Cryptocurrency markets have experienced another week of consolidation following last week’s long-awaited market recovery.
While Bitcoin (BTC) held above the key psychological level of $90,000, investor sentiment continued to be dominated by “fear”, with a marginal improvement from 20 to 25 during the week, according to Fear & Greed CoinMarketCap index.
In the broader crypto space, Ether (ETH) treasure trading appears to be booming as monthly acquisitions by Ethereum digital asset treasuries (DAT) are down 81% over the past three months from their August peak.
Despite this, the largest corporate holder of Ether, BitMine Immersion Technologies, continued to accumulate ETH while other treasury companies continued their efforts to raise funds for future acquisitions.
Investors are also awaiting a key interest rate decision at the upcoming U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, which is expected to provide more guidance on monetary policy through 2026.
Markets price in an 87% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut, up from 62% a month ago According to to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Ethereum treasury trade declines by 80% as a handful of whales dominate purchases
Ethereum treasury trading appears to be slackening as monthly captures continue to decline from August highs, although major players continue to rake in billions of Ether deliveries.
According to asset management firm Bitwise, investments in Ethereum DAT have dropped by 81% over the past three months, from 1.97 million Ether in August to 370,000 ETH in November.
“The ETH DAT bear continues,” wrote Max Shennon, senior research fellow at Bitwise, in Tuesday’s X issue post.
Despite the slowdown, some companies with stronger financial backing continued to stockpile the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency or raise funds for future purchases.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate holder of Ether, has accumulated approximately 679,000 Ether worth $2.13 billion over the past month, meeting 62% of its goal of accumulating 5% of the ETH supply, according to data from Strategic reserve.
According to the data aggregator, BitMine has an additional $882 million in cash, which could signal more accumulation of incoming Ether.
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Citadel Creates Confusion by Calling on SEC to Regulate Tokenized DeFi Stocks
Market maker Citadel Securities has recommended that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tighten decentralized finance regulations for tokenized stocks, sparking a backlash from cryptocurrency users.
Citadel Securities reported to the SEC in: letter on Tuesday that DeFi developers, astute contract coders and self-custody wallet providers should not receive “broad exempt relief” for offering trading in tokenized U.S. stocks.
He argued that DeFi trading platforms likely fall under the definition of an “exchange” or “broker-dealer” and should be subject to securities laws if they offer tokenized shares.
“Granting a broad exemption to facilitate trading of tokenized shares via DeFi protocols would create two separate regulatory regimes for trading the same security,” he argued. “This result would be the exact opposite of the ‘technology neutral’ approach adopted in the Exchange Act.”
Citadel’s letter, prepared in response to the SEC’s request for feedback on how it should approach regulating tokenized stocks, was met with significant opposition from the crypto community and organizations advocating for innovation in the blockchain space.
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Arthur Hayes warns Monad has 99% chance of failure, calls it ‘high-risk VC coin’
Cryptocurrency veteran Arthur Hayes issued a warning on Monad, saying the recently launched Layer 1 blockchain could decline by as much as 99% and end up as another failed experiment fueled by venture capital hype rather than real adoption.
The former head of BitMEX speaks out in Altcoin Daily described project as “another high-FDV, low-liquidity VC coin”, arguing that its token structure itself exposes retail traders to risk. FDV stands for Fully Diluted Value, i.e. the market value of a crypto project if all its tokens were already in circulation.
According to Hayes, projects with a huge gap between FDV and circulating supply often experience early price spikes followed by deep sell-offs once insider tokens are unlocked. “This is going to be another bear chain,” Hayes said, adding that while each modern coin receives initial hype, that doesn’t mean it will have lasting exploit.
Hayes said most modern Tier 1 networks ultimately fail, and only a few are likely to remain relevant in the long term. He identified Bitcoin, Ether, Solana (SOL), and Zcash (ZEC) as a petite group of protocols that he believes will survive the next cycle.
Last year, Monad raised $225 million from venture capital firm Paradigm. The Layer 1 blockchain was launched on Monday, accompanied by an airdrop of the MON token.
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A $25 Billion Crypto Lending Market Currently Led by “Transparent” Players: Galaxy
The cryptocurrency lending market has become more see-through than ever, led by companies such as Tether, Nexo and Galaxy, and has just reached a total lending portfolio of almost $25 billion in the third quarter.
Since the beginning of 2024, the size of the cryptocurrency lending market has increased by over 200%, According to for Galactic Research. In the last quarter it was the highest since the peak in the first quarter of 2022.
However, it has not yet returned to its then-high of $37 billion.
The main difference is the number of modern centralized financial lending platforms and much greater transparency, said Galaxy’s head of research Alex Thorn.
Thorn said Sunday that he was proud of the chart and its authors’ transparency, adding that it was a “big change from previous market cycles.”
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Portal to Bitcoin raises $25 million and launches an atomic OTC office
Native Interoperability Protocol for Bitcoin Portal to Bitcoin has raised $25 million to launch what it calls an atomic over-the-counter (OTC) trading facility.
According to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the company raised $25 million in a round led by digital asset lender JTSA Global. The fundraising follows previous investments from Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital and others.
In addition to the modern funding, the company launched its Atomic OTC desk, promising “instant, trustless cross-chain settlement of large block trades.” The newly implemented service is similar to crosschain atomic swaps offered by THORChain, Chainflip and other Bitcoin-focused systems such as Liquality and Boltz.
What sets Portal to Bitcoin apart is its focus on the Bitcoin-anchored cross-chain OTC market for institutions and whales, along with its technology stack. “The Portal provides the infrastructure that makes Bitcoin a settlement layer for global asset markets, without bridges, custodians or wrapped assets,” said Chandra Duggirala, founder and CEO of the Portal.
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DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red.
The Canton token (CC) fell 18%, marking the biggest weekly decline in the top 100, followed by the Starknet token (STRK), which fell 16% on the weekly chart.
Thank you for reading our roundup of the most crucial events in DeFi this week. Join us this Friday for more stories, insights and education about this animated space.
