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 a max‑pain level near $96,000 for BTC and $3,100 for ETH. Implied volatility has eased to a DVOL of 45%, suggesting a potentially orderly settlement despite holiday‑season thin liquidity. Traders are rolling lower‑strike puts into January, adding another layer of strategic positioning ahead of the reset.
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...
Coinbase Shares Rise as ‘Ambitious Expansion’ Wins Analyst Praise
Coinbase shares jumped up to 4.6% after unveiling a roadmap that adds U.S. equity trading, AI‑powered advisory tools, tokenization capabilities, and stablecoin infrastructure. Analysts from J.P. Morgan, Clear Street, and Citi praised the expansion, noting it broadens the addressable market...
Most Influential: Dennis Porter
Dennis Porter, through the Satoshi Action Fund, has driven a surge of state bitcoin reserve laws, delivering legislative language and lobbying support that led to at least ten states adopting the model. While the federal crypto reserve proposal remains stalled,...
PayPal to Use PYUSD Stablecoin to Fund AI Infrastructure Through USD.AI
PayPal is extending its PYUSD stablecoin to fund AI infrastructure by partnering with USD.AI, which will issue on‑chain loans for GPUs and data centers denominated in PYUSD. Borrowers can receive loan proceeds directly into PayPal accounts, blending familiar payment workflows...
Most Influential: Javier Pérez-Tasso
Javier Pérez‑Tasso, CEO of Swift since 2019, has steered the banking‑utility giant into blockchain by launching a proprietary ledger with more than 30 financial institutions. The new network enables 24/7 cross‑border payments, promising faster settlement and greater efficiency. Building on...
Most Influential: Sam Altman
Sam Altman has been named the most influential figure in AI for 2025, highlighting his role in embedding artificial intelligence into work and play. The article explores how the soaring demand for compute is prompting the crypto community to propose...
Trump Media Stock Surges 25% on Merger Agreement with Nuclear Fusion Firm TAE Technologies
Trump Media & Technology Group announced an all‑stock merger with nuclear‑fusion firm TAE Technologies, valuing the deal at over $6 billion. The announcement sent DJT shares up 25% in early trading, despite a year‑to‑date decline. The transaction repositions Trump Media from...
North Korean Hackers Stole a Record $2 Billion of Crypto in 2025, Chainalysis Says
North Korean hackers stole a record $2 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, bringing the regime’s total haul to $6.75 billion. The surge stems from a strategic focus on massive breaches of centralized services, highlighted by a $1.4 billion hack of the Bybit exchange....
SoFi Unveils the First Bank-Issued Stablecoin for Enterprise Payments
SoFi Bank has become the first U.S. national bank to launch a stablecoin, SoFiUSD, which is fully backed 1:1 by cash at the Federal Reserve. The token is live on a public blockchain, offering near‑instant, low‑cost transfers and immediate redemption...
Uniswap Vote Could Soon Tie UNI Token Value to Its Multibillion-Dollar Trading Engine
Uniswap governance has opened voting on the “UNIfication” proposal, which would activate protocol fees on selected v2 and v3 pools and introduce a permanent UNI token burn mechanism. The plan includes an immediate burn of 100 million UNI, cutting circulating supply...
JPMorgan’s Tokenized Dollars Are Quietly Rewiring How Wall Street Moves Money
JPMorgan has introduced its tokenized deposit product, JPM Coin (JPMD), on Coinbase’s public Base blockchain, moving from a private‑chain model to a public‑layer‑2 solution. The token represents interest‑bearing claims on actual bank deposits and is transferable only among whitelisted institutional clients....
Bitcoin Is All over the Place Ahead of U.S. Inflation Data
Bitcoin traded erratically between $86,000 and $90,000 as markets awaited the November U.S. CPI report, expected to rise to 3.1% YoY. The data will be the first comprehensive inflation reading after a government shutdown canceled October’s report, putting the Federal...
VivoPower Eyes $300M Ripple Share Deal, Bagging Nearly $1B in XRP Exposure
Nasdaq‑listed VivoPower announced a joint venture to acquire up to $300 million of Ripple Labs preferred shares, granting investors indirect exposure to roughly 450 million XRP valued near $900 million. The investment vehicle, backed by South Korean asset manager Lean Ventures, targets institutional...
Bitcoin Drifts Lower as $81.3k Emerges as the Market’s Key Fault Line: Asia Morning Briefing
Bitcoin is hovering near $86,400, but Glassnode’s True Market Mean at $81.3k has become the market’s key fault line. Large‑cap crypto assets remain tightly correlated with Bitcoin, making the $81.3k level a critical barrier between a passive drawdown and broader...
CFTC's Acting Chief Pham Poised to Go to Crypto Firm MoonPay Once Mike Selig Lands
Caroline Pham, the acting chief of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will leave her regulator role once Mike Selig is confirmed as the new CFTC chair. She is set to become MoonPay’s chief legal and administrative officer, overseeing the...
Digital Wealth Partners Introduces Algorithmic XRP Trading for Qualified Retirement Accounts
Digital Wealth Partners, an RIA backed by Ascension Group, has introduced an algorithmic XRP trading solution for qualified retirement accounts such as IRAs. Developed with Arch Public, the strategy runs in a separately managed account structure, with assets held in...
Brazilian Stock Exchange B3 to Launch Its Own Tokenization Platform and Stablecoin
Brazil's primary stock exchange B3 announced plans to launch a tokenization platform and a real‑pegged stablecoin in 2026. The platform will enable tokenized assets to trade alongside traditional securities, using a shared liquidity pool that masks the origin of the...
Aptos Drops 5% to $1.50 as Volume Spikes Above Monthly Average
Aptos (APT) slipped 5% in the last 24 hours, settling around $1.50 after a brief rally to $1.64. Trading volume surged, reaching 23% above the 30‑day moving average and 258% above the 24‑hour average during the price rejection. The technical...