After weeks of heavy selling, the crypto market finally had a relatively calm weekend.
Bitcoin spent most of Saturday and Sunday oscillating around the 90,000 to 91,000 dollar range, having bounced roughly 12 percent off last week’s local low near 80,000 dollars. Ether stayed in the high 2,000s, with most large caps posting modest gains or small losses over the two days.
Despite the calmer tape, November closed on a rough note for the asset class:
Weekend update notes from derivatives and exchange desks also highlighted thin liquidity and cautious positioning. A Binance market summary reported Bitcoin trading in a tight 90,000 to 91,600 dollar band on Sunday, with only a handful of mid‑cap altcoins meaningfully outperforming. A separate Coindesk analysis pointed out that most of November’s losses had occurred during U.S. trading hours, underscoring how sensitive crypto remains to American macro data and equity sentiment.
Early Monday trading then broke the calm, with another wave of downside volatility and large leveraged liquidations as December opened. That move belongs to the new week, but it frames the weekend’s sideways action as a pause rather than a decisive bottom.
One of the most striking data points heading into the weekend was structural rather than purely price‑based. A new CoinGecko report, widely cited in market commentary, found that monthly spot trading volume on decentralised exchanges (DEXs) reached a record 419 billion dollars in November.
The same study estimated that DEXs now account for just over one fifth of global spot trading, up from low single‑digit percentages a few years ago. Even as prices fell, on‑chain activity remained elevated, suggesting that sophisticated users are increasingly comfortable routing trades through automated market makers and on‑chain order books.
Several factors likely contribute to this shift:
For now, the data show that market structure is quietly changing underneath the price action. Even in a month dominated by red candles, the infrastructure that underpins DeFi and on‑chain trading kept gaining share.
Security incidents remained in the spotlight.
South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, disclosed late last week that it had suffered a hack involving roughly 30 million dollars’ worth of assets, primarily on the Solana network. Anomalous transfers of Solana‑based tokens to an unknown wallet triggered the alarm. Upbit responded by freezing deposits and withdrawals and moving remaining funds into cold storage.
The timing was especially sensitive because the breach came just hours after Naver, South Korea’s leading search and tech company, announced an approximately 10 billion dollar all‑stock acquisition of Dunamu, Upbit’s parent company. The deal is part of Naver’s broader push into fintech and digital assets.
Initial commentary suggests that:
The episode is a reminder that, even in a year of growing institutionalisation, basic exchange security remains a key risk for retail users and corporate acquirers alike.
Regulatory headlines continued to accumulate around the weekend, adding up to a picture of tighter but more structured oversight globally.
Turkmenistan, a gas‑rich Central Asian state, passed a law to legalise and regulate digital assets, including crypto mining and exchange operations. The statute, signed by President Serdar Berdymukhamedov and due to take effect on 1 January, defines virtual assets, sets out licensing requirements and establishes rules on how they can be created, stored and traded.
Officials frame the move as part of a broader push to diversify the economy and attract digital investment. The law aligns Turkmenistan with regional neighbours that are experimenting with crypto, such as Kyrgyzstan’s work on a national stablecoin.
For the global market, the direct impact is limited by the country’s size and connectivity, but it is another data point in the trend of resource‑rich states exploring crypto mining and digital asset infrastructure as a way to monetise energy.
Although announced earlier in November rather than over the weekend, Japan’s plan to move many crypto gains into a separate 20 percent flat‑tax category continued to feature in commentary and analysis.
Under the proposal, 105 approved cryptoassets, including Ethereum, would be reclassified as financial products. Profits on those assets would be taxed at roughly 20 percent, similar to listed stocks, instead of under the current progressive income regime that can reach about 55 percent. Exchanges would face tighter disclosure and insider‑trading obligations.
For Japanese traders, the change would significantly lower the maximum tax burden and put crypto on a clearer footing within the country’s investment landscape. For global markets, it reinforces the sense that major jurisdictions are moving away from ad‑hoc treatment of crypto and toward mainstream capital‑markets rules.
On the enforcement side, European law‑enforcement agencies, coordinated by Europol, announced the takedown of a major crypto mixing service known as “Cryptomixer” following an action week in late November. Authorities allege that the service laundered large volumes of illicit proceeds and facilitated ransomware, darknet and fraud activity.
The operation follows earlier international takedowns of mixers and privacy‑focused infrastructure. It signals that mixing services with weak compliance frameworks are likely to remain targets, even as policymakers in some jurisdictions explore regulated privacy‑preserving tools.
Corporate adoption stories also evolved against the backdrop of November’s sell‑off.
Strategy, the rebranded name for MicroStrategy, remains the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Its common stock fell sharply in November, roughly tracking or exceeding Bitcoin’s own drawdown as investors reassessed leveraged corporate Bitcoin strategies.
However, regulatory filings show that several insiders continued to accumulate the company’s preferred shares during the downturn. Directors and executives bought blocks of STRC preferred stock on the open market in September and November, even as the common stock retreated.
The preferred shares are structured with a fixed monthly dividend and no maturity date, offering a more bond‑like profile. For Strategy, this instrument is a way to raise capital without directly diluting common shareholders, although it does create fixed obligations on the balance sheet.
Taken together, the pattern suggests that insiders are signalling confidence in the long‑term viability of the company’s Bitcoin‑heavy model, even as public debate intensifies around leverage, index eligibility and governance for crypto‑exposed corporates.
Beyond prices and headlines, weekend reports painted a picture of cautious but not catastrophic sentiment.
A Bybit‑sponsored market update released on Sunday described a gradual recovery in risk appetite after November’s shock, but noted that positioning remained conservative and that many traders were using rallies to reduce leverage rather than to add risk.
Surveys and social‑media metrics showed fear and caution dominating the conversation, yet there was also a sense that some longer‑term participants viewed the drawdown as a chance to accumulate. High‑profile commentators like Robert Kiyosaki continued to warn of a broader macro crash while simultaneously framing Bitcoin and other hard assets as potential long‑term hedges.
Against that backdrop, the weekend’s sideways trading range can be read as a temporary equilibrium between forced sellers, cautious hedgers and opportunistic buyers.
Looking ahead into the first full week of December, the main themes emerging from the weekend news flow are:
None of these developments provide a simple bullish or bearish signal by themselves. Instead, they outline the environment in which December trading will unfold: volatile, increasingly regulated, structurally more on‑chain and still dominated by macro cross‑winds.
The post Crypto Roundup: Bitcoin Pauses While Regulation, Hacks And DEXs Move The Market appeared first on Crypto Adventure.
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