Bitcoin and the wider crypto markets were fairly muted last week despite the US Federal Reserve again lowering interest rates (at their latest FOMC meeting), the third cut this year.
Although rate cuts have traditionally given a boost to cryptoasset prices, cautious forward guidance from the Federal Reserve weighed on market sentiment. Fed policymakers now see only one cut to interest rates next year and one cut in 2027, well below the market’s expectations.
With that being said, the Federal Reserve also announced that they would begin buying short-term treasuries to help ease pressure in overnight lending markets, starting with $40 billion for the first month (from December 12th). Although not announced by Chairman Powell as quantitative easing, this has got the crypto community speculating that this could be the start of something far greater to come in the longer term that could potentially lead to higher prices.
Looking forward to this week, we have two huge pieces of economic data from the US. Firstly, the latest non-farm payroll and unemployment rate on Tuesday, which will provide a fresh insight into the labor market, followed by CPI – consumer price index inflation data – on Thursday. Both could cause some significant volatility in cryptoasset prices this week.
BIGGEST MOVERS
$MNT, the token for the Ethereum layer-2 network Mantle, is up 17% in the last seven days after breaking a major resistance level at the $1.20 level.
With Fusaka now live on Ethereum, and with one of the main improvement proposals being lower fees on layer-2’s, networks like Mantle could be ones to watch going forward. Higher coin or token prices generally correlate to increasing network activity.
Discover more here: https://www.etoro.com/discover/markets/cryptocurrencies/market-movers
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
DTCC authorized to offer new tokenization service
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the United States’ main securities depository, clearing and settlements service, announced last week that they have received a ‘no-action’ letter from the US Securities and Exchange Commission authorizing them to develop and operate a new service to tokenise assets held in their custody.
Under the no-action letter and new service DTC (the custodian subsidiary of DTCC) will have the ability to tokenise real-world assets, with the digital versions having all of the same entitlements, investor protections and ownership rights as the traditional asset.
The authorization applies to a defined set of highly liquid assets, including the Russell 1000, as well as ETFs tracking major indices and US Treasury bills, bonds and notes, the press release went on to say.
DTC anticipates beginning to roll out the service in the second half of 2026, with the no-action letter authorizing operation on pre-approved blockchains for at least three years with oversight from the SEC.
This authorization and planned launch marks a major step forward for the real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation space showing how blockchain can be used to enhance traditional markets, speeding up settlement, reducing risk, improving liquidity and opening up access to more investors as tokenisation allows assets to be split into smaller pieces.
