Bitcoin Breakdown Is Helping Accelerate Stock Market Crash

Bitcoin took another hit on Monday, dropping another $2,500 to a low of $91,482. The drawdown left the world's largest crypto-currency down nearly two percent for the year-to-date.

Some of the issues that plague bitcoin in its billing as "digital gold" and a store of value are wild swings up and down and the number of "whales" who own large stakes in the 21 million bitcoins that will eventually be mined.

As of today, only about five percent of the available bitcoin is left to be mined, a little more than one million "coins", which puts the mining business in a tough spot. At $100,000 per bitcoin, it's a trillion dollars of bitcoin to be mined, a tidy sum, though it is split up among a group of tough competitors, making that business model something of a moot point over time despite the last bitcoin to be mined will be in 2140. That's if it lasts that long. Mining bitcoins for $100,000 a pop is one thing. If the price continues to decline, spending millions on high speed computers, energy, and equipment to cash in on multiple $50,000 or $40,000 awards might not be such a tempting concept.

With about one million bitcoins remaining to be mined over the next 115 years (2025 through 2140), it breaks down, linearly, to about 8700 bitcoins a year. At $100,000 each, that's $870,000,000 a year. Not bad, if one company mined all the bitcoin. But, if there are 10 miners, that's only $87 million each. Some of the companies mining bitcoin are very highly valued. 11 of them have market capitalizations of more than $1 billion. Over 115 years, mining all the remaining bitcoin at a price of $100,000 comes to $100,050,000,000, or, just over $100 billion dollars. In today's world, that's chump change and draws into question the valuations of companies mining bitcoin like Iris Energy (IREN), Cipher Mining (CIFR), and Riot Blockchain (RIOT). The combined market cap of the top 22 bitcoin miners is $53 billion. That math does not add up.

What happens to these companies when they're mining bitcoin at $50,000, $30,000, or even $20,000. Most will go out of business, costing investors millions. The founders and executives won't care. They've made their money in salaries and bonuses, but, billions of dollars will have been eviscerated, gone with the wind.

This is the point at which bitcoiners become aggressive and defensive, arguing that the math implies a higher bitcoin price due to scarcity and the difficulty and cost of mining those remaining bitcoins. Those arguments put the cart before the horse, so to speak. Just because there aren't many Joe Nuxhall rookie baseball cards, doesn't make them particularly valuable (Nuxhall was a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1950s and 60s). So too, the value, or price of 21 million bitcoins - not extremely rare in any sense - is tied to the desirability of ownership. Who wants to own bitcoins? And why? The obvious reason for the past decade or so has been price appreciation. Not utility. Not value. It is a pure speculation. And, if the price is going down, fewer and fewer people will want it. BlackRock and Michael Saylor could end up owning most of it. Then what?

Bitcoin needs massive adoption in order to achieve scale and utility as a medium of exchange. It hasn't happened, despite being available for buying, selling, and some payments on platforms as diverse as Stripe, PayPal, and Square. In the U.S. and Australia, for instance, less than two percent of the population uses bitcoin to transact. That's not going to cut it.

Then there's the issue of the number of large holders of bitcoin. In an ecosystem that was supposed ot be built on fairness, trustlessness, and anonymity, having large shares of the currency acts as a detriment. Who wants to hold "money" that's controlled by a small number of "whales" who could conceivably move the price of bitcoin up or down alone or in collusion? While that construct may be similar to stock ownership, it's a different situation. Stocks are assets. Bitcoin is supposed ot be "money."

Here's a short list of the estimated top 10 bitcoin holders (or "hodlers", if you prefer):

• Satoshi Nakamoto (founder of bitcoin): 1.1 million bitcoins
• BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT): 800,000
• MicroStrategy (now, Strategy): 640,000
• Binance-coldwallet: 248,598
• United States of America: 207,000
• Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (CBOE:FBTC): 205,000
• China: 194,000
• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): 173,502
• Robinhood-coldwallet: 140,575
• Bitfinex-coldwallet: 130,010
• Winklevoss twins: 70,000

All told, this top 10 holds about 4 million bitcoins, or, nearly 20%. Should any one of them decide to cash out, or, worse, yet, a few panic at once, bitcoin could fall precipitously.

General ownership of bitcoin is quite top-heavy. Motley Fool estimates that 0.03% of all Bitcoin addresses hold more than 100 BTC, but those wallets control more than 60% of all Bitcoin in circulation.

That doesn't leave much for Joe and Jane Sixpack. Again, it's akin to stocks, where institutions hold most of the shares and the best individuals can hope for is to go along for the ride, which, hopefully, is to the upside.

What's been happening lately is probably mostly retail speculators cashing out as the big gains for 2025 have already been made. In fact, bitcoin's price today is right around where it was this time last year. On November 19, 2024, one bitcoin was worth $91,546. So much for getting rich quick. Bear in mind, this "digital gold" compares to actual gold, up more than 50% this year, and actual silver, up 70%.

Bitcoin might as well be called "digital hopium." Other crypto-currencies, alt-coins, etc. are doing even worse. Etheruem, or Ether, as the cool kids call it, is down nine percent year-to-date. Solana is down 30%, Cardano, down 45%; Dogecoin, down 52%.

It's all speculation, and, right now, the long specs are losing. Add in the amounts lost in various ETFs and other derivative crypto plays and you have the crypto ecosystem imploding in real time. This has happened before, and, if human nature plays out as it usually does, it will happen again. Michael Saylor will proclaim bitcoin a bargain at $35,000. Many morons will follow where fools dare to tread and buy it. They may profit. They may lose. The best thing would be for bitcoin to go to zero along with all the other fakes.

One has to wonder, if bitcoin is so awesome, why doesn't Mr. Saylor or BlackRock or the other institutional players invest in some of the other offerings? Probably because, they, like most sane people, realize that a world of crypto-currencies is a fantasy. Suppose you went to a restaurant for dinner and found out when the check came that they didn't accept bitcoin, ether, solana, dogecoin, or even fartcoin, even though you had plenty of each in your virtual wallet. The maitre'd informs you that the establishment prefers cash, as in U.S. dollars, Visa or Mastercard.

Well, there you go. Explains why crypto is "crap-to" for lack of a better term. It's numbers on a ledger, and, while it shares some similarities to dollars, yen, euros, or pounds, it's not accepted at the millions of locations that take cash or cards.

Crypto is trash. It may not have been in its infancy, but, as soon as Wall Street stuck its claws into it, it became un-ownable. Essentially, there are a lot of people in the world who don't own any and an equally large number of people who feel, "if BlackRock owns it, I'd rather not."

In real terms, 0.01 bitcoin was worth $1,243 on October 7. Today, $910, and falling. Overnight, it was a low as $89,500. That's a screaming SELL. Beware of big waves caused by whales flopping on the water. It's all been a very nice speculation. Let BlackRock and Michael Saylor eat the losses. Enough is enough. Let's move on.

The trillions of dollars being pumped into bitcoin, crypto, and all the derivatives are fueling a massively-building liquidity crisis. Paraphrasing a quote often ascribed to 1950s-60s Senator Everett Dirkson, "a trillion here, a trillion there, soon enough you're talking real money." A couple of trillion dollars suddenly vanishing from the bizarre crypto bazaar has its share of ripple effects (no pun intended), and the stock market has been exhibiting obvious signs of pain.

Monday was another day for taking chips off the table, and futures are looking very promising. Just before 9:00 am, Dow futures were off 390 points, NASDAQ futures had shed 150, and S&P futures were down 31.

Since its peak on October 7, bitcoin is down more than 26%. The slide has accelerated recently, however. In just the past week, since November 11, bitcoin is down $15,000, or about 14%. Between falling prices in general, margin calls, and forced liquidations, the amount of money leaving crypto-land is staggering. In just the past 24 hours, nearly $1 billion in forced liquidations have taken place. The outward effects are being reflected in the general markets, which are themselves wildly overvalued.

From all appearances, bitcoin is adding to the dumpster fire on Wall Street in a big way. If there's a general collapse in stocks, bitcoin's losses are likely to be even more severe. With the major stock exchanges set to open in less than half an hour, the condition appears dire.

At the Close, Monday, November 17, 2025:
Dow: 46,590.24, -557.24 (-1.18%)
NASDAQ: 22,708.07, -192.51 (-0.84%)
S&P 500: 6,672.41, -61.70 (-0.92%)
NYSE Composite: 21,213.42, -256.84 (-1.20%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Stocks Rescued Again on Friday; Gold, Silver, Oil Make Gains, Retreat; Bitcoin Heads Toward ZERO; Economy Strong, but, Stimulus is Coming

For the second straight Friday, stocks were rescued from deep declines by dip buyers appearing from the shadows of the market to keep alive the positive vibes.

It's become almost routine for markets to perform in this manner, but it is disturbing and tiresome to witness the same plunge protection scheme over and over and over again, while precious metals are resolutely sold off at the same time. These supporters of stocks might somehow be eventually recompensed, but it is more likely that there will be money lost, integrity absent.

It's perfectly natural for this kind of behavior to occur, when the owners behind the fascist oligarchy control currency that can be created at the drop of a hat in a wink of an eye. In the end, it will be disastrous for some, a rounding error for the high and mighty. In the end, reckoning takes place. In between then and now, fraud, deception, and chaos run amok.

It's a loathsome task to have to report on the decline of Western civilization while the ultra-wealthy skim at their leisure and the captured media promotes "feel-good America" stories. The circle is amoral, without virtue. Corporations donate to campaigns of politicians who write legislation favorable to their business interests. Stocks go up, legislators and insiders profit. Everybody wins. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's a nice game if one can get into the loop, which isn't easy. It would be preferable to praise the upper crust of Americans for their wisdom and virtue, but none can be found.

The bigger picture peers beyond the facade of stocks, bonds, crypto assets, and derivatives. The value of the dollar has fallen precipitously since the pandemic scare. Food, rents, and the mundane pleasures of living in an import economy aren't more expensive. The amount of depreciating currency needed to buy the same as last month, or last year, is increasing. As the dollar - and the euro, yen, pound, etc. - approaches the status of confetti, strains on the public continue to grow, even as the political circus becomes a bizarre comedy of errors.

In the end, the currency fails, the empire is stripped bare, the world turns. The saving grace is that total debasing of fiat currency doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, decades, actually, but time, as seen in the growth of BRICS and aligned countries and the continued gains in precious metals, seems to be growing short, along with patience, trust and a trove of other treasures that used to be part and parcel of American and European civility.

Don't expect life in the United States to improve, though stocks may rally - or not - despite your personal pessimism. At this stage of the game, virtually anything is possible. Preparation - and not necessarily "Preparation H", though it may be at some point advisable - is a paramount function for transition to the post-apocalypse wonderland.

Stocks

As mentioned above, another rough week was averted by the latest in a long series of Friday rallies.

The S&P and NASDAQ closed out the week cozied down to their respective 50-day moving averages. The Dow is hanging just above its own. There's a wager that breaking lower in the week ahead could cause some cascading, though one would have to be entirely convinced that the insider rigging is over to play it. The most skeptical market observers - you know who you are - won't play the downside until there's confirmation, though the handful of still-breathing Dow Theorists take note that stocks are still in a primary bearish trend and that recent highs were sugar-coating, based on accounting trickery, stock buybacks, blind faith, and trillion in soft money needing a place to reside.

Stocks have been the choice, will likely remain the choice, and have equal potential to gain or decline in the near term, though it's becoming increasingly difficult to look past the recent foibles and failures: the government shutdown fiasco, the One Big, Beautiful Bill and its $2 trillion deficit, political infighting, bitcoin's collapse just as the government ramps up its love affair with crypto and stablecoins.

Late in the week, the White House blurted out that the government would not be releasing data on October Non-farm payrolls and CPI (implying that October PPI will go missing as well) due to the government shutdown. Taking that failure at face value would likely be a mistake. The more attuned perception sees the "lost" information more as a cover or cover-up for disastrous information, as in, inflation up, jobs down. White House Press Secretary said that the Fed would be "flying blind," which begs the question, "when were they not?"

The week ahead offers few corporate earnings reports, including the biggie, Nvidia (NVDA), after the close Wednesday, plus a handful of big box retailers.

Third quarter earning announcements of note:

Monday, November 17: (before open) VerifyMe (VRME), Freightos (CRGO); (after close) Gladstone Capital (GLAD), Trip.com (TCOM), HP (HP)

Tuesday, November 18: (before open) Bidu (BIDU), Klarna (KLAR), Home Depot (HD); (after close) Dolby (DLB), LazyBoy (LZB)

Wednesday, November 19: (before open) Target (TGT), TJX (TJX), Lowe's (LOW), Williams-Sonoma (WSM), Viking Cruise Lines (VIK); (after close) Nvidia (NVDA), Palo Alto Industries (PANW), Jack-in-the-Box (JACK)

Thursday, November 20: (before open) Walmart (WMT), Warner Music Group (WMG), Shoe Carnival (SCVL); (after close) Gap Inc. (GAP), Copart (CPRT), Intuit (INTU), Webull (BULL), Ross Stores (ROST)

Friday, November 21: (before open) BJ's Wholesale (BJ), Frontline (FRO)

Treasury Yield Curve Rates

Date	1 Mo	1.5 mo	2 Mo	3 Mo	4 Mo	6 Mo	1 Yr
10/10/2025	4.19	4.16	4.10	4.02	3.96	3.81	3.60
10/17/2025	4.18	4.15	4.08	4.00	3.95	3.79	3.56
10/24/2025	4.11	4.06	4.02	3.93	3.89	3.76	3.58
10/31/2025	4.06	4.02	4.04	3.89	3.87	3.79	3.70
11/07/2025	4.01	3.96	3.98	3.92	3.83	3.76	3.63
11/14/2025	4.04	4.02	4.01	3.95	3.88	3.80	3.70

Date	2 Yr	3 Yr	5 Yr	7 Yr	10 Yr	20 Yr	30 Yr
10/10/2025	3.52	3.52	3.65	3.83	4.05	4.60	4.63
10/17/2025	3.46	3.47	3.59	3.78	4.02	4.58	4.60
10/24/2025	3.48	3.49	3.61	3.79	4.02	4.56	4.59
10/31/2025	3.60	3.60	3.71	3.89	4.11	4.65	4.67
11/07/2025	3.55	3.57	3.67	3.87	4.11	4.68	4.70
11/14/2025	3.62	3.61	3.74	3.92	4.14	4.73	4.74

There is compression in the middle of the curve, with all yields rising over the past week. It's probably difficult for anybody to make money on spreads so thin, within a percentage point of the funding and lending rates, which is why mortgage rates remain stubbornly high and credit card and auto loan interest rates have gotten to the point of just plain stupid. Nobody should be borrowing at 20-25% or higher, but, since the banks lobbied hard enough to have usury laws eradicated decades ago, that is where we are.

Under present conditions, borrowing is strained. Lending is a last resort. A four percent natural rate, if that's really where it is, aligns with the general inflation, making for a zero-sum game. The U.S. government has to borrow and in the long run, the Fed buys most of the paper, i.e., prints money. That's not zero-sum. That's a road to perdition. Proof is the mountains of debt. $38 trillion on the government end. Even more for business and consumers.

The next wave of stimulus will be soon, but it will manifest in various shapes and forms, first, with government handing money to individuals with which to purchase health care, rather than extend the ridiculous construct of Obamacare subsidies because the cost of "keeping your doctor" is escalating premiums, fattening the coffers of the insurance providers. Talk is already growing toward direct payments to consumers, a shot directly into the arm of the economy to placate millions at the expense of millions more.

After that, $2,000 tariff "stimmies" for taxpayers at the outset, until the cries of "unfair" overwhelm the narrative and everybody gets a check.

In the past week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem endeared herself to 47,000 airport fondlers otherwise known as TSA, air traffic controllers and other department employers by promising $10,000 bonuses to all who stayed on the job during the shutdown. That's nearly half a billion bucks to people who mostly stand around and when they're busy, are generally in the business of abusing people who frequent the "friendly skies." Ordinary people outside the Beltway and government largesse, in private businesses, never stoped working for a second and get $2,000 and higher prices.

The full spectrum 30-days-to-30-years spread hit a new high of +70, which is likely to be eclipsed within six months, as the Fed cuts rates (December rate cut odds are about 50/50 for a 25 basis point cut) once Jerome Powell is replaced with a more dovish Chairman. Borrowing will be at the short end, with the 30-year rising beyond 5.00%, as long-dated maturities are increasingly shunned by foreigners.

Spreads:

2s-10s
2025
1/3: +32
1/10: +37
1/17: +34
1/24: +36
1/31: +36
2/7: +20
2/14: +21
2/21: +23
2/28: +25
3/7: +33
3/14: +29
3/21: +31
3/28: +38
4/4: +33
4/11: +52
4/17: +53
4/25: +55
5/2: +50
5/9: +49
5/16: +45
5/23: +51
5/30: +52
6/6: +48
6/13: +45
6/20: +48
6/27: +56
7/3: +47
7/11: +53
7/18: +56
7/25: +49
8/1: +54
8/8: +51
8/15: +58
8/22: +58
8/29: +64
9/5: +59
9/12: +50
9/19: +57
9/26: +57
10/3: +45
10/10: +53
10/17: +56
10/24: +54
10/31: +51
11/7: +56
11/14: +52

Full Spectrum (30-days - 30-years)
2025
1/3: +38
1/10: +54
1/17: +41
1/24: +40
1/31: +36
2/7: +32
2/14: +32
2/21: +31
2/28: +13
3/7: +24
3/14: +25
3/21: +23
3/28: +26
4/4: +5
4/11: +38
4/17: +44
4/25: +40
5/2: +41
5/9: +46
5/16: +52
5/23: +68
5/30: +59
6/6: +69
6/13: +67
6/20: +69
6/27: +66
7/3: +51
7/11: +59
7/18: +65
7/25: +55
8/1: +32
8/8: +37
8/15: +44
8/22: +41
8/29: +51
9/5: +49
9/12: +40
9/19: +54
9/26: +55
10/3: +47
10/10: +43
10/17: +42
10/24: +48
10/31: +61
11/7: +69
11/14: +70

Oil/Gas

WTI crude closed out the week at $59.81, an imperceptible move last Friday's close of $59.84. Futures zig-zagged across $60/barrel for WTI until finally settling on the under at week's end. There's still too much oil to support weakening Western economies. Prices need to fall further. Short term noise on the COMEX is speculation and gaming the system. $50 a barrel is a more rational level that may become real during the winter.

The U.S. national average for gas at the pump remained the same as last week, $3.07, according to Gasbuddy.com. Gas prices should continue to decline over the near term and through winter.

California remains the priciest, at $4.66 per gallon, down five cents, followed by Washington ($4.16), lower by another eight cents on the week. Oregon ($3.73), was also down eight cents. The lowest prices remain in the Southeast, with Oklahoma checking in with the lowest price in about a year, $2.43. Mississippi is next at $2.56. Louisiana ($2.57), Arkansas ($2.58) and Texas ($2.59) follow. The remaining Southeast states are all below $2.80 with the exception of Florida ($2.91).

In the Northeast, prices were higher. All except New Hampshire ($2.91( and Rhode Island ($2.99) were above $3.00, with Pennsylvania ($3.29) easily the highest. Maryland ($3.11) and New York ($3.12) were the next-highest.

In the midwest region, Illinois ($3.23) was joined in the $3.00+ club by West Virginia ($3.01), Indiana ($3.03), Ohio ($3.07), and Michigan ($3.00). At the low end were Nebraska ($2.68) and Kansas ($2.69).

Sub-$3.00 gas was reported in 26 states, a drop of two from last week.

Bitcoin

This week: $95,387.89
Last week: $103,678.70
2 weeks ago: $110,406.10
6 months ago: $103,298.00
One year ago: $90,318.17
Five years ago: $18,697.88

Anybody who can't see the problem with bitcoin and crypto in general needs to wipe the grime from the past month off their rose-colored glasses or maybe take them off and actually smell the stench of dead roses, because that's what bitcoin and crypto are becoming, wilted flowers from a romance gone bad. The "hodlers" have been filing divorce papers via ETFs and elsewhere, with record-setting outflows since the beginning of October and this week, the granddaddy of crypto, Satoshi's own love child, bitcoin, dipped to lows not seen in six months. Notably, the price is only $5,000 higher than it was a year ago. Other than a brief period from the end of February through the beginning of May, bitcoin has been above $95,000 and mostly over $100,000, with everybody from Michael Saylor to Max Keiser predicting new highs of $200,000, $400,000 or more, just as the crypto world began to crater.

This is how Ponzi schemes and other scams end, badly, with recent investors selling out, maybe a few dollars to the good, most taking losses. If you had a bitcoin, it was worth upwards of $124,000 on October 7. Today it's just above $95,000.

Here are some questions and (answers) for anybody who hasn't yet sold their bitcoins or other cryptos (which have performed even worse):

Is there a chance that bitcoin will go back up? (NO)

Is bitcoin a store of value? (NO)

Is anybody using bitcoin to buy essentials? (NO)

Are bitcoin and other cryptos widely adopted in developed countries? (NO)

Is bitcoin still legal tender in El Salvador? (NO)

Should I keep the faith and do like Michael Saylor says, HODL? (Hell NO).

Bitcoin will eventually decline until it gets close to its intrinsic value, which is ZERO, and it may happen rather suddenly. Other "coins" will simply disappear, along with investor money, lots of it. There's already been $1 trillion dilution. More to come.

Precious Metals

Gold:Silver Ratio: 80.79; last week: 82.76

Futures, per COMEX continuous contracts:

Gold price 10/17: $4,267.90
Gold price 10/24: $4,126.90
Gold price 10/31: $4,013.40
Gold price 11/7: $4,007.80
Gold price 11/14: $4,084.40

Silver price 10/17: $50.63
Silver price 10/24: $48.41
Silver price 10/31: $48.25
Silver price 11/7: $48.22
Silver price 11/14: $50.40

SPOT:
(stockcharts.com)
Gold 10/17: $4250.59
Gold 10/24: $4110.63
Gold 10/31: $3997.10
Gold 11/7: $3999.89
Gold 11/14: $4,080.00

Silver 10/17: $51.88
Silver 10/24: $48.59
Silver 10/31: $48.65
Silver 11/7: $48.33
Silver 11/14: $50.50

Gold and silver spent most of the week ramping higher, with silver making a double top at a record price around $54.50. Gold hit a high of $4,245 on Wednesday, but, since stocks were nose-diving, the riggers at the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), saw to it that precious metals were taken out of favor, because, of course, when risk assets fall, non-risk assets should too. Sarcasm aside, the rulers of the currency rathole in the West can't stomach much higher prices for gold and silver, which they've suppressed for decades.

This tampering with the machinery of economics and global finance is not going to end well for the U.S. and its cohorts. Every central bank in the world has been buying gold for the last three years and longer, except the Federal Reserve of the United States and some of the Commonwealth and EU nations. That speaks volumes about the direction of global finance, money, and credit. It's now too late for the West. China, Russia, India, and many other countries are increasing their wealth while the U.S. and Europe continues its moronic sanction regime.

Keep stacking is the advice offered by those most in the know. Sounds like good advice.

Here are the most recent prices for common one ounce gold and silver items sold on eBay (free shipping included, numismatics excluded):

Item/Price	Low	High	Average	Median
1 oz silver coin:	53.00	64.00	56.98	56.00
1 oz silver bar:	51.00	68.95	58.73	58.46
1 oz gold coin:	4,260.97	4,625.16	4,406.34	4,404.65
1 oz gold bar:	4,200.00	4,362.71	4,303.79	4,304.91

The Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) gained positive ground over the week, to $57.54, a gain of 88 cents from the November 9 price of $56.66 per troy ounce. The small-denomination, physical market continues to add premia to, and depart from, spot.

WEEKEND WRAP

Good luck. After next week comes Thanksgiving and Black Friday, then onwards into the holidays. The claims of the ruling class about affordability and the strength of the economy will not be drowned out by the Salvation Army bells seeking charity. The narrative is about to go into overdrive, just in time for Christmas!

At the Close, Friday, November 14, 2025:
Dow: 47,147.48, -309.74 (-0.65%)
NASDAQ: 22,900.59, +30.23 (+0.13%)
S&P 500: 6,734.11, -3.38 (-0.050%)
NYSE Composite: 21,470.26, -64.14 (-0.30%)

For the Week:
Dow: +160.38 (+0.34%)
NASDAQ: -103.95 (-0.45%)
S&P 500: +5.31 (+0.08%)
NYSE Composite: +61.70 (+0.29%)
Dow Transports: -136.66 (-0.84%)

Disclaimer: Information disseminated on this site should not be construed as investment advice. Downtown Magazine Inc., Money Daily and it's owners, affiliates and/or employees are not investment advisors and do not offer specific investment advice. All investments have risk. You should consult a professional investment advisor or stock broker or use your individual judgement when making investment decisions. By viewing this site, you hold harmless Downtown Magazine Inc., Money Daily, its owners, affiliates and employees against any and all liability. Copyright 2025, Downtown Magazine Inc., all rights reserved.

Bitcoin, Crypto Crashing; Stocks Sliding Badly; Government Won't Release October Payrolls, CPI, PPI; Fiat Currencies Are Dying

Just in the past few days, the mood on Wall Street has begun to change and not in a good way. Despite the propaganda that everything is fine, that AI will solve everything, that bitcoin is going to the moon, the reality that U.S. manufacturing isn't reenergized, that tariffs are causing inflation, that the U.S. government - despite ending the ugly, longest-ever shutdown - refuses to tackle its deficit problems, and that the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are going badly for the "good guys", meaning the U.S., Europe, and Israel.

Add to those issues the burgeoning collapse of households struggling with excessive debt, high prices, rising delinquencies on car loans, student loans and credit cards and the makings of a massive liquidity squeeze and a recession are beginning to take shape.

The White House confirmed yesterday that because of the shutdown, October Non-farm payrolls and CPI data would not be released. White House Press Secretary, Caroline Leavitt said Thursday at a press briefing, "The Democrats may have permanently damaged the Federal Statistical System..." which, of course, is pure bunk. The data is out there. The government just doesn't want everybody to know just how bad things are. Leavitt didn't just leave it there, continuing to say, "All of that economic data released will be permanently impaired leaving our policy makers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period."

OK, we get it. The government, other than Democrats, isn't going to be blamed for the collapse of everything because the data is all corrupted or lost. The Fed is off the hook as well. Americans might as well try paddling a rudderless raft upstream through rapids. The government is lying, as usual, covering up what are sure to be horrible economic numbers. They have the data. They just don't want you to know how badly you're being screwed.

And then, there's bitcoin, and the imploding fraud of the crypto universe.

Since October 7, bitcoin is down 23.6%. Ethereum is down 34%. That is just in the past month, and the declines appear to be accelerating.

Crypto-linked equities were hit hard once more, especially miners with heavy AI infrastructure and data center exposure. Bitdeer (BTDR) plunged 19% and Bitfarms (BITF) dropped 13%, while Cipher Mining (CIFR) and IREN lost over 10%. The rest of the crypto equity sector also saw steep losses: Galaxy (GLXY), Bullish (BLSH), Gemini (GEMI) and Robinhood (HOOD) were all down 7%-8%. - Coindesk, 11/13

Top and trending altcoins XRP, Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Zcash (ZEC), and AI coins tumbled 5-12% over the past 24 hours. Meme coins including Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe Coin (PEPE) further erased their earlier gains, with PEPE now down 80% year-to-date (YTD). --Yahoo, 11/14 (Full Story)

Ok, so what is Pepe Coin, anyway? Who is using it? Will my mechanic accept it?

This is the problem. Once blockchain technology became ubiquitous, every scam operator and quick-buck grifter saw the opportunity for ridiculous returns on pure speculation. People like Michael Saylor, Anthony Scaramucci, and the monstrosity that is BlackRock became heavily invested in the bitcoin/crypto myth machine.

Saylor, CEO of Stategy (MSTR, rebranded from Microstrategy), settled with the SEC in 2000, paying $350,000 in penalties and a personal disgorgement of $8.3 million for inaccurate reporting of financial results. In 2024, Saylor settled a tax evasion lawsuit brought by the Attorney General of Washington, D.C. by paying a $40 million fine.

Anthony Scaramucci, probably best known for his 10-day stint (July 21-31, 2017) as White House communications director before being abruptly fired by President Trump, became involved in crypto with his fund, SkyBridge Capital, which invested heavily into various crypto ventures as Scaramucci (the "Mooch") made outrageous pronouncements about bitcoin going to a million dollars or more.

As of March 2023, Skybridge's assets had dwindled to about $2 billion from a peak of $9 billion in 2015. Investors lost about 30% from the beginning of 2020 through March 2023. The fund had reduced the ability of investors to withdraw funds and reduced staffing. Scaramucci recently told investors of a New Orleans hotel that they were facing a 100% loss.

Bitcoin, and the thousands of altcoins, memecoins, stablecoins, and other crypto-related nonsense are based on an "asset class" that has nothing more than a white paper authored by a shadowy figure known only as Satoshi Nakamoto as a basis. There is nothing backing any of it except blind faith and a healthy dose of stupidity. Bitcoin and crypto are likely to go down in history as the greatest scam ever perpetrated, involving trillions of dollars in the "coins" themselves and trillions more in derivative bets.

There's a growing likelihood that the losses in bitcoin and crypto-related endeavors will feed directly into stocks, sending everything down the tubes in a torrent of paper losses, which, at the end of the day, result in real losses to stock portfolios, endowment funds, sovereign wealth funds and every other kind of investment.

Stocks, for what it's worth, have been overvalued for a very long time, probably since the recovery off the lows of the 2008-09 financial crash, and especially since the disastrous events of 2020 and 2021 with COVID.

Now, with investors worried that AI is simply more pie-in-the-sky promises from the usual hucksters and tech barons, a reckoning is underway. At the back of it all is the fractional reserve, fiat monetary system itself, which has reached its ultimate end, the U.S. dollar having lost more than 98% of its purchasing power.

Skeptics will note that gold and silver are being sold off as well. That's a normal function during a liquidity crisis. They will recover. For now, and it's very early, the declines in gold and silver represent buying opportunities for anybody interested in sound money.

Things are heating up...

At the Close, Thursday, November 13, 2025:
Dow: 47,457.22, -797.60 (-1.65%)
NASDAQ: 22,870.36, -536.10 (-2.29%)
S&P 500: 6,737.49, -113.43 (-1.66%)
NYSE Composite: 21,534.40, -272.93 (-1.25%)

Longest Government Shutdown Ends; Gold, Silver Soaring

Counting Wednesday, the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown lasted 42 days, ended after the House rubber-stamped the amended continuing resolution (CR) sent back to them by the Senate, which will keep the lights on until January 30. Some areas were separately funded through what's being called a "minibus", which will guarantee funding for the Department of Agriculture (which administers SNAP, aka food stamps), FDA, military construction, veterans affairs and the legislative branch through Sept. 30, 2026 and also includes a reversal of federal layoffs that the Trump administration executed during the shutdown.

It's worth pointing out that most Democrats in the Senate and the House voted against the measures, which illustrates just how divided the parties are in Washington. The political posture on both sides has become almost dogmatic. Views on how best to operate the government for the good of the American people - or whatever else they may have in mind - are skewed violently by ideology.

Six House Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Adam Gray (D-CA), Don Davis (D-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) — and two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Greg Steube (R-FL) — broke with their caucus on the vote. The votes of Cuellar and Suozzi stand out. They are tools of the deeper state and do the bidding of their supporters and donors rather than representing their local constituencies. That's just how business gets done in D.C.; all it takes is a few sheep straying off the meadow. No doubt there will be finger-pointing and endless recrimination in the Democratic caucus.

Getting on to the business of business, the Dow Industrials have been bid to record highs the past two days while the S&P and, more so, the NASDAQ, have taken a snooze. While the Senate was busy playing footsie the past week, the AI narrative has come under pressure, as more and more analysts are sounding the alarm over enormous sums of money pledged to build out data farms and associated power plants to spread a technology that so far has been short on results, both in its application and revenue production.

Questioning of the financial super-structure underpinning the massive AI rollout has led to recent declines in Mag7 and AI-related stocks. META Platforms (Facebook) has been the hardest hit; others are only slightly below all-time highs.

As the opening bell approaches, stock futures are sliding. Dow futures are off 105; NASDAQ futures down 95, and S&P futures lower by 20 points. Could this be a case of "buy the rumor, sell the news" concerning the shutdown?

Brighter prospects appear for precious metals, which have been on a tear since Monday morning. Silver is up more than 10%, hitting a high on spot markets this morning of $54.45. Gold has been bid as high as $4245.60 this morning.

WTI crude oil was smacked back down into the 50s, hitting a low of $58.22 late Wednesday, but has rallied this morning above $59.

At the Close, Wednesday, November 12, 2025:
Dow: 48,254.82, +326.86 (+0.68%)
NASDAQ: 23,406.45, -61.844 (-0.26%)
S&P 500: 6,850.92, +4.31 (+0.06%)
NYSE Composite: 21,807.33, +90.60 (0.42%)

Widespread Optimism that U.S. Government Will Re-Open on House Vote; U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford Heads to Venezuela; BlackRock Loans Gone Bad

There is widespread optimism that the U.S. government will resume normal operations, as members of the House of Representatives return to Washington, after nearly two months of loafing in their home districts or vacationing on the taxpayer's dime.

While that development may be encouraging, especially to the 42 million Americans waiting for their monthly stipend of food stamps to arrive. Payments have been stalled as the Agriculture Department first ran out of money, then discovered it had contingency funds but wasn't allowed ot use them. After that two separate district courts ordered the Trump administration to disperse the funds, which would ostensibly only cover about 65% of the normal allotment. Since then, last week, there's been no movement, as now, fully benefits are likely to be restored. Any day now.

While Wall Street focuses on the government re-opening story there's a few no so "feel-good" issues developing.

Bloomberg reports that China abruptly halted its promised buying of 12 million tons of soybeans this year, with farmers saying there haven't been any purchases since an initial rush of orders in October, following President Trump's "deal" with China for this year and 25 million tons each year for the next three years.

The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, along with its entourage of battleships, destroyers, fighter jets and a nuclear sub, has entered Caribbean waters and is steaming toward the coast of Venezuela, the maneuver designed to frighten Presidente Maduro into resigning and/or give up vast reserves of its oil to American producers. Meanwhile, two Russian naval ships, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the oil tanker Akademik Pashin, recently docked in Venezuela's La Guaira port after conducting exercises in the Atlantic Ocean. Good thing the government is open. Those sailors and airmen like to get paid.

In finance land, BlackRock recently wrote down $150 million in lending by one of its affiliates on loans to failed companies, Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice. Additionally, BlackRock zeroed out $150 million loan to home improvement firm, Renovo. The company has filed Charter 7 bankruptcy, liquidating its assets.

Hey, but, AI, right? Gonna save the world.

Plates are still spinning...

At the Close, Tuesday, November 11, 2025:
Dow: 47,927.96, +559.33 (+1.18%)
NASDAQ: 23,468.30, -58.87 (-0.25%)
S&P 500: 6,846.61, +14.18 (+0.21%)
NYSE Composite: 21,716.73, +150.32 (+0.70%)