Tensions over El Salvador's Bitcoin Holdings Ease as IMF Praises Economic Progress
The IMF praised El Salvador’s faster‑than‑expected economic growth and omitted earlier calls to pause its bitcoin accumulation. The country added over 1,000 BTC in November, bringing its treasury holdings to roughly 7,500 BTC, valued at about $660 million. While the IMF noted progress on selling the Chivo crypto wallet, it highlighted ongoing discussions to improve transparency and risk management around the Bitcoin project. Real GDP is projected near 4% for 2025, with a very positive 2026 outlook supported by record remittances and a $3.5 billion loan package.
Bitcoin Slips, Crypto Stocks Suffer Steep Declines, as Tax-Loss Selling Drives Action, Analysts Say
Bitcoin slipped about 1% to just under $88,000, pulling crypto‑related equities down 6‑16% as analysts attribute the sell‑off to year‑end tax‑loss harvesting. Open interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures fell $3 billion and $2 billion respectively, thinning leverage ahead of a...
Russia’s Central Bank Unveils New Crypto Rules to Be Adopted in 2026
Russia’s central bank released a draft framework that will legalise cryptocurrency trading for retail and qualified investors, with implementation slated for 2026‑2027. The proposal caps retail purchases at 300,000 rubles per year and requires a risk‑awareness test, while qualified investors face...
Solana Treasury-Focused Upexi Files for up to $1 Billion Capital Raise
Upexi, a Nasdaq‑listed crypto‑treasury firm focused on Solana, filed a shelf registration with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion through various securities. The company holds roughly 2 million SOL tokens—about $248 million—making it the fourth‑largest Solana treasury among public companies. Proceeds...
Bitcoin Still Hasn't Hit $100,000 when Adjusted for Inflation: Galaxy's Alex Thorn
Alex Thorn, Galaxy Digital’s global head of research, highlighted that Bitcoin never breached the $100,000 mark when measured in 2020‑dollar terms, topping out at $99,848. While the cryptocurrency’s nominal price peaked around $126,000 in October 2024, inflation‑adjusted figures tell a...
Filecoin Drops as Bears Test Support
Filecoin (FIL) slipped 2.2% to $1.29, trading within a tight five‑cent range after hitting $1.33 resistance. Volume surged 180% to 7.59 million tokens, indicating heavy institutional distribution at the top of the range. Support at $1.28 held, showing continued buyer interest...
Bitcoin Bulls Eye Possible Tailwind as U.S. Dollar Index Continues to Leg Lower
Bitcoin’s price continues its bear market even as the U.S. dollar index slides toward a multi‑year low. The DXY is hovering just above a long‑term support level dating back to the 2008 financial crisis, while gold, silver and copper have...
XRP Holders Can Now Earn Yield without Selling Their Tokens
Flare has introduced earnXRP, a vault that lets XRP holders earn yield without selling their tokens. Users deposit FXRP, a 1:1 representation of XRP on Flare, and receive a receipt token that tracks their share and compounded returns. The vault...
Amplify ETFs Targeting Stablecoin and Tokenization Sectors Open for Trade
Amplify ETFs has launched two new exchange‑traded funds—STBQ and TKNQ—targeting the stablecoin and tokenization ecosystems. Both funds carry a 69‑basis‑point expense ratio and are listed on NYSE Arca. STBQ tracks the MarketVector Stablecoin Technology Index and holds 24 securities, including...
Strategy's Increased Dollar Buffer Covers More than 2 Years of Dividend Obligations
Strategy (MSTR) raised its dollar reserve to $2.2 billion, adding $748 million from a stock sale. The buffer covers roughly 32 months of preferred‑stock dividend obligations, roughly $824 million per year, extending through the next bitcoin halving in 2028. It also positions the...
Coinbase Agrees to Buy The Clearing Company to Deepen Prediction Markets Push
Coinbase announced it will acquire San Francisco‑based startup The Clearing Company to accelerate its nascent prediction‑market offering. The acquisition brings a team with deep experience from Polymarket and Kalshi, including former growth head Toni Gemayel and a former Kalshi compliance...
ETHZilla Sells $74.5 Million of Ether in Effort to Trim Debt Load
ETHZilla, a Nasdaq‑listed firm that builds a reserve of ether, sold 24,291 ETH worth $74.5 million, marking its second large liquidation this year. The cash will be used to redeem senior secured convertible notes under a recent agreement, reducing the company’s...
CME Loses Top Spot to Binance in Bitcoin Futures Open Interest as Institutional Demand Wanes
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has been overtaken by Binance as the leading venue for bitcoin futures open interest, with Binance now holding roughly 125,000 BTC versus CME's 123,000 BTC. CME's open interest fell from a year‑start peak of 175,000...
The Clock Is Ticking for Crypto Tax Loss Harvesting
Crypto investors can use the recent market slump to harvest tax losses before year‑end. By selling assets below cost basis, realized losses offset capital gains and lower taxable income. Unlike stocks, crypto lacks a wash‑sale rule, allowing immediate repurchase, but...
JPMorgan Weighs Crypto Trading for Institutions Amid Growing Demand
JPMorgan Chase is assessing whether to provide spot and derivatives cryptocurrency trading services to institutional clients such as hedge funds and pension funds. The bank’s deliberation follows growing demand for regulated, high‑liquidity digital‑asset venues and a clearer U.S. regulatory outlook....
Prediction Markets May Offer a Tax Loophole for Gamblers Under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, Coinbase Says
Coinbase warns that a provision in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, effective 2026, will limit the deduction of gambling losses against winnings, raising the tax burden for traditional bettors. The change creates a tax advantage for blockchain‑based prediction markets, which may be...
Aave Slides as Community Debates over Who Controls the Brand
A governance dispute over Aave’s brand assets has escalated to a Snapshot vote, pushing the AAVE token down 11% in 24 hours. BGD Labs co‑founder Ernesto Boado argues that the DAO should formally own domains, social handles, and naming rights...
Boxing Day Bonanza: $27 Billion in Bitcoin, Ether Options Set for Year-End Reset
A $27 billion options expiry on Dec 26 will clear $23.6 bn of bitcoin and $3.8 bn of ether contracts on Deribit, representing over half of the exchange’s open interest. The market shows a strong bullish tilt, with a put‑call ratio of 0.38 and...
Bullish Bitcoin Plays on Bitfinex Swell to Highest Since Early 2024
Bitcoin margin long positions on Bitfinex have surged to about 72,700 BTC, the highest level since February 2024. The rise follows a price slide from a peak above $126,000 to roughly $89,750, marking three consecutive months of decline. Historically, such...
Uniswap Vote, U.S. GDP: Crypto Week Ahead
The Uniswap DAO is voting on the UNIfication proposal, which would activate protocol fees, burn 100 million UNI tokens from the treasury, and tighten operational ties between Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation. Early voting indicates overwhelming support, positioning the change...
Hong Kong Proposes New Rules to Tap Insurance Capital Into Cryptocurrencies
Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority has unveiled a proposal allowing its 158 licensed insurers to allocate capital to digital assets, including cryptocurrencies. The framework imposes a 100% risk charge on direct crypto holdings, meaning insurers must set aside an equal amount...
Binance Opens up Ways for Users to Generate Income Using ETH Options
Binance has launched ether options for all users, enabling them to write (sell) ETH options and collect premiums as passive income. The move expands the exchange’s derivative toolkit beyond Bitcoin, responding to growing retail and institutional demand for advanced hedging...
‘DeFi Is Dead’: Maple Finance’s CEO Says Onchain Markets Will Swallow Wall Street
Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell declares “DeFi is dead,” meaning the distinction between decentralized finance and traditional finance will vanish as institutions move capital markets on‑chain. He predicts stablecoins will handle $50 trillion in payments by 2026, driving cost savings for...
Tom Lee Responds to Controversy Surrounding Fundstrat’s Differing Bitcoin Outlooks
Fundstrat co‑founder Tom Lee clarified why the firm’s analysts have issued seemingly conflicting Bitcoin forecasts. Head of digital‑asset strategy Sean Farrell projects Bitcoin could retreat to $60,000‑$65,000 in the first half of 2026, while Lee has suggested the cryptocurrency may...
VanEck's New Avalanche ETF Filing to Include Staking Rewards for AVAX Investors
VanEck has amended its S‑1 filing for the proposed Avalanche ETF, VAVX, to allow the fund to stake up to 70% of its AVAX holdings and capture staking rewards. The rewards, after a 4% service fee to Coinbase Crypto Services,...
Ethereum’s ‘Glamsterdam’ Upgrade Aims to Fix MEV Fairness
Ethereum developers are planning the "Glamsterdam" upgrade, targeting a 2026 launch, to address MEV fairness and improve block execution. The core of the upgrade is Proposer‑Builder Separation (ePBS) under EIP‑7732, which splits block building from proposing, removing reliance on centralized...
Hilbert Group Buys Enigma Nordic in $32 Million Deal to Boost Crypto Trading Edge
Hilbert Group, a Swedish algorithmic‑trading firm, agreed to buy high‑frequency platform Enigma Nordic for $32 million. The deal includes $7.5 million in new Hilbert shares and up to $17.5 million in performance‑based earn‑outs, contingent on Enigma generating $40 million of net income. Enigma reports...
Brazil’s Gen Z Drives Crypto Boom as Stablecoins, Income Tokens Surge
Brazil’s cryptocurrency market is being reshaped by Gen Z investors, whose participation grew 56% in 2025. Younger users favor low‑volatility assets, allocating funds to stablecoins and tokenized fixed‑income products called Renda Fixa Digital (RFD). Mercado Bitcoin distributed roughly $325 million through RFD, achieving returns...
BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF a True Rarity: Massive Inflows Even with Negative Performance
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) pulled in more than $25 billion of new capital in 2025, ranking it sixth among all U.S. ETFs by inflows. Despite a 9.6% decline in price performance, the fund out‑raised the gold‑focused SPDR Gold ETF (GLD),...
Gold Wins the Debasement Trade in 2025, but It Is Not the Full Story
In 2025 gold outperformed bitcoin dramatically, delivering a 65% gain while bitcoin slipped 7% after a 36% correction from its October peak. The two assets were neck‑and‑neck through August, but gold’s surge thereafter cemented its win in the so‑called debasement...
Crypto's Closest Ally in Congress, Sen. Lummis, Is Retiring Next Year
Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Senate’s most vocal crypto advocate, announced she will not seek re‑election, ending her term in January 2027. As the inaugural chair of the Banking Committee’s crypto subcommittee, Lummis has driven market‑structure, tax, and Bitcoin‑reserve legislation. Her departure...
Foundation Behind Restaking Protocol EigenLayer Plans Bigger Rewards for Active Users
The EigenLayer foundation has tabled a governance amendment that creates an Incentives Committee to steer token emissions toward participants securing Actively Validated Services (AVS) and the EigenCloud suite. The plan earmarks 20% of AVS‑related fees and cloud‑service revenues for EIGEN...
Citi Is Still a Believer in Crypto Stocks Despite Bitcoin Being Rocked to End the Year
Citigroup refreshed its digital‑assets equity coverage, reaffirming a bullish outlook despite Bitcoin’s end‑of‑year slump. The bank kept Circle Financial as its top pick, maintaining a $243 price target while the stock trades near $83.60. Bullish and Coinbase also remain favored,...
Most Influential 2025's Honorable Mentions
CoinDesk’s 2025 Most Influential Honorable Mentions spotlight a resurgence in crypto privacy, with Zcash’s Zashi wallet making shielded transactions default and the Canton network securing a partnership with DTCC to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities. Prediction‑market pioneer Kalshi raised $1 billion, expanding...
Most Influential: Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak
The Ethereum Foundation announced Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao‑Wei Wang as its new co‑executive directors, pairing an external client‑builder with a long‑time protocol researcher. Their hybrid leadership aims to steer the foundation as Ethereum transitions from experimental to global‑scale infrastructure. Since...
Most Influential: The Solana Developers
Solana’s 2025 ecosystem blended meme‑coin hype with tangible hardware and protocol upgrades. Early‑year memecoin mania, highlighted by the short‑lived TRUMP token, surged activity before a LIBRA‑related scandal dampened speculation. Meanwhile, the Solana Mobile team released the second‑generation Seeker phone, integrating...
Most Influential: Luke Dashjr
Veteran Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr is leading the debate over Bitcoin’s role after the 2023 Ordinals and 2024 Runes protocols introduced NFTs and fungible tokens on the original blockchain. He argues that expanding data limits via OP_RETURN would flood the network...
Most Influential: Jeff Yan
Jeff Yan, founder of Hyperliquid, has built a decentralized exchange that handled $308 billion in volume in 2024 and processes about $10 billion in trades per day, serving over 570,000 users. The platform runs on a custom layer‑1 blockchain delivering sub‑second finality...
DraftKings Enters Prediction Markets with CFTC-Approved App for Real-World Events
DraftKings has launched DraftKings Predictions, a CFTC‑registered real‑money prediction‑market app available in 38 states. The platform lets users trade contracts on sports, finance and other real‑world events, linking to CME Group and integrating Railbird Technologies. By operating within the traditional...
Poland’s Lower House Approves Crypto Law Again, Sends Vetoed Bill Back to Senate
Poland’s lower house (Sejm) voted 241‑to‑0 to pass the Crypto‑Asset Market Act, re‑introducing the same text that President Karol Nawrocki vetoed earlier this month. The legislation seeks to align domestic rules with the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework, but critics...
Metaplanet to Start Sponsored ADR Program to Woo Over-the-Counter U.S. Investors
Metaplanet announced that its American depositary receipts will begin trading on December 19 under the ticker MPJPY on the U.S. over‑the‑counter market. The sponsored Level I ADRs replace the unsponsored MTPLF instruments and are backed by a formal deposit agreement with Deutsche...
Bybit Returns to UK with 100 Crypto Trading Pairs After 2-Year Break
Bybit, the world’s second‑largest crypto exchange, has re‑entered the United Kingdom after a two‑year hiatus, offering spot trading on 100 currency pairs. The comeback follows the FCA’s 2023 crackdown on crypto advertising, which forced several firms out of the market....
Crypto Breaks Higher as BOJ Decision Clears a Macro Overhang
Bitcoin and ether surged past key technical levels after the Bank of Japan raised rates to a three‑decade high, lifting Asian risk appetite. Bitcoin broke $87,000 while ether climbed alongside a 2 % rise in the CoinDesk 20 index, as equities...
Senate Confirms Trump Crypto-Friendly Nominees to Take over CFTC, FDIC
President Donald Trump secured Senate confirmation for his crypto‑friendly nominees, Mike Selig as CFTC chairman and Travis Hill as FDIC chairman, with a 53‑43 vote. Selig, a former SEC official, inherits a CFTC commission reduced to a single member and...
Altcoins Plunge as Bitcoin's $85,000 Test Triggers $550 Million in Liquidations
Bitcoin slipped below the critical $85,000 support, touching $84,500 before a modest rebound, erasing its earlier rally to $89,500. The breach sparked roughly $550 million in derivatives liquidations, affecting both long and short positions. Altcoins led the sell‑off, with Solana falling...
ECB’s Christine Lagarde Shifts Focus to Digital Euro Rollout After Holding Rates
ECB President Christine Lagarde announced that the central bank has finished the technical and preparatory work for a digital euro, shifting the next steps to political approval by the European Council and Parliament. The ECB kept key interest rates unchanged,...
Bitcoin's 'Realized Cap' Holds at Record High over $1 Trillion, Casting Doubt on Four-Year Cycle
Bitcoin’s realized capitalization—a metric that values each coin at its last moved price—has hit a record $1.125 trillion, even as the cryptocurrency’s price has fallen nearly 40% over the past ten weeks. Glassnode data shows the realized cap continued rising through...
ICP Extends Recovery to Rise Above $3; Trading Volume Increases without Spiking
ICP rose to $3.01, up 2.2% in the past 24 hours, reclaiming the $3 level after a period of consolidation. The token’s price is forming higher lows, indicating a steady recovery rather than a sharp breakout. Trading volume increased modestly,...
BONK Drops 6.2% as Elevated Volume Marks Shift at Key Technical Levels
BONK dropped 6.2% to about $0.00000833 after failing to hold near the $0.0000091 resistance level. Elevated trading volume signaled aggressive speculative selling, while a brief rebound lifted the token above $0.00000830 before it settled near short‑term support. The price now...
DAWN Raises $13M to Expand Decentralized Broadband Networks
DAWN announced a $13 million Series B round led by Polychain Capital to broaden its decentralized broadband protocol. The Solana‑based network will expand across the United States and launch an international pilot in Accra, Ghana. Users can host wireless nodes and earn...
