Bitcoin Holds $100k, Altcoins Slide: What’s Next?

Bitcoin’s week ends on another defensive note. After dipping below $100,000 twice since Monday, the world’s largest cryptocurrency hovers near $100,700 with traders paying up for downside protection. 

Friday’s $5 billion in options expirations leaned heavily toward puts, showing that investors aren’t ready to bet on a quick rebound.

Data from Deribit shows most new open interest clustered around the $95,000 strike, the level traders now view as the “real” line in the sand. 

Bitcoin’s fear index slipped to 24, and open interest across the futures market fell below $33 billion, marking a steep reduction in risk appetite.

Ethereum trades near $3,300 with similar caution, while total crypto market capitalization stands around $3.45 trillion, down roughly 1% from Thursday.

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The Bitcoin options market tells a clear story: traders are paying for insurance, not opportunity. October’s total options volume hit a record $202 billion before resetting lower, then rebuilding to an even higher base in early November.

That means activity isn’t collapsing, it’s repositioning. Puts dominate expirations through mid-December, suggesting that many expect another leg down before any lasting recovery.

Deribit and IBIT remain the dominant venues, and analysts note the pattern of “short-term fear, long-term hope.” Below $100K, most traders hedge. Above $120K, call buyers reappear.

Between the two lies the uneasy middle of a maturing market: one that trades risk management more than speculation.

Far from the trading desks, Washington is writing the rules that could reshape crypto’s foundations. The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July, officially brings stablecoins under federal oversight.

But the real fight has only just begun, the next two years of rulemaking will determine whether $300 billion in stablecoins become bank-wrapped or splinter offshore.

Treasury, the Fed, and the OCC now control the process. If they allow affiliated firms to pay yield on stablecoin accounts, the result could be a new class of high-interest, instant-settlement dollar tokens that compete with banks. 

If they ban it, stablecoins become safe but dull, digital checking accounts with none of crypto’s upside.

For Bitcoin, the GENIUS perimeter is paradoxically bullish. As stablecoins move inside the banking system, Bitcoin becomes the cleanest asset outside it, the last decentralized rail untouched by compliance walls.

For Ethereum, the effect is the opposite: bullish on activity. Regulated stablecoins will likely settle on Ethereum, turning it into the backbone of a new, compliant on-chain financial system.

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Market sentiment remains heavy. The October crash wiped half a trillion dollars from total crypto value, followed by another $128 million lost in the November 3 Balancer hack. Liquidations exceeded $1 billion in early November as leverage reset across exchanges.

Galaxy Digital now forecasts a $120,000 year-end ceiling for Bitcoin, far from the $200,000 once predicted. Traders say the market needs “peace and quiet” more than catalysts. No hacks, no insolvencies, just time to rebuild trust.

Amid the macro noise, Solana continues rewriting its narrative. Once seen as retail-driven and chaotic, it’s now positioning itself as a high-performance settlement layer for tokenized assets.

With throughput above 3,000 transactions per second and sub-penny fees, analysts like Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan are calling it “the new Wall Street.”

The vision is ambitious: a chain fast enough to handle traditional trading volume, cheap enough for banks to use, and decentralized enough to keep regulatory risk low. 

If tokenized markets reach $10–$16 trillion by 2030, even a 5% slice could value Solana near $900 billion. It’s a long shot, but one the market is starting to model seriously.

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The crypto landscape is fragmenting into two systems: one tightening under regulation, the other rediscovering its reason for existing. Bitcoin is the pressure gauge, every options trade shows how traders price fear. Ethereum is becoming the regulated plumbing for the new dollar. Solana wants to be the execution engine that ties it all together.

The coming weeks won’t decide winners, but they’ll reveal priorities. Fear may dominate short-term charts, yet beneath the volatility, a quieter story is taking shape: crypto’s evolution from chaos to structure, and from narrative to architecture.