Hodl Up! Your weekly crypto catch up: Week 41 '25
Okay, what the **** did just happen? After two glorious weeks in the crypto market - we have been literally thrown off the hill. Are people really becoming millionaires and how does it stand vs gold ?
I was on a happy happy trip for two weeks - the markets were good, life was good and then yesterday happened. Understand this - in terms of raw numbers, this is the biggest liquidation event in the HISTORY of crypto markets. History.
This wasn’t expected, really wasn’t. In fact many (including myself) were prepping ourselves for a grand altcoin push now that $BTC was past $125k and $ETH was flirting with $4,800. But Mr. Donald Trump had different ideas.. Well, he’s the president of the US so, what can we do?
Other than this catastrophe, we’ll go through some positive report I saw online over the week about crypto millionaires and give ourselves something positive to think about.
And the final discussion today would be between Bitcoin and Gold which I had thought of because both were at an ATH but well, you know what happened. (* Bows down to Gold again *)
NOTE: NOTHING EVER MENTIONED IN ANY OF OUR CRYPTO TALK’s POSTS/NEWSLETTERS/CONTENT IS FINANCIAL ADVICE. ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
We Crashed - HARD
The crypto market got slammed on Friday, and if you’re living under a rock - it wasn’t a bug, a hack, or some DeFi exploit. It was a presidential announcement. Donald Trump dropped a 100% tariff on all Chinese imports, set to go live November 1. His justification? China’s move to restrict exports of rare earth elements - critical materials used in everything from semiconductors to crypto mining rigs.
I don’t know shi* about politics or world trade so I won’t comment on the above. What I know about is crypto markets.
Bitcoin reacted instantly. Prices on Binance futures plunged to $102,000, a three-month low while spot prices on Coinbase hovered around $107,000. Over $9.4 billion in crypto liquidations were recorded in just 24 hours. Most of it came from overleveraged long positions, which got wiped out as the market sank.
Altcoins didn’t fare any better. Ethereum fell 12 percent to $3,500, Solana dropped 14 percent, and XRP, oh boy, XRP tanked by a massive 32 percent. Even the high-flying memecoins and AI sector tokens, which had been surging earlier this quarter - dropped more than 30 percent.
Interestingly, data from Lookonchain showed that a known Bitcoin OG wallet opened $1.1 billion in short positions on BTC and ETH just before the crash, sitting on over $27 million in unrealized profits after the drop. That’s either a remarkable bet or some pretty sharp timing.
Stocks weren’t immune either. The S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent and the Dow dropped 878 points. Crypto-adjacent stocks mirrored the hit - Coinbase fell nearly 8 percent, Bullish dropped more than 9 percent, and MARA Holdings slid by over 7 percent during the day, with more losses after hours. MicroStrategy also fell, and more importantly, its modified net asset value (mNAV) fell to 1.18, its lowest in two years.
But this wasn’t just a market overreaction. There’s real structural fear brewing. The U.S.-China chip war is escalating, and now it’s bleeding into rare earth supply chains. That directly impacts the production of semiconductors and crypto mining infrastructure. So this isn’t just about tariffs, it’s about availability, cost, and long-term viability for hardware-dependent industries like crypto and AI.
If all this feels familiar, it should. This isn’t Trump’s first time rattling the crypto cage. Earlier this year, threats of tariffs knocked BTC down in February. A surprise crypto reserve announcement in March caused a temporary rally. July’s stablecoin legislation gave the markets a brief boost. And just a day before this crash, Trump had already hinted at the 100 percent tariff. Each move has carried a measurable market impact.
At this point, it’s clear: Trump headlines have become a macro driver for digital assets. I don’t know about you guys but personally, I have again become very aligned to the fact that macro players still have the capability to easily push us around.
Who Wants to Be a Crypto-Millionaire?
Forget the pain and gloom. Let’s rejoice over a report that shows our fellow crypto buddies becoming millionaires. Yes, such people (all wallets) exist.
According to the latest Worldwide Crypto Wealth Statistics, the number of crypto millionaires has skyrocketed to 241,700, a 40% jump in just one year! And if you’re thinking, “That must all be Bitcoin,” you’re not entirely wrong - Bitcoin alone minted 145,100 of those millionaires, growing at a face-melting 70% pace. That’s not investing. That’s rocket fuel.
It gets even juicier:
450 crypto centi-millionaires (yes, that’s $100M+ in crypto… probably storing their keys in titanium capsules on Mars),
36 full-blown crypto billionaires (up 29%!),
And Bitcoin accounts for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the total crypto market value, a dominant king among coins.
On the adoption front, 590 million people now use crypto worldwide, that’s like every single person in the U.S., Brazil, and Japan combined saying, “Yeah, I’ll take some Dogecoin.”
You know what this does? This fuels me with motivation, this fuels me with positivity, this.. Donald Trump Crashed The Market And I’m Sad makes me want to work harder. One day mom, one day.
Bitcoin Vs Gold: Clash Of The Titans
Let’s be honest: the “Bitcoin vs Gold” debate isn’t going anywhere. One is a shiny rock humans have trusted for thousands of years. The other? A digital asset barely old enough to drive. Yet both are fighting to be the store of value in a world of money printing and economic instability.
Let’s break it down - what they are, how they perform, and how they behave when things get messy.
First: What Is “Hard Money”?
“Hard money” basically means money that can’t be printed out of thin air.
Gold is the OG hard money. It’s scarce, expensive to mine, and has a 5,000-year resume as wealth protection.
Bitcoin is the digital upstart. It’s capped at 21 million coins, runs on code, and isn’t controlled by any government. Some call it “digital gold” because of its built-in scarcity.
The idea is simple: if money is hard to make more of, it should hold its value better over time.
Pros & Cons
🪙 Bitcoin
Pros:
Explosive upside (especially during bull runs)
Easy to store, send, and split
Fixed supply - no one can inflate it
Global, decentralized, and doesn’t care about borders
Cons:
Wild volatility
Prone to crashes during market panic
Regulatory uncertainty
Still not as widely trusted as gold
🟡 Gold
Pros:
Proven track record (thousands of years)
Stable in chaotic times
Recognized and trusted everywhere
Low volatility compared to crypto
Cons:
Heavy and expensive to store
Doesn’t earn income or yield
Slow to move
Can underperform in fast-growth markets
Performance Since 2015
No contest her, —Bitcoin has absolutely crushed gold in terms of returns. Since 2015, Bitcoin has gone from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars. Gold, meanwhile, has had steady but modest gains.
But here’s the twist: Bitcoin’s journey has been anything but smooth. Massive drawdowns (50%+), sudden crashes, and emotional rollercoasters are part of the deal.
Gold? Not exciting, but reliable. It holds up during inflation spikes, currency meltdowns, and geopolitical drama.
How They React in Volatile Events
When the world freaks out, how do these two behave?
Gold is the go-to safe haven. War? Inflation? Currency collapse? Gold usually holds its ground or even rallies.
Bitcoin is more unpredictable. Sometimes it tanks with the stock market. Other times it decouples and flies. It’s still finding its identity in times of crisis.
During the COVID crash, for example, both dropped but gold recovered quickly. Bitcoin took a dive, then rocketed up in the months after.
As of today, Donald Trump…. You know what I mean and how they both reacted.
Final Thoughts
Bitcoin is fast, explosive, and disruptive. Gold is slow, stable, and proven. One’s a startup, the other’s a legacy institution.
Here’s the bottom line:
If you want asymmetric upside and can stomach big swings, Bitcoin’s your bet.
If you want peace of mind and stability, gold has your back.
If you want both? No shame in hedging.
A Look At The Markets
This was a sight to be hold till yesterday. We had a total MC of $4.26T and now we’re at $3.76T. You do the math.
Even though $BTC and $ETH have shown some strength in pulling some weight back but it’s still a rough rough day and place to be.
Biggest Winner
$ZEC: Great performance throughout the week. Really happy for people who believed in it and even yesterday’s pull couldn’t dampen it.
$ASTER: There are two winners because well… people who don’t know $ASTER yet. Please use the internet.
Biggest Loser
$PUMP: Oh, my old friend. How have you been? I see, not too well. A 40% drop this week even though projects like $ASTER, $XRP have been quite bad too.
I say goodbye to you guys with the same hope and positivity that I always do - hopefully we see rate cuts, hopefully China and the US figure something out and we hit $4.5 T. Hope is what keeps us alive.