🍪 Daily Byte – 23.11.2025

By Byte & Block — exploring the building blocks of digital finance.

Today’s Menu:

• 1. BTC relief rally
• 2. Hobbyist miner wins block
• 3. China building crypto reserve

Fear & Greed Index Today

Prices as of 09:00 AM CET

₿ BTC pops back above $86K — relief rally or dead-cat? 📈

Bitcoin reclaimed the $86K handle after a sharp bounce, helped by thin weekend liquidity and some short-covering.

A notable technical signal just flashed: the “Death Cross” — where the 50-day MA drops below the 200-day MA.

Historically, this has often coincided with cycle bottoms, not tops.

But does it guarantee upside soon?

On a Macro level →

• Global liquidity is still mixed: the Fed remains cautious, funding markets are tight, and risk-assets broadly haven’t confirmed a full risk-on rotation.
• BTC’s rally came despite weak equities, suggesting crypto has decoupled—temporarily.
• Miners’ balance sheets remain strained, but hash rate remains stubbornly high, which can add volatility.

Bottom line:

Technicals say “bottoming”, macro says “not so fast”, and price action says “chop ahead.”

Hobbyist miner beats 1 in 180 million odds 🎰 — wins $265K block reward 💸🤑💰

A solo miner using an old, consumer-grade ASIC successfully mined a full Bitcoin block — the equivalent of winning a global lottery.

Source CoinDesk

A solo Bitcoin miner running only 6 TH/s — a speck compared to the network — unexpectedly mined a full block on Friday, earning 3.146 BTC plus fees (~$265K). CKpool creator Con Kolivas confirmed the miner had just a 1-in-180 million chance of success.

The miner controls only 0.0000007% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate, which recently hit 855 EH/s. This marks the 308th CKpool block since 2014 and one of the luckiest solo wins ever, rivaling rare solo block finds from years past.

🇨🇳 China prints ¥20B to build a national crypto reserve — targeting BTC + ETH

China has reportedly injected ¥20 billion (~$2.8B) into a new sovereign crypto reserve meant to accumulate Bitcoin and Ethereum.

If confirmed, this is a major geopolitical shift. It signals that:

• China may be moving from crypto restriction → strategic accumulation.
• Other nations could feel pressure to establish digital asset reserves of their own.
• A state-backed buyer of this scale adds durable long-term demand, reducing free float.

This may be the start of nation-state competition for scarce crypto assets — and markets are paying attention.

Meme of the day

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