Crypto markets closed their fourth consecutive negative week with Bitcoin sliding into the sub $100K range and Ethereum breaking below $3200. The October liquidity wipeout continues casting a long shadow over the crypto markets, and some are calling BTC price targets to continue its decline to $65K with most of retail investors focusing on AI stocks and TradFi.
On the institutional adoption front, Visa launched a pilot allowing businesses to send payouts directly to stablecoin wallets, enabling instant USDC payments for freelancers and gig workers while bypassing multi-day banking guardrails. JP Morgan rolled out its JPMD deposit token on Coinbase's Base chain, offering 24/7 settlement for institutional clients. Mastercard is following Visa's lead, signalling the world's largest payment networks now see stablecoins as core infrastructure. The first U.S. spot XRP ETF launched on Nasdaq, while OKX introduced hybrid DeFi access directly from its app with self-custody and gas abstraction built in.
The regulatory picture continues to be a bright spot in the sea of bloodshed. The Senate Committee released its crypto market structure bill draft, formally designating Bitcoin and Ethereum as commodities under CFTC oversight. SEC Chair Paul Atkins introduced a new token taxonomy confirming that digital commodities (BTC), collectibles, and digital tools are not securities. Regardless of the regulatory picture and continual institutional adoption, the wider sentiment is uniformly negative with BTC breaking below $100k and with some calling this being the start of the bear market.
SPS Weekly Performance Overview
SPS declined 4.4% this week from $0.00705 to $0.00674, breaking down from its consolidation range and testing support levels established in late October. Market cap remained relatively stable around $3.28-3.48M despite the crypto market volatility. The technical structure showed lower highs after November 9th, but at best, it is a compression after a selloff within a range-bound market.
Trading volume averaged approximately $21K this week, down from the prior week's $25K. The pattern within the week reveals the weakness. When markets bounce on declining volume after a selloff, it typically signals either continued range-bound action or preparation for another leg down. Current liquidity remains extremely thin at approximately $18-22K on normal days.
Market Analysis -- Trends
The Splinterlands team this week announced the Dragon's Feast seasonal event launch and the Splinterlands Grand Prix influencer competition announcement. Dragon's Feast Season 171 kicked off on November 15th, bringing exclusive skin collections and a new battle modifier. For the first time, Black Foils, Gold Foil Arcanes, and Black Foil Arcanes are included in rewards chests rather than being exclusive to Fortune Draws. This is quite exciting as it makes some of the rarest cards in the game accessible to all.
Web3 content creator Bulldog organized a $1.5K competition featuring five gaming influencers from different communities, and these creators will compete over Season 171 with brand new accounts, creating at least two pieces of Splinterlands content each. First place earns $500, fifth place still gets $150, creating an incentive to actively compete rather than just fulfil content obligations. Personally, this is genius and a completely different approach to having influencers market the game. Therefore, instead of paying for one-off sponsored videos or articles, this is a competitive event that generates organic engagement, demonstrates web3 NFT ownership within splinterlands, and exposes different gaming communities to the splinterlands play-to-earn model. I hope that this one will have good community engagement and result in an uptick of new player signups.
Concluding Thoughts
SPS declined 4.4% this week, breaking down, and the technical structure remains bearish-to-neutral with lower highs after November. Structurally, SPS needs to reclaim $0.00700 with volume to shift momentum. The Dragon's Feast event, making Black Foils accessible through active play, is a great change while maintaining scarcity through limited prints. The Grand Prix influencer competition could effectively expose new audiences to Splinterlands if the community provides strong support.
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