This week's agenda was comprised of topics such as companies' crypto purchases, countries' approaches to cryptocurrencies, and legal decisions, while FED Chairman Powell's statements caused unexpected movements in the market. Last week's agenda was comprised of topics such as companies' crypto purchases, countries' approaches to cryptocurrencies, and legal decisions, while FED Chairman Jerome Powell's statements caused unexpected movements in the market, and volatile movements were observed in crypto exchanges.

Companies' Cryptocurrency Purchases Continue to Slow Down

MicroStrategy, which was announced to enter the NASDAQ 100, which includes prestigious companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, is not satisfied with $BTC purchases as much as it is with successes. The company purchased a total of 36,900 $BTC in the last two weeks alone. Bitcoin miner Mara Holdings, which the company's owner pointed out as the company that will enter the NASDAQ 100 after them, expanded its portfolio with a purchase of 27,348 $BTC in the last two weeks. The two giants are followed by Riot Platforms and Hut 8, two other companies that have attracted attention with their purchases, while Travala, a crypto-based travel planning service, announced that they decided to keep some of their assets as $BTC. With this data, the number of companies with 1000 or more $BTC in their portfolio, including Elon Musk's Tesla, has exceeded 20, while it has also been revealed that cryptocurrencies have become assets accepted by institutions.

The Crypto Market Fluctuated, But Why?

Although there are many factors behind it, the rhetoric and moves of Elon Musk, who has a high sphere of influence, and Donald Trump, who will sit in the US presidency, have greatly increased crypto awareness globally and positively affected the market. While the highest level reached by $BTC in all time has reached another level in less than two days, the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has reached its highest level in the last three years. The harsh responses from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (FED), Jerome Powell, to “Trump’s plans to create a US Bitcoin Reserve”, which Michael Saylor also drew attention to, created a seismic effect in the market where the “bull” was starting to make itself felt. According to Coinglass data, more than 270,000 traders lost at least $1.2 billion worth of assets after Powell’s statements, “We do not have permission to buy Bitcoin, and we have no intention of changing that,”. These statements brought the discussions about the decisions taken by countries regarding cryptocurrencies back to the agenda, and created major dilemmas in the community. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) lowered its policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%. Contrary to the market expectation of three interest rate cuts, the Fed reduced its rate cut forecast for 2025 from four to two. In his statement following the interest rate decision, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized that the risks and uncertainties regarding inflation were still high, saying, “We see the risks and uncertainties around inflation as high. "We are seriously close to a neutral interest rate," he said.

When Coinbase, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that it would list its own product, cbBTC, which would serve the same purpose, right after delisting $wBTC, an alternative to $BTC that has names like Bitglobal and Justin Sun behind it, the reactions grew like an avalanche. The legal chief of the exchange, who was accused of providing a market advantage to his own product, had stated that “listing standards are high,” but the statement that came days later that “doing business with an institution associated with Justin Sun carries unacceptable risks” reinforced the claims that this decision was more personal than standard, while the fact that centralized exchanges could act in this way once again shook the community’s trust.

All countries around the world are aware of the reality called “cryptocurrencies”, whether they are happy with it or not. Depending on this level of satisfaction, the actions taken can also vary. Trump, who does not want to be left behind by China, said that he will do big things regarding crypto, while it was stated that Bitcoin reserve research was carried out in Russia, which does not want to be left behind by the US. While the former prime minister of Thailand argued that Thailand should also adapt to this trend, a member of parliament named Satoshi in Japan submitted a proposal to the parliament on this issue. El Salvador states that it will “continue to purchase $BTC at an accelerated rate.” The situation is mixed in Europe. ByBit, one of the giant centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that it will withdraw from the country in January due to the latest regulations in France. In addition, Germany’s giant bank Deutsche Bank announced that it will start developing a blockchain on Ethereum to find a solution to crypto regulations, which are constantly a subject of debate.

Delphi Digital, a prestigious platform that conducts research on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, has published its year-end report titled “The Year Ahead for Defi 2025” on “the year ahead for decentralized finance”. This report, which includes the most prominent items in terms of decentralized finance this year, also has very informative content for you to enter the next year prepared. This report by Delphi Digital made a big impact in the community this year as well.

Continuing to add various amounts of tokens to its portfolio, Trump’s decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial has added a stablecoin called sUSDe to its platform and partnered with Ethena Labs. Although Trump’s statements about crypto are more on the agenda, he continues his moves without slowing down.

Arbitrum led the way in asset flows last week with $66 million in assets from Solana, followed by Ethereum with $45 million, also from Solana. Solana also produced the most gas fees, with around 50000 swaps taking place across networks during the week.

Last week’s notable investments:

Plume Network $20 million, Series A investment

Lens Protocol $31 million, strategic investment

Fraction AI $6 million, pre-seed investment

BVNK $50 million, Series B investment

Mega Labs $10 million, Echo platform

Featured NFTs:

Doodles

Azuki

Sappy Seals

Kaito Genesis

Mammoths Overlords

The information, comments and recommendations contained herein are not within the scope of investment consultancy. Investment consultancy services are provided within the framework of the investment consultancy agreement to be signed between brokerage firms, portfolio management companies, banks that do not accept deposits and customers. The comments in this article are only my personal comments and these comments may not be appropriate for your financial situation and risk return. For this reason, investments should not be made based on the information and comments in my articles.