Crypto market update: Bitcoin stalls, stablecoins and NFTs surge

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Heading into a US holiday weekend (happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!), let’s check in on the state of the crypto markets. As bitcoin struggles to sustain its meteoric rise toward $100,000, we find a hint of an “alt season,” a resurgence in NFT interest, and record-breaking growth in the stablecoin sector.

Bitcoin’s $100K Rejection and Market Volatility

The crypto market is due for a cooling-off period, as the Thanksgiving holiday usually sees dampened volatility in a 3-4% range.

Bitcoin briefly touched $99,500 last week, only to retreat to around $91,000, highlighting the asset’s historical pattern of sharp rallies followed by mini corrections. A $9,000 drop in a week feels like a lot, but on a percentage basis it’s still relatively minor.

Holding the top of the prior consolidation range from earlier in the month is undoubtedly constructive price action.

James Toledano, COO at Unity Wallet, attributes this pullback to profit-taking and the influence of put options at critical resistance levels.

“Crypto markets often see huge volatility due to a lack of a fundamental base for valuations,” Toledano told Blockworks. “Whenever there are oversized gains in a painfully short timespan, the pattern has been that there are usually oversized corrections, and history often has a habit of repeating itself,” he said, referencing past cycles where bitcoin surged dramatically before correcting by 50% or more.

Despite the current dip, optimism remains high, buoyed by shifting political winds, such as a pro-crypto US Treasury and Commerce picks, and growing institutional interest.

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Meanwhile, Bitcoin-related Google searches soared post-election, reflecting heightened retail curiosity.

NFTs, stablecoins and crypto’s long tail

And it wasn’t just bitcoin buzzing. The NFT market has experienced a revival. Floor prices for the top 100 NFT collections rose by an average of 28% so far in November, with some collections seeing spikes 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 — surging Bitcoin interest often correlates with NFT price increases.

Stablecoins cemented their role as the backbone of crypto, with market capitalization hitting an all-time high of $190 billion in November, surpassing the pre-TerraUSD collapse peak. According to CCData, trading volumes for stablecoin pairs on centralized exchanges grew by 77.5% to $1.81 trillion, marking the sector’s highest month-on-month growth since 2021.

Key Highlights:

* Tether (USDT): Market cap rose to $135 billion, maintaining its dominance with a nearly 70% market share.

* USD Coin (USDC): Gained 11%, reaching about $38 billion, its highest since February 2023.

* Ethena Labs’ USDe: Surged by nearly 40%, driven by its competitive APY and ecosystem expansion.

Regulatory developments are also shaping the stablecoin landscape. MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoins are gaining traction.

With Bitcoin in a corrective phase, attention shifted this week to other majors like Solana (SOL), and smaller crypto assets. Bitcoin Dominance has given up about 5% over the past 7 days.

Solana reached a record high of $264 last week (not counting inflation), reflecting a 160% increase year-to-date.

Anmol Singh of Zeta Markets ticked off some reasons: “Solana dominates user engagement with 6.2 million daily active addresses compared to Ethereum’s 500K,” he told Blockworks, adding “Solana-based applications are now generating more revenue than Ethereum apps, and with $311 million in stablecoin inflows just [on] November 20, the momentum is clear.”

But ether also perked up, halting the fall in the ETH/BTC ratio, which has rallied 15% on the week.

Additionally, emerging layer-1 networks like Sui are gaining traction, leveraging features like liquid BTC staking to drive adoption and potentially challenge Solana’s market position.

For now, all eyes are on Bitcoin’s next move, more clues into the evolving regulatory landscape, and further signs of mainstream adoption. The crypto market thrives on cycles of growth, correction, and reinvention, and if history is our guide, this bull run is far from over.

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