Macro Trends

This article analyzes the shift in VC strategy from being judgment-driven to being driven by the ability to win deals. It highlights how scaled institutions like a16z, leveraging massive capital, full-spectrum services, and economic moats, are enabling capital-intensive giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic to prevail.

Gate Research: Between 2025 and 2026, PayFi is evolving from a crypto payment tool into a next-generation payment and financial engine, with stablecoins achieving scale in high-frequency and cross-border payments and demonstrating clear efficiency and cost advantages over traditional systems. As Web2 and Web3 continue to converge, institutions such as Visa, PayPal, and emerging neobanks are becoming key gateways to mainstream adoption, while the combination of stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), and AI is shaping PayFi’s foundational architecture by enabling automated, always-on settlement, asset mobility, and risk management. Looking ahead to 2026, regulatory clarity, scalable asset tokenization, and the maturity of AI-driven financial systems will be the primary determinants of PayFi’s competitive landscape and long-term barriers.

Gate Research Daily Report: Bitcoin broke its stabilization trend and saw another high-volume decline; Ethereum fell below the key $3,000 support for the first time. The migration from ai16z to ELIZAOS has been completed on major exchanges, pushing ELIZAOS up 18.00%. Dusk announced partnerships with Chainlink and the Dutch securities exchange NPEX, driving DUSK up 19.25%. The current market pullback is largely driven by rotation among long-term holders. 1inch launched its new liquidity protocol, Aqua, addressing DeFi’s long-standing liquidity fragmentation. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased $80 million worth of MSTR, reinforcing the trend of “large institutions = stable inflows.”

Gate Research Daily Report: On November 19, the crypto market saw a mild rebound despite extreme fear in sentiment. BTC edged up 0.15% to 92,410 USDT, while ETH rose 0.29% to 3,109 USDT. Among top movers, Anoma (+50.92%) surged as its ARM virtual machine went live on Ethereum, driving discussions around intents and programmable privacy; Grass (+23.03%) gained momentum ahead of its first Token Holder Call and on the back of processing 100 million scientific papers for open-science datasets; Falcon Finance (+17.69%) rallied as USDf supply exceeded 2 billion dollars and the Perryverse NFTs were fully revealed. On-chain data shows Bitcoin whales and institutions are accumulating simultaneously, with the number of wallets holding over 1,000 BTC reaching a four-month high. Vitalik introduced the Kohaku privacy framework, advancing privacy as a first-class property on Ethereum. Meanwhile, Zama launched its fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) testnet v2, marking a major step toward its upcoming mainnet launch.

Readers should prioritize well-defined opportunities, such as real-world AI applications and advancements in blockchain infrastructure. They should focus on these rather than getting distracted by short-term market swings or expert discussions.

Gate Research Daily Report: On November 14, after a period of volatile decline, BTC found short-term support near $98,000; ETH showed signs of a short-term rebound; GT stabilized with support around $10.9 and began to recover; while LUMINT became the market spotlight with a surge of over 670%. The first XRP spot ETF, launched by Canary Capital, began trading on Nasdaq; the Czech National Bank made its first-ever Bitcoin purchase, establishing a $1 million digital asset pilot portfolio; and Emory University doubled its Bitcoin holdings, investing $52 million to increase its stake in the Grayscale BTC ETF.

In October 2025, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization exhibited a “rise-then-fall” pattern, reflecting weak market confidence and a stabilizing trend. Driven by the “BTCFi” narrative, Starknet saw new highs in both capital inflows and on-chain activity, with TVL rising from $170 million at the end of September to $245 million. Prediction markets heated up, with Polymarket and Kalshi recording a combined monthly trading volume exceeding $7 billion. Privacy coins made a strong comeback, with ZEC surging more than 440% for the month and leading the rally. On the funding side, the Web3 sector completed 130 deals totaling $5.12 billion, up 28.43% month-over-month, with total capital raised jumping 104.8% — the second-highest level in nearly a year — with funds primarily flowing into DeFi ($2.15 billion) and core infrastructure.

Gate Research Daily Report: On November 17, BTC remains in a short-term weak downward consolidation structure, with 92,976 USD forming a key short-term low and serving as the core defense for bulls. ETH is also in a short-term weak consolidation pattern but has shown a clear rebound signal after touching the 3,004 USD low. Ethereum spot ETFs recorded a historic third-highest weekly net outflow of 729 million USD. ZEC contract positions surpassed 1.5 billion USD, reaching a record high, with significant increases in privacy network trading activity. Meanwhile, Japan’s regulators plan to reclassify BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies as financial products, potentially reducing tax rates to 20%.

The article presents comprehensive data and case studies to examine the evolving landscape of Bitcoin, stablecoins, and DeFi. It details how these changes affect market participants.

The market is anticipating the year-end "Santa Claus Rally": during periods of loose monetary policy and abundant liquidity, Bitcoin has typically outperformed gold. However, this year's macroeconomic environment and the structure of market participants are different. This article compares the differences between Bitcoin and gold in terms of liquidity, buyer categories, and holiday trading characteristics, exploring which asset is more likely to become the star performer during the year-end period.

The article not only explains the mechanism of quantitative easing but also discusses its uniqueness in the current economic environment, particularly its role in stimulating bubbles.

The article provides an in-depth analysis of the "3/30" fee model’s rationale, explores the roles and challenges large funds encounter in the cryptocurrency market, and highlights the potential advantages of smaller funds and family offices.

This report presents comprehensive data and charts that demonstrate the correlation between the growth of the total market capitalization of the crypto market and the expansion of global risk asset market capitalization. It also analyzes how large-scale asset supply affects pricing.

The article examines historical investment cases and urges readers to remain humble and vigilant during periods of market exuberance, warning them not to overlook potential risks due to short-term gains.

Gate Research Weekly Report: Bitcoin has fluctuated between $100,300 and $107,500 over the past week, and its consolidation phase is expected to continue. Visa has launched a stablecoin payment pilot, enabling platforms to pay content creators and freelancers directly in USDC. VCI Global plans to invest $100 million to acquire the OOB token of Oobit, a crypto payments company backed by Tether. The number of Ethereum validators has fallen back to April 2024 levels, while the exit queue waiting time has reached a new high. Meanwhile, Solana’s active address count has dropped to 3.3 million, the lowest level in a year. The x402 Network facilitators have processed more than 18.82 million transactions, marking a 35-fold increase since May.