Cryptocurrency markets experienced another week of declines as investors eagerly awaited the final Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year.
Bitcoin (BTC) reached a weekly peak of $94,330 on Tuesday, as optimism grew following Strategy’s $962 million Bitcoin purchase, their most substantial investment since July 2025.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve executed a long-anticipated 25-basis-point interest rate cut. The crypto markets saw a brief uptick, as lower rates and reduced borrowing costs generally enhance risk appetite and attract capital to riskier assets like crypto.
Nonetheless, the market’s surge was short-lived, as the Fed’s recent interest rate cut was “widely expected and essentially priced in,” said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx, in an interview with Cointelegraph.
Despite the lack of investor enthusiasm, key developments such as the increasing number of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and enhanced usability of on-chain products signal a potential “Netscape” moment for the crypto space, analysts informed Cointelegraph.
Crypto approaches its “Netscape” moment as industry nears a crucial turning point
The cryptocurrency sector is approaching its “Netscape” moment, driven by steady blockchain infrastructure advancements and the emergence of regulated investment products, leading to a new wave of institutional adoption, according to Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang.
The crypto industry is “experiencing its ‘Netscape’ or ‘iPhone’ moment,” Huang stated in a post on X. “It’s working bigger than ever, surpassing our wildest expectations. This applies to both institutional aspects and the cypherpunk elements.”
Netscape released the first user-friendly web browser for the general public in 1994, eventually going public with a successful IPO in August 1995, marking a pivotal moment that facilitated the internet’s mass adoption.
However, Microsoft quickly recognized the burgeoning interest and capitalized on it by bundling Internet Explorer for free as a pre-installed component of the Windows OS, outpacing Netscape to become the leading internet browser.
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Bubblemaps challenges PEPE’s fair launch narrative, alleging 30% of genesis supply retained
Blockchain data is throwing doubt on the “for the people” launch narrative of the memecoin Pepe, with new analysis indicating that nearly one-third of the initial supply was concentrated in a single wallet, contributing to significant early selling pressure.
Approximately 30% of the Pepe (PEPE) token supply was bundled at launch in April 2023, according to blockchain data visualization firm Bubblemaps claimed on Wednesday in a post on X, stating that investors were “misled.”
The same wallet group sold $2 million worth of PEPE tokens just one day post-launch, exerting considerable sell pressure that prevented the token from exceeding the $12 billion mark, as per Bubblemaps.
This concentration of the genesis supply contradicts Pepe’s original branding as a “coin for the people,” as the project’s website claimed the token was launched “in stealth” with no presale allocations.
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“Elite” traders target dopamine-driven retail on prediction markets: 10x Research
Prediction markets are emerging as a burgeoning arena in the crypto landscape, where well-informed traders are competing against casual retail bettors for gains.
Most participants are acting more like sports bettors than disciplined traders, as noted in a Tuesday report by research firm 10x Research, which stated they are trading “dopamine and narrative for discipline and edge.” The report added: “Accuracy and profit are driven not by the crowd but by a small, informed elite who price probability, hedge exposure, and extract premium from retail-driven longshots.”
The escalating liquidity and participation from retail investors are encouraging professional trading desks to heighten their prediction market engagement and capture the spreads and “misinformation asymmetry” arising from this market structure, according to 10x.
The report signals a concerning trend for casual traders hoping to make quick profits on prediction markets, as blockchain data suggests that the majority of users lose their initial investments.
Only about 16.7% of wallets on Polymarket are in profit, while the remaining 83% have faced losses, according to blockchain data from Dune.
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Coinbase introduces Solana DEX access as CeFi and DeFi merge
Coinbase is expanding its presence within the Solana ecosystem, allowing users to trade native Solana tokens through decentralized exchange integration instead of traditional listings.
Andrew Allen, a protocol specialist at Coinbase, mentioned in a post on X that Coinbase now permits users to trade all Solana (SOL) tokens through a decentralized exchange (DEX) integration, “without listings,” he emphasized, adding that “very soon, you will be able to open the Coinbase app and see native Solana assets on Coinbase.”
“For issuers and builders, if your token has enough liquidity, this allows you to be accessible to the millions of Coinbase users without needing to be listed,” Allen stated.
This update follows Coinbase’s integration of tokens from its Base blockchain through a similar DEX integration in early August. The announcement indicated that the exchange aimed to “expand DEX support to include additional networks, starting with Solana.”
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Mantra CEO advises OM holders to withdraw from OKX due to “inaccurate” migration announcement
Tensions are escalating between blockchain platform Mantra and crypto exchange OKX following Mantra’s accusation that the exchange provided incorrect information regarding its token migration.
In a Monday post on X, Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin urged users of the centralized exchange OKX to withdraw their Mantra (OM) tokens and reduce their “dependency” on the platform.
“Users should contemplate withdrawing their OM tokens from OKX[…]. Avoid OKX Exchange Dependency: Complete migration without relying on possibly negligent or harmful intermediaries,” Mullin stated.
His warning came as a reaction to a Friday announcement from OKX about facilitating the upcoming OM token migration.
According to Mullin, OKX’s announcement contained several inaccuracies, including incorrect migration and implementation dates.
OKX claimed that the migration would occur between December 22 and December 25. Conversely, Mantra’s governance proposal states that migration will not commence until after the January 15 deprecation of the Ethereum-based ERC-20 OM token.
Mullin also pointed out that OKX’s post referenced “arbitrary dates throughout December 2025,” while Mantra has yet to confirm an official implementation date.
He stated that OKX had not communicated with Mantra since “the events” of April 13, while Mantra has been consistently communicating with all other major exchanges regarding their migration.
During the upcoming migration, the OM token will transition from an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token to a Mantra Chain-native token.
Cointelegraph reached out to OKX for a comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
OKX has since contacted Mantra and corrected the inaccuracies in their announcement, as stated in a Wednesday X 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 negative.
The Kaspa (KAS) token dropped over 13%, marking the most significant decline among the top 100, closely followed by the Story (IP) token, which also fell 13% over the past week.
Thank you for reading our summary of the week’s most significant DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly evolving space.
