TLDR CRYPTO 2025-11-26

BITCOIN REBOUNDS ABOVE $88K

Bitcoin recovered to $87,600, up 2.5% from its $85,550 weekend low. There was a shift from aggressive selling to orderly derisking with stabilizing open interest and muted spot activity despite persistent ETF outflows. Options sentiment turned cautiously optimistic as the 25-delta skew rebounded from -10.96 to -4.58 while Long Call Condor block trades across $100,000-$118,000 strikes indicate demand for upside exposure into late 2025. Analysts believe Bitcoin must reclaim the $87,000-$88,000 range for sustained gains. Institutions are patiently bullish and building conviction ahead of December's Federal Reserve interest rate decision, which may be the next major catalyst.

CHINA RETURNS AS BITCOIN MINING HUB WITH 14% MARKET SHARE

China reclaimed the third-largest Bitcoin mining position with approximately 14% of global hashrate by October despite the 2021 ban, driven by cheap electricity and excess data center capacity in Xinjiang and Sichuan provinces. 15-20% of global mining capacity now operates underground in China, which has softer policy signals, including Hong Kong's stablecoin legislation and yuan-backed stablecoin discussions indicating a more flexible stance. Bitcoin hashprice hit an all-time low of $34.2 per petahash per second on Friday, driven by Bitcoin's 30%+ decline from October peaks, subdued transaction fees, and network hashrate above one zettahash (10% below recent highs). The next difficulty adjustment is expected on Wednesday.

FULL SEND: FASTEST PATH FOR TRANSACTION INCLUSION

CROSS RIVER LAUNCHES STABLECOIN PAYMENTS

Cross River Bank launched a stablecoin payments infrastructure, unifying fiat and stablecoin flows in a single interoperable system that eliminates pre-funding requirements and ledger rebuilding for network settlement, merchant payouts, and treasury management. The platform targets $20 trillion in annual stablecoin volumes by providing bank-grade compliance and programmability for fintechs, enterprises, and crypto-native companies without operational sprawl across fragmented rails. The infrastructure is available today for approved partners, with broader availability planned.

UNDERSTANDING SIMD-0411

Solana's SIMD-0411 proposal doubles the disinflation rate from -15% to -30% annually, accelerating terminal inflation arrival from 6.2 years to 3.1 years while reducing emissions by 22.3 million SOL over six years, worth $2.9 billion at current prices. The single-parameter change delivers similar emissions reduction as the failed SIMD-0228 without introducing dynamic, stake-responsive formulas that raised implementation complexity and governance friction. Nominal staking yields decline from the current 4.18% to 5.04% in year one, 3.48% in year two, and 2.42% in year three, pushing approximately 10 validators into unprofitability initially while strengthening long-term SOL value through reduced dilution. The deterministic, easily modeled approach contrasts with SIMD-0228's exponential function, tying inflation to staking participation percentages, offering validators and institutions predictable outcomes without changing the 1.5% terminal rate the ecosystem already aligns around.

COINBASE VENTURES: WHAT THEY WANT TO FUND IN 2026

TOKENIZATION ONLY MATTERS IF MONEY MOVES

Tokenizing an asset is just the starting point, as without either long-term lock-in or frequent real usage, you've just created “dead money” that sits onchain and earns nothing. There are only two long-lasting ways for a tokenized asset to generate fees: it must attract committed, parked capital by paying yield and rewarding conviction, or be used constantly so velocity plus fees make it valuable.

STABLECOIN ISSUANCE IS GETTING COMMODITIZED

Stablecoin issuance is shifting from a bespoke, high-margin business to a cheap, white-label commodity offered by platforms like Circle, Brale, M0, Bridge, Paxos, and Agora. As costs fall and issuers share more of the T-bill yield with partners, launching your own branded stablecoin becomes easy and primarily about owning the customer relationship, payment rail, and interest income. Commoditization of issuance pushes competition up the stack as products will increasingly differentiate on UX, distribution, regulation, and niche use cases.

BERACHAIN GRANTED REFUND RIGHT TO VC

Berachain granted Brevan Howard's Nova Digital fund a post-TGE refund right on its $25 million Series B investment, exercisable until February 6, 2026.

ETHEREUM BLOBS ARE MAXING OUT; FUSAKA STARTS THE NEXT SCALING PHASE

Ethereum's data-availability “blob” capacity (target 6 blobs per block) is basically full, showing strong L2 demand.

KLARNA LAUNCHES ITS OWN STABLECOIN

Klarna has launched KlarnaUSD, its first stablecoin, and is becoming the first bank to build on Tempo.

AAVE HAS REAL REVENUE, MINIMAL INCENTIVES

Aave is pulling in roughly $131M in annualized protocol revenue on ~$52B TVL while paying out very little in token incentives today.