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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.


Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper

December 8, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

As copper flowed into the United States, LME inventories thinned and backwardation steepened. Higher U.S. pricing, tariff protection, and lower political risk made American warehouses the most attractive destination for metal. Each new shipment strengthened the spread.

The arbitrage, once triggered, became self-reinforcing. Traders were not participating in theory; they were responding to the physical incentives in front of them.

The United States had quietly become the marginal buyer of the world’s most important industrial metal. China, long the gravitational center of global copper demand, found itself on the outside.

Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper
Bears on the Prowl

December 8, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Under the frost-crusted shrubs, the bears are sniffing around for scraps of bloody meat.

They smell the subtle rot of credit stress, central-bank desperation, and debt that’s beginning to steam in the cold. They’re not charging — not yet. But they’re present. Watching. Testing the doors.

Retail investors, last in line, await the Fed’s final announcement of the year on Wednesday. Then the central planners of the world get their turn: the Bank of England, Bank of Japan, and the European Central Bank.

Treasuries just suffered their worst week since June. And in Japan — the quiet godfather of global liquidity — something fundamental is breaking.

Silver continues its blistering ascent. Gold and bitcoin have settled in at $4,200 and $92,000, respectively.

Bears on the Prowl
How To Guarantee Higher Prices

December 8, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

It’s absurd, really, for any politician to be talking about “affordability.”

The data is clear. If higher prices are your goal, let the government “fix” them.

Mandates, paperwork, and busybodies telling you what you can and can’t do – it’s not a surprise why costs add up.

In contrast, if you want lower prices, do nothing– zilch. Let the market work.

How To Guarantee Higher Prices
Gideon Ashwood: The Bondquake in Tokyo: Why Japan’s Shock Is Just the Beginning

December 5, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

For 30 years, Japan was the land where interest rates went to die.

The Bank of Japan used yield-curve control to keep long-term rates sedated. Traders joked that shorting Japanese bonds was the “widow-maker trade.”

Not anymore.

On November 20, 2025, everything changed. Quietly, but decisively.

The Bank of Japan finally pulled the plug on decades of easy money. Negative rates were removed. Yield-curve control was abandoned. The policy rate was lifted to a 17-year high.

Suddenly, global markets had to reprice something they had ignored for years.

What happens when the world’s largest creditor nation stops exporting cheap capital and starts pulling it back home?

The answer came fast. Bond yields in Europe and the United States began climbing. The Japanese yen strengthened sharply. Wall Street faltered.

Gideon Ashwood: The Bondquake in Tokyo: Why Japan’s Shock Is Just the Beginning