Cryptocurrency markets experienced another week of decline as investors looked forward to the final Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year.
Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to a weekly peak of $94,330 on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism following Strategy’s $962 million Bitcoin investment, marking its largest since July 2025.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced a much-anticipated 25-basis-point interest rate reduction. This led to a brief uptick in crypto markets, as lower rates and reduced borrowing costs generally enhance risk appetite and attract capital to riskier assets like crypto.
Nevertheless, the market’s positive movement was short-lived, as the Fed’s recent rate cut was “widely expected and largely priced in,” according to Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx exchange, in an interview with Cointelegraph.
Even with subdued investor interest, notable developments such as the rising number of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and enhanced usability of on-chain products are paving the way for a potential “Netscape” moment for the crypto sector, analysts mentioned to Cointelegraph.
Crypto approaches its “Netscape” moment as the industry nears an inflection point
The cryptocurrency sector is nearing its “Netscape” moment, as continuous advancements in blockchain infrastructure and the emergence of regulated investment products promote a new wave of institutional adoption, according to Matt Huang, co-founder of Paradigm.
Huang noted in a post on X that the crypto landscape is “experiencing its ‘Netscape’ or ‘iPhone’ moment.” He remarked, “It’s functioning more robustly than we ever anticipated, encompassing both institutional and cypherpunk aspects.”
Netscape released the first user-friendly web browser in 1994, leading to a successful IPO in August 1995, which established a key building block for the widespread adoption of the internet.
However, Microsoft recognized the significant interest and capitalized on it by bundling Internet Explorer as a free-installed component of the Windows operating system, ultimately outpacing Netscape to become the leading internet browser.
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Bubblemaps questions PEPE’s fair launch, claims 30% of genesis supply was bundled
Blockchain data raises concerns about the “for the people” narrative of the memecoin Pepe, with recent analysis revealing that nearly a third of the initial supply was controlled by a single entity, contributing to significant early sell pressure.
According to Bubblemaps, about 30% of the Pepe (PEPE) token supply was bundled at launch in April 2023, alleging on Wednesday that investors were “misled.”
The same wallet cluster sold $2 million worth of PEPE tokens the day after launch, creating considerable sell pressure that prevented the token from reaching a $12 billion valuation, as per Bubblemaps’ findings.
This concentration of the genesis supply contradicts Pepe’s original branding as a “coin for the people.” The project’s website claimed the token was launched “in stealth” with no presale allocations.
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“Elite” traders target dopamine-seeking retail on prediction markets: 10x Research
Prediction markets are increasingly becoming a new arena in the crypto economy where well-informed traders compete against casual retail bettors for profits.
Most participants are behaving more like sports gamblers than disciplined traders, according to a Tuesday report from research firm 10x Research, which stated they are trading “dopamine and narrative for discipline and edge.” The report highlighted that “accuracy and profit are determined not by the crowd, but by a small, informed elite who assess probabilities, hedge risks, and capitalize on retail-driven longshots.”
The uptick in liquidity and retail involvement is prompting professional trading desks to enhance their prediction market activities to exploit the spread and “misinformation asymmetry” that this structure creates, 10x said.
The report raises concerns for casual traders hoping to make quick profits on prediction markets, as blockchain data indicates that the majority of users lose their initial investments.
Approximately 16.7% of wallets on Polymarket are profitable, while the remaining 83% have suffered losses, according to blockchain analytics from Dune.
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Coinbase introduces Solana DEX access as CeFi and DeFi converge
Coinbase is deepening its integration within the Solana ecosystem, allowing users to trade native Solana tokens through decentralized exchange integration instead of via traditional listings.
Andrew Allen, Coinbase protocol specialist, mentioned in a post on X that users can now trade all Solana (SOL) tokens through a decentralized exchange (DEX) integration, “without listings,” emphasizing that “soon you will be able to open the Coinbase app and see native Solana assets there.”
“For issuers and developers, if your token has sufficient liquidity, you’ll have access to the vast user base on Coinbase without needing to be listed,” Allen stated.
This development follows Coinbase’s integration of tokens from its Base blockchain earlier in August through a similar DEX mechanism, indicating plans to “broaden DEX support to encompass more networks, starting with Solana.”
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Mantra CEO advises OM holders to withdraw from OKX over “inaccurate” migration announcement
Tensions are escalating between blockchain platform Mantra and crypto exchange OKX as Mantra has accused the exchange of disseminating inaccurate information regarding its token migration.
In a post on X on Monday, Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin urged users of centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) OKX to withdraw their Mantra (OM) tokens to avoid dependency on the platform.
“Users should think about withdrawing their OM tokens from OKX[…]. Avoid OKX Exchange Dependency: Complete migration without depending on potentially negligent or malicious intermediaries,” Mullin advised.
His warning followed a Friday announcement from OKX about supporting the upcoming OM token migration.
Mullin claimed that OKX’s post contained several inaccuracies, including incorrect migration and implementation dates.
OKX indicated that the migration would occur between Dec. 22 and Dec. 25, while Mantra’s governance proposal specifies that the migration will only take place following the Jan. 15 deprecation of the Ethereum-based ERC-20 OM token.
Mullin furthermore mentioned that OKX’s announcement referred to “arbitrary dates throughout December 2025,” although Mantra has not yet publicized an official implementation date.
He asserted that OKX had not been in communication with Mantra since “the events” of April 13, while Mantra has “proactively communicated with all other major exchanges concerning our migration.”
During the upcoming migration, the OM token will transition from an Ethereum-native ERC-20 token to a Mantra Chain-native token.
Cointelegraph has reached out to OKX for clarification but had not received a reply by the time of publishing.
OKX has since contacted Mantra and corrected the inaccuracies in the announcement, the exchange stated in a Wednesday X post
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DeFi market overview
Based on data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week with losses.
The Kaspa (KAS) token declined over 13%, marking the most significant drop in the top 100, followed by the Story (IP) token, which also fell by 13% during the week.
Thank you for reading our summary of this week’s key DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education about this rapidly evolving field.
