Trakx Weekly Update: Crypto Markets Rebound

Key Crypto Market Figures

CTIs Weekly Performance

Digital asset prices enjoyed a welcome rebound last week, highlighted by a 4.2% rise in our flagship large-cap Top10 Crypto CTI. The top performer over the past seven days was the Lending CTI, which gained nearly 8%, followed closely by the 6% rise in the Recovery CTI—an index designed to capture bullish market reversals. At the other end of the spectrum, the AI CTI lagged, slipping just over 2%.

Tether Goes For Gold

In a recent monthly update, we examined the widening gap between gold and its digital counterpart Bitcoin—an observation some interpreted as evidence that Bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative is faltering. Instead, we suggested that different investor groups are simply reacting differently to the same underlying theme: the debasement trade. Central banks in particular have favoured physical gold over Bitcoin due to familiarity and existing storage infrastructure. It turns out they weren’t the only ones accumulating gold. Media reports last week revealed that Tether—the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, as well as its smaller gold-backed token XAUt—purchased 26 tonnes of gold in Q3, outpacing all known central bank buying. This brings its total holdings to 116 tonnes, worth roughly $14 billion.

What makes this unusual is that the move appears to run counter to the US GENIUS Act, which requires stablecoin reserves to be backed 1:1 by highly liquid assets such as US dollars, short-term Treasuries, or bank deposits—explicitly excluding gold. Following these purchases, nearly a quarter of Tether’s reserves now consist of assets considered high-risk (including gold, Bitcoin, secured loans and corporate bonds). Combined with “persistent gaps in disclosure,” this prompted S&P Global last week to downgrade Tether to a level 5 “weak” rating from level 4 “constrained,” placing it well below its main competitor, Circle’s USDC, which holds a level 2 “strong” rating.

Cardano Recovers From Chain Split

On November 21, the Cardano blockchain experienced an unexpected 14-hour chain split triggered by a malformed delegation transaction. Nodes running newer software accepted the transaction, while those on older versions rejected it. Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson suggested the incident was a “premeditated attack” and said he had contacted the FBI. However, a Cardano user on X later acknowledged responsibility, attributing the event to personal “carelessness.”

Importantly, no users lost funds. Exchanges paused deposits and withdrawals while node operators installed patched software that rejected the malformed transaction, enabling the network to converge on the canonical ledger. Since the incident, Cardano’s mainnet has been functioning normally, and ADA has partially recovered in line with improving market sentiment, though it has not yet returned to pre-incident levels.

Chokepoint 2.0 Redux?

Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike and Bitcoin-native firm 21 Capital, revealed last week that JP Morgan had closed his personal bank account, despite his family’s more than 30-year relationship with the bank. The notice cited only “concerning activity,” and JP Morgan reportedly declined to provide further explanation. This renewed speculation that “Chokepoint 2.0”—the alleged coordinated debanking of crypto businesses and leaders—may still be quietly underway despite assurances to the contrary from the Trump administration.

Ironically, only days later JP Morgan filed a proposal with the SEC for structured notes offering 1.5x leveraged exposure to Bitcoin, with a launch expected later this month. The move suggests that the bank has no fundamental objection to the asset class itself—only, perhaps, to certain existing industry participants as it positions itself to capture market share.

Sources: Trakx, Coingecko, Alphavantage

Market Trends

• Tether Bought 26 Tonnes of Gold in Q3 — Reserves Now Rival Central Banks: YahooFinance
• S&P downgrades Tether’s stability rating to ‘weak’ as Bitcoin holdings exceed safety buffer: DLNews
• FBI called as Cardano split in two by a single transaction: Lessons for ETH and SOL client diversity: CryptoSlate
• Pick a side: JPMorgan opens leveraged Bitcoin access to retail while closing crypto CEO’s account: CryptoSlate
• Post-XRP ETF launch, Franklin Templeton sees diversified crypto portfolios as the next big thing: TheBlock
• Polymarket Gets the Green Light; Kalshi Hits a Wall: Decrypt

Trakx News

• Ryan Shea published his November 2025 monthly update outlining why last month’s sharp pullback is not the start of a new bear market.

Trakx CTIs Performance

Sources: Coingecko and AlphaVantage

*Return of bitcoin is calculated since 01/05/2020, while CTIs performances were calculated since their respective launch date.
**Includes simulated performance.
***The risk signal is determined according to the historical volatility level, the higher the riskier.

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Disclaimers: No Investment Advice. Index returns and statistics are for illustration only. Index returns do not reflect any transaction costs or expenses. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The information provided in this newsletter does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of the newsletter content as such. Trakx.io does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Readers shall conduct their own due diligence and consult their financial advisors before making any investment decisions.