Today's top news highlights:
1. The probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in December has risen to 69.4%.
2. Tom Lee still maintains that Bitcoin will reach $150,000-$200,000 by the end of January next year.
3. Arthur Hayes: The bottom is near, but don't rush to go all in.
4. Michael Saylor responds to MSCI's proposed new rules: Index classification cannot define strategy
5. Bitmine Financial Report: Full-year net revenue of approximately $328 million; staking service to launch in Q1 2026.
6. Coinbase acquires Vector.fun, a trading platform within the Solana ecosystem.
7. Binance Alpha will list Sparkle (SSS) on November 24th.
Macro
According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, Bitcoin mining hardware maker Bitmain is under investigation for several months to assess whether its products pose a risk to U.S. national security. The investigation, codenamed "Operation Red Sunset," is being led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, it focuses on assessing whether the company's machines could be remotely controlled for espionage or used to disrupt the U.S. power grid. The investigation has included examining the chips and firmware of Bitmain machines docked at U.S. ports, and investigators have also reviewed potential tariff and import tax violations.
Bitmain responded that it "strictly complies with U.S. and applicable laws and regulations and has never engaged in any activities that pose a risk to U.S. national security," and stated that claims regarding its ability to remotely control devices are "absolutely unfounded." The company added that it is unaware of any investigation called "Operation Red Sunset" or any investigations concerning tariffs and other import duties, and attributed past device seizures to routine inspections by the Federal Communications Commission, stating that "no abnormalities were found."
U.S. stocks closed higher across the board, with Circle (CRCL) rising more than 6%.
According to CLS News Agency, the three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.08%, the S&P 500 up 0.98%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.88%. The Nasdaq is down 2.74% for the week, the S&P 500 is down 1.95%, and the Dow is down 1.91%. Large-cap tech stocks were mixed, with Google up over 3%, Intel up over 2%, Apple and Amazon up over 1%, Oracle down over 5%, and Netflix, Microsoft, AMD, Nvidia, and Tesla down over 1%. Blockchain concept stocks generally rose, with Circle (CRCL) up 6.57% and Coinbase (COIN) up 0.94%.
According to Decrypt, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has disclosed that a UK-led operation to combat Russian sanctions evasion has resulted in the arrest of 128 people and the seizure of $32.6 million worth of cryptocurrency and cash. The operation, dubbed "Operation Destabilise," was first announced in 2024 and had arrested 84 people and seized $25.5 million by December of last year. However, the latest NCA data shows that the operation has also arrested 45 more people suspected of money laundering and seized over $6.6 million in cash.
According to CME's "FedWatch," the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in December has risen to 69.4%, while the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 30.6%.
According to Decrypt, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has disclosed that a UK-led operation to combat Russian sanctions circumvention has resulted in the arrest of 128 people and the seizure of [illegible - likely related to seizures].
Opinion
According to Bloomberg, despite the recent accelerated decline in the crypto market, Fundstrat co-founder and BitMine chairman Tom Lee still believes Bitcoin will reach $150,000-$200,000 by the end of January next year. He believes the long-term power of retail investors will continue to drive the market higher. He stated that those who failed to maintain a bullish view over the past decade "have consistently been wrong."
It is worth noting that Tom Lee made a similar assessment in September during the Impact Summit at Korea Blockchain Week 2025, when he predicted that Bitcoin would reach $200,000-$250,000 by the end of the year, and Ethereum would target $10,000-$12,000.
Jefferies report: Tether becomes a major new buyer of gold, driving the recent surge in gold prices.
Investment bank Jefferies said on Thursday that Tether is a major new buyer of gold and a primary driver of the recent gold price surge, with traditional factors no longer being the main drivers. The report revealed that verification data and on-chain activity show that Tether has accumulated a large amount of gold in recent months, tightening the gold supply and fueling the surge in precious metal prices. Investors told Jefferies that Tether plans to purchase approximately 100 tons of gold this year, and its CEO, Paolo Ardoino, has publicly stated that the company will increase its gold reserves and expects gold prices to soar to $1,000 per ounce.
According to a team of analysts led by Andrew Moss, Tether held approximately 116 tons of gold as of the end of the third quarter. They also revealed that the company had 12 tons of gold backing its XAUt token (worth approximately $1.57 billion) and another 104 tons backing its stablecoin USDT (worth approximately $13.67 billion). Jefferies points out that Tether continues to increase its gold accumulation efforts, adding approximately 26 tons in the third quarter alone, representing about 2% of global gold demand in that quarter. With business expansion, gold is expected to account for about 7% of its reserves. If half of Ardoino's projected $1.5 billion profit by 2025 were invested in gold, it could add nearly 60 tons annually.
Analysis: BTC losses have surged to their highest level since the FTX crash.
Glassnode reported that Bitcoin losses have surged to their highest level since the FTX crash, with short-term holders being the primary driver of this capitulation sell-off. The scale and speed of liquidation during the decline reflect a significant decrease in marginal demand, with recent new entrants closing out their positions.
CryptoQuant CEO: Bitcoin may not see a strong rebound in the next 3-6 months.
CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju wrote on the X platform: "The market weakness is greater than expected. If this situation continues, Bitcoin may not see a strong rebound in the next 3-6 months. The real bull market will not start until liquidity recovers next year."
Furthermore, it cited macroeconomic expert @LukeGromen's view that "foreign demand for US Treasuries is weak, and without new liquidity injections, the US Treasury market will become unstable; once liquidity recovers next year, the prices of scarce assets such as gold and Bitcoin should rise."
Arthur Hayes: The bottom is near, but don't rush to go all in.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted on the X platform: "BTC's decline has been less than the decline in dollar liquidity. The bottom is coming, but don't rush to go all in. At the same time, wait for a crash in the US stock market. We are betting on a larger-scale money printing, and to achieve this, we need to wait for AI tech stocks to collapse."
Michael Saylor responds to MSCI's proposed new rules: Index classification cannot define strategy.
Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Strategy, responded to questions regarding the MSCI index, emphasizing that Strategy, as a publicly traded operating company, is fundamentally different from funds, trusts, and holding companies. Strategy not only has a $500 million software business but also uniquely uses Bitcoin as productive capital in its fund management.
Saylor points out that Strategy has completed five public offerings of digital credit securities this year, with a notional total value exceeding $7.7 billion, and launched Stretch, a Bitcoin-backed fund management credit instrument. Unlike passively held assets funds and trusts, Strategy focuses on active management through creation, construction, issuance, and operation. Currently, the company is committed to building a Bitcoin-backed structured finance company with innovative capabilities in capital and software, which is difficult for passive instruments to match. Saylor emphasizes that index classifications cannot define Strategy. The company has a clear long-term strategy, a firm belief in Bitcoin, and its mission remains to become the world's first digital currency institution based on sound money and financial innovation.
Previous reports indicated that MSCI plans to introduce new rules to remove companies with more than 50% of their assets from its major indices ; JPMorgan Chase stated that if Strategy is removed from MSCI and other mainstream indices, it could trigger a withdrawal of up to $2.8 billion in funds.
Santiment: Bitcoin sentiment on social media falls to its lowest point since December 2023.
Crypto market analytics platform Santiment tweeted that Bitcoin sentiment on social media has officially fallen to its lowest point since December 11, 2023. Based on bullish and bearish comments on platforms such as X, Reddit, and Telegram, retail investors are collapsing, with panic selling reaching its highest level in two years.
Project Updates
Web3 fantasy sports platform Sorare will lay off 35% of its staff.
Raphaël Bloch, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Big Whale, revealed in an article on the X platform that Web3 fantasy sports platform Sorare will be laying off 35% of its staff. An internal announcement confirmed the layoff plan, stating that approximately 35 of its 100 employees will leave, and that co-founder and CTO Adrien Montfort will step down from his operational role.
Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia responded that he decided to "accelerate its path to profitability" and believes the restructuring will "simplify the company structure and shorten decision-making processes." He acknowledged that the move was "difficult to implement, but necessary." Sorare had previously initiated a major austerity program and migrated to the Solana platform, which could generate up to $10 million in revenue. Julia maintains that the company will return to growth by 2025 and achieve profitability "by the end of 2026."
Coinbase acquires Vector.fun, a trading platform within the Solana ecosystem.
According to Fortune magazine, Max Branzburg, Coinbase's Vice President of Product Management, revealed that Coinbase has agreed to acquire Vector.fun, a trading platform within the Solana ecosystem, with the transaction expected to close by the end of the year. He declined to disclose the terms of the acquisition.
Vector.fun, a decentralized exchange focused on Meme coin trading, will have all 13 of its team members join Coinbase. Following the acquisition, Vector.fun's existing application will be shut down, and its technology will be used to enhance the decentralized trading functionality of the Coinbase application, enabling users to directly trade Solana ecosystem assets through Coinbase, breaking through the current limitation of only supporting on-chain trading on the Base chain.
The Tensor Foundation announced its acquisition of Tensor Marketplace and the Tensorians NFT series. Two days before the announcement, the price of TNSR surged by approximately 300%, sparking speculation about potential insider trading.
Under the new management, all transaction fees from the trading platform will be deposited into the TNSR token treasury. At the same time, 21.6% of the unallocated tokens will be burned, and the already allocated tokens will be locked up again for three years.
According to PR Newswire, Ethereum treasury company Bitmine announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year ending August 31, 2025. The report stated that the company's net income for the full fiscal year 2025 was $328,161,370, with fully diluted earnings per share of $13.39. It also announced an annual dividend of $0.01 per BMNR share.
In addition, Bitmine has selected three top staking service providers for a pilot project to test its various functions, while advancing and expanding its proprietary staking infrastructure—the Made in the USA Validator Network (MAVAN). The staking functionality is expected to officially launch in the first quarter of 2026.
Maple Finance responded to recent public accusations from the CORE Foundation regarding its BTC yield program and syrupBTC product. Maple vehemently denies CORE's allegations, calling them a distortion of the facts. Maple states that its BTC yield program operates as an independent entity, with assets segregated from its overall business. Due to the decline in the value of the CORE token, risk management measures have been initiated, with plans to sell CORE tokens in an orderly manner to protect lenders' principal. Although hedging mechanisms exist to protect lenders, the planned token sale has been prevented due to legal action initiated by CORE. Maple also emphasizes that syrupBTC is independently developed and does not use CORE's confidential information.
Legally, Maple is actively pursuing litigation to enforce the hedging agreement signed by CORE, stating that CORE's allegations are unsubstantiated and that the judgment it cited stemmed from a temporary application filed without prior notice to Maple. Furthermore, Maple will return 85% of the principal to lenders in its BTC yield program, with the remainder to be distributed after legal proceedings are resolved. This program is segregated from other products and will not affect other business operations. Further updates will be provided later.
Previously, it was reported that the Cayman Islands court granted the Core Foundation's request to issue an injunction against Maple Finance to stop its alleged breach of contract .
Grayscale Dogecoin ETF and XRP ETF will launch on the NYSE on Monday.
The Grayscale Dogecoin Trust ETF (GDOG) and Grayscale XRP Trust ETF (GXRP) will launch on the New York Stock Exchange Arca market on Monday, providing U.S. investors with an easy way to invest in DOGE and XRP through a regulated public market for the first time.
Ethena Labs has partnered with Nunchi to offer Ethena rewards to nHYPE stakers.
Ethena Labs announced on the X platform that it has partnered with Nunchi, a Hyperliquid HIP-3 deployer. Nunchi is building perpetual contracts based on yield markets, allowing users to comment on RWA rates, dividends, ETH staking rewards, and more. A portion of the total revenue generated by Nunchi will benefit the Ethena ecosystem, and if Nunchi issues tokens, it will also airdrop them to the ecosystem.
All initial markets on Nunchi will use USDe as the quoted asset. Users trading on Nunchi can earn returns through USDe margin, thus offsetting transaction fees and funding rates. Users staking Nunchi HYPE LST nHYPE will be eligible for 20x Ethena rewards to help support the exchange's launch.
Aerodrome: Suspected DNS hijacking attack; do not use the main domain for now.
Decentralized exchange Aerodrome stated on its X platform that it is investigating a suspected DNS hijacking incident. Aerodrome advised users to refrain from using its main domain during the investigation.
Binance Alpha will list Sparkle (SSS) on November 24th.
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha will list Sparkle (SSS) on November 24th. Eligible users can claim the airdrop using Binance Alpha Points on the Alpha event page after trading opens on Alpha. Further details will be announced separately.
Important data
According to BitcoinTreasuries.NET, Strategy Executive Vice President Shao Wei-Ming sold 58,004 shares of MSTR stock in the past 10 days at an average price of $222 per share, cashing out $13 million.
According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $238 million yesterday (November 21, Eastern Time).
The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net inflow yesterday was the Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a single-day net inflow of $108 million. The current total historical net inflow of FBTC is $11.798 billion.
The second largest net inflow was into Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), with a single-day net inflow of $84.9339 million. BTC's total historical net inflow has now reached $1.951 billion.
The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net outflow of $122 million. IBIT's total historical net inflow has reached $62.703 billion.
As of press time, the total net asset value of the Bitcoin spot ETF was US$110.11 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Bitcoin's total market capitalization) of 6.53%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of US$57.635 billion.
According to SoSoValue data, the Ethereum spot ETF saw a total net inflow of $55.7113 million yesterday (November 21, Eastern Time).
The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single-day net inflow yesterday was the Fidelity ETF FETH, with a single-day net inflow of $95.3989 million. The total historical net inflow of FETH has now reached $2.542 billion.
The second largest inflow was into Grayscale's Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), with a net inflow of $7.7347 million in a single day. The total historical net inflow into ETH has now reached $1.424 billion.
The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was the BlackRock ETF ETHA, with a net outflow of $53.6827 million. The total historical net inflow for ETHA is currently $12.89 billion.
As of press time, the Ethereum spot ETF has a total net asset value of $16.859 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Ethereum's total market capitalization) of 5.1%, and a cumulative net inflow of $12.632 billion.
Institutional holdings
US real estate investment firm Cardone Capital increased its holdings by 185 BTC.
Grant Cardone, founder of real estate investment firm Cardone Capital, posted on the X platform that Cardone Capital increased its holdings by 185 bitcoins, worth approximately $15.26 million, when bitcoin was at $82,500.
Bitmine currently holds more ETH than BlackRock.
According to Lookonchain data, Bitmine now holds more ETH than BlackRock. After purchasing 63,123 ETH this week, worth $174 million, Bitmine's total holdings have reached 3,623,002 ETH, worth $9.96 billion. Meanwhile, BlackRock reduced its holdings by 43,237 ETH today, worth $119 million, and currently holds 3,604,966 ETH, worth $9.91 billion.
El Salvador has added 1,098.19 bitcoins in the past seven days, bringing its total bitcoin holdings to 7,478.37, with a total value of $632 million.
