November 2025 was a difficult month for crypto markets. Bitcoin recorded one of its deepest monthly declines of the year, Zcash briefly bucked the broader selling trend, and mining industry executives renewed warnings about energy costs and the future economics of producing BTC. Here is what the market data and industry statements showed.

Bitcoin lost approximately 17.5% over the month

According to historical BTC/USDT trading data, Bitcoin started November near $109,600 and closed November 30 at around $90,400, a decline of approximately 17.5%. During the November 21 sell-off, prices on some exchanges briefly approached $80,000–$81,000 before recovering. The $87,000 level cited in contemporary discussions was an interim trading level, not the month-end price.

November became one of Bitcoin’s weakest months of 2025 and its worst November since 2022. Reduced risk exposure, uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs added to the pressure. Price action alone, however, cannot establish that all speculative capital had left the market.

Fear indicators reached extreme levels

Investor sentiment weakened alongside prices. Binance Research reported that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index reached 10 on November 15, on a scale of 0 to 100. Such a reading indicates extreme fear, but it is a sentiment measure rather than a standalone turning-point signal. Markets can continue falling even after sentiment reaches historically low levels.

In its November 24 market update, Wintermute noted a meaningful reduction in leveraged positioning, with perpetual futures funding rates turning neutral or negative while spot volumes remained firm. Cleaner positioning could support a period of consolidation if macroeconomic conditions stabilized, but it offered no guarantee of a price recovery.

Zcash rallied against the trend — then surrendered much of its gains

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016, returned to the spotlight as interest in financial privacy grew. The protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs, including zk-SNARKs, which enable users to shield details of certain transactions through protected addresses. Importantly, privacy is not automatic for every Zcash transfer: the network also supports transparent addresses.

ZEC traded near $405 at the start of November, then reached an intramonth high of roughly $750 — a gain of more than 80% from its opening level. By November 30, however, it had fallen back to around $428. Its month-end return was approximately 6%, not 50%. The token’s much larger gains during 2025 should not be confused with its November close-to-close performance.

The move drew attention from both retail traders and prominent crypto investors. In early November, The Block reported Zcash returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. That illustrates the extent of interest, but does not establish whether the higher valuation was sustainable.

Zcash’s founder did not describe the rally as a proven coordinated pump

A claim circulating around the rally misrepresented founder Zooko Wilcox’s comments. On October 21, Wilcox publicly rejected the narrative of a “coordinated pump”. He acknowledged that he did not know exactly why ZEC had surged or whether it would reverse, while criticizing attempts to explain the move exclusively as manipulation. It would be inaccurate to attribute an admission of an artificial price campaign to him.

Nevertheless, sharp appreciation, concentrated attention and a subsequent correction all warranted caution. A market move can reflect genuine interest in technology, speculative buying and limited liquidity at the same time. None of those factors reliably predicts ZEC’s next price move.

Bitcoin miners faced growing profitability pressure

Miner revenue has two components: the block subsidy for finding a new block and transaction fees included in that block. Since the April 2024 halving, the block subsidy has been 3.125 BTC; it is scheduled to fall to 1.5625 BTC around 2028. This reduction follows the network’s programmed halving cycle, approximately every four years. It is not directly triggered by the number of coins still unmined in a particular month.

Fees had not yet made up for declining subsidies. The Block reported on November 19 that transaction fees generated about $300,000 per day, less than 1% of total miner revenue, compared with roughly $45 million from subsidies. These figures describe a particular market snapshot: the proportion of fee income fluctuates with network demand and is not fixed at 1%.

Why MARA focused on energy ownership and AI infrastructure

MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel discussed tighter margins and the growing importance of controlling energy costs in a November CoinDesk interview. He also warned that grid-dependent miners with expensive electricity would face particular pressure by the next halving. MARA was building closer relationships with energy businesses while expanding into AI computing and high-performance data center infrastructure.

This does not mean all Bitcoin mining will necessarily become unprofitable or disappear after 2028. Each operator’s economics depend on the BTC price, network difficulty, hardware efficiency, energy costs and financing. Unprofitable miners can shut down equipment; as network difficulty adjusts, conditions can change for those that remain.

What the month meant for affiliate marketing and payments

For media buyers, affiliate networks and payment providers, November’s most practical lesson concerned liquidity management. Large BTC and ZEC swings can change the value of operating reserves within days. Payment planning therefore requires separating speculative holdings from funds needed for settlements, while accounting for fees, conversion timing and counterparty risk. Volatility alone does not reveal which direction the market will move next.

November 2025 was a difficult month for crypto markets. Bitcoin recorded one of its deepest monthly declines of the year, Zcash briefly bucked the broader selling trend, and mining industry executives renewed warnings about energy costs and the future economics of producing BTC. Here is what the market data and industry statements showed.

Bitcoin lost approximately 17.5% over the month

According to historical BTC/USDT trading data, Bitcoin started November near $109,600 and closed November 30 at around $90,400, a decline of approximately 17.5%. During the November 21 sell-off, prices on some exchanges briefly approached $80,000–$81,000 before recovering. The $87,000 level cited in contemporary discussions was an interim trading level, not the month-end price.

November became one of Bitcoin’s weakest months of 2025 and its worst November since 2022. Reduced risk exposure, uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs added to the pressure. Price action alone, however, cannot establish that all speculative capital had left the market.

Fear indicators reached extreme levels

Investor sentiment weakened alongside prices. Binance Research reported that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index reached 10 on November 15, on a scale of 0 to 100. Such a reading indicates extreme fear, but it is a sentiment measure rather than a standalone turning-point signal. Markets can continue falling even after sentiment reaches historically low levels.

In its November 24 market update, Wintermute noted a meaningful reduction in leveraged positioning, with perpetual futures funding rates turning neutral or negative while spot volumes remained firm. Cleaner positioning could support a period of consolidation if macroeconomic conditions stabilized, but it offered no guarantee of a price recovery.

Zcash rallied against the trend — then surrendered much of its gains

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016, returned to the spotlight as interest in financial privacy grew. The protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs, including zk-SNARKs, which enable users to shield details of certain transactions through protected addresses. Importantly, privacy is not automatic for every Zcash transfer: the network also supports transparent addresses.

ZEC traded near $405 at the start of November, then reached an intramonth high of roughly $750 — a gain of more than 80% from its opening level. By November 30, however, it had fallen back to around $428. Its month-end return was approximately 6%, not 50%. The token’s much larger gains during 2025 should not be confused with its November close-to-close performance.

The move drew attention from both retail traders and prominent crypto investors. In early November, The Block reported Zcash returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. That illustrates the extent of interest, but does not establish whether the higher valuation was sustainable.

Zcash’s founder did not describe the rally as a proven coordinated pump

A claim circulating around the rally misrepresented founder Zooko Wilcox’s comments. On October 21, Wilcox publicly rejected the narrative of a “coordinated pump”. He acknowledged that he did not know exactly why ZEC had surged or whether it would reverse, while criticizing attempts to explain the move exclusively as manipulation. It would be inaccurate to attribute an admission of an artificial price campaign to him.

Nevertheless, sharp appreciation, concentrated attention and a subsequent correction all warranted caution. A market move can reflect genuine interest in technology, speculative buying and limited liquidity at the same time. None of those factors reliably predicts ZEC’s next price move.

Bitcoin miners faced growing profitability pressure

Miner revenue has two components: the block subsidy for finding a new block and transaction fees included in that block. Since the April 2024 halving, the block subsidy has been 3.125 BTC; it is scheduled to fall to 1.5625 BTC around 2028. This reduction follows the network’s programmed halving cycle, approximately every four years. It is not directly triggered by the number of coins still unmined in a particular month.

Fees had not yet made up for declining subsidies. The Block reported on November 19 that transaction fees generated about $300,000 per day, less than 1% of total miner revenue, compared with roughly $45 million from subsidies. These figures describe a particular market snapshot: the proportion of fee income fluctuates with network demand and is not fixed at 1%.

Why MARA focused on energy ownership and AI infrastructure

MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel discussed tighter margins and the growing importance of controlling energy costs in a November CoinDesk interview. He also warned that grid-dependent miners with expensive electricity would face particular pressure by the next halving. MARA was building closer relationships with energy businesses while expanding into AI computing and high-performance data center infrastructure.

This does not mean all Bitcoin mining will necessarily become unprofitable or disappear after 2028. Each operator’s economics depend on the BTC price, network difficulty, hardware efficiency, energy costs and financing. Unprofitable miners can shut down equipment; as network difficulty adjusts, conditions can change for those that remain.

What the month meant for affiliate marketing and payments

For media buyers, affiliate networks and payment providers, November’s most practical lesson concerned liquidity management. Large BTC and ZEC swings can change the value of operating reserves within days. Payment planning therefore requires separating speculative holdings from funds needed for settlements, while accounting for fees, conversion timing and counterparty risk. Volatility alone does not reveal which direction the market will move next.

November 2025 was a difficult month for crypto markets. Bitcoin recorded one of its deepest monthly declines of the year, Zcash briefly bucked the broader selling trend, and mining industry executives renewed warnings about energy costs and the future economics of producing BTC. Here is what the market data and industry statements showed.

Bitcoin lost approximately 17.5% over the month

According to historical BTC/USDT trading data, Bitcoin started November near $109,600 and closed November 30 at around $90,400, a decline of approximately 17.5%. During the November 21 sell-off, prices on some exchanges briefly approached $80,000–$81,000 before recovering. The $87,000 level cited in contemporary discussions was an interim trading level, not the month-end price.

November became one of Bitcoin’s weakest months of 2025 and its worst November since 2022. Reduced risk exposure, uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs added to the pressure. Price action alone, however, cannot establish that all speculative capital had left the market.

Fear indicators reached extreme levels

Investor sentiment weakened alongside prices. Binance Research reported that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index reached 10 on November 15, on a scale of 0 to 100. Such a reading indicates extreme fear, but it is a sentiment measure rather than a standalone turning-point signal. Markets can continue falling even after sentiment reaches historically low levels.

In its November 24 market update, Wintermute noted a meaningful reduction in leveraged positioning, with perpetual futures funding rates turning neutral or negative while spot volumes remained firm. Cleaner positioning could support a period of consolidation if macroeconomic conditions stabilized, but it offered no guarantee of a price recovery.

Zcash rallied against the trend — then surrendered much of its gains

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016, returned to the spotlight as interest in financial privacy grew. The protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs, including zk-SNARKs, which enable users to shield details of certain transactions through protected addresses. Importantly, privacy is not automatic for every Zcash transfer: the network also supports transparent addresses.

ZEC traded near $405 at the start of November, then reached an intramonth high of roughly $750 — a gain of more than 80% from its opening level. By November 30, however, it had fallen back to around $428. Its month-end return was approximately 6%, not 50%. The token’s much larger gains during 2025 should not be confused with its November close-to-close performance.

The move drew attention from both retail traders and prominent crypto investors. In early November, The Block reported Zcash returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. That illustrates the extent of interest, but does not establish whether the higher valuation was sustainable.

Zcash’s founder did not describe the rally as a proven coordinated pump

A claim circulating around the rally misrepresented founder Zooko Wilcox’s comments. On October 21, Wilcox publicly rejected the narrative of a “coordinated pump”. He acknowledged that he did not know exactly why ZEC had surged or whether it would reverse, while criticizing attempts to explain the move exclusively as manipulation. It would be inaccurate to attribute an admission of an artificial price campaign to him.

Nevertheless, sharp appreciation, concentrated attention and a subsequent correction all warranted caution. A market move can reflect genuine interest in technology, speculative buying and limited liquidity at the same time. None of those factors reliably predicts ZEC’s next price move.

Bitcoin miners faced growing profitability pressure

Miner revenue has two components: the block subsidy for finding a new block and transaction fees included in that block. Since the April 2024 halving, the block subsidy has been 3.125 BTC; it is scheduled to fall to 1.5625 BTC around 2028. This reduction follows the network’s programmed halving cycle, approximately every four years. It is not directly triggered by the number of coins still unmined in a particular month.

Fees had not yet made up for declining subsidies. The Block reported on November 19 that transaction fees generated about $300,000 per day, less than 1% of total miner revenue, compared with roughly $45 million from subsidies. These figures describe a particular market snapshot: the proportion of fee income fluctuates with network demand and is not fixed at 1%.

Why MARA focused on energy ownership and AI infrastructure

MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel discussed tighter margins and the growing importance of controlling energy costs in a November CoinDesk interview. He also warned that grid-dependent miners with expensive electricity would face particular pressure by the next halving. MARA was building closer relationships with energy businesses while expanding into AI computing and high-performance data center infrastructure.

This does not mean all Bitcoin mining will necessarily become unprofitable or disappear after 2028. Each operator’s economics depend on the BTC price, network difficulty, hardware efficiency, energy costs and financing. Unprofitable miners can shut down equipment; as network difficulty adjusts, conditions can change for those that remain.

What the month meant for affiliate marketing and payments

For media buyers, affiliate networks and payment providers, November’s most practical lesson concerned liquidity management. Large BTC and ZEC swings can change the value of operating reserves within days. Payment planning therefore requires separating speculative holdings from funds needed for settlements, while accounting for fees, conversion timing and counterparty risk. Volatility alone does not reveal which direction the market will move next.

November 2025 was a difficult month for crypto markets. Bitcoin recorded one of its deepest monthly declines of the year, Zcash briefly bucked the broader selling trend, and mining industry executives renewed warnings about energy costs and the future economics of producing BTC. Here is what the market data and industry statements showed.

Bitcoin lost approximately 17.5% over the month

According to historical BTC/USDT trading data, Bitcoin started November near $109,600 and closed November 30 at around $90,400, a decline of approximately 17.5%. During the November 21 sell-off, prices on some exchanges briefly approached $80,000–$81,000 before recovering. The $87,000 level cited in contemporary discussions was an interim trading level, not the month-end price.

November became one of Bitcoin’s weakest months of 2025 and its worst November since 2022. Reduced risk exposure, uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs added to the pressure. Price action alone, however, cannot establish that all speculative capital had left the market.

Fear indicators reached extreme levels

Investor sentiment weakened alongside prices. Binance Research reported that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index reached 10 on November 15, on a scale of 0 to 100. Such a reading indicates extreme fear, but it is a sentiment measure rather than a standalone turning-point signal. Markets can continue falling even after sentiment reaches historically low levels.

In its November 24 market update, Wintermute noted a meaningful reduction in leveraged positioning, with perpetual futures funding rates turning neutral or negative while spot volumes remained firm. Cleaner positioning could support a period of consolidation if macroeconomic conditions stabilized, but it offered no guarantee of a price recovery.

Zcash rallied against the trend — then surrendered much of its gains

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016, returned to the spotlight as interest in financial privacy grew. The protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs, including zk-SNARKs, which enable users to shield details of certain transactions through protected addresses. Importantly, privacy is not automatic for every Zcash transfer: the network also supports transparent addresses.

ZEC traded near $405 at the start of November, then reached an intramonth high of roughly $750 — a gain of more than 80% from its opening level. By November 30, however, it had fallen back to around $428. Its month-end return was approximately 6%, not 50%. The token’s much larger gains during 2025 should not be confused with its November close-to-close performance.

The move drew attention from both retail traders and prominent crypto investors. In early November, The Block reported Zcash returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. That illustrates the extent of interest, but does not establish whether the higher valuation was sustainable.

Zcash’s founder did not describe the rally as a proven coordinated pump

A claim circulating around the rally misrepresented founder Zooko Wilcox’s comments. On October 21, Wilcox publicly rejected the narrative of a “coordinated pump”. He acknowledged that he did not know exactly why ZEC had surged or whether it would reverse, while criticizing attempts to explain the move exclusively as manipulation. It would be inaccurate to attribute an admission of an artificial price campaign to him.

Nevertheless, sharp appreciation, concentrated attention and a subsequent correction all warranted caution. A market move can reflect genuine interest in technology, speculative buying and limited liquidity at the same time. None of those factors reliably predicts ZEC’s next price move.

Bitcoin miners faced growing profitability pressure

Miner revenue has two components: the block subsidy for finding a new block and transaction fees included in that block. Since the April 2024 halving, the block subsidy has been 3.125 BTC; it is scheduled to fall to 1.5625 BTC around 2028. This reduction follows the network’s programmed halving cycle, approximately every four years. It is not directly triggered by the number of coins still unmined in a particular month.

Fees had not yet made up for declining subsidies. The Block reported on November 19 that transaction fees generated about $300,000 per day, less than 1% of total miner revenue, compared with roughly $45 million from subsidies. These figures describe a particular market snapshot: the proportion of fee income fluctuates with network demand and is not fixed at 1%.

Why MARA focused on energy ownership and AI infrastructure

MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel discussed tighter margins and the growing importance of controlling energy costs in a November CoinDesk interview. He also warned that grid-dependent miners with expensive electricity would face particular pressure by the next halving. MARA was building closer relationships with energy businesses while expanding into AI computing and high-performance data center infrastructure.

This does not mean all Bitcoin mining will necessarily become unprofitable or disappear after 2028. Each operator’s economics depend on the BTC price, network difficulty, hardware efficiency, energy costs and financing. Unprofitable miners can shut down equipment; as network difficulty adjusts, conditions can change for those that remain.

What the month meant for affiliate marketing and payments

For media buyers, affiliate networks and payment providers, November’s most practical lesson concerned liquidity management. Large BTC and ZEC swings can change the value of operating reserves within days. Payment planning therefore requires separating speculative holdings from funds needed for settlements, while accounting for fees, conversion timing and counterparty risk. Volatility alone does not reveal which direction the market will move next.