Animoca Brands Bets On Altcoins, Bitcoin Relief Rally In Sight

Top Stories of The Week

Bitcoiners accuse JPMorgan of rigging the game against Strategy, DATs

Members of the Bitcoin community and supporters of Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, are criticizing JPMorgan’s proposed Bitcoin-backed notes, accusing the bank of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about Strategy and other crypto treasury companies.

JPMorgan’s notes are a leveraged investment product tied to the price of Bitcoin. The product tracks BTC but amplifies the outcome, giving holders 1.5 times the gains — or the losses — through December 2028. The notes are slated for a December 2025 launch, according to an SEC filing. 

The move drew sharp criticism from the Bitcoin community, with many saying that JPMorgan is now a direct competitor to BTC treasury companies and has an incentive to marginalize companies like Strategy to promote its own structured financial product.

Animoca bets on altcoin upside to lure investors as it plans for IPO

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu aims to position his company as a vehicle for investors to gain exposure to broader crypto projects and the altcoin market, as the company plans to go public through a reverse merger next year.

“We believe that altcoins, ultimately, over the largest space, are going to outperform Bitcoin as a collective,” Siu said during an interview with Cointelegraph on Wednesday.

Siu compared Bitcoin to gold, saying that while no single company is bigger than gold’s market capitalization, all public companies combined are “roughly five to six times gold.” 

He said that while these companies may not have the same longevity as gold, they can go “up and down as a whole.”

Tom Lee cools on $250K Bitcoin call, year-end ATH now just a ‘maybe’

BitMine Immersion Technologies chair Tom Lee has seemingly eased off his widely promoted $250,000 year-end Bitcoin forecast, now only giving a “maybe” to the notion that Bitcoin can reclaim its October all-time high of $125,100 before the end of the year.

“I think it’s still very likely that Bitcoin is going to be above $100,000 before year-end, and maybe even to a new high,” Lee said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.

This appears to be the first time Lee has publicly softened his $250,000 year-end Bitcoin price target, which he initially floated earlier in 2024 and continued to reiterate through early October. 

Lee’s prediction was one of the more bullish. Other crypto executives, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, warned around October that “crazy stuff” would need to happen for Bitcoin to reach that level.

Conor McGregor calls out Khabib over NFTs, gets shut down by ZachXBT

UFC star Conor McGregor criticized former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov for his non-fungible token (NFT) drop on Telegram, which featured digital “papakhas” — a traditional hat worn in Nurmagomedov’s native country of Dagestan. 

“There is just no way good guy Khabib used his late father’s name, as well as Dagestan’s culture, to scam his fans and fire sell a bunch of digital NFTs online,” McGregor wrote in a now-deleted X post. 

Onchain sleuth ZachXBT responded to McGregor, pointing out that McGregor attempted to launch his own celebrity memecoin in April called REAL.

Thailand tells Sam Altman’s World to delete 1.2M iris scans over data risks

Authorities in Thailand have officially requested World, a Sam Altman-backed digital identity project, to suspend operations and delete all user identification data.

Thailand’s Economic and Social Development Board, the country’s strategic planning agency, ordered World to delete iris scans of 1.2 million local users, according to a statement by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on Monday.

The order said World’s iris scanning in exchange for its Worldcoin token violated Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act, which governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal data.

The suspension came weeks after Thai authorities raided one of World’s iris scanning locations in October amid allegations of potential digital asset law violations.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The bottom line is institutions have arrived. New financial infrastructure is taking shape now, and US Bank, PwC, and SDF are working to unlock the next wave of digital banking.”

The Stellar Development Foundation

“I think we’ll be at 100% when you have those kinds of pie charts to show the percentage of client money or institutional capital that is in a DeFi system versus a TradFi system.”

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink

“I think it’s still very likely that Bitcoin is going to be above $100,000 before year-end, and maybe even to a new high.”

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies

“With liquidity returning, quantitative tightening (QT) ending December 1st, and monetary policy turning supportive, we believe conditions are building for markets to potentially reverse recent drawdowns.”

ARK Invest, investment management company

“The CFTC stands ready to carry out our mission over expanded markets and products, including crypto and digital assets, and ensure our markets remain vibrant and resilient while protecting all participants.”

Caroline Pham, acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission

“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank.”

Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $90,813, Ether (ETH) at $2,999 and XRP at $2.21. The total market cap is at $3.08 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Kaspa (KAS) at 49.36%, SPX6900 (SPX) at 48.68% and Sky (SKY) at 30.99%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are MemeCore (M) at 31.97%, Aptos (APT) at 12.77% and Starknet (STRK) at 10.58%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Top Prediction of The Week

Bitcoin forms short-term bottom, $100K relief rally in sight: Analyst

Bitcoin may be carving out a short-term bottom after weeks of heavy selling, with one market analyst arguing that conditions are in place for a relief rally toward the $100,000–$110,000 range.

In a recent video, pseudonymous trader Mister Crypto said Bitcoin ’s short-term structure shows signs of stabilization following what he described as “capitulation” across the market. He claimed that indicators tied to trader behavior suggest that large players have begun opening new long positions despite the sentiment plunging into extreme fear territory, a mix that has historically preceded bounces during downturns.

One of the main technical signals cited is the Bitcoin Relative Strength Index on the weekly chart, which is approaching the 30 level. “We have bottomed out for Bitcoin right here. We have been reaching the 30 level. Boom,” he said.

Top FUD of The Week

IMF warns tokenized markets may deepen flash crashes, says governments will step in

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) dropped an explanatory video on its X account exploring the new phenomenon of tokenized markets.

The international body responsible for ensuring the stability of the global monetary system recognized the advantages of tokenized markets in the video, but warned that they can be prone to flash crashes and are more volatile than traditional markets.

“Tokenization can make financial markets faster and cheaper, but efficiencies from new technologies often come with new risks,” the video said.

The video frames tokenization as the next step in money’s evolution, explaining that tokenization can make it “faster and cheaper to buy, own, and sell assets” by cutting down the long chain of intermediaries.

Switzerland delays crypto tax info sharing until 2027

Switzerland has delayed implementing rules that would automatically exchange crypto account information with overseas tax agencies until 2027 and is still deciding which countries it will share data with.

Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) rules will still be enshrined into law on Jan. 1 as originally planned, but will not be implemented until at least a year later, the Swiss Federal Council and State Secretariat for International Finance said on Wednesday.

It added that the Swiss government’s tax committee “suspended deliberations on the partner states with which Switzerland intends to exchange data in accordance with the CARF,” as the reason for the delay.

Do Kwon says five-year US sentence is enough as he faces 40 years in South Korea

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon asked a US judge to cap his prison time at five years for his role in the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which erased about $40 billion from crypto markets in 2022.

In a court filing on Wednesday, Kwon argued that a longer term would be excessive given the punishment he has already served and the penalties he has agreed to accept, according to Bloomberg.

Kwon pleaded guilty in August to two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud after being extradited from Montenegro, where he had been detained. His lawyers said he had spent almost three years behind bars, “with more than half that time in brutal conditions in Montenegro,” and that he had already paid a heavy personal and financial price.

Top Magazine Stories of The Week

When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice

Privacy and AML laws are horribly complicated when it comes to decentralized blockchains.

Koreans ‘pump’ alts after Upbit hack, China BTC mining surge: Asia Express

Korean crypto traders pump altcoins after arb bots disappear, Bitcoin mining activity in China surges again, and other news.

Rising hockey star’s new life in Ethereum after devastating car crash: Trevor Koverko

Polymath’s Trevor Koverko was a rising ice hockey star until a devastating accident left him paralyzed. He built a new life thanks to crypto.