The Weekly Wrap: BTC & Crypto Down After Midterms

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This Week’s Top Stories

“Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid affair allegations.” – This week 

• The resignation follows reports that Huang had extramarital relationships with two women, including Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based data company Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer. Nvidia's board has launched an investigation into the matter.
• U.S. intelligence agencies alleged that the Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security. Officials suspect she used a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang to gather sensitive corporate intelligence and potentially bypass U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips.
• Subsequent media reports revealed allegations of a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, after the two were reportedly seen being affectionate at an industry conference. Additional reports have also pointed to a potential third relationship with another unnamed Nvidia staffer.
• Following reports of the internal affair with Kimberly Powell, Huang stepped down as president and CEO after 33 years at the helm. He now faces an FBI investigation and has been summoned to testify regarding the potential national security breach.

“U.S. inflation rose more than expected in October, odds of a hike in December surged to 89%.” – This week 

• The U.S. CPI increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday. The market had generally been looking for a 0.3% increase ahead of the release.
• Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI increased by 0.3%, against a forecast of a 0.2% gain.
• Traders are now fully pricing in a 25-bps increase when the Fed next meets in December, and the odds of a half-point hike are currently at 11%, after being around zero prior to the inflation report.

“Strategy and Metaplanet lose MSCI index membership in November.” – This week 

• MSCI is moving to remove Bitcoin treasury companies Strategy and Metaplanet from its USA Index and Japan Small Cap Index, respectively, at the close of November 30, according to filings published Wednesday.
• The removals were largely expected, especially after MSCI adopted new eligibility rules for so-called non-operating companies last month.
• Index-tracking funds must sell their Strategy shares by the November 30 deadline to mirror the updated benchmarks. Strategy estimates that passive funds hold roughly 13M shares, while some analysts have projected outflows of up to $2.8B.
• The removal does not delist Strategy from the Nasdaq or require the company to sell any of its BTC holdings. However, losing passive institutional demand could weigh on its share price and make it more expensive to raise capital via equity issuance for future Bitcoin purchases.

BTC Below $70K, While U.S. Stocks are Back at Pre-Midterm Levels 

Bitcoin is currently down more than 10% from pre-Midterm levels, trading at its lowest price since August this year, when BTC and the crypto market broke out into a multi-week uptrend. This week alone, BTC is down more than 8%, while ETH is down almost 9% on the week. Ethereum has given back essentially all the gains it made since the August breakout and is trading back below $2K for the first time since August. 

The US stock market, on the other hand, is trading back at pre-Midterm levels, with the S&P 500 up almost 4% from last week’s low following the election results and remaining roughly flat compared to the day before the Midterms. 

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) is up almost 1% this week, extending its upward move since September, having gained more than 4.5% over the past two months. The DXY is currently trading at its highest level since April 2025. 

Gold, on the other hand, is also trading lower, in line with Bitcoin and the crypto market, losing its $4K support for the second time in two weeks. Many market participants are likely wondering whether it will manage to reclaim this level again or if a move lower is in the cards this time around. 

Looking at the broader crypto market, it’s interesting to note that, today, altcoins are not yet following BTC’s move lower and are showing some relative strength, with ZEC and HYPE, for example, only down around 1–1.5%, compared to BTC, which is down almost 4% today. The question is whether this is actual strength or whether altcoins are lagging and their downward move is yet to come.

BTC vs S&P500 in November 

Looking at the price performance of BTC in comparison with the S&P 500 since the start of the month, we observe that the two traded more or less in sync until last weekend, when BTC started trading to the downside more aggressively this week, while the S&P 500 was able to recover a large portion of the drop from the days following the Midterm elections during the first week of the month. 

The question is, of course, why is Bitcoin showing such weakness this week? It could be a lagging effect of the Binance hack, as the exchange announced that its CFO is leaving the company. Another possible reason could be that many market participants are viewing the Midterm results as bearish for Bitcoin and likely crypto in general, despite recent announcements in the area of tokenization. There might also be other reasons behind the recent sell-off that have not yet been made public. Time will tell.  

But what is for sure is that the Bitcoin spot ETFs have gone through one of the largest waves of outflows on record, sentiment is low, and a large portion of long positions have been liquidated over the past few days. Is this enough for BTC to start its catch-up trade with US equities, or will crypto continue to bleed for some time?

Tokenization Partnerships & Launches in the U.S. 

This week, Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain, announced that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) had selected Avalanche to serve as the core settlement ledger for its upcoming tokenized securities platform. Following a year-long technical evaluation, the NYSE chose Avalanche's technology to power a custom, permissioned blockchain that will handle instant clearing and settlement for tokenized U.S. equities and ETFs. 

Pending regulatory approval, the new NYSE-affiliated alternative trading system will pair the exchange's existing Pillar matching engine with Avalanche's post-trade infrastructure to enable continuous 24/7 trading, fractional share orders, and stablecoin-based funding. 

The AVAX and NYSE announcement was not the only one this week. OKX, the crypto exchange, and ICE, the parent company of the NYSE, announced that their joint venture will launch 24/7 tokenized securities trading this month. Operating under the SEC’s five-year "Innovation Exemption," the new OKXICE Tokenized Securities Venue will allow eligible US clients to trade over 70 blockchain-based assets through Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX’s X Layer network. 

This rapid rollout of tokenized spot trading comes just weeks after ICE and Trade[XYZ] announced a deal on October 29, 2026, to bring 24/7, Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures markets onshore for US retail traders. The ICE and Trade[XYZ] perpetuals venue remains pending regulatory approval, with no confirmed launch date, as the companies still need CFTC sign-off for their dedicated retail market structure, clearing framework, and leveraged trading permissions. However, regulatory momentum shifted in their favor on November 3, when the CFTC officially approved the first US equity perpetual futures contracts.

ETF With Outflows Since Midterms 

Last week, Strategy bought roughly 1K BTC and now holds more than 850K BTC, acquired for about $64.16B at an average price of $75.4K, alongside a $4.77B USD reserve and $146.2M in cash. BitMine also continued its buying spree but bought less than 10K Ether, inching closer to its 5% goal in baby steps. The company has 5.2M ETH staked and said that fully staking its ETH holdings could generate about $359M in annualized rewards at its trailing seven-day staking yield of 2.65%. Total crypto, cash, marketable securities, and other investments stand at about $14.3B. 

On Monday, Charles Schwab, one of the largest US retail brokers, announced that its crypto platform now also supports spot trading for SOL, AVAX, and SOL, alongside BTC and ETH. The service is currently available only to eligible customers in select US states, excluding New York and Louisiana. 

The spot ETFs have been facing strong selling pressure since the US Midterm elections, as every single trading day since November 4 has been accompanied by net outflows from the BTC, ETH, SOL, and HYPE spot ETFs. The BTC spot ETFs have seen $600M in net outflows this week, while the ETH spot ETFs have seen $350M in net outflows so far this week. It seems that market participants are of the opinion that the shift in power in the US will negatively impact the crypto market over the next two years, as Republicans lost the House and Senate, leaving the Democrats in control of Congress for the rest of Trump’s presidency.

Extremely Fearful Crypto Market 

The crypto market is back in extreme fear after a week in fearful territory. Crypto sentiment has reached its lowest point since July this year and has seen a steep decline over the past few weeks. Back in July, Bitcoin was trading at $60K, compared to roughly $69K today. It remains to be seen whether sentiment (and price) manage to put in a higher low around these levels, which would likely lead to many market participants believing in the new bull market again. 

Looking at stock market sentiment, AAII members continue to feel bearish, with over 51% stating that they feel bearish about the stock market over the coming six months. The last time more than 50% of AAII members felt bearish was in the middle of September, and the stock market bottomed shortly after and reached a new ATH in October. It is generally uncommon for more than 50% to feel bearish, as the historical average for bearish members stands at 31.5%.

• DOJ moves to seize $1.2B from Binance hack. – Link 
• SEC enters fight over who regulates perpetual derivatives on stocks in the US. – Link 
• Binance CFO steps down nine days after record hack. – Link 
• Trump administration moves closer to allowing crypto in 401(k) retirement plans. – Link 
• Coinbase and PNC Bank expand partnership with USDC payments for corporate clients. – Link

Bulls need a higher low 

At this point, bulls are likely looking out for a potential higher low formation over the coming days and weeks. The crypto market held up remarkably well for a couple of days after the Binance hack. Then, the U.S. Midterm election results came in, and coupled with the weakness in tech stocks and the Nvidia drama this week, crypto took a trip to the downside, while the U.S. stock market held up better and is currently flat since the Midterm results came in. The weakness in crypto is likely connected to market participants expecting the political situation starting in January, with the Democrats in control of Congress, to become tougher on crypto again. 

At the same time, there are huge announcements of partnerships and new products from traditional financial institutions that are working with crypto projects and players to bring TradFi onchain, a trend that is unlikely to be reversed just because Republicans lost the House and Senate. The financial world is coming onchain step by step, as many of the biggest financial institutions worldwide continue to build up capabilities and invest resources. 

Over the coming weeks, heading into December and the last FOMC meeting of the year, Nvidia earnings are coming up next Tuesday after the bell, and Anthropic is expected to price its IPO on the evening of Wednesday, November 18, with the stock scheduled to start trading on Thursday, November 19. These two events are certainly worth monitoring next week. 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Monday, 16 November 2026 

Japan – GDP 

China – NBS Press Conference 

China – Unemployment Rate 

Tuesday, 17 November 2026 

USA – Retail Sales 

Wednesday, 18 November 2026 

Eurozone – CPI, Core CPI 

USA – FOMC Meeting Minutes 

Thursday, 19 November 2026 

USA – Initial Jobless Claims 

Friday, 20 November 2026 

Japan – CPI