After the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the crypto market rose, except for tokens tied to Donald Trump. In France, the National Assembly approved an amendment requiring taxpayers to declare self-custodied crypto worth at least 100,000 euros.
Trump-linked tokens drop while Bitcoin and Ethereum rise
On Wednesday, November 4, the official TRUMP memecoin and WLFI, the governance token of World Liberty Financial, were the two biggest losers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. According to CoinMarketCap data at around 5:32 p.m. UTC, TRUMP fell 17% over 24 hours to $1.33 and WLFI dropped more than 7% to $0.047. MELANIA lost almost 13% to $0.066, and VANCE lost almost 12%, although it has no confirmed link to the vice president. The combined market capitalization of political memecoins fell more than 16% to $477 million, while trading volume rose 123% to $437 million.
Over the same period, Bitcoin (BTC) climbed more than 4% to about $80,500 and Ether (ETH) gained 6% to $2,433. BNB added 3%, XRP 2.6% and Solana (SOL) 2.5%. The total crypto market rose 3.4% to $2.69 trillion.
In the episode we called the drop in Trump's coins expected: the president did badly in the elections, and the tokens tied to him did not join the celebration across the rest of the market. Benjamin Sarquis Peillard, CEO of Cap, told Cointelegraph that political tokens are more sensitive to expectations about Washington, while Bitcoin mostly follows liquidity, institutional flows and macroeconomic conditions. The drop may be a short-term reaction, he said, but the longer-term question is what supports demand beyond a link to a political figure.
The legislative picture is also uncertain. The CLARITY Act, which would set a framework for digital assets, stalled in the Senate earlier this year after failing to gather the 60 votes it needed. Democrats had asked for stronger ethics and conflict-of-interest provisions covering Trump's crypto activities, and four Republicans also voted against. The election results could complicate Trump's plans and bring more scrutiny to his family's businesses. How legislation will be affected remains to be seen.
France: declaration of self-custodied crypto from 100,000 euros
The French National Assembly adopted amendment I-2701 on Tuesday, November 3, with 150 votes in favor, 44 against and 8 abstentions. It would require taxpayers to declare to the tax authorities any crypto held in their own wallets if the total value reaches at least 100,000 euros ($112,000). The threshold is assessed on December 31 of the relevant tax year.
To put it simply, as in the episode: these are coins that sit not in a bank or an exchange but in a wallet controlled by the holder. If they are spread across several wallets, the total counts, so from 100,000 euros upward everything must be declared. In our view, France is currently the most legislatively active country in Europe.
The Assembly rejected, by 69 votes to 14, another amendment that would have exempted gains from crypto payments for goods and services up to 1,000 euros a year. The declaration requirement is part of the 2027 Budget and has to stay in the final text to become law. The Assembly has until November 17 to finish its first reading, and the Senate debate begins on November 20. The vote on the revenue section was postponed for a second time, having originally been scheduled for October 20. Faustine Fleuret of Morpho warned that its possible rejection could lead to the rejection of the entire bill, including the amendment provisions.
On October 16, an amendment was approved to tax gains from converting crypto into stablecoins that count as electronic money tokens in the EU. Two proposals for an exit tax on unrealized gains were rejected on Friday.
Schroders brings emerging market bonds to Solana
Schroders, a London-based asset manager founded more than 200 years ago, managed $1.1 trillion in June. On November 4 it announced it is tokenizing its Schroder International Selection Fund Emerging Market Bonds strategy, together with Centrifuge. It is the firm's first deployment on Solana. The product is a feeder fund with an onchain share class that invests in the firm's Emerging Market Bond Fund, and the value of the shares follows the net asset value (NAV). The strategy invests in government and corporate debt from emerging economies.
Nick Ducoff of the Solana Foundation described the move as a step beyond tokenized cash products. The total market for tokenized real-world assets is about $39 billion, according to RWA.xyz. For us, tokenization is one of the market's big narratives, because the amount raised keeps rising whether the market is falling or rising.
Ethereum targets December 2028 for quantum resistance
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said at Devcon 8 in Mumbai on Tuesday, November 3, that he hopes Ethereum will complete its transition to post-quantum and post-AI by December 2028. Developers have 24 months to deliver three more network upgrades. The Ethereum Foundation roadmap from September set a deadline of December 2029 and is not officially replaced, as it will be reviewed in January 2027.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson had told Cointelegraph that the 2029 target is "too slow," and in October the Starknet community backed research into an independent post-quantum layer-1.
We see the news as positive and personally prefer the 2028 proposal. The world as a whole is aiming to be ready for quantum computers around 2029 to 2030, with Google setting the same target, and banks most likely doing so too, so they do not lose money. Crypto hacks have grown much stronger with AI, something we have been saying for six months.
In brief
AMD results: Advanced Micro Devices reported third-quarter results above expectations on November 3, with revenue up 45% and data center sales almost double last year's. Lisa Su expects server revenue to double in 2027, and for the fourth quarter the company forecasts revenue of about $17 billion. AMD helped the stock market recover significantly, alongside the rise in the crypto market.
The market
On November 4, Bitcoin closed the day near $81,000. The move followed the Democratic midterm win, with the wider crypto market gaining 3.4% while the Trump-linked tokens fell.