Blockchain last week: crypto market pressure, XRP ETFs and Cardano
The November 2025 recap looked at a volatile market, a new XRP fund and a temporary split in the Cardano network.
This is an edited version of the weekly blockchain recap on the original blog, covering 17–23 November 2025.
Bitcoin volatility and stablecoins
Coinbase's daily bitcoin price fell from about $91,900 on 17 November to $84,800 on 21 November, before recovering to about $86,500 on 23 November. The original recap also looked at stablecoins, which can be used to settle trades. A move in stablecoin balances or trading volume can have several causes, and it takes more evidence to infer what traders intend to do next. Coinbase daily series via FRED
An XRP ETF began trading
Bitwise announced that its XRP ETF started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 20 November. An exchange-traded product changes how people can get exposure through a brokerage account. The underlying asset can still move sharply in either direction. Bitwise launch announcement
Cardano had a temporary network split
On 21 November, Intersect reported a temporary split on Cardano's mainnet and an accelerated release of updated node software. The practical questions in an incident like this are how operators detect the split, how they coordinate the fix and how applications determine which transactions they can trust. Intersect incident update