solana vs XRP ETFs
Solana ETFs had set the early pace in the sector.
Since debuting on Oct. 28, US spot Solana ETFs logged 20 consecutive days of net inflows, totaling approximately $568 million. This helped push the funds’ total assets to $840 million, representing about 1% of the token’s market capitalization.
Solana ETFs Daily Net Inflows (Source: SoSo Value)
However, XRP has compressed that trajectory into a hyper-accelerated window.
As of Nov. 21, US spot XRP products had already amassed $423 million. However, the Nov. 24 entry of heavyweights Grayscale and Franklin Templeton triggered a massive capital injection, adding approximately $164 million in net creations in a single session.
This brings the XRP complex’s cumulative total to roughly $587 million, vaulting past Solana’s month-long haul in nearly half the time.
On a capital-intensity basis, XRP is now absorbing institutional dollars at almost double the daily rate of its rival.
The race to zero
The velocity of the flip is being driven by a structural “race to the bottom” on costs.
Franklin Templeton has established the most aggressive pricing benchmark in the crypto ETF sector. Its XRPZ fund carries a 0.19% sponsor fee, which is fully waived on the first $5 billion in assets through May 31, 2026.
For institutional allocators and model portfolios, where basis-point friction dictates selection, XRPZ effectively becomes a zero-cost carry trade for the next six months.
Grayscale’s GXRP has adopted a similar posture, waiving its standard fees for the first three months.
This aggressive issuer subsidization coincided with peak demand. The Nov. 24’s $164 million surge suggests that a significant tranche of capital was sidelined, waiting specifically for these low-cost, brand-name wrappers to go live before deploying.
While Solana ETFs also utilized waivers for funds like Bitwise’s BSOL, the sheer scale of Franklin’s $5 billion cap appears to have unlocked a larger tier of institutional flow immediately upon listing.
Momentum vs. gravity
The most telling divergence, however, lies in the relationship between flows and price action.
Solana’s $510 million in inflows has arrived amid a 30% price correction from recent highs. In this context, ETF flows have acted as a dampener, absorbing sell-side pressure from existing holders but failing to reverse the trend.
Effectively, this makes the SOL ETF’s performance a defensive accumulation story.
By contrast, XRP flows are fueling a breakout. The token had also experienced a drawdown of around 17% in the last 30 days but rose roughly 10% following the Nov. 24 session.
This aided XRP’s breakout above $2, with the token trading as high as $2.27. On-chain analysis from Glassnode identifies this region as a “major psychological zone,” where legacy holders typically sell to break even on losses from early 2025.
XRP Realized Losses Aroudn $2 Zone (Source: Glassnode)
In previous cycles, this supply wall capped rallies. Today, the ETF bid is changing the calculus. With funds absorbing $50 million to $100 million daily, the ETFs are creating a non-price-sensitive demand sink capable of digesting legacy supply.
Unlike Solana, where flows are fighting gravity, XRP flows are acting as a battering ram, turning a historical resistance level into an accumulation floor.
The Path to $2 billion?
With four issuers now live and the $500 million milestone cleared in under 15 trading days, market observers are recalibrating their year-end projections.
The current run rate places XRP on a trajectory that outpaces many analyst expectations for non-Bitcoin assets.
If the current trend persists, which is characterized by daily inflows normalizing in the $40 million to $60 million range following the launch hype, the complex is on pace to challenge the $1.5 billion mark by year-end.
However, a “bull case” scenario is emerging.
If the fee waivers from Franklin Templeton successfully court registered investment advisors (RIAs) and the rotation out of underperforming assets continues, the complex could theoretically approach $2 billion in assets under management (AUM) before the books close on 2025.
Friday’s $14 billion BTC options expiry favors neutral-to-bearish bets as most call (buy) strikes sit above $91,000, increasing pressure on bulls.
Bitcoin traders added year-end call options near $100,000 despite recent losses, showing that bullish expectations persist.
Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped on Tuesday after failing to hold the $89,200 level reached the previous day. Traders are increasingly concerned that Friday’s $14 billion BTC options expiry may reinforce bearish sentiment following weaker private employment data and a decline in US consumer confidence.
The aggregate BTC call (buy) options open interest stands at 104,300 BTC, valued at $9.12 billion at current prices. Yet the recent 23% decline in Bitcoin over 30 days caught bulls off guard, as 84% of these positions were placed above $91,000. These contracts are set to expire worthless if the spot price remains near current levels.
Nov. 28 aggregate BTC put (sell) options open interest, BTC. Source: laevitas.ch
Put (sell) options open interest totals 67,877 BTC, or $5.92 billion. Despite being 35% smaller than call open interest, put positions appear better aligned with prevailing market conditions, with 31% set at $84,500 or lower. Thus, even if Bitcoin recovers part of its recent losses by Nov. 28, probabilities favor neutral-to-bearish outcomes.
Risk sentiment deteriorated further after payroll processor ADP reported on Tuesday that US private companies shed an average of 13,500 jobs per week during the past four weeks. Labor market weakness poses an additional challenge for a consumer-driven economy.
Investors’ sentiment weakened further after the US Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell to 88.7 in November, down from 95.5 in the previous month. Expectations for income and business also dropped, remaining well below the 80% neutral threshold for the tenth straight month, according to Yahoo Finance.
Weak economic data increases hopes for Fed intervention
Although deteriorating economic indicators weigh on investor expectations, they also raise the likelihood of the Federal Reserve adopting a less restrictive monetary stance. Gold rose 1.2% and the Russell 2000 small-cap index gained 1.9% as traders anticipated additional liquidity measures from the US Treasury to help stabilize the economy.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed the “Genesis Mission” executive order aimed at accelerating artificial intelligence development and reducing perceived risks tied to energy shortages and long-term financing needs, as large-scale high-performance computing facilities could strain credit markets.
Bitcoin options open interest change past 48 hours at Deribit, USD. Source: Laevitas.ch
Bitcoin traders responded by increasing year-end call option positions in the $100,000 to $112,000 range over the past 48 hours, signaling that medium-term optimism persists despite the recent price weakness.
$89,000 is the key level to decide Bitcoin’s momentum
Below are five probable scenarios for the November BTC options expiry based on current price trends:
Between $85,000 and $87,000: The net result favors the put (sell) instruments by $1.9 billion.
Between $87,001 and $88,000: The net result favors the put (sell) instruments by $800 million.
Between $88,001 and $89,000: Balanced outcome between call and put options.
Between $89,001 and $90,000: The net result favors the call (buy) instruments by $600 million.
Between $90,001 and $92,000: The net result favors the call (buy) instruments by $3.8 billion.
It may be premature to dismiss bullish BTC options strategies outright. Investors’ sentiment remains closely tied to macroeconomic conditions and expectations of potential stimulus efforts by central banks worldwide.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
The South African Reserve Bank issued its second financial stability report for 2025, identifying digital assets and stablecoins as a new risk as the number of users in the country continues to grow.
In a report released on Tuesday, South Africa’s central bank identified “crypto assets and stablecoins” as a new risk for technology-enabled financial innovation. The bank reported that the number of combined users on the country’s three largest crypto exchanges reached 7.8 million as of July, with about $1.5 billion held in custody at the end of 2024.
“Due to their exclusively digital – and therefore borderless – nature, crypto assets can be used to circumvent the provisions of the Exchange Control Regulations,” said the report, referring to regulations to control the inflows and outflows of funds to South Africa.
Total registered users across the top crypto exchanges in South Africa. Source: South African Reserve Bank
In addition to crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC), XRP (XRP), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL), the central bank said that there had been a “structural shift” in the adoption of stablecoins based on a significant increase in trading volume since 2022:
“Whereas Bitcoin and other popular crypto assets were the main conduit for trading crypto assets until 2022, USD-pegged stablecoins have become the preferred trading pair on South African crypto asset trading platforms […] This is due to the notably lower price volatility of stablecoins compared to unbacked crypto assets.”
The Financial Stability Board, a financial watchdog for entities in the G20, reported in October that South Africa had “no framework in place” for regulating global stablecoins, and only “partial regulations in place” for cryptocurrencies. The central bank said that “risks may build up undetected” from crypto, posing a threat to the country’s financial stability until an appropriate regulatory framework is established.
Different story with South Africa’s government on crypto
The central bank’s warning echoed similar sentiments from 2017, when deputy governor Francois Groepe said issuing digital currencies would be too risky for the country.
However, among policymakers in South Africa’s government, the sentiment may be slightly more bullish.
Klarna launches KlarnaUSD, a USD-pegged stablecoin, on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo chain.
KlarnaUSD targets cheaper cross-border payments before wider consumer rollout.
Stablecoin market surges past $300B as major fintechs adopt blockchain rails.
Klarna has taken a major step into digital finance with the announcement of KlarnaUSD, a USD-pegged stablecoin built on Tempo, the new layer-1 blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm.
The move signals a decisive shift for the Swedish digital bank, which is preparing to integrate blockchain technology more deeply into its global payment systems.
Klarna steps into crypto
KlarnaUSD is now live on Tempo’s testnet, with a full mainnet rollout planned for 2026.
The stablecoin is issued through Bridge, Stripe’s dedicated stablecoin infrastructure product, giving Klarna a direct connection to one of the most advanced payment-focused blockchain stacks.
Notably, Klarna is the first financial institution to issue a token on Tempo, a blockchain engineered specifically for fast and low-cost payments.
Klarna explained that the token will first support internal payment flows.
The goal is to cut the cost of cross-border transfers, a persistent expense for global fintech companies.
After the mainnet rollout, the digital bank has signalled plans to extend KlarnaUSD to merchants and consumers after internal testing.
That expansion would build on Klarna’s broad checkout and instalment-payment network, though the firm says there are currently no plans to integrate the stablecoin into its buy now, pay later product.
Klarna’s push to cut global transfer costs
Klarna’s CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, once sceptical of crypto, has now embraced blockchain’s potential in payments.
Siemiatkowski said that crypto has reached a stage where it is “fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale,” describing KlarnaUSD as the beginning of a broader strategy.
With more than 114 million customers and $112 billion in annual gross merchandise volume, Klarna believes it has the scale to shift how global payments work.
The bank’s partnership with Stripe has been central to this push. Stripe already processes much of Klarna’s traffic, and Tempo provides the infrastructure for more efficient settlement.
Cross-border payments cost consumers and businesses around $120 billion each year, and KlarnaUSD is expected to cut a significant portion of these fees.
Early estimates across the industry suggest blockchain-based rails can reduce international payment costs by up to 90% compared to traditional networks.
Furthermore, KlarnaUSD’s launch comes at a moment when stablecoin usage is surging, with annual transaction volume already surpassing $27 trillion, according to McKinsey.
The global stablecoin market capitalisation has climbed from $260 billion in July to about $304 billion by November, with much of this growth coming after the passage of the US GENIUS Act, the first federal law governing stablecoins.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expects stablecoins to reach a $3 trillion market cap by 2030, a scale that could save the US government $114 billion annually.
A market expanding at record speed
Other major companies are also entering the stablecoin arena.
Visa added support for the Global Dollar token and expanded settlement capabilities across Stellar and Avalanche.
The momentum suggests that stablecoins are becoming a central pillar in global financial infrastructure.
Klarna’s entrance adds another high-profile name to this growing list.
The bank recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $1.37 billion and reinforcing its financial position despite its stock hovering near 52-week lows.
Strong liquidity gives Klarna room to explore blockchain-based products, with executives hinting that more crypto-related projects are on the way.
As KlarnaUSD moves toward mainnet, eyes will be on how the firm integrates the token into its global operations.
If successful, KlarnaUSD may become one of the clearest examples yet of how established fintech companies can use blockchain to update old payment systems, and potentially redefine the future of cross-border money movement.
