Cryptocurrency markets suffered another week of declines as investors eagerly awaited the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose to a weekly high of $94,330 on Tuesday as investor morale improved thanks to Strategy’s $962 million acquisition of Bitcoin, the company’s largest investment since July 2025.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a widely anticipated 25-basis-point interest rate cut. Cryptocurrency markets have seen a transient rebound as lower interest rates and cheaper borrowing costs typically augment risk appetite and capital pouring into risky assets such as cryptocurrencies.
However, the market’s improvement was transient as the Fed’s recent interest rate cut was “widely expected and fairly priced in,” CoinEx chief analyst Jeff Ko told Cointelegraph.
Analysts told Cointelegraph that despite a lack of investor appetite, fundamental changes such as the growing number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and improved usability of onchain products herald a potential “Netscape” moment for the cryptocurrency industry.
Crypto is heading for a “Netscape” moment as the industry nears a tipping point
According to Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, the cryptocurrency industry is approaching a “Netscape” moment as continued advancements in blockchain infrastructure and the rise of regulated investment products drive a recent wave of institutional adoption.
The cryptocurrency sector is “facing a ‘Netscape’ or ‘iPhone’ moment,” Huang he wrote Sunday in a post on X. “Works better than ever before, far exceeding our wildest expectations. Both the institutional part and the cypherpunk part.”
Netscape released the first easy-to-use web browser for everyday users in 1994, then went public in August 1995 with a successful initial public offering (IPO), the first element that ushered in mass adoption of the Internet.
However, Microsoft saw large-scale interest and capitalized on it by freely including Internet Explorer as a pre-installed component of the Windows operating system, overtaking Netscape to become the most widely used web browser.
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Bubblemaps questions fair market launch of PEPE, claiming 30% of Genesis shipments are bundled
Blockchain data is casting doubt on the Pepe “for the people” memecoin launch narrative, with recent analysis suggesting that almost a third of the initial supply was held by a single entity, contributing to forceful early selling pressure.
Approximately 30% of the Pepe (PEPE) token supply was attached at the April 2023 launch of the Bubblemaps blockchain data visualization platform he claimed on Wednesday in a post on X, adding that investors had been “lied to.”
The same wallet cluster sold $2 million worth of PEPE tokens the day after launch, resulting in significant selling pressure that kept the token from passing the $12 billion milestone. According to to Bubblemaps.
This concentration of Genesis supply contrasts with Pepe’s original branding as “coins for the people.” Design website said the token was launched “secretly” with no pre-sale allocations.
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‘Elite’ Traders Prey on Dopamine-Seeking Retailers in Predictive Markets: 10x Research
Prediction markets are emerging as a recent battleground in the cryptocurrency economy, where the best-informed traders compete for profits with casual retail players.
Most users behave more like sports bettors than disciplined investors, According to to Tuesday’s report from research firm 10x Research, which said it trades “dopamine and narrative for discipline and advantage.” He added: “Accuracy and profit are not driven by the crowd, but by a tiny, conscious elite who price probabilities, hedge exposure and extract premiums from long-term retail customers.”
Increasing liquidity and retail participation are encouraging professional trading centers to become more energetic in the forecast market and capture the spread and “disinformation asymmetry” resulting from this market structure, 10x said.
The report is a worrying sign for everyday traders looking to make simple money in prediction markets, as blockchain data suggests most users are missing out on their initial investment.
Only about 16.7% of portfolios on Polymarket make profits, while the remaining 83% suffered losses, According to to blockchain data from Dune.
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Coinbase opens access to Solana DEX as CeFi and DeFi converge
Coinbase is moving deeper into the Solana ecosystem, allowing users to trade native Solana tokens through decentralized exchange integration rather than classic listings.
Andrew Allen, Coinbase Protocol Specialist, he said in a post on X that Coinbase now allows its users to trade all Solana (SOL) tokens through a decentralized exchange (DEX) integration, “without listings,” he noted, adding that “you will soon be able to open the Coinbase app and see native Solana assets on Coinbase.”
“For issuers and creators, if your token has sufficient liquidity, it means you can be available to millions of Coinbase users without having to list it,” Allen said.
The announcement follows Coinbase’s announcement integratedon tokens from the Base blockchain through a similar integration with DEX in early August. The announcement noted that the exchange plans to “expand DEX support to additional networks, starting with Solana.”
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Mantra CEO advises OM holders to withdraw from OKX due to “inaccurate” migration plan
Tensions are rising between blockchain platform Mantra and cryptocurrency exchange OKX after Mantra accused the exchange of posting incorrect information about token migration.
On Monday X postMantra CEO John Patrick Mullin has urged users of centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) OKX to withdraw their Mantra (OM) tokens and reduce their “dependency” on the platform.
“Users should consider withdrawing their OM tokens from OKX[…]. Avoid Dependency on OKX Exchange: Complete your migration without relying on potentially negligent or malicious intermediaries,” Mullin said.
His warning came in response to Friday announcement from OKX regarding support for inbound OM token migration.
According to Mullin, the OKX post contained numerous inaccuracies, including false migration and rollout dates.
OKX says the migration will take place between December 22 and 25. In turn, Mantra’s management proposal states that the migration will only occur after the Ethereum-based ERC-20 OM token is retired on January 15.
Mullin also said that the OKX post mentioned “arbitrary dates throughout December 2025,” while Mantra has yet to announce an official rollout date.
He claimed that OKX had not communicated with Mantra since the “events” of April 13, while Mantra had “helpfully [been] communicating with all other major exchanges regarding our migration.”
During the upcoming migration, the OM token will be migrated from an ERC-20 token native to Ethereum to a token native to Mantra Chain.
Cointelegraph reached out to OKX for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
OKX has since contacted Mantra and corrected the inaccuracies in the announcement, the exchange wrote in a statement on Wednesday post
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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 Kaspa token (KAS) fell over 13%, recording the biggest drop in the top 100, followed by the Story token (IP), which also fell 13% over the past week.
Thank you for reading our roundup of the most important events in DeFi this week. Join us this Friday for more stories, insights and education about this dynamic space.
