Crypto benchmarks closed November with losses near 18% as selloff broadened

November 30, 2025 closed a punishing calendar month for digital assets. CF Benchmarks’ month-end review, using index data marked as of November 30, showed its CF Ultra Cap 5 Index down 18.1% for November and its CF Free-Float Broad Cap Index down 18.2%. The CF Diversified Large Cap Index lost 19.5%. Those measurements established that the retreat was not confined to one token or trading venue; it reached across large assets and the wider investable market.

Bitcoin was the market’s central transmission channel. Reuters reported on December 1 that bitcoin had shed more than $18,000 during November and recorded its largest monthly percentage decline since mid-2021. That report did not identify a single official closing price, and none exists for a continuously traded asset spread across many venues. The defensible event-day conclusion is therefore the direction and scale of the monthly move, not a universal dollar close.

The selloff spread beyond bitcoin

CF Benchmarks’ sector series showed sharper weakness in several higher-risk groups. Its Smart Contract Platforms index fell 24.6% during November, while the Digital Culture index dropped 27.1%. The DeFi index declined 18.4%. These are calendar-month index returns through the provider’s November 30 measurement, not the return of every constituent and not a promise that a holder could have traded at the stated index levels.

The same review estimated roughly $4.5 billion of redemptions from digital-asset funds during November, including about $2.8 billion attributed to bitcoin products and $1.4 billion to ether products. Because the public summary does not provide the complete fund universe, cutoff time or reconciliation methodology, those figures are best treated as the benchmark provider’s estimate rather than a comprehensive ledger of every exchange-traded product worldwide.

What institutions could see by month-end

The deterioration was visible before the final calendar day. Coinbase Institutional wrote on November 25 that bitcoin had moved below its 200-day simple moving average, the short-term-holder cost basis and another on-chain cost-basis band that had acted as support earlier in the cycle. Coinbase also described the trailing seven-day sum of U.S. spot-bitcoin exchange-traded-fund flows as markedly negative and said November’s cumulative net outflow had already reached a record in its dataset.

Those observations matter as evidence of positioning, not proof of causation. Technical levels describe where price traded relative to selected historical measures. On-chain cost bases depend on analytical assumptions, and fund redemptions can coincide with selling without explaining every transaction. Coinbase’s view that retail and institutional capital were hesitant to absorb supply was an attributable market interpretation published on November 25, not an independently measurable fact about every investor.

Why November 30 mattered

The November 30 close turned an intramonth drawdown into a completed reporting period. That made comparisons across benchmarks, funds and institutional risk systems possible. It also tested the idea that bitcoin’s growing institutional access would automatically dampen severe declines. The evidence at month-end showed broader access alongside synchronized weakness, heavy redemptions and defensive positioning.

The record does not establish one cause. CF Benchmarks emphasized fading expectations for a December Federal Reserve rate cut, while Coinbase discussed fragile risk appetite and the aftermath of October’s liquidation shock. Reuters’ December 1 account likewise found no single driver for the next session’s decline. The narrow conclusion supported on November 30 is that crypto completed a broad, material monthly repricing. Claims about a new cycle, a durable bottom or any later recovery were not knowable from the month-end data and do not belong in the event-day record.