28 November 2025

If the market had a personality this week, it would be that friend who says, “I’m totally calm,” while quietly stuffing three power banks into their backpack. Bitcoin tip-toed back above $90,000, pretending nothing dramatic happened in early November, while most investors braced for a standard-issue large-cap recovery. Instead, Kaspa decided to bolt ahead like a marathoner who misunderstood the starting gun.

What we got was a week where the market looked orderly on the surface, but the undercurrents were anything but. BTC floated up on improving macro sentiment, tech stocks finally stopped sulking, and funding stayed oddly sensible. And yet, out of nowhere, one mid-cap sprinted 45% and stole the plot. That brings us to the story you’re about to read; a week that felt like a Bitcoin comeback until Kaspa crashed the party and rewrote the script.

This week’s crypto markets felt cautiously optimistic. After an early November swoon, global risk assets began to steady, and by midweek tech stocks were rallying again. Bitcoin climbed back above the $90,000 mark, lifting overall sentiment Against that backdrop, most investors expected the large-caps and familiar altcoins to lead the recovery. Instead Kaspa (KAS), a Layer 1 project quietly spiked roughly 45%. Its rally felt abrupt—KAS leapt from multi-month lows around $0.036 to the mid-$0.05 range, even as the broader market crawled higher. In short, the week “felt” like a Bitcoin pullback recovery, but with one idiosyncratic outlier racing ahead.

Top-3 stories of the week:

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The newsletter is put together by Giottus Crypto Platform. You can read all the previous issues of Cryptogram here.

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WEEKLY MACROS

• Total crypto market cap - $3.11 trillion - UP 5.42%    

• Bitcoin price - $91,398 - UP 6.33%

• The dollar index (DXY) - 99.63 - DOWN 0.5%

• Bitcoin Dominance - 59.32% -  UP 0.8%

• Crypto Fear and Greed Index - 25 - Market is in Extreme Fear

THE HOT TAKE

Why Has Kaspa Been Doing Well?

We believe Kaspa’s 45% surge this week had two drivers.

1. Infrastructure & Ecosystem Catalysts

Kaspa’s underlying tech has quietly stepped up this year, and a cluster of well-timed catalysts has pushed it into focus. The community’s new multi-chain EVM bridge (starting with BNB Chain) expands cross-chain access, while ongoing work on “vProgs” and Kaspa-native apps, signal a maturing, high-speed PoW Layer-1 with fast finality and low fees. At the same time, “trending” appearances on major data platforms, increased community buzz, and last quarter’s Kraken listing have widened Kaspa’s reach and liquidity. Together, that mix of real infrastructure progress and rising visibility has reinforced long-term holder confidence and drawn in traders looking for momentum backed by fundamentals.

2. Whales, Liquidity & Market Structure

Kaspa’s latest leg up is also a story of whales and fragile market structure. On-chain data shows big holders quietly soaking up supply for months, with the largest wallet alone reportedly buying more than twice the network’s monthly issuance in October and receiving over 3 million KAS in just a few days, while other top wallets pulled tens of millions of tokens off Kraken. 

This steady accumulation drained exchange balances and set up a classic supply squeeze: with far fewer coins available at market, any fresh demand had an outsized impact on price. Order-book data from Gate.io, Kaspa’s main trading venue, backs this up—sell-side liquidity has been unusually thin, with shallow “ask walls” even after a 50% price jump, meaning that mid-sized buy orders were enough to rip through resistance and drive the surge.

In summary, Kaspa’s market structure was unusually tight. Heavy whale accumulation and record exchange outflows left a skinny supply pool. At the same time, the token’s listing on a few large exchanges meant one clearing event could move global prices. This structural backdrop turned any buying interest (even by momentum traders) into an outsized rally.

Bitcoin’s Comeback & Altcoin Recovery

While Kaspa led the headlines, Bitcoin’s rebound was the broader market story that set the tone. After a sharp pullback in early November, Bitcoin found buyers on Wednesday of this week, helping lift most major coins. We break down the main drivers in three parts: macro sentiment, flows/positioning, and the altcoin response.

1. Macro Winds Turn Less Hostile: Global risk sentiment briefly turned supportive midweek, with a tech-led rally in U.S. stocks and easing Treasury yields lifting Bitcoin ~5% to around $91,500, as crypto traded in lockstep with equities. Softer rates, better liquidity conditions and modest recoveries in indices like the Nasdaq—and even the Nifty at home—gave traders just enough confidence to “buy the dip” after a bruising November.
   

2. Under the surface, this rebound was mostly spot-led: Bitcoin’s futures open interest stayed flat even as price rose, implied volatility cooled back towards 50%, and structured call spreads around $100k-$118k showed traders quietly positioning for a year-end grind higher rather than a leveraged short squeeze. In contrast, altcoin futures (ETH, SOL, even ZEC) saw more aggressive leveraged positioning, but sentiment remained muted, with “altseason” gauges still near multi-month lows—signalling selective risk-on rather than a full-blown altcoin mania. 

3. Altcoins ride the Beta wave: As Bitcoin steadied, traders rotated selectively into larger altcoins—ETH, BNB and a handful of names like SKY, DASH and AVAX bounced, but many others (from ADA to mid-caps like ETHFI) stayed weak or fell further, underlining how narrow this move was. Altseason gauges remain near lows and activity is concentrated in a narrow subset of assets, a bucket that happens to include Kaspa, a few niche L1s/DeFi plays and now XRP on ETF buzz. For Indian retail, this is still a cautious, “pick-your-spots” environment: if BTC grinds higher towards $100k, more alts might follow, but if it rolls over, the high-fliers—Kaspa included—could see sharp, low-liquidity pullbacks.

How Retail Should Read This Week’s Moves

For retail investors, this week’s saga has two broad lessons. First, the market phase seems to be tentative recovery, not a full-fledged bull run. Bitcoin’s bounce to mid-$90ks shows resilience, and it has attracted buyers from all cohorts (whales, funds, retail). But the fact that altcoins are not surging broadly (aside from Kaspa) suggests skepticism still lingers.

So what should individual investors do now? Size positions carefully and keep diversified. Don’t assume this rebound will continue unabated. It’s wise to watch funding rates and leverage levels: if perpetual futures funding on Bitcoin, larger alts or Kaspa turns very positive, for example, it means too many longs (a contrarian sell signal). Keep an eye on narrative heat: over-attention around any theme (blockchain infrastructure, ETFs, tokenomics) is often a cue to trim.

In practice, a balanced approach is best. Consider locking in some profits if an asset has run up sharply (especially a small cap), and use any pullbacks to evaluate underlying fundamentals. If holding for the long term, ensure positions reflect conviction, not FOMO. In short, weeks like this are as much about learning how the market behaves as about any one trade. Stay curious, check data-backed signals, and avoid the urge to “buy at all costs.”

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If you have any questions or feedback for us, write to us at [email protected]. You can check out the previous issues here.

Disclaimer: Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.