Crypto Market Faces Volatility Amid Regulatory Clarifications and Infrastructure Challenges
On November 18, 2025, significant developments unfolded across the cryptocurrency landscape, combining regulatory updates, market volatility, and infrastructure challenges.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued interpretive letter No. 1186, clarifying that national banks may hold digital assets on their balance sheets specifically for operational use, such as paying blockchain gas fees. This move, aligned with the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act framework, marks a continuation of the Trump-era administration's approach to regulated banks engaging in digital asset activities. The OCC, under the leadership of Jonathan Gould, confirmed that holding crypto assets to pay network fees is permissible to facilitate otherwise permissible crypto transactions, as blockchain networks require tokens to cover transaction fees. Meanwhile, regulators, including the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury, are still crafting final rules based on the GENIUS Act concerning stablecoin regulation.
In the market, Bitcoin experienced a notable decline, briefly dropping below $90,000—the first time since February—triggering over $1 billion in liquidations and driving sentiment into extreme fear. The breakdown erased the gains made so far in 2025, with Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and BNB also declining between 3% and 6% in the past 24 hours. The technical outlook remains fragile, highlighted by a death cross forming on Bitcoin's daily chart as the 50-day moving average crossed below the 200-day moving average, signaling bearish momentum and raising the possibility of further retracements to $85,000 or even $80,000. However, some altcoins showed resilience; Aster traded above its $1.20 support at around $1.38 with nearly $1 billion in 24-hour volume, and Zcash maintained a near $580 price following a 124% monthly rally fueled by privacy narratives and institutional interest.
Market dynamics were also influenced by bond activity, with rising open interest in bullish U.S. Treasury bond options suggesting expectations of falling yields and a potential dovish shift that could accelerate Federal Reserve rate cuts, although only about 15 basis points are currently priced in for a December cut. The U.S. dollar index remains firm around 100.25, and a break above this level could exert additional pressure on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. Notably, the Fidelity Solana Fund and Canary Marinade Solana ETF are anticipated to begin trading on NYSE Arca and Nasdaq, respectively. Additionally, governance developments included Render's vote to expand its compute program, while TON, ZEN, and DGRAM secured listings on Coinbase, OKX, and Bitget platforms.
Infrastructure issues added to the day's challenges when Cloudflare suffered a major outage affecting thousands of websites and applications, including critical crypto services like BitMEX and Toncoin, which experienced downtime. This event, following an earlier Amazon Web Services outage that disrupted access to major blockchains such as Coinbase's Base chain and Infura, renewed calls within the crypto community for decentralizing infrastructure through Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). DePIN leverages blockchain incentives to coordinate and reward participants in real-world infrastructure, aiming to reduce reliance on singular centralized providers. Industry leaders like Nökkvi Dan Ellidason, CEO of Gaimin, advocate for a distributed cloud model utilizing globally dispersed resources to avoid single points of failure. Experts also noted that outages can propagate through interconnected cloud platforms, APIs, and authentication processes, with payment systems particularly vulnerable due to their dependence on this infrastructure.
These developments highlight the intertwined nature of regulatory progress, market dynamics, and infrastructure resilience shaping the current state and future trajectory of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
