Morning digest: November 13, 2026
Bitcoin broke below $70,000 for the first time since August as spot bitcoin ETFs posted a sixth straight day of outflows and about $1.3 to $1.5 billion in leveraged bets were wiped out. DTCC plans to bring tokenized securities to Solana in the second half of 2027. In health, lifelong endurance training keeps women’s aerobic capacity high but doesn’t stop its decline, and short bursts of harder movement spread through the day went with lower mortality. Existing-home sales fell to their lowest since 2010. And a Virginia raccoon’s drunken night has now raised more than $290,000 for its local animal shelter.
Blockchain: bitcoin under $70,000 and Wall Street moves on-chain
Bitcoin breaks below $70,000. BTC fell about 7% in 24 hours to roughly $68,400, with an intraday low near $67,700 that took it under its 200-week moving average and to its lowest level since August. Ether dropped below $2,000 to about $1,920. Hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation, a stronger dollar (DXY above 103), bets on another Fed rate hike and turmoil at Nvidia hit risk assets together, and about $1.3 to $1.5 billion of leveraged crypto futures positions were liquidated, mostly longs. October producer prices are due today. (The Block · CoinDesk)
ETF outflows reach day six. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $47.7 million net on Nov. 12 (preliminary), led by Bitwise’s BITB and ARK 21Shares’ ARKB, their sixth straight day of outflows. Institutional buyers aren’t yet absorbing the selling. (xShorts)
DTCC to bring tokenized securities to Solana. DTCC, the main U.S. post-trade utility whose DTC subsidiary holds most U.S. stocks and bonds, will connect its Tokenization Service, live since Oct. 28, to Solana, with eligible DTC-custodied securities expected to become available there in the second half of 2027. DTCC says the tokens keep the same ownership rights and investor protections as traditionally held securities. It’s part of a multi-chain plan, not a Solana exclusive, and not yet live. (DTCC · CoinDesk)
A 24/7 exit for BlackRock’s BUIDL. Securitize and Ethena launched a liquidity facility that lets eligible holders swap BUIDL, BlackRock’s roughly $2.4 billion tokenized money-market fund, for stablecoins such as USDC outside market hours. It starts with $50 million, with up to another $50 million available under the facility’s terms. (Securitize · The Block)
SoFi’s bank stablecoin reaches Polygon. SoFiUSD, issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., an OCC-regulated national bank, was already live on Ethereum and Solana. Members buy, sell and convert it in the SoFi app, and each token is redeemable 1:1 for dollars through SoFi Bank. The token itself isn’t FDIC-insured; SoFi says eligible members will be able to convert it into interest-bearing tokenized deposits. (Polygon · The Block)
Briefly:
- Visa takes Western Union’s stablecoin. Visa and eligible partners can now settle VisaNet obligations in USDPT, Western Union’s dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, with room for other Anchorage-issued coins later. (Anchorage Digital)
- WisdomTree fund trades around the clock. The WTGXX money-market fund, a 1940 Act registered fund, now trades 24/7 with near-instant USDC settlement; it keeps its once-a-day NAV and accrues dividends continuously so intraday transfers don’t lose or double-count yield. (WisdomTree)
- A post-quantum Ethereum by 2027? The research group Ethlabs proposed reprioritizing the Hegotá upgrade, the fork after Glamsterdam, so consensus and every account get a quantum-resistant path by 2027. It’s a proposal, not an adopted plan. (Ethlabs · The Block)
- New SEC and CFTC nominees. The president named commissioners for both agencies for the first time in a year: Steven Levine and Kristin Johnson for the SEC, where Levine would fill the seat of crypto advocate Hester Peirce, and Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland for the CFTC, now run by Chairman Mike Selig alone. All need Senate confirmation. (CoinDesk)
- Aave revenue proposal. TokenLogic proposed reserve-factor changes across 54 Aave V3 and V2 reserves, which its model says would add about $3.5 million in annual DAO revenue. It’s a proposal, not an approved change. (Aave governance)
Health: aging athletes, bursts of effort and fuel in the heat
Women Masters athletes: high VO2max, but still declining. Clinical meta-analysis (69 studies, 1,903 women aged 40+ who train for endurance, VO2max measured directly): pooled VO2max was 45 mL/kg/min in the 40s, 40 in the 50s, 35 in the 60s and 30 at 70+, a drop of about 0.57 per year, or roughly 11.7% per decade. Lever: lifelong endurance training keeps aerobic capacity high for age, but doesn’t stop the decline; these are female-specific benchmarks to track against. The data compare different women at different ages, not the same women over time, and come from a highly trained, self-selected group. (Sports Medicine)
Short bursts of harder movement, spread out. General population, observational (65,028 German adults aged 19–74 with hip accelerometers, median 8 years, 1,634 deaths): more total activity went with lower mortality (hazard ratio 0.73, 75th vs 25th percentile). Beyond volume, a higher intensity in the day’s most active minute went with lower mortality (HR 0.58), and the link was weaker when the hardest minutes came in continuous bouts (0.71). Intensity mattered most for people with low total activity. Lever: total movement comes first, but brief harder efforts scattered through the day, such as brisk stairs or short fast walks, are a sensible add-on. Reverse causation and confounding are possible. (BMC Medicine)
Heat cuts how much sports drink your muscles burn. Clinical lab study (17 endurance-trained adults, 90 minutes of cycling at 45% of peak power with 90 grams of glucose an hour): at 40°C, they oxidized about 0.37 grams of ingested glucose per minute versus 0.51 at 20°C, roughly 27% less. Nine days of heat acclimation improved heat tolerance but didn’t close the gap (0.38). Lever: for long efforts in extreme heat, don’t cut carbohydrate just because you assume the gut can’t absorb it, and practice a hot-weather fueling and hydration plan. The study measured fuel use, not performance, and doesn’t set an ideal dose. (The Journal of Physiology · University of Birmingham)
More than 200 mg of caffeine raised anxiety. Clinical meta-analysis (15 randomized trials, 668 people): caffeine raised anxiety scores on average (standardized effect +0.51), driven by doses above 200 mg (+0.97); at 200 mg or less there was no effect (−0.05). It had no clear effect on depressive symptoms. Lever: if you’re anxiety-prone, keep single doses at or below about 200 mg, roughly two small cups of coffee. Certainty is very low and the dose split is exploratory. (Frontiers in Nutrition)
Exercise eases mood and behavior symptoms in dementia. Clinical meta-analysis (19 studies, 1,587 older adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia): aerobic (−0.53), resistance (−0.49) and mind-body exercise such as tai chi or yoga (−0.63) each reduced neuropsychiatric symptoms like agitation, depression and apathy, with the largest predicted effect around 460 to 490 MET-minutes a week and a U-shaped curve beyond. That’s very roughly 120 to 160 minutes a week of brisk walking or moderate tai chi (our rough conversion, not the paper’s). Certainty is very low to low, and the dose thresholds are model estimates. (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience)
Briefly:
- Older brains flush less fluid during sleep. General human imaging study (fast fMRI plus EEG; daytime dataset of 31 young and 55 older adults): sleep-driven cerebrospinal fluid flow was reduced in older adults, tied to weaker slow-wave sleep, weaker vascular oscillations and gray-matter atrophy. It’s a mechanism, not an intervention, so it supports protecting deep sleep without showing that anything restores the flow. (Nature Aging)
- Home exercise after menopause. Clinical meta-analysis (19 randomized trials, 1,128 postmenopausal and older women): home-based programs lowered BMI by 0.57 points and improved quality of life, but strength, walking, sit-to-stand and blood-fat changes weren’t significant. A cheap start; expect to need progressive, structured training for strength and metabolic gains. (Frontiers in Public Health)
General and local: stocks slip and home sales slump
Stocks slip, claims rise. On Thursday the Dow fell 189.4 points (0.36%) to 52,297.09, the S&P 500 0.35% to 7,592.40 and the Nasdaq 0.39% to 25,366.09. Initial jobless claims rose 9,000 to 200,000 in the week ended Nov. 7, above the 195,000 expected; continuing claims fell 20,000 to 1.697 million. As of 5:03 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 98 points (0.19%) and Nasdaq-100 futures down 0.11%, with Nvidia up 1.8% premarket. (Xinhua · U.S. Department of Labor · Reuters via U.S. News)
Home sales hit a 16-year low. Sales of previously owned homes fell 5.5% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million, the lowest since August 2010 and 8.8% below a year earlier. Inventory rose to 1.59 million homes, a 5.1-month supply, and the median price was $416,700, up just 0.4% from a year ago. (National Association of Realtors)
Lighter note: the raccoon that paid off. The raccoon that broke into an Ashland, Virginia, liquor store last year, sampled 14 bottles and passed out next to the toilet has now raised more than $290,000 for Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter, through “Trashed Panda” T-shirts, hats and mugs. The shelter usually gets less than $20,000 a year in donations; the money is going toward body cameras for its eight animal protection officers. “We never thought a raccoon would do this for us,” said the county’s animal protection chief, Jeffrey Parker. (The Washington Post · The Independent)
Photo: Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter, via The Washington Post.
Russia and Ukraine: Moscow airports restricted
Moscow airports restricted overnight. Mayor Sobyanin said 467 drones flew toward the Moscow region from 6 p.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday, Moscow time, with 144 downed on the approach to the city. Flights were restricted at all four Moscow airports; Sheremetyevo reopened at 2:57 a.m. and Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky at 6:56 a.m., with dozens of delays and some cancellations this morning. In Voronezh, 32 drones were downed with no casualties; debris damaged a utility building and a car. (MSK1 · Kommersant)
Bottom line
Bitcoin lost $70,000 as ETF money keeps leaving, even as DTCC, BlackRock’s BUIDL and SoFi push more of traditional finance on-chain. If you’re an endurance athlete, keep training and sprinkle short hard efforts through the day, keep caffeine to about 200 mg at a time if it makes you jittery, and don’t skimp on carbs in the heat. Home sales are at a 16-year low ahead of today’s producer-price report. And somewhere near Ashland, a raccoon has paid for eight body cameras.