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Cryptocurrency markets experienced another week of declines as investors awaited the final Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year.
On Tuesday, Bitcoin (BTC) peaked at $94,330, with investor sentiment uplifted by Strategy’s substantial $962 million Bitcoin purchase, marking the company’s largest investment since July 2025.
The following day, the US Federal Reserve announced a widely expected 25-basis-point interest rate reduction. This led to a brief recovery in crypto markets, as lower rates typically boost risk appetite and encourage investment in riskier assets like cryptocurrencies.
However, this upward momentum proved short-lived, with CoinEx exchange’s chief analyst, Jeff Ko, informing Cointelegraph that the Fed’s interest rate cut was “largely anticipated and mostly priced in.”
Although investor enthusiasm appears muted, significant developments such as the growing number of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and enhanced usability of on-chain products indicate a potential “Netscape” moment for the crypto sector, analysts expressed to Cointelegraph.
Crypto approaches its “Netscape” moment as the industry nears a turning point
The cryptocurrency sector is on the verge of its “Netscape” moment, driven by consistent advances in blockchain technology and the emergence of regulated investment products boosting institutional adoption, according to Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang.
Huang noted in a post on X that the crypto sector is “experiencing its ‘Netscape’ or ‘iPhone’ moment.” He elaborated, “It’s performing more robustly than previously imagined, encompassing both institutional and cypherpunk aspects.”
Netscape released the first user-friendly web browser in 1994 and went public successfully in August 1995, marking a significant step that triggered mass internet adoption.
However, Microsoft recognized the growing interest and strategically bundled Internet Explorer as a pre-installed feature in the Windows operating system, outpacing Netscape to become the leading internet browser.
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Bubblemaps questions PEPE’s fair launch, claims 30% of initial supply was pre-allocated
Blockchain data is casting doubts on the “people-centered” launch narrative of memecoin Pepe, with recent analysis suggesting that nearly one-third of the initial supply was held by a single entity, contributing to significant early selling pressure.
According to the blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps, approximately 30% of the Pepe (PEPE) token supply was consolidated at launch in April 2023, leading to heavy selling pressure, “misleading investors,” it claimed in a recent post on X.
A single wallet cluster sold off $2 million worth of PEPE tokens the day after the launch, which was significant enough to prevent the token from achieving the $12 billion market cap milestone, according to Bubblemaps.
This concentration of the initial supply contradicts Pepe’s original branding as a “coin for the people,” with the project’s website claiming the token launched “in stealth mode” with no pre-sale distributions.
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“Elite” traders target dopamine-driven retail investors on prediction markets: 10x Research
Prediction markets are becoming a new frontier in the crypto space, where informed traders are vying against casual retail bettors for profits.
Many users exhibit behavior akin to sports bettors rather than disciplined traders, as noted in a Tuesday report from research firm 10x Research, which stated they are exchanging “dopamine and narrative for discipline and an edge.” The report stressed, “Profit and accuracy are determined not by the masses, but by a small, informed elite pricing probabilities, hedging exposure, and extracting premiums from retail-driven longshots.”
Increasing liquidity and retail participation are prompting professional trading desks to ramp up their activities in prediction markets to leverage the spread and “information asymmetry” created by this market structure, according to 10x.
The report serves as a warning for casual traders hoping to easily profit from prediction markets, as blockchain data indicates that the majority of users ultimately lose their initial investments.
Only about 16.7% of wallets on Polymarket show profits, with the remaining 83% having incurred losses, according to blockchain data from Dune.
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Coinbase expands access to Solana DEX as CeFi and DeFi merge
Coinbase is delving deeper into 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 users can now trade all Solana (SOL) tokens through this DEX integration, emphasizing that “soon you will be able to open the Coinbase app and see native Solana assets available.”
“For developers and issuers, if your token has sufficient liquidity, you can be accessible to millions of Coinbase users without needing to be officially listed,” stated Allen.
This announcement follows Coinbase’s integration of tokens from its Base blockchain via a similar DEX integration in early August. The exchange has plans to broaden DEX support to include additional networks, starting with Solana.
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Mantra CEO advises OM holders to withdraw from OKX due to “misleading” migration plan
Tensions are escalating between blockchain platform Mantra and crypto exchange OKX after Mantra alleged the exchange posted inaccurate 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 lessen their dependency on the platform.
“Users are advised to withdraw their OM tokens from OKX[…]. It’s prudent to avoid reliance on potentially negligent or harmful intermediaries during the migration,” Mullin stated.
His caution came in response to an announcement from OKX regarding support for the upcoming OM token migration.
Mullin pointed out multiple inaccuracies in OKX’s announcement, including incorrect migration and implementation dates.
While OKX indicated the migration will occur between December 22 and December 25, Mantra’s governance proposal specifies that migration will begin only after the January 15 phase-out of the Ethereum-based ERC-20 OM token.
Mullin also noted that OKX’s announcement mentioned “arbitrary dates throughout December 2025,” while Mantra has yet to share an official implementation date.
He added that OKX had failed to communicate with Mantra since “the events” on April 13, while Mantra has been “actively communicating with all the other major exchanges regarding our migration.”
During the upcoming migration, the OM token will transition from an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token to a native token on the Mantra Chain.
Cointelegraph has reached out to OKX for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
OKX has since contacted Mantra to correct the errors in its announcement, as disclosed in a Wednesday post on X.
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DeFi market overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization finished the week in negative territory.
The Kaspa (KAS) token experienced a decline of over 13%, marking the largest drop among the top 100, closely followed by the Story (IP) token, which also fell 13% during the week.
Thank you for reading our summary of this week’s most significant DeFi updates. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights, and education on this rapidly evolving sector.
