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Some weeks come and go. This one leaves a mark. Crypto took another hit: the charts shook, traders flinched, but the system held. This wasn’t just a correction, it was a stress test the industry won’t forget anytime soon. And the questions it sparked will keep echoing from CT threads to Wall Street boardrooms. Through the noise and volatility, builders kept building, capital kept moving, and the market somehow kept pushing forward. Here’s your Magnet Weekly Digest:
The market just got punched in the face. Around $19 billion in leveraged positions vanished in a single day. Over 1.5 million traders got completely wiped out, mostly on long positions that went down faster than a meme coin rug. It all kicked off after the U.S. dropped 100% tariffs on Chinese software imports, spooking global markets and sending everyone scrambling for safety. Panic spread like wildfire - stop orders went off one after another, and before anyone could react, portfolios were gone. Bitcoin and Ethereum tanked tens of billions in market cap, while altcoins nosedived 30–70%. Even whales weren’t safe: seven-figure accounts evaporated in minutes. The total market cap dropped nearly 20%, turning the whole day into a case study of why leverage isn’t your friend. Analysts are calling it a “turning point,” but really, it’s just a brutal reminder that crypto still bends to global politics and overconfident traders.
S&P Dow Jones just did something nobody expected, they built a bridge between Wall Street and Web3. Their new Digital Markets 50 index mixes 15 top cryptocurrencies with 35 public blockchain companies, basically creating an S&P 500 for crypto. It tracks everything from Bitcoin to Coinbase, giving institutions a way to get in without touching CEX logins or seed phrases. Each asset gets capped at 5%, so no one dominates, and the list refreshes every quarter. The twist? A tokenized version is coming soon, meaning you’ll literally be able to trade this blend of TradFi and DeFi on-chain. It’s clean, it’s structured, and it screams “institutional-ready.” For the big guys, it’s proof that crypto’s growing up. For everyone else - it’s DeFi finally showing up to Wall Street in a tailored suit.
In one of the boldest plays this year, the guys who own the New York Stock Exchange are throwing $2 billion at Polymarket, the biggest blockchain prediction platform out there. If you haven’t tried it, Polymarket lets users trade on outcomes like elections, sports, or inflation - basically betting on the future, but fully on-chain. Since going legit in the U.S., the platform’s been blowing up, and ICE wants in. Pump Polymarket’s event data into institutional tools and tokenize event contracts, turning predictions into a new kind of asset. Wall Street isn’t sitting on the sidelines anymore. It’s betting big, betting on-chain, and betting that prediction markets are about to go from a niche DeFi side quest to a whole new asset class.
DeFi just hit an all-time high, and at the same time, user activity dropped off a cliff. According to DappRadar, the total value locked (TVL) across DeFi protocols hit a record $237 billion in Q3 2025: the highest ever, while the number of daily active wallets fell 22% quarter-over-quarter to 18.7 million. The data shows a widening gap between the influx of institutional capital and fading retail engagement. Big money keeps pouring into DeFi, but regular users are logging out. The hit was worst in SocialFi and AI DApps, where activity tanked by millions of users. AI-focused apps dropped from 4.8M to 3.1M daily users, and SocialFi crashed from 3.8M to just 1.5M.
So why is liquidity soaring while user activity is shrinking? DappRadar points to a few key factors. Institutional exposure to Bitcoin and stablecoins is climbing fast, helped by the U.S. GENIUS Act, which brought some long-awaited regulatory clarity. At the same time, tokenized RWA are gaining traction, pumping fresh liquidity into the system. Stables became the real bridge between crypto and TradFi, with inflows hitting $46 billion in Q3 led by USDT and USDC. Even new infrastructure is popping up around them: Plasma, a layer-1 chain built just for stablecoins, hit over $8B TVL in its first month live. Among networks, Ethereum still leads with $119B locked, only dipping 4% from last quarter. Solana took a hit, down 33% to $13.8B, while BNB Chain jumped 15%, fueled by the new DEX Aster, which exploded in September. In short, Q3 was a paradox: record liquidity and institutional confidence paired with fading retail energy. DeFi’s never looked more valuable on paper or more disconnected from its original users.
🧲 This week had it all: panic, pressure, and proof that crypto’s heartbeat is stronger than ever.If you’re still here, you’ve earned the right to breathe, to zoom out, and to double down on your conviction. The noise will fade, but what’s being built right now will shape everything that comes next. Pay attention: every headline, every shift, every signal matters more than ever. The ones who read the market right this time won’t just survive - they’ll lead.
