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Beneath the Surface

The Debasement “Trade”

Loading ...Mark Jeftovic

November 18, 2025 • 4 minute, 41 second read


The Debasement “Trade”

“Bitcoin is the “black hole” against reckless monetary policy.”

— Max Keiser

November 18, 2025 — Suddenly, the likes of Goldman and JP Morgan are talking about the rise of cryptocurrencies and the mainstream press are framing it as “the so-called Debasement Trade.”

Bitcoiners, of course, have been talking about this for, well since the beginning.

Except, it’s not a “trade.”

The trade du jour lasts for a couple weeks or a few months – then it starts getting referred to as “a crowded trade” and then some new theme emerges and all the hot-money rotates into that.

Back in September, a finance guru I’m aware of (I won’t name him) sold 90% of his bitcoin and crypto positions (via IBIT and ETH) “due to bearish MACD crosses and support breaks.”

Bitcoin then ran to new all-time highs. He’s also since followed up, acknowledging that Bitcoin ran to fresh highs, but he still expects a 40% to 50% decline in cryptos over the next year because of that MACD crossover. That said, he sold his TSLA and went back into Bitcoin – just in time for the current ~30% drop.

As I’ve long said, bitcoin isn’t a trade and trying to time it with chart patterns generally does not work.

I’ve never really felt like technical analysis carried much real predictive edge in general and when it comes to BTC, I’ve seen too many failed “death crosses” to change my opinion.

The one that just triggered in mid-November as bitcoin flirted with $90,000 is just the latest.

What really matters? It’s a monetary regime change – if market participants are trading anything it’s getting rid of a currency (“it’s the denominator, stupid”) for a store of value – and we’re seeing it in spades with Bitcoin and gold.

To be fair to that finance influencer, I don’t follow him enough to know if he maintains separate core Bitcoin stack in self-custody, and these moves are just referring to his trading activities, as distinct from long term holds.

I don’t know if he’ll be proven right or wrong about a 50% drop – what I do know, and something I found out the hard way right when I was about to launch The Bitcoin Capitalist Letter, was that trying to pick the intermediate tops and bottoms when it came to Bitcoin was a fool’s errand.

You end up getting whipsawed. It sure looks like I’m watching it happen to this guy right now.

The advice I’ve been giving to my subscribers over the years, both for Bitcoin and the stocks we hold in our portfolio has always been:

  • Don’t try to time or trade the intermediate tops
  • Whenever Bitcoin (or one of our holdings drops) we ask ourselves:
    • Is the underlying thesis intact?
    • If yes: the only decision is whether to buy more or hold through
    • If no: then you exit the position, at the moment your thesis is invalidated, regardless of the price.
  • Beyond that – exit when your own personal financial goals are met.

That’s it, basically the entire Bitcoin Capitalist playbook right here.

What got me thinking about all this today was all these headlines we’ve been seeing lately about “The Debasement Trade.”

This has been so obvious to Bitcoiners (and before that, goldbugs), for so long, that I didn’t really “clue in” to the fact that our entire long-term thesis is finally in the process of being mainstreamed right now.

Bond yields going up even though central banks are cutting rates, is sending a signal.

Stonks are hitting levels that make the dotcom bubble look like a bombed-out value play.

Why?

Because these aren’t trades anymore.

It’s capital flight.

Mark Jeftovic
The Crypto Capitalist & Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

P.S. from Addison: Mark’s insights – which first appeared in the October issue of our monthly Grey Swan Bulletin – provide key guidance for navigating the crypto market.

Start small – at the very least get off of zero allocation to crypto – and then gradually add to that position. Don’t overleverage. Enjoy the ride – which will be more wild in crypto than other assets.

While the current price action has been poor in the very short-term, we expect expanding monetary conditions in 2026, which could more than make up for today’s immediate price pain. We’ll talk with Mark more on Thursday on Grey Swan Live!

This week on Grey Swan Live!, we’ve got another two-fer on the schedule for you:

On Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 2pm EST/11am PST we’ll take deep dive into our Dollar 2.0 thesis, with guests Ian King and Mark Jeftovic. The investment thesis remains well intact going into 2026, despite the recent, nasty selloff in the crypto market.

Then on Friday, November 12, 2025 at 2pm EST/11am PSTwe’ve invited our friends at Prime Financial Services back to help you with tax planning for your investment portfolio ahead of the holiday season and closing out the trading year 2025.

Prime’s Nick Buhelos will join us again make sure you maximize your investment returns – by walking you through the correct financial structure you need to take advantage of explicit IRS business rules that apply to individual investors.

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If you have requests for new guests you’d like to see join us for Grey Swan Live!,  or have any questions for our guests, send them here.

How did we get here? Find out in these riveting reads: Demise of the Dollar, Financial Reckoning Day, and Empire of Debt — all three books are now available in their third post-pandemic editions. You might enjoy one or all three.


The Cult of Stock Market Riches

November 18, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

White-collar hiring is, in fact, slowing. Engel’s Pause is taking hold of the jobs picture.

In the meantime, everyday Americans are rediscovering an ancient truth: there is wisdom in wearing steel-toed boots.

Jobs that struggle to attract bodies in boom times are now seeing stampedes of applicants.

– Georgia’s Department of Corrections: applications up 40%.

– The U.S. military: reached 2025 recruiting goals early.

– Waste management staffing: applications up 50%.

For now, economists call this “labor market tightness.” Anyone who has ever scrubbed a grease trap knows it by another name: fear.

The Cult of Stock Market Riches
Whales Buy the Bitcoin Dip

November 18, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Bitcoin has historically weathered 30%+ corrections while still in a bull market. 

Global liquidity fears and lower odds of a Fed rate cut in December are driving bitcoin and other cryptos lower at present. 

As Andrew Zatlin described on Thursday’s Live! we can expect a series of stimulus efforts next year, ahead of the midterms, driving new liquidity. The $2,000 “tariff rebate” checks President Trump has been touting are but one example.

When higher liquidity hits the market – in whatever form it takes – today’s bitcoin buyers will be waiting.

Make like the whales, and use market selloffs and stimulus to your advantage.

Whales Buy the Bitcoin Dip
Private Credit’s Creditanstalt Moment

November 17, 2025 • Andrew Packer

The market seems to know something about private credit that we don’t. And in a big enough liquidity event for private credit, investors will have to sell off more liquid assets if they want capital.

That’s the danger private credit poses today, exactly at a time when rules are being eased to make it easier for retail investors like us to buy into this asset class.

I’m in the camp that this smells like a way to keep the party going by providing another source of liquidity – the passive investment flows from your regular 401(k) contributions. The smell takes on a sour note as this sector starts to falter.

Perhaps today’s selloff is simply a reaction to declining interest rates, the growth of private credit, and a few inevitable deals that have gone sour recently.

Private Credit’s Creditanstalt Moment
The Tariff Gobstopper

November 17, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

More money sloshing around in the system means daily life has gotten more expensive. Not rocket science.

We’ve all observed certain goods — TVs, laptops, the gadgets we don’t need but buy anyway — keep getting cheaper, often while getting better.

But the Big Four killers of household budgets:  healthcare, housing, childcare, and education, are marching upward like a military parade.

Add Biden-era price-level stickiness and Trump-era tariffs whose full effects haven’t even landed yet, and you get the stew voters have been choking down.

The Tariff Gobstopper