The decline was driven mainly by monetary factors that outweighed the positive sentiment from the U.S.–China trade de-escalation. During the APEC summit in Seoul, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement aimed at reducing bilateral tensions and global slowdown risks. China pledged to supply rare earth metals over the next year, curb fentanyl production, and expand agricultural imports from the U.S., while Washington agreed to lower tariffs by 10% to 47%. Despite this, investors largely viewed the deal as a short-term easing of tensions rather than a structural shift. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s hawkish tone weighed heavily on dollar-alternative assets: though the Fed cut its rate by 25 basis points to 3.75–4.00% and announced the end of its Quantitative Tightening (QT) program, Chairman Jerome Powell’s cautious remarks kept markets on edge.
According to CME FedWatch Tool, probabilities for the December 10, 2025 meeting stand at 66.8% for a cut to 3.50–3.75% and 33.2% for keeping rates at 3.75–4.00%.
Powell noted that the Fed might pause further policy adjustments in December to assess conditions, which pushed the “Fear & Greed Index” back into the “fear” zone at 29 points.
In other news, Ripple acquired Hidden Road, rebranding it as Ripple Prime — making it the first crypto company to operate a multi-functional institutional brokerage. CEO Brad Garlinghouse described the move as “another step toward building the Internet of Value.” Meanwhile, Ethereum developers launched the Fusaka upgrade in the Hoodi testnet ahead of its mainnet deployment on December 3. The hard fork introduces ten new improvements, enhancing scalability and security. The key change, IP-7594, implements the PeerDAS protocol for shard-level validation, increasing potential throughput to 12,000 transactions per second.
The overall crypto market remains under pressure amid Fed uncertainty, with most assets expected to continue consolidating or declining next week.