Crypto Talkies November 26th 2025

Dogecoin may finally be getting a Wall Street moment – even if the crowd hasn’t quite shown up yet. NYSE Arca has signed off on Bitwise’s Dogecoin ETF, BWOW, clearing the way for trading to begin soon and putting it on the same stage as Grayscale’s new spot DOGE fund (DOGE). The timing, though, is awkward. Grayscale’s Dogecoin ETF just limped out of the gate with about $1.4 million in first-day volume and roughly $1.7 million in assets – tiny numbers compared to the fireworks we saw with bitcoin (BTC) and even newer altcoin products. For now, DOGE the meme is loud, DOGE the ETF is quiet. Still, with the token itself holding key support around $0.14–$0.15 and traders eyeing a potential move toward $0.30, the building pipeline of regulated products is starting to turn a long-running joke into a more serious part of the ETF landscape. If Dogecoin is learning how to behave on Wall Street, regulators elsewhere are busy deciding how the rest of crypto should fit into their systems – or be fenced in. South Africa’s central bank warned that exploding adoption of crypto and stablecoins, with millions of users and billions in value, is creating new blind spots for financial stability. The concern: people are moving faster than the rules, and that leaves both consumers and the banking system exposed. Bolivia, meanwhile, is taking the opposite path of past crackdowns and is now looking to pull stablecoins like USDT (USDT) directly into its banking rails to ease dollar shortages and boost financial inclusion. In Asia, Japan is going the “institutional-grade” route, overhauling crypto regulation under the FIEA, tightening reserves and bankruptcy protections, and opening the door to ETFs and regulated funds – a bid to become one of the safest big markets for bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets. Stablecoins came under a different kind of spotlight after S&P Global downgraded Tether’s USDT to its weakest stability rating, pointing to growing exposure to bitcoin and other risk assets, murky reserve details, and ongoing questions around the reliability of the peg. At the same time, South Korea’s KakaoBank is building out its own won-pegged stablecoin infrastructure, hiring aggressively for smart contracts, security tokens, and payments. The message from governments and big banks is clear: stablecoins aren’t going away, but who controls and backs them is about to matter a lot more. Bitcoin, for its part, spent the day sending mixed signals. On the price front, it has bounced from around $80,000 to the mid-$80,000s, leading some analysts to call a bottom while others see only a pause before more downside. On-chain and risk metrics aren’t helping: a weak Sharpe ratio, stressed short-term holders, and repeated failures to reclaim $90,000 look uncomfortably similar to past “bull traps” from 2021–2022. At the same time, history shows that major resets in risk-adjusted returns have often preceded the next leg up, not the end of the story. Institutional flows are just as conflicted. CoinShares data points to heavy outflows from crypto investment products, especially in bitcoin and ethereum (ETH), with big players and flagship funds cutting exposure. Yet JPMorgan is rolling out a new structured note tied to BlackRock’s IBIT bitcoin ETF (BTC), promising 1.5x upside participation, partial downside protection, and fixed returns if BTC just chops sideways. And while many funds are dumping exposure, Ark Invest is buying the dip across the ecosystem, scooping up tens of millions in Coinbase, Circle, Block, and Bullish. Strategy, a major BTC accumulator, even paused its regular purchase updates to reassure investors it can weather extreme volatility and service its debt for decades, even if bitcoin drops to $25,000, thanks to a new credit rating framework tied to its holdings. The rest of the majors are quietly fighting their own battles. Ethereum (ETH) continues to hold above the $2,800–$2,900 zone with steady ETF inflows and institutional interest, but resistance near $3,000 and softening staking demand are capping the upside for now. Analysts are watching a possible “falling wedge” breakout that could set up a recovery rally if that $2,800–$2,900 support band holds. XRP (XRP) spent the day trying to prove that this time might be different. The token has staged a sharp rebound with strong transactional activity, breaking short-term resistance levels and pushing back into the $2.10–$2.20 range after a dip, even as broader market sentiment remains nervous. Leverage in derivatives is climbing, which is helping fuel the squeeze but also raising the risk of a messy unwind. Bulls are watching the $2–$2.35 area as a key battlefield, with some optimistic targets stretching up toward $2.60 and, if momentum really sticks, the $3.30–$3.50 band. Solana (SOL) is getting its own ETF catalyst. Franklin Templeton has filed its final paperwork to launch a low-fee spot Solana ETF, SOEZ, on NYSE Arca, positioning the fund to go live soon after strong demand for other crypto products. At the same time, Upexi is leaning harder into the SOL trade, raising up to $23 million via private placement to bulk up its Solana treasury. The pairing of a blue-chip asset manager and a public company treasury play shows how SOL continues to mature into a core institutional bet, even in a shaky market. Elsewhere in the alt universe, Monad (MON) managed to be both a showcase and a cautionary tale. Its mainnet launch and airdrop lit a fire under the token, which has become one of the best performers in the top 100, jumping around 40 percent on its second trading day as network activity ramped up. But almost immediately, attackers began spoofing ERC‑20 transfers so fake MON movements would show up on block explorers, briefly overshadowing the legitimate on-chain activity. It’s a reminder that shiny new L1 ecosystems can draw both developers and opportunists on day one. In a different corner of DeFi, Ethena’s ENA (ENA) ripped more than 13 percent higher to the $0.27–$0.28 range, powered by whale accumulation, a healthier derivatives market, and growing protocol usage, even as the token is still down more than 50 percent over the last few months. Other tokens were grappling with branding and narrative, not just price. Polygon’s co-founder floated the idea of scrapping the new POL ticker and reverting back to MATIC (MATIC, POL), arguing that the original name has far stronger recognition with users and institutions. Pi Network’s PI (PI) climbed into the $0.21–$0.25 accumulation range as traders speculated on a rumored November 28 upgrade, though looming token unlocks could quickly test how strong that enthusiasm really is. Zcash (ZEC), meanwhile, slid more than 30 percent from recent highs even as Grayscale filed to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF, raising tough questions about how privacy coins fit into a more regulated, ETF-driven future. The bigger structural shifts kept coming on the corporate and political fronts. South Korea’s Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, struck a $10.3 billion stock-swap deal with tech giant Naver that will make it a wholly owned subsidiary and help pave the way for a future Nasdaq listing. Robinhood pushed deeper into derivatives and prediction markets, acquiring a 90 percent stake in CFTC‑regulated LedgerX with backing from Susquehanna/SIG and planning a new futures and clearing platform. Coinbase Ventures laid out nine core themes it plans to fund in 2026, from real-world asset perpetuals and unsecured lending to specialized exchanges and AI developer tools, signaling that crypto venture capital is back in build mode. In the U.S. political arena, Kevin Hassett emerged as the frontrunner for Federal Reserve Chair in a potential Trump administration. Hassett’s prior ties to Coinbase and substantial COIN holdings have the market reading his candidacy as a clear positive for digital assets, with expectations of a more open stance toward ETFs, stablecoins, and crypto market structure. Trump-linked World Liberty Financial leaned into that narrative by announcing roughly $10 million in token buybacks for WLFI (WLFI), burning tens of millions of tokens to cut supply and revive sentiment, though the token still trades about 50 percent below its highs. Not all of the day’s stories were about policy and price. In San Francisco, a gunman posing as a delivery driver carried out a violent home invasion against tech investor Lachy Groom, stealing around $11 million in bitcoin and ethereum. The attack, part of a broader rise in so‑called “wrench attacks” targeting crypto holders, is a stark reminder that self-custody isn’t just a technical challenge but also a physical security one. Against that backdrop, Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov offered a longer-term perspective. He believes DeFi is roughly 30 percent of the way to mass adoption and could reach full global penetration by 2030, provided regulators offer clarity and institutions continue to test tokenized real-world assets and on-chain lending. On Stellar (XLM), a U.S. Bank-led stablecoin pilot with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation is quietly building toward that same programmable, regulated future, even if XLM’s price has yet to catch up to the fundamentals. Somewhere between reluctant ETFs, nervous regulators, and violent home invasions, the day in crypto painted a familiar picture: the rails keep getting more mature and institutional, even as the risks – technical, financial, and very human – refuse to fade away.

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