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With a US holiday weekend approaching (Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!), let’s check in on the state of the crypto markets. As Bitcoin struggles to maintain its meteoric rise toward $100,000, we are seeing a hint of an “alt season,” a resurgence of interest in NFTs, and record growth in the stablecoin sector.
$100,000 Bitcoin Rejection and Market Volatility
The crypto market is expected to experience a cooling off period as the Thanksgiving holiday typically sees muted volatility in the 3-4% range.
Bitcoin briefly touched $99,500 last week, only to retreat to around $91,000, underscoring the asset’s historical trend of sharp rises followed by mini-corrections. A $9,000 drop in one week seems like a lot, but percentage-wise it’s still relatively minor.
Maintaining the top of the previous consolidation range from earlier this month is undoubtedly constructive price action.
James Toledano, COO at Unity Wallet, attributes the pullback to profit-taking and the influence of put options at critical resistance levels.
“Cryptocurrency markets often experience tremendous volatility due to the lack of a fundamental basis for valuations,” Toledano told Blockworks. “Whenever there are outsized gains in an extremely short period of time, there are usually oversized corrections, and history often has a habit of repeating itself,” he said, referring to to past cycles where bitcoin rose significantly before correcting by 50% or more.
Despite the current decline, optimism remains high, supported by shifting political winds, such as U.S. Treasury and Commerce’s pro-crypto choices, and growing institutional interest.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin-related Google searches skyrocketed after the election, reflecting increased curiosity among retailers.
NFTs, stablecoins and the long tail of cryptos
And it wasn’t just the Bitcoin buzz. The NFT market has seen a revival. Floor prices for the top 100 NFT collections have increased an average of 28% so far in November, with some collections seeing spikes of up to 146%, according to Drunken Monkey Members Club, an NFT-powered concierge service.
This resurgence is driven by a pivot toward NFTs with real-world utility, such as tokenized assets and memberships, but the bottom line is – as with the rest of the market – that growing interest in Bitcoin is often correlating with NFT price increases.
Stablecoins have cemented their role as the backbone of crypto, with market capitalization reaching an all-time high of $190 billion in November, surpassing TerraUSD’s pre-collapse peak. According to CCData, trading volumes of stablecoin pairs on centralized exchanges increased 77.5% to $1.81 trillion, representing the highest monthly growth in the industry since 2021.
Highlights:
* Tether (USDT): market capitalization reached $135 billion, maintaining its dominance with a market share of almost 70%.
* USD Coin (USDC): gained 11%, reaching around $38 billion, its highest since February 2023.
*Ethena Labs USDe: Surged nearly 40%, thanks to its competitive APY and expanding ecosystem.
Regulatory developments are also shaping the stablecoin landscape. MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins are gaining ground.
With Bitcoin in a corrective phase, attention this week has shifted to other majors like Solana (SOL) and smaller crypto assets. Bitcoin Dominance has dropped around 5% over the past 7 days.
Solana hit an all-time high of $264 last week (not including inflation), reflecting a 160% year-to-date increase.
Anmol Singh of Zeta Markets gave some reasons: “Solana dominates user engagement with 6.2 million daily active addresses compared to Ethereum’s 500,000,” he told Blockworks, adding that “ Solana-based applications now generate more revenue than Ethereum applications, at $311 million. When it comes to stablecoin inflows on November 20 alone, the momentum is clear.
But ether also recovered, halting the fall in the ETH/BTC ratio, which increased by 15% over the week.
Additionally, emerging layer 1 networks like Sui are gaining traction, leveraging features like BTC liquid staking to drive adoption and potentially challenge Solana’s position in the market.
For now, all eyes are on what’s next for Bitcoin, more clues about the evolving regulatory landscape, and other signs of mainstream adoption. The crypto market thrives on cycles of growth, correction, and reinvention, and if history is any guide, this bull run is far from over.
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