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  • 🧠 Whales, Gold, and the Great Speculation Phase

🧠 Whales, Gold, and the Great Speculation Phase

A new class of Bitcoin whales is trading like hedge funds while gold smashes records above $4,200. France debuts its first MiCA-compliant stablecoin, OTC desks keep markets calm amid tariff chaos, and Binance sets up a $400M relief plan. Old money meets new liquidity — and both are bullish.

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Cryptopolitan News
October 15, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

The two archrivals throughout monetary history: gold and Bitcoin, are singing the same tune: We’re deep into the speculation phase.

Gold overnight burst through $4,200 for the first time ever, a record that rewritten history and set off global chatter from New York to Hong Kong. Bitcoin’s charts, on the other hand, are telling a much different story: exuberant but mature, jittery and controlled by an entirely new wave of “whale wallets”.

Bitcoin: New Whales and Old Lessons

On–chain data demonstrates the Bitcoin bull cycle is in its later stage expansion, which suggests that new whale wallets (100-1K BTC) are retaining control. Older whales have quietly locked in profits or moved coins into cold storage, a sign that the hands holding Bitcoin are changing again.

  • 97% of BTC investors are in profit and the sentiment is barely euphoric.

  • Drawdowns this cycle rarely exceeded 25%, suggesting disciplined trading over chaos.

  • Analysts are calling this the “strategic speculation phase,” driven by institutional liquidity rather than retail mania.

BTC breached the $111,000 support for a moment during last weekend’s liquidation shock, clearing out a few billion in open interest before rebounding to around $113,257. Fear is still in the air, but whales are already loading up their bets, with some hinting that it’s time for the next wave to be brought by smart money vs. meme money.

We have a new generation of whales who trade like hedge funds, not HODLers,” one CryptoQuant analyst observed.

BTC vs Gold

As Bitcoin recovers, gold just saw its biggest breakout of the decade.

Spot gold jumped 1.4% to $4,200.11 an ounce, for its first-ever close above $4,200 as bets on U.S. rate cuts and fresh trade tensions between the United States and China stoked demand. Now, the metal is up 59 percent year to date, on track for its best run since the early 1970s — with:

  • Strong central bank purchases and ETF inflows

  • De-dollarization trends among emerging economies

  • Fed policy pivot expectations

  • And the “perfect storm of anxiety,” as one analyst put it.

Stocks followed tentatively; Europe’s CAC 40 jumped 2.4%, Asia bounced around more widely, and U.S. futures steadied after Trump slammed China for an “economically hostile act” in the soybean market.

đź“Š Market Watch

🏦 France joins the Stablecoin race

French bank ODDO BHF has finally brought EUROD stablecoin to market by listing the new asset on Madrid-based Bit2Me. Euro On-Chain Demand (EUROD) Supported by $150b in assets and powered by Fireblocks, EUROD is Europe’s response to dollar-denominated tokens; fully MiCAR compliant and bank-backed.

⚙️ OTC desks become the market’s shock absorbers

Over-the-counter venues ended up being the market’s silent stabilizers when Trump’s 100 percent tariff shock spurred $20 billion in crypto liquidations. According to the analysts at Finery Markets, spreads floated below 0.4 percent while centralized exchange rates were reaching as high at 9.8 percent. While Binance and others waged volatility, OTC rooms mopped up order flow while inhibiting contagion, establishing how the infrastructure of crypto is also its hidden platform.

🛡️ Binance rolls out $400M relief plan

After the weekend’s meltdown, Binance introduced the “Together Initiative,” which will offer a $400 million relief package for users and institutional partners who lost funds. The exchange will refund traders who were hit by forced liquidations and provide low-interest loans to companies in its ecosystem.

 đź‘€ Are you watching this

There’s one wallet everyone in crypto is talking about and fearing.

0xb317d2bc2d3d2df5fa441b5bae0ab9d8b07283ae just dropped $40 million USDC on October 13, opening $343.6 million in BTC shorts, roughly 3,000 BTC at 10x leverage.

The same address reportedly made $192 million during the October 10 crash, opening shorts minutes before Trump’s tariff announcement.

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🎭 Culture Corner

In response to premises being floated that projects have to pay to list on reputable exchanges, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said: “Good project don’t need to.” The remarks come after reports that Binance had previously asked for as much as 10% of token supply to list, an accusation which CZ denied, adding that decentralized options such as Hyperliquid now open the door to listings without gatekeeping.

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