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First Mover Americas: Bitcoin at $100K Sounds Nice, but Expect Pullback
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for November 21, 2024.
Nov 21, 2024, 1:11 p.m.
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This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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Bitcoin topped $98,000 heading into the U.S. morning, extending its breakout from an eight-month consolidation since crypto-friendly Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency. The largest crypto has advanced 4.5% over the past 24 hours, leaving the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index behind. Some altcoins are quickly catching up to BTC's gain, with ether , Chainlink and Uniswap surging 5% in the past hour. The $100,000-per-BTC mark is just a stone's throw away and BTC futures on Deribit maturing next year are already trading above the threshold. Still, the round-number level might pose a barrier at least in the short term as investors take some profits after a 40% rally in only two weeks. "If BTC breaks through $100K, there is a high probability of a pullback," Gracy Chen, CEO at crypto exchange Bitget, said in a note. It's a "psychological barrier where investors might reassess their positions, leading to a natural sell-off point, as seen in other asset classes when significant round numbers are breached."
Crypto-focused U.S. equities also rallied pre-market open. MicroStrategy (MSTR), owner of the largest corporate bitcoin treasury, rose 11% to $520 before the open of U.S. trading. Public companies following MicroStrategy's approach of buying BTC for its treasury also gained. MARA Holdings (MARA) added 10% and Semler Scientific (SMLR) 24% before the opening bell. Options trading on Defiance's 2X long MicroStrategy ETF, which is a leveraged bet on MSTR share prices, took off yesterday and showed extreme bullish positioning with risk-on sentiment at record levels.
The creator of the Chillguy meme threatened legal action for profit-related assets or applications using his character as a spoof token went viral on social media. The Solana-based meme token CHILLGUY, inspired by Phillip Banks' copyrighted character, skyrocketed in price this week nearing $500 million market value fueled by its viral spread on TikTok. Banks’ legal threats tanked the token's price from Wednesday's peak, as holders likely took profits.
Chart of the Day
- Google Trends, a widely used tool to gauge interest in trending topics, is returning a value of 100 for the worldwide search query "memecoins" over the past five years.
- A score of 100 represents peak popularity — the maximum number of searches for the query during a given time frame — and points to an impending retail investor frenzy.
- Source: Google Trends
- Omkar Godbole
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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How a 'perpetual’ stock trick could solve Michael Saylor’s $8 billion debt problem
The bitcoin treasury firm is using perpetual preferreds to retire convertibles, offering a potential framework for managing long-dated leverage.
What to know:
- Strive upsized its SATA follow on offering beyond $150 million, pricing the perpetual preferred at $90.
- The structure offers a blueprint for replacing fixed maturity convertibles with perpetual equity capital that removes refinancing risk.
- Strategy has a $3 billion convertible tranche due in June 2028 with a $672.40 conversion price, which could be addressed using a similar preferred equity approach.
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