According to Foresight News, last week saw a total inflow of $176 million into digital asset investment products, marking the eighth consecutive week of inflows. Since the beginning of the year, the total inflow has reached $13.2 billion. Additionally, the share of ETPs in the total cryptocurrency volume is on the rise, averaging 11%, significantly higher than the long-term historical average of 3.4% and well above the average level during the 2020/21 bull market.
Last week, Bitcoin inflows totaled $155 million, while several altcoins also experienced inflows. Solana, Ethereum, and Avalanche saw inflows of $13.6 million, $3.3 million, and $1.8 million, respectively.

As per the latest data from the Binance Market Price, Bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, crossed the $37,000 mark, trading at $37,262.90 as of 3:45 PM on November 20, 2023. The digital currency witnessed a solid increase of +2.16% during the last 24 hours, signaling bullish momentum in the crypto market. 

According to Cointelegraph: Javier Milei, who is known for his Bitcoin-friendly stance, has emerged victorious in Argentina's presidential run-off election held on November 19. With 99% of the vote counted, Milei secured over 55% of the votes, leaving his rival, Sergio Massa, trailing by nearly 3 million votes, according to data from Bloomberg.

Economy minister Massa congratulated Milei on his triumph after over 90% of the votes were accounted for, ahead of the official announcement of results. Milei is set to assume office on December 10.
In the face of Argentina's enduring inflation crisis, with the Argentine peso notching up an annual inflation increase of over 140% in the last 12 months, Milei's victory carries substantial implications. Known for his outspoken critique of the country's central bank, which he describes as a deceiving "mechanism by which politicians cheat the good people with inflationary tax," Milei places value in the role of Bitcoin in shaping the national financial landscape.
He touts Bitcoin as symbolic of the shift towards the return of currency control to its primal creator - the private sector. Despite this, he has yet to illustrate any intention to reincarnate Bitcoin into a legal tender within the country.
This stance is starkly contrasted by Massa's approach, who had vowed to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to rectify Argentina's chronic inflation crisis if he were elected.
Though Massa secured the initial round of the presidential election in October, he was unable to clinch an outright victory, resulting in the decisive run-off vote. Prior to this, in August, Milei had already demonstrated his political influence, winning Argentina's primary elections against Messi and other contenders.

According to CryptoPotato, over the weekend, the total trading volume on Friend.tech exceeded $10 million, marking the highest level in several weeks. However, industry analyst Colin Wu suggests that this may be an exit behavior. Data from Dune Analytics shows that Ethereum is being withdrawn from the platform at a faster rate than it is being minted, as keys are being redeemed.
More than 5,000 ETH was withdrawn from Friend.tech over the weekend, representing the largest withdrawal since October 24, when 4,380 ETH was taken off in a single day. Additionally, the total value locked (TVL) on the platform fell by 21% over the weekend to 17,100 ETH, or $33.6 million, the lowest level since mid-September. Since its peak of around $50 million in early October, Friend.tech's TVL has dropped by approximately 34%.
The platform has also seen virtually no increase in the number of new users since late October. Dune Analytics reports a total cumulative user figure of 839,190, but overall activity has declined. Friend.tech has faced issues with scams, as malicious actors target its users through phishing and SIM-swap attacks. Over the weekend, the team reported identifying and removing 600,000 accounts identified as bots, but it appears that genuine users have also been locked out.
Prominent crypto influencers have reported being locked out of the platform, with one user claiming to have lost more than 10 ETH, which the platform will not help them recover. Analyst Alex Krüger also reported being locked out of Friend.tech, stating that the team 'refused to help.' As users become increasingly disgruntled with the platform and begin withdrawing their assets, the hype surrounding Friend.tech may be waning.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, recently commented on Square with a post reflecting on Bitcoin's price surge over the past year. His statement, "Bitcoin was $15,588 a year ago today. You are so "lucky" you bought then," highlighting the cyclic nature of the cryptocurrency market

According to CryptoPotato, Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot may have suffered an exploit resulting in the loss of approximately $2 million worth of Ethereum (ETH). Blockchain investigator ZachXBT revealed the incident through his Telegram channel, raising concerns about the security of the exchange's hot wallets.
On November 8, ZachXBT reported that two wallets associated with CoinSpot were drained of more than 1,282 ETH in just five minutes. The investigation uncovered two suspicious transactions entering the alleged hacker's wallet. The wallet owner then bridged the stolen funds to the Bitcoin (BTC) network using ThorChain and Wan Bridge. CertiK, a leading blockchain security firm, suggested that a possible compromise of a private key linked to at least one of CoinSpot's hot wallets was the likely cause of this exploit.
In the first transaction, 1,262 ETH was transferred from CoinSpot's wallet to an address believed to be controlled by the attacker. A second transaction followed, with 20.99 ETH sent to the same destination. The recipient of these funds subsequently converted them into wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), USDC, and USDT using various smart contracts on platforms such as Uniswap, THORchain, and WBTC. The stolen Bitcoin was then spread across four different wallet addresses, making it more challenging to trace the entirety of the stolen funds.
CoinSpot, founded in 2014, had not experienced any significant hacks until this incident. However, in December 2021, the exchange's users were targeted in a phishing attack, highlighting the increasing threats faced by cryptocurrency platforms. As of now, CoinSpot has yet to issue an official response to the exploit, leaving questions about their plans to recover the lost funds unanswered.

According to Coincu, Celsius, a failed crypto lender, plans to repay $2 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum to creditors starting next year. The company aims to transform into a creditor-owned Bitcoin mining firm, despite facing fraud allegations. Former CEO Alex Mashinsky has been accused of manipulating the CEL token and making misleading statements to attract customer investments, but he has pleaded not guilty.
The plan to repay customers whose accounts have been frozen for over a year involves a combination of cryptoassets and stock in the new publicly listed Bitcoin mining company. However, Celsius still needs approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for this plan. If the crypto mining proposal falls through, the company may have to pivot to liquidation.
Judge Martin Glenn, who approved Celsius' plan, has urged the SEC to expedite its decision on whether to approve the company's emergence from Chapter 11 as a publicly listed Bitcoin mining firm. The court ruling followed a trial where customers expressed frustration with the bankruptcy plan and questioned the new management team. Some customers argued that the plan undervalues the CEL token, which will be used to distribute digital assets and stock to creditors.
Celsius' bankruptcy lawyers argued that the CEL token was essentially worthless when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating that it served as a proxy for company stock. The bankruptcy plan helped avoid a ruling on whether CEL constitutes a security, which has broader implications for the regulation of the crypto industry in the US.

Traders continue to point out bitcoin’s supposed role as ‘digital gold,’ amid economic headwinds in the U.S., as a possible price catalyst.
Bitcoin (BTC) kept steady under the $35,000 level in the past 24 hours, with meme coin dogecoin (DOGE) driving gains for traders.
Some traders told CoinDesk that they expect bitcoin to play a key role as “digital gold” – a likening as a hedge to traditional markets offerings, such as stocks – as a possible price catalyst.
“I think the general public’s education about the seriously difficult fiscal situation facing the United States is growing, along with a rising appreciation of bitcoin’s role as a hedge against this financial situation,” shared Banxa CEO Richard Mico in an email.
“The U.S. is now well over $33 trillion in debt, in addition to the unfunded liabilities of approximately $170 trillion. And, really, the only way out of this looming debt crisis is quantitative easing, or money printing, that will inevitably debase the dollar,” Mico said, adding bitcoin was poised to “be gold 2.0” amid such headwinds.

According to Cointelegraph: Coinbase, a prominent crypto exchange, has dismissed rumors circulating on social media regarding a $5,000 weekly limit on Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals. The misinformation began gaining traction after an October 24 post from a user on 'X' (previously known as Twitter), who alleged that a policy had limited his BTC withdrawals to a maximum of $5,000 per week.

The user's post attracted substantial attention, with over 250,000 views, nearly 420 retweets and almost 2,000 likes. Crypto researcher Chris Blec also took notice and sought verification for the claims. However, a Coinbase spokesperson clarified to Cointelegraph that the rumors were 'inaccurate,' stating there is no such policy imposing limits on withdrawals when selling to Coinbase cash balances.

"Withdrawing from Coinbase will depend on the payment method you're using to withdraw," the spokesperson elaborated, advising users to review the exchange's official stance on account limits and withdrawals.
Coincidentally, the baseless rumors of withdrawal limits emerged at a time when Coinbase underwent brief trading difficulties. According to its official status page, the exchange faced challenges in processing trades around 6 PM UTC on October 23. However, less than an hour later, Coinbase reassured users that the issue had been resolved and that the team is continually monitoring trading activities for any lingering complications.
These trading disruptions on Coinbase occurred amid soaring market activity, as Bitcoin's price surged to a high of $35,000, a peak not seen since May of the previous year.

According to Cointelegraph: Crypto adoption displays a predominantly bright outlook, particularly in emerging economies, despite a fall in global usage, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain data firm reports that India tops the world in crypto adoption, followed by Nigeria and Vietnam. However, North America houses nearly a quarter of all value received by cryptocurrency exchanges, with the United States taking the lead.

To measure adoption, Chainalysis utilised web traffic data from 13 billion web visits across five activity categories, weighted by each country's Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita. Essentially, a lower PPP per capita means a higher ranking in adoption, on an equal scale of cryptocurrency received at centralized services.
While crypto usage dips globally, lower-middle-income (LMI) countries like India, Nigeria, and fifth-placed Ukraine are exceptions. These countries, home to around 40% of the world's population, have been leading in crypto adoption since Q2 of 2022 as global usage started to flounder. The rise of crypto acceptance in these emerging nations could signal robust future prospects for digital currencies.

Despite an evident drop in institutional transaction volume in North America since April, the region still dominates in terms of crypto market volume. Stablecoin volume share has decreased significantly, along with the weighted volume of transactions in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) from over 75% in August 2022 to under 50% in July 2023.
The United Kingdom, which accounted for over twice the volume of second-place Germany, contributed to 17.6% of the crypto value received in Central, Northern, and Western Europe. DeFi growth was prominently observed in France and other regions like Central and Southern Asia and Oceania; Eastern Europe, and Central, Northern, and Western Europe over the last 12 months.
Despite a downturn in transaction volume in Eastern Asia due to Chinese bans beginning in 2020, China still contributed over $75 billion in value to exchanges over the 12 months ending in June, primarily through centralized exchanges.
In terms of regional highlights, Nigeria outstrips sub-Saharan countries by transaction volume, with Bitcoin ranking as the most popular crypto. In Latin America, Argentina and Brazil drive transaction volume, with the report highlighting cryptocurrency's role as a hedge against inflation in the region.

According to CoinDesk, a well-known Friend.Tech user, @Vombatus_eth, sold 850 ether (ETH) worth of keys on Monday before moving to New Bitcoin City, a similar social app built on Bitcoin. Vombatus made approximately $1.5 million after selling 176 keys and still holds 150 keys on the platform. Friend.Tech allows users to issue 'keys' for access to closed group chats and quickly became one of the fastest-growing crypto platforms after its August launch, attracting millions of dollars in revenue from over 100,000 users in less than three weeks.
However, newer opportunities have slowed Friend.Tech's initial growth, and apps like New Bitcoin City are emerging as major contenders. Users like Vombatus are bringing their followers to the platform, helping it surpass $3 million in locked value on Monday. New Bitcoin City, which began as a gaming and arcade platform on Bitcoin in early August, released its social application in late September, targeting the social application market.
Developer @punk3700 told CoinDesk that bitcoin's usage in DeFi applications has been limited to tokenized representations of bitcoin on other chains, such as Ethereum or Solana. However, New Bitcoin City believes there is a gap for wealthy bitcoin holders to use their assets on interactive applications. The introduction of 'Bitcoin Request for Comment' (BRC-20) standards earlier this year allowed developers to issue tokens and build DeFi applications on Bitcoin. New Bitcoin City's popularity comes as bitcoin prices are on the rise, increasing about 20% in the past week due to the potential approval of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S., which traders believe may drive demand for the asset.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index is 63. The level is Greed.

According to Alternative.me, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index stands at 63 (noon, UTC+0), landing in the “Greed” segment. This signifies a high level of optimism among the majority of cryptocurrency investors.

Compared to yesterday, the Greed level has a significant increase from 53 to 63. Throughout the previous week, the index fluctuated from 47 to 63  indicating an increasing level of Greed in the market.
The Fear & Greed index is measured from 0 to 100, with 0 representing "Extreme Fear" and 100 representing "Extreme Greed." The index calculates the factors of volatility (25%), market momentum/volume (25%), social media (15%), dominance (10%), Google trends (10%), and survey (15% - currently paused).

According to CryptoPotato, research conducted by IntoTheBlock reveals that the average holding time for Bitcoin (BTC) is 4.2 years, significantly longer than Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE), which have an average holding time of around 2 years. Ripple's XRP also falls behind Bitcoin in terms of holding duration.
Long-term Bitcoin holders have experienced significant gains, with some investors seeing up to a 15x return from 2017 to 2021. If an investor were to sell their Bitcoin holdings today after holding them for 4.2 years, they would record a profit of almost 200%. The price of Bitcoin recently surpassed $30,000, with expectations of future rallies driven by potential favorable factors in the coming months.