“Should Have Bought” is a news podcast by the ForkLog editorial team covering the week’s major industry events and the hottest tokens.
Topics: Bitcoin correction, capital flow into Ethereum, the Tornado Cash case resolution, and Satoshi’s transformation into a “mega whale.”
Special guest: Ksenia Oshurko, author of the crypto market regulation channel “Gary’s Law.”
Participants: ForkLog authors Vasily Smirnov and Alex K.
Record Profit and Correction
After Bitcoin neared the $100,000 mark, the market began to correct—on November 24, the price fell below $96,000. This followed a sharp spike in daily realized profit to a record $443 million.
According to CryptoQuant, the total “paper” profit reached 57%. For comparison, in March 2024, it peaked at 69%. Experts note that such figures may indicate an increased likelihood of further price declines.
The next day, the correction intensified, pushing the rate below $91,000. However, the market soon reversed and began a confident recovery, once again approaching the six-figure mark.
From Bitcoin to Ethereum
On the night of November 28, Ethereum’s rate rose above $3680, outpacing Bitcoin in growth rates. QCP Capital saw signs of capital flowing into altcoins.
Amid the strengthening of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, there was a significant inflow of funds into spot ETFs for several consecutive days.
According to DeFi Llama, over the past week, Ethereum’s TVL increased by 14.1% to $69.45 billion. The growth rate was the highest among competitors.
On November 15, the daily on-chain transaction volume in Ethereum reached a year-to-date high of $7.13 billion.
Sanctions Against Tornado Cash Deemed Illegal
A US court ruled that the OFAC exceeded its authority by imposing sanctions against Tornado Cash. The service’s smart contracts are not considered “property,” making their blocking illegal. The decision overturns a district court verdict that previously supported the Office’s actions.
Following the news, the TORN token skyrocketed by 870%—from $3.6 to nearly $35, but later fell below $14 (CoinGecko).
The court’s decision was based on a lawsuit filed by six Ethereum and Tornado Cash users against the US Treasury in September 2022. They argued that the sanctions were excessive, as the service is not a person or organization, but software.
Satoshi: A Mega Whale?
A researcher from the BTCparser project proposed a hypothesis that Satoshi Nakamoto has been anonymously withdrawing bitcoins from wallets created after his departure from the public sphere since 2010.
According to the theory, to maintain confidentiality, he left the original 2009 wallets untouched and uses new addresses for transactions, each holding exactly 50 BTC.
Since 2019, 24,000 BTC have been withdrawn from the presumed Satoshi wallets. The first alleged cash-out occurred in November 2019. The latest—on November 15, 2024—involved the “awakening” of 2000 BTC across 40 wallets, totaling approximately $176 million.
The theory’s author suggests that Coinbase might be aware of the “mega whale’s” identity, as coins from these addresses ended up on this exchange.
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