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Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan bumped up its economic forecast for 2025 to 3.2%, a jump from what officials predicted earlier this year.

Chan plans to maintain this upward trend by strengthening the city’s role across areas such as finance, technology, and trade. Earlier in February, he had estimated growth would land between 2% and 3%.

Hong Kong sees record year in stock listings

Hong Kong led the world in new stock listings this year, and authorities want more companies from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to list on the exchange. Chan noted in a recent blog post that the city will encourage broader worldwide acceptance of China’s currency. The plan places a significant priority on technological advancement.

To remain competitive globally, Hong Kong plans to grow its biotech and artificial intelligence sectors. Authorities are equally committed to helping Chinese businesses expand into foreign markets by utilizing Hong Kong’s position as a center for regional trade. “Looking into next year, Hong Kong’s economy is expected to keep the good trend of growth,” Chan said. “Finance, tech innovation, and trade will be Hong Kong’s key engines of growth as the city actively embraces China’s development strategy.”

The Hang Seng Index climbed 30 percent this year, making it one of the top-performing stock markets worldwide. Chan pointed to strong exports, active spending on buildings and equipment, and improving consumer spending as reasons the city did better than expected. To improve its financial center status, Hong Kong will make its stock market more competitive and grow trading in bonds, money markets, fintech, commodities, and gold.

Chan called AI a “core industry” for the future, saying the technology will determine how competitive economies are and change the global economy. The city is building a new center for managing cross-border supply chains and trade financing to help Chinese companies grow their international business.

The post Hong Kong makes 3.2% growth prediction for next year first appeared on Coinfea.

Big Ethereum player Bitmine has also launched staking on its Ethereum holdings, which represents about 74880 ETH in value amounting to 219 million. 

This position is the first time that the company made a profit out of its Ethereum treasury which is now over 4 million tokens. Bitmine plans to earn 5% of the overall supply of Ethereum in addition to earning a large amount of staking revenue.

Bitmine Activates Ethereum Staking

Recently, a considerable number of Ethers were deposited into the BatchDeposit contract by Bitmine-linked wallets. The staking program will enable the company to obtain an average of 3.12% yield on its investments every year. On-chain analyst EmberCN outlined that assuming that Bitmine puts all of its 4.066 million ETH to stake it can earn around 126,800 ETH in interest per year, worth now $371 million. The company had not staked previously despite having one of the largest treasuries in the market in Ethereum.

The company has bought almost 100,000 ETH last week with an average price of 2,991 allotted to each token. These acquisitions put the company back on track to profit as Ethereum rose to a level of above $3000. The staking of the company is in line with the long-term accumulation plan of Ethereum, which is highlighted by Chairman Tom Lee. Bitmine already owns approximately 3.37% of the total supply of Ethereum and intends to take it to 5%.

Strategic Growth and Institutional Influence

Bitmine has increased its stock by 606% since June as investors are optimistic about its focused Ethereum exposure. The company plans to increase its staking business using its Made-in-America Validator Network. The first program will be a pilot program involving three institutional partners, which will aim at generating further investment value through staking as it pursues its core accumulation program.

The rising applicability of Ethereum to tokenization and institutional finance is emphasized by industry experts. Sharplink Gaming co-CEO Joseph Chalom estimates that the overall value locked in Ethereum will be ten times higher in 2026 as more applications and institutional users are on-chain. Stablecoins and real world assets will also play a major role in the growth of Ethereum and the market can grow by up to half a trillion by the year end.

Ethereum’s Market Outlook

Tom Lee is optimistic about Ethereum and predicts that the price will be between $7000 and $9000 at the beginning of 2026. He identifies the dominance of the network in tokenized assets, stablecoins, and real-world assets as some of the main drivers of growth. There will be institutional interests in large financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, and BlackRock, which will increase their support of Ethereum as the core of blockchain development.

Another point that Chalom emphasizes is the role of Ethereum as a financial insurance against global financial changes. According to her, the tokenization of equities and institutional participation make it strategic. Staking returns combined with treasury accruals and market development make Ethereum an essential technology asset to both investors and institutions.

The staking initiative by Bitmine can be interpreted as an indication of a rise in confidence in the long-term prospects of Ethereum and its central role in the changing crypto ecosystem.

The post Ethereum Giant Bitmine Stakes $219 Million in ETH as Treasury Tops 4 Million Tokens first appeared on Coinfea.

As tokenized real-world assets on the XDC Network cross $717 million, data from TradeFi.Network shows nearly half of that capital now sits inside a private-credit allocator; institutional finance is actually moving on-chain.

On-chain data from TradeFi.Network shows that total RWAs tokenized on the XDC Network have reached $717 million. More striking, however, is where that capital is concentrated: $345.3 million, roughly 48% of the network’s RWA, is now deployed through VERT Capital in USDC-denominated private credit pools. The data points to something more deliberate: institutional private credit moving on-chain at scale and selectively.

(Source: TradeFi Network )

What the Data Signals

Three signals emerge clearly from the numbers:

Capital is consolidating, not diversifying.Nearly half of all RWAs on XDC are managed by a single private-credit allocator, suggesting conviction rather than experimentation.

Private credit has overtaken other RWA categories.Unlike tokenized treasuries or commodities, these pools represent long-duration, yield-bearing credit instruments, traditionally among the least transparent corners of finance.

Settlement risk is being minimized.The exclusive use of USDC indicates institutional preference for regulated, fiat-backed settlement over volatile crypto assets.

Why XDC, and Why Now?

Private credit markets exceed $1.6 trillion globally and are expected to reach $3 trillion, according to Moody’s analysis, yet much of the infrastructure remains manual and opaque. Tokenization does not change credit risk, but it radically changes settlement speed, reporting, and operational efficiency.

(source: Moody)

The XDC Network has quietly positioned itself around those exact requirements: low transaction costs, predictable finality, and permission-aware infrastructure tailored for financial institutions.

The result, according to TradeFi data, is not a surge of small issuers, but fewer, larger pools deploying meaningful capital.

One of the largest concentrations of tokenized private credit has formed without marketing campaigns or retail incentives. If this pattern continues, the next phase of RWA adoption may be defined less by pilots and more by which blockchains quietly become settlement layers for institutional balance sheets. 

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The post Mapping $717 Million in RWA on XDC Network: Why Institutional RWAs Are Clustering on One Network! first appeared on Coinfea.

JPMorgan has frozen the accounts of two Y Combinator-backed stablecoin startups, Blindpay and Kontigo, over links to Venezuela, a country currently under heavy United States sanctions.

According to reports, both startups had connected to JPMorgan through Checkbook, a United States-based payments company. But the association with high-risk jurisdictions set off alarm bells. In its statement, JPMorgan insisted it is not cracking down on stablecoins. “This has nothing to do with stablecoin companies,” a bank spokesperson allegedly said. “We bank both stablecoin issuers and stablecoin-related businesses, and we recently took a stablecoin issuer public.”

JPMorgan freezes accounts over Venezuela sanctions

Still, the startups’ activity in Venezuela triggered concerns tied to the United States’ financial rules, especially sanctions enforcement. Banks like JPMorgan are mandated to know who they’re dealing with and where their money is coming from, or else the SEC would visit with sanctions.

While JPMorgan was shutting off access, President Donald Trump was going full steam ahead with new actions against Venezuela. Two weeks ago, Trump’s administration intercepted two tankers full of Venezuelan oil, with a third one now being tracked. Speaking to reporters, the president said, “Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping the ships also.”

At the center of the crackdown is Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, which has been blacklisted under Executive Orders 13850 and 13884 since 2019. Trump’s Treasury Department claimed in its official notice that oil sales are keeping Nicolás Maduro’s regime afloat. Earlier this month, they officially labeled fentanyl (which they allege flows through Venezuela) a “weapon of mass destruction.”

The United States Treasury Department, on December 11, sanctioned six shipping companies that have been moving oil out of Venezuela using shady location tactics and fake data transmissions. The first company is Myra Marine Limited, based in the Marshall Islands. Next is Arctic Voyager Incorporated, also from the Marshall Islands. Then there’s Poweroy Investment Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Ready Great Limited, also from the Marshall Islands, was also sanctioned along with Sino Marine Services Limited, a UK-registered company that runs the TAMIA (IMO: 9315642), which was flagged in Hong Kong. Lastly, Full Happy Limited, also registered in the Marshall Islands, took on oil in late May and sent it to Asia. Just like the others, it got hit with the same designation: E.O. 13850.

The post JPMorgan freezes Blindpay and Kontigo accounts first appeared on Coinfea.

A former Coinbase support agent in India has been arrested in connection with the massive security breach involving the crypto giant earlier this year. The arrest was confirmed by both Coinbase and Indian police in Hyderabad, and came months after hackers bribed customer service staff to steal customer information.

The breach triggered a $20 million ransom demand and left the company facing a $400 million fallout. The breach began in May, when hackers managed to buy access from Coinbase contractors outside the United States, gaining entry to internal systems. “What these attackers were doing was finding Coinbase employees and contractors based in India who were associated with our business process outsourcing or support operations, that kind of thing, and bribing them to obtain customer data,” said Philip Martin, Coinbase’s Chief Security Officer.

Coinbase confirms the arrest of the suspect

The breach was wide, allowing the attackers access to customer accounts for months. This type of social engineering attack has become a growing problem in the crypto world. Philip denied that the hackers had full access the entire time. In an interview with Bloomberg News, he mentioned that once the company discovered staff were leaking data, their access was immediately revoked.

“They did not have persistent access over the course of the entire period,” he claimed. The arrest was announced on X by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said, “We have zero tolerance for bad behavior and will continue to work with law enforcement to bring bad actors to justice. Thanks to the Hyderabad Police in India, an ex-Coinbase customer service agent was just arrested. Another one down and more still to come.”

However, not everyone in the crypto community was impressed. One user replied under Brian’s post: “lol why you acting like this is a win. You hired them in the first place.” Meanwhile, Coinbase is still digging out of the mess. The cost of repairing damage and reimbursing affected users could be as high as $400 million, putting it among the top ten biggest crypto hacks ever, according to Elliptic.

A Coinbase spokesperson also confirmed the India arrest and said it followed the firm’s work with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, where charges were recently filed against a Brooklyn man accused of running “a long-running impersonation scheme targeting Coinbase customers.”

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XRP appears poised for a period of sideways movement as analysts point to limited short-term drivers. 

Market observers say fresh catalysts are needed before the token can resume sustained price growth.

Nansen senior research analyst Jake Kennis said XRP may struggle to gain momentum until broader conditions improve. He expects more supportive conditions for risk assets in the latter half of 2026, while near-term sentiment remains cautious.

XRP outlook remains neutral in the near term

Kennis said altcoins face mild downside pressure until Bitcoin consolidates or forms a clear bottom. He did not offer price targets for 2026. However, he outlined potential long-term drivers for XRP price appreciation.

These include approval of XRP exchange-traded funds and deeper integration with global payment systems. He also cited improved functionality for XRP as a bridge asset across payment networks. Without these developments, XRP may remain range-bound.

Other market participants share a similar view. Jesus Perez, CEO of Posidonia21 Capital Partners, said XRP could trade near current levels into year-end. He said the market lacks a strong narrative to push the token into a new trend.

Perez added that ongoing discussions around staking have not resolved XRP’s lack of a clear yield mechanism. This remains a disadvantage compared with other major digital assets.

Technical signals and ETF flows offer mixed signals

Some traders see tentative technical support forming. Crypto trader Niels said XRP is setting a higher low similar to patterns seen in April 2025. He noted that prices above $2 could suggest renewed bullish control.

Despite these signals, XRP’s performance in 2025 has lagged. The token has fallen 14.63 percent since the start of the year. It currently trades at around $1.84, based on CoinMarketCap data.

Institutional interest has grown through regulated products. Spot XRP ETFs in the United States surpassed $1 billion in assets earlier this month. CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung attributed this demand to XRP’s long market history and brand recognition.

Still, ETF inflows have not yet translated into sustained price gains.

Ripple growth highlights adoption and price disconnect

Ripple has processed more than $95 billion in payments across its network. However, XRP’s price has not mirrored this expansion. Analysts note that infrastructure growth does not automatically increase token value.

Ripple Labs has captured much of the financial upside. The firm recently secured approval for Ripple National Trust Bank. The bank raised nearly $500 million and achieved a valuation near $40 billion.

Regulatory progress has also continued abroad. Singapore’s Monetary Authority approved expanded payment activities for Ripple’s APAC subsidiary. This move enables new regulated payment services in the region.

Banks such as SBI Holdings use XRP for faster settlement and lower costs. They do not hold the token for price appreciation.

XRP faces a period of consolidation as adoption advances without clear price catalysts. Analysts say future gains depend on ETFs, payments integration, and improved token utility. Until then, sideways trading may persist.

The post XRP set to drift sideways as analysts await new catalysts first appeared on Coinfea.

The changes in Bitcoin prices are not accidental, and new facts provided by Japan are able to confirm it. 

According to the researchers, blockchain operations are capable of providing warning signals prior to volatility in prices. Results conflict with traditional ideas concerning the nature of Bitcoin volatility.

The scholars and analysts in Japan state that transaction networks can be studied to predict market shocks. Their operations are based on artificial intelligence and are not based on traditional price information and volume information. The study comes at a time when more Japanese companies are including Bitcoin as corporate balance sheets.

The study of Bitcoin relinquishes its attention to halving cycles

According to Japanese researchers, the price fluctuations of Bitcoin can be attributed to the structure of the blockchain. Their analysis is based on the transaction networks rather than macro events or supply schedules. The strategy does not subscribe to the notion that halving cycles govern the price movement.

The paper was issued through the Research Institute of Economic Trade. and Industry. A think tank supported by the government examined wallet interactions over the Bitcoin network. It has found influential wallets that precede significant price changes.

These wallets are nodes in transaction flows. Scientists state that they increase the abnormal activity associated with sharp rallies or sell-offs. Once such nodes are activated, it is followed by price instability.

The paper recommends that demand and liquidity prevail over supply cuts. Analysts suppose that this is the reason why the effects of halving are weaker with time. The nature of markets has been subjected to more short-term trading patterns.

The use of Bitcoin in corporations is increasing in Japan

The use of Bitcoin is proliferating among Japanese listed companies. A number of companies have considered the asset as a long-term treasury. This has seen more interest in crypto risk management tools.

ANAP Holdings became more exposed to Bitcoin in late December. This company purchased more than 109 BTC at approximately 1.5 billion yen. It currently has over 1,346 BTC holdings.

The chief executive of ANAP. Rintaro Kawai, stated that early adoption has strategic benefits. He cautioned that failure to do so early could be restrictive to future gains. The company advances Bitcoin as a fundamental business resource.

Metaplanet has been more aggressive. The company minimized its retail and real estate activities. It currently prioritizes nearly all of its attention to Bitcoin acquisition and owns more than 30,000 BTC.

The volatility of Bitcoin is a sign of crowd behavior

Bitcoin is still vulnerable to a decline in price. In October it was at an all-time high of almost $125,000. Then it dropped to approximately $110,000 at the beginning of November.

According to analysts, crypto does not have a defined intrinsic value. Sentiment and risk appetite are typical of price swings. Rakuten Wallet President Yasuo Matsuda told Coin Telegraph that Bitcoin is a reflection of the world’s anxiety.

According to Cornell economist Eswar Prasad, most volatility is caused by short-term traders. Most of them give up when the feeling runs out. This practice promotes boom and bust.

Japanese scientists are of the opinion that such changes can be identified with the help of monitoring abnormal wallets. They have an AI model that can identify hints of defensive market behavior. The investors tend to sell Bitcoin and then decrease other risk assets.

The authors indicate that blockchain data can potentially provide useful risk warnings. Early warnings might also be of benefit to regulators and exchanges. The study by Japan is a fresh perspective on the study of Bitcoin markets.

The post Bitcoin price swings show early signals on Japan’s blockchain networks first appeared on Coinfea.

Lithuania has announced that crypto platforms and firms must obtain a license to operate by December 31. According to the warning from the country’s central bank, any firm that fails to follow the rules will attract sanctions.

With the Baltic state serious about enforcing European rules, all crypto-related entities in Lithuania are obliged to have a license, with the monetary authority in Vilnius urging them not to wait until the very last moment to apply for one. A transitional period, allowing businesses active in the space, such as cryptocurrency exchange and wallet operators, to secure the necessary authorization, is set to expire at the end of 2025.

Lithuania orders crypto firms to comply with MiCA

The Central Bank of Lithuania (CBL) recently reminded participants in the market that this is not merely a recommendation, but a mandatory requirement, as noted by regional media this week. The licensing regime was introduced through legislation transposing the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation into national law.

After the December 31 deadline, measures will be taken against those who continue to work unlicensed, including fines, blocking of websites, and even criminal prosecution, the leading Russian crypto news outlet Bits.media detailed in a report on Wednesday. In a notice, Lietuvos Bankas called on platforms that do not intend to file license applications to take steps to ensure they terminate their activities smoothly.

Dalia Juškevičienė, head of the CBL’s Investment Services and Undertakings Supervision Division said, “Participants of the crypto-asset services market that do not plan to continue their operations should not delay and launch active communication campaigns to ensure that all of their clients are properly and timely informed of the winding down.”

Mandatory licensing deadline draws closer

Juškevičienė insisted users should be well-informed on the timeframe of the process and receive detailed instructions on how to transfer their fiat funds and cryptocurrency holdings elsewhere. She added that customers must also be offered an option to exchange their digital coins and have the money transferred to a custodian of their choice or self-hosted wallets.

“Operators should take all possible steps to ensure that assets belonging to their clients are returned before they are no longer authorized to provide crypto-asset-related services,” the press release added. Onboarding new users and accepting crypto assets, as well as the continued provision of related services without a MiCA license, will be deemed to constitute illegal financial activities from January 1, according to the Central Bank of Lithuania.

The regulator also warned that under the country’s criminal code, these are punishable by way of fines and even imprisonment for up to four years. Furthermore, Lietuvos Bankas remarked it’s empowered to restrict access to the websites of companies suspected of providing financial services outside the law. The monetary authority maintains a database of such entities and notifies relevant law enforcement agencies about any potentially criminal activities in the industry.

The post Lithuania announces crackdown on unlicensed exchanges from January first appeared on Coinfea.

Trust Wallet has reported a security incident, coinciding with one of its latest updates. On-chain researcher ZachXBT identified over $6M in stolen funds. Trust Wallet noted that the incident was connected to the browser extension version 2.68.

The platform warned users to disable the extension and move to version 2.69. However, users on mobile were not impacted by the breach. Trust Wallet was in the news after adding native prediction markets. Previously, the wallet served as a one-stop hub for all Web3 activities.

Binance’s founder and former CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao immediately reacted to the incident, stating all users would be compensated. The Trust Wallet team is still investigating how the exploiters managed to submit a flawed version to the app store for downloads under the official wallet brand.

Trust Wallet suffers security breach

The initial wallet draining was noted soon after the update from December 24, with the exploit continuing for days before being detected by ZachXBT. Initially, users were urged not to use the extension while salvaging funds via the desktop or mobile versions. The problems emerged only when inputting private seeds into the flawed extension.

In addition, ZachXBT identified Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana wallets affected by the exploit. According to his data, hundreds of wallets were affected. Trust Wallet has announced that the losses will be compensated. ZachXBT has not mentioned if the exploit has compromised the private keys themselves, but users may have to generate new wallets.

Some of the affected addresses lost small amounts of BTC after years of holding. On ETH, the exploiter aggregated tokens into several intermediary addresses. Later, some of the Trust Wallet exploiter wallets sent out the funds to exchanges. The exploiter used ChangeNOW, FixedFloat, as well as high-profile exchanges like KuCoin and HTX.

Most of the destination wallets have been flagged. Some of the addresses contain only a few hundred dollars, while others have accumulated as much as $49,000. In the end, the hack estimates reached $6.77M, with around $2.35M remaining in all of the exploiter’s known addresses after moving and swapping funds.

The post Trust Wallet suffers security breach, loses $6 million to hackers first appeared on Coinfea.

RWA tokenization leads crypto narratives in 2025 as most digital asset sectors posted weak or negative returns.

Tokenized real-world assets stood out amid a slow altcoin market and cautious investor sentiment.

The broader crypto market delivered modest performance in 2025, with few sectors sustaining gains. Investors favored infrastructure, yield, and regulated exposure over speculative growth. This shift shaped market outcomes across all major narratives.

RWA tokenization outperforms the market

RWA tokenization recorded the strongest performance among crypto narratives in 2025. According to Coingecko research, leading RWA tokens gained an average of 185.8% over the year. Demand focused on on-chain access to traditional financial products, including tokenized stocks and treasuries.

Chainlink emerged as a key proxy for tokenized equity exposure, despite not being a pure RWA platform. Smaller tokenization projects maintained modest valuations despite rising usage. ONDO reached a market capitalization of $1.2 billion, even as it became a major hub for real-world asset issuance.

Returns were concentrated among established projects. Smaller RWA tokens underperformed, reflecting limited liquidity and cautious capital allocation. Still, tokenization gained traction as one of the few narratives with sustainable growth. By late 2025, increased interest driven by regulatory clarity and institutional participation.

Layer one tokens struggle to keep pace

Layer one tokens underperformed in 2025, despite continued network usage. Ethereum declined nearly 10% over the past year. Activity grew across stablecoins and lending, yet ETH failed to reach a higher trading range.

Solana dropped over 34% in the past month to $123.52. The network remained active as a trading and meme hub. Price gains, however, proved difficult to sustain. BNB and TRX were exceptions, rising 22% and 9.9% respectively over twelve months.

Smaller layer one networks faced sharper declines. Avalanche fell 66.5% despite plans to expand its DeFi presence. Telegram’s TON dropped 73.4% to $1.52. User growth did not translate into lasting liquidity or valuation support.

Memes, AI, and gaming face deep losses

Memes and AI agents remained popular but posted weak price performance. Meme tokens declined 31.6% on average in 2025. AI agent tokens fell 50.2% year to date. These losses reduced activity across decentralized exchanges.

DEX-related tokens dropped 55.5% amid falling trading volumes. Layer two tokens declined 40.6% on average, even as networks retained users. The Solana ecosystem fell more than 64% as meme trading slowed.

GameFi and DePIN tokens performed the worst. DePIN assets dropped over 95% on average. The AI narrative failed to revive older infrastructure-focused projects.

RWA tokenization proved resilient during a challenging year for crypto markets. Most narratives struggled as capital rotated toward new use cases. The 2025 cycle favored stability, utility, and real-world integration over speculative returns.

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BTC and ETH markets take on record year-end options expiry as traders liquidate positions worth $28 billion on Deribit. 

The expiry was a monthly, quarterly, and annual combination contract, and it became the biggest event in history. The markets were resilient, but the data of options indicated pessimism and a desire to insure against a fall.

gm to everyone who knows that the largest options expiry day of the year is here

— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) December 26, 2025

The crypto derivatives market is being reinvented by record options expiry

In the year-end trading period, Deribit recorded the biggest options expiry in crypto history. The event was over 50% of the total number of open options on the site. The amount of trading improved before the settlement with investors reorganizing their portfolios.

Bitcoin options took center stage on the expiry, and approximately 267,000 contracts were expired. The notional annual value of the BTC options was equal to 23.6 billion. The put-to-call ratio was 0.35, indicating that more calls were in demand even though the risk was increasing.

Etherium was also busy, and 1.28 million options were expiring. These agreements were worth not less than $3.71 billion. The highest level of pain realized by ETH options was around the 3,100 level.

Options that have a maturity of March comprise approximately 30% of open interest. The change is an indicator of a new orientation towards the next quarter. The role of institutional participation and large holders increased in terms of scale of activity.

Deribit awaits a record options expiry event, with $28B in notional positions expiring, out of a total open interest of $42B. | Source: CoinGlass.

Market sentiment reflects rising caution among traders

The expiry of the options was at a time when there was poor sentiment in the crypto markets. The fear and greed index was 27, which is slightly more than the previous week. The pressure on prices was put on by low liquidity at the end of the year.

Bitcoin and Ethereum were further pressured by lower levels of trade. The optimism about the broader market died following the recent price movements. This is why the fourth quarter of 2025 became one of the most difficult in recent years.

At the beginning of the year, Bitcoin rose to its highs, but he could not manage to maintain the momentum. There was abrupt volatility that triggered selling pressure and long liquidations. The data on options indicated that more hedging was taken against further falls.

Options positioning points to downside expectations

Deribit positioning shows traders are cautious on the near-term prospects of Bitcoin. The clusters of put options are found in the range of 75,000 to 85,000. The highest concentration of open contracts is in the strike of $75,000.

The call options rise beyond the 90,000 mark. This pattern will imply that dealers anticipate opposition prior to the revival of an upswing. The highest possible BTC options are around $95,000, which is above the existing spot prices.

Bitcoin was trading at close to $88,701 in a narrow band over several weeks. Efforts to sell above $90,000 have been met with uniform selling. Analysts project volatility in the short run, trading through skinny holiday trading.

The markets of BTC and ETH can absorb the record year-end expiry of options with a significant lack of severe disruption. But options data reveal continued precautions on the part of traders. The market is currently seeking better directional indicators at the beginning of 2026.

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Ethereum co-developer Vitalik Buterin has predicted bug-free smart contracts in the future. According to Buterin, developers who prefer security can expect bug-free coding to become achievable in the 2030s.

Speaking after Gnosis Chain’s controversial hard fork to recover $9.4 million from the Balancer hack, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the belief that “bugs are inevitable, you can’t make bug-free code” will stop being true in the 2030s. Buterin made this on blogging platform X, after interacting with several users on the platform.

Vitalik Buterin makes a case for bug-free code

The discussion began when Gnosis Chain announced that it executed a hard fork on December 22, as reported by Cryptopolitan. The hard fork recovered $9.4 million stolen during the November 2024 Balancer exploit, which drained over $128 million across multiple blockchains. The recovery required most validators to adopt new software, with those who failed to update facing penalties.

This development was met with some resistance from blockchain supporters who criticized the move because it goes against the principle of immutability. An X user with the moniker ‘colluding node’ said the real problem is how blockchain applications are built. They argued that using smart contracts in programmable virtual machines is the wrong approach.

“There are only 7 contracts worth writing, and they should just be enshrined in the base layer and get security from client diversity,” the user wrote. Buterin then responded by clarifying that formally verified does not equal provably bug-free. “I’d even go so far as to say that ‘provably bug-free’ is not possible, because ‘bug-free’ means ‘no gap between intention and code execution’, and our intention is an extremely complex object we have only limited access to,” he added.

Formal verification uses mathematical methods to check whether safety-critical systems perform correctly. The technique has been used since the 1960s in fields like aerospace engineering. When used in smart contracts, formal verification can prove that a contract’s business logic meets a predefined specification. However, even though Balancer contracts were audited 11 times, conducted by four separate security firms, a critical flaw still slipped through.

Buterin proposed that the solution is multiple layers of redundancy to filter out gaps between intention and execution. He pointed to type systems as one form of redundancy, and formally verifying specific claims about code as another layer. Formal verification can detect issues such as integer underflows and overflow, re-entrancy, and poor gas optimizations that may slip past auditors and testers.

Meanwhile, traditional testing can only check for the presence of errors rather than their absence. Buterin noted that some software will continue having bugs because functionality gains matter more than perfection in certain cases. But developers who prioritize security will have the tools to achieve truly bug-free code.

The post Vitalik Buterin predicts bug-free smart contracts in the future first appeared on Coinfea.

PENGU has continued to register gains even as the rest of the cryptocurrency market continued to drop deeper into the red. The development occurred after Pudgy Penguins surprised investors with a visit to the Las Vegas Sphere, a world-renowned venue for cultural events and entertainment.

Some market watchers said it was an outlier in the broader sell-off. Despite investors abandoning cryptocurrencies, no-coiners came to PENGU due to branding momentum, rather than technical progress. At the time of publication, PENGU was trading on CoinMarketCap, with a 1.8% increase to $0.00906 over the last 24 hours. Those gains represented a marked improvement over other tokens, which saw their respective values decline over a similar period.

PENGU gains popularity after Vegas Sphere appearance

Pudgy Penguins reported the activation of the brand in Las Vegas in its X post. The team announced in a subsequent post that the brand had gone live through the Exosphere of Sphere Vegas, the world’s largest digital exhibition space. Also, the penguin figure covered the giant dome at night. The Sphere is well-known for being one of the most advanced digital display venues in the world.

The Sphere is also visible to millions of people, whether in person or on screen, both within its walls and beyond. Crypto projects do not receive such exposure, as analysts noted that the show helped Pudgy Penguins break out of its niche crypto world and reach a wider audience. The heightened visibility has reignited interest in the PENGU token, despite the overall slow market.

It is not the only token performing well under these conditions. Earlier, PENGU also gained during a market slowdown linked to a profile-picture trend on Coinbase, which boosted its popularity on social media. Recently, it has become one of the most popular memecoins on the Solana blockchain, thereby increasing its liquidity in that market. Analysts said brand exposure and social engagement were the main reasons behind the gains.

Pudgy Penguins has always been about building its brand, not trying to gain clout overnight. The Las Vegas Sphere activation aligns with this tactic. The project has also evolved beyond collectibles and into products made for daily consumption. One of their initial successes was Pudgy Party, which garnered more than 750k downloads in its first week. That adoption has been so strong that some are eyeing the continued user growth of PENGU as a potential cost for pricing up in a few years.

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Binance’s CZ has again urged Bitcoin investors to act during fear, not excitement. He said long-term gains often come from buying amid uncertainty, not at record highs.

Changpeng Zhao shared the view in a recent X post. He argued that early Bitcoin buyers entered during fear, uncertainty, and doubt. He added that few successful investors bought at all-time highs.

Binance’s CZ highlights fear as the best entry point

Binance’s CZ reminded traders that regret often appears after strong rallies. He said investors wish they bought earlier, yet ignore fearful conditions. According to Zhao, those moments define strong conviction.

His remarks came during uneven crypto sentiment. Market indicators had stayed in extreme fear for weeks. They later showed slight recovery, signaling caution instead of optimism.

Zhao has often linked emotion to poor timing. He warned that excitement usually appears near market tops. Fear tends to dominate when prices weaken. He believes disciplined investors act against crowd sentiment.

Crypto community echoes Zhao’s market stance

Several traders supported Zhao’s comments online. An X user encouraged buying Bitcoin during the holiday period. He claimed institutions are quietly positioning for a possible 2026 rally.

Another user said real wealth forms during doubt, not hype. He argued that early investing demands emotional strength. He noted that fear, not price, discourages most participants.

Lawrence Lanzilli also backed the view. He said conviction grows when sentiment turns negative. He added that similar patterns may appear in AI-linked tokens.

RWAlytics, an Australian tokenization insights firm, shared a similar message. It stated that traders want low prices without fear. It argued that fear is unavoidable during early accumulation phases.

Another market observer compared current conditions to the 2018 bear market. He said quiet downturns often prepare the next cycle. He suggested the current lull could serve a similar role.

Market data shows pressure across digital assets

On December 24, the total crypto market value slipped 1.1%. Combined capitalization stood near $3.02 trillion. Daily trading volume reached $98.49 billion.

Losses spread across most assets during the session. Bitcoin still held a market cap of nearly $1.73 trillion. It maintained clear dominance despite broad weakness.

Zhao has long promoted buying during fear and selling during greed. In late November, he repeated that strategy publicly. He said profit comes from understanding cycles, not emotions.

Some critics questioned his timing due to market volatility. Others supported the message and urged patience. Binance CEO Richard Teng also reassured investors then. He said volatility affects all asset classes.

In earlier remarks, Zhao warned against panic selling. He said education builds confidence during downturns. He urged investors to understand finance, technology, and global trends.

Binance’s CZ continues to stress discipline over emotion. His message remains consistent during uncertain market phases.

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South Korean payment company BC Card has concluded its pilot program testing how foreign consumers can pay domestic merchants using stablecoins. The initiative assessed the stability and practicality of integrating digital currencies into the payment ecosystem of the Northeast Asian country.

According to a press statement published on BC Card’s website late Tuesday, the two-month-long pilot was conducted in partnership with blockchain financial firm Wavebridge, international digital wallet provider Aaron Group, and cross-border remittance company Global Money Express.

BC Card finalizes testing phase for stablecoins remittance

In September, BC Card filed a patent for the technology to facilitate stablecoin payments, becoming the first company in the South Korean market to do so. The system calculates the exact number of coins to be deducted from a customer’s digital wallet, accounting for price fluctuations in exchanges, so consumers pay only the necessary amount.

During a press briefing at the time of the patent filing, the president of BC Card, Choi Won-seok, said stablecoins are “a powerful paradigm that can transform existing payment processes.” “As the operator of Korea’s largest payment network, BC Card will lead efforts to create an environment where stablecoin payments can be used anywhere with ease,” Choi told reporters.

The South Korean payment giant has now completed the program, saying it “verified whether foreign currency-based stablecoins held by foreigners could be used within the domestic payment environment.” The demonstration involved converting stablecoins held in overseas wallets into digital prepaid cards, then using the currency-pegged coins at local cafes and supermarkets through only a QR code, similar to its cross-border payment system with Thailand’s Bangkok Bank.

In July, Bangkok Bank and South Korea’s BC Card partnered to launch cross-border QR payments between Thailand and South Korea. South Korean users of the Paybooc app can now make instant QR payments while in Thailand, with transactions processed using real-time exchange rates, according to the companies’ press release. The stablecoin pilot program also incorporated payments into BC Card’s existing card approval and settlement system.

According to BC Card executives, the technical verification test is a preparatory step for creating a stablecoin payment structure in preparation for changes in domestic laws and financial regulations. The company also mentioned it would continue collaborating with crypto-affiliated organizations to help develop a “Korean-style stablecoin payment infrastructure.”

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By 2025, crypto firms went back to conventional markets, years after basing themselves on token sales. 

The transition was a definite change towards controlled financing and expanded access to investors. In 2025, crypto companies reverted to an initial public offering, and a lengthy history of token-based fundraising came to an end. 

A number of high-profile listings were indicators of increased confidence in the regulated capital markets. Investors’ credibility, liquidity, and oversight were more powerful and clearer in the IPO route.

Cryptocurrency firms forego token sale

Cryptocurrency firms had to take years to raise money with the help of the token sale, the so-called public sale, and the so-called rounds. Most of those endeavors hurt trust within the industry. The initial token booms were used to build projects that had huge treasuries but poor execution history.

Subsequent fundraising models were also ineffective at building long-term value. The liquidity and declining demand were experienced in the sales of IDOs and of that nature. Venture capital-backed tokens experienced excessive insider selling throughout their unlock events.

These matters lowered the confidence between retail and institutional investors. New tokens were not usually able to maintain interest in the market once they were introduced. There was also more legal pressure because of the challenges to unregistered token offerings by regulators.

By the year 2025, most companies had taken a new route. Transparency and legal clarity were offered through public listings. The crypto firms were also linked to the global equity markets through IPOs.

Largest IPOs indicate changing interests in the market

The trends of crypto companies going public in 2025 were representative of the industry. CoreWeave provided the highest IPO of this year. The company was launched at a valuation of $23 billion and traded at approximately $42 billion.

The listing reflected a change in mining to AI infrastructure services. CoreWeave had the advantage of increased demand for high-performance computing.

The biggest crypto-native IPO was made by Circle. The issuer of the stablecoin raised over 18 billion. By the end of 2025, its valuation had surpassed $20 billion. The investors supported the role of Circle in the regulated digital payments.

Figure Technology was the third-largest IPO. The firm raised $5.3billion and eventually commanded a $9.7billion valuation. The figure narrowed down to connecting blockchain instruments with the conventional finance systems.

Not every listing was a good one. eToro and Gemini were trading at a lower price than they were offering. The drops were due to reduced trading in the retail and the shifting revenue models.

IPO pipeline builds toward 2026

Cryptocurrency firms are still gearing up to go public in 2026. This trend is supported by the expectations of a good IPO year. Some of the leading candidates are centralized exchanges.

The exchanges became more stringent and enhanced compliance systems. Most of them also increased their services beyond trading. There has been a measure of skepticism in European markets on new listings.

Centralized Exchanges exploring IPO in 2026As crypto matures, the next wave of #IPO candidates (#CEX) is shifting from hype to infrastructure. #CEXs with deep liquidity and regulatory footing are positioning themselves for 2026 listings. pic.twitter.com/wSHFoLgWbd

— CryptoDiffer – StandWithUkraine (@CryptoDiffer) December 23, 2025

Exchanges are taken by public investors as a better growth opportunity whose structure is clearer than of tokens. IPOs, however, are not certain of success. Market conditions and execution are very critical.

Ripple affirmed that it does not intend to have an IPO soon. The decision demonstrates that a public listing is not an appropriate option for all firms.

The revival of IPOs is an indication of a mature crypto industry. Businesses have preferred controlled expansion following expensive litigation. The industry seems oriented towards stability as compared to speedy experimentation.

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Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has announced that it will purchase Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash. In addition, Alphabet mentioned that it will take on the company’s debt. According to the company, the deal will help Alphabet add more data center space and power capacity.

Intersect is also expected to keep operating on its own after the purchase is officially completed. Google faces tough competition in artificial intelligence, especially from OpenAI. OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, which started a huge surge in AI technology. OpenAI has pledged more than $1.4 trillion to build the data centers needed for its growing business. Alphabet wants to match that pace with this purchase.

Alphabet makes Texas operations central to the partnership

Speaking about the deal, Sundar Pichai, who leads Google and Alphabet, said, “Intersect will help us expand capacity, operate more nimbly in building new power generation in lockstep with new data center load, and reimagine energy solutions to drive US innovation and leadership.” Google already owned a small piece of Intersect from an investment last December.

At that time, Intersect said it was working with Google and TPG Rise Climate to build gigawatts of data center capacity across America, including a $20 billion investment in clean energy infrastructure by 2030. Alphabet said Intersect will partner closely with Google’s infrastructure team, including work at a combined power and data center site in Haskell County, Texas.

Google previously said it would invest $40 billion in Texas through 2027, building new data center facilities in Haskell and Armstrong counties. Texas has become a major destination for technology companies looking to build infrastructure. Several big names, including Anthropic, Meta Platforms Inc., and Microsoft, have announced plans to set up shop in the state, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

All these investments show why Texas has turned into a hotspot for tech companies expanding their operations. However, some of Intersect’s California properties and certain Texas operations are not included in the sale. Those will stay with current investors TPG Rise Climate, Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, and Greenbelt Capital Partners as a separate company. The purchase should be finalized in the first half of 2026, pending standard approval requirements.

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The Pentagon has entered a partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI. According to a press release, both parties have agreed on a plan to plug powerful new AI models into the War Department’s internal system, GenAI.mil.

According to the announcement, the first phase of Grok’s deployment will begin in Q1 2026. That rollout will make xAI’s systems available at Impact Level 5 (IL5), meaning the Pentagon can use the tools to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in a secure, day-to-day setting. Personnel will also be able to tap into real-time global insights directly from the X platform, giving decision-makers inside the War Department a faster stream of intel.

xAI partners with the Pentagon to integrate Grok-based tools into operations

In the release, the Pentagon vows that it “will continue scaling an AI ecosystem built for speed, security, and decision superiority.” These IL5-certified models will support everything from logistics to admin, speeding up how the department processes and shares sensitive but unclassified information. The War Department is planning for what it calls “decision superiority,” using AI to reduce delays and streamline planning, expecting that to become standard in daily ops.

But while the Pentagon is ramping up AI on one side, Cryptopolitan previously reported that it’s still struggling to get its books in order. On Friday, the Defense Department revealed it failed its annual financial audit for the eighth year in a row, making it literally the only major federal agency out of 24 to have never cleared an audit since Congress made them mandatory in 2018.

The 2025 Agency Financial Report said it found 26 material weaknesses and two big reporting gaps were flagged by auditors, with the most serious one coming from the Joint Strike Fighter Program, a massive multibillion-dollar effort to build one affordable warplane for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and US allies. According to the audit, the Pentagon failed to record assets from the Global Spares Pool tied to the fighter jets.

Not only were they missing from the books, but the data used to check if they even existed couldn’t be verified. “The DOD could not provide or obtain accurate and reliable data to verify the existence, completeness, or value of its Global Spares Pool assets for the Joint Strike Fighter Program,” auditors wrote. That failure led to “a material misstatement on the Agency-Wide Financial Statements,” the Pentagon’s report said.

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Last month, the Bitcoin mining activity considerably decreased as the network hashrate decreased by 4%, which is the greatest fall since April 2024. 

As VanEck pointed out, such miner capitulation is historically a sign of good future returns on long-term BTC holders. Traders are purchasing the dip despite a 9 percent fall in prices recently.

Declining hashrate is a delicate indication of favourable paybacks

According to VanEck research chiefs Matt Sigel and Patrick Bush, the history of dropping Bitcoin hashrate has tended to be followed by a significant surge in the market. The history has demonstrated that Bitcoin afforded positive returns 90 days later in 65% of occasions after a 30-day decline in hashrate and 54% time after surpassing gains of a hashrate. 

There were also greater 6-month returns, which increased 77% on average when the 90-day hashrate growth was negative, with the average return of 72%. Both periods of increasing hash rate generated positive returns on six months 61 percent of the time, with a lesser average return of 48%.

The figures suggest that a declining hashrate may act as an excellent entry-point to long-term investors, providing nearly 2,400 basis points higher 6-month returns than when the hashrate is rising. This historical trend has been 4% in the current decrease in the network power of Bitcoin, which may indicate the bottom of the market.

Mining in China cripples the hashrate

Regulatory measures in the Xinjiang area of China that saw the government close 1.3 GW of mining capacity have intensified the current slowdown in Bitcoin mining. Jack Kong, the former head of Canaan, affirmed that around 400,000 of the mining machines were lost, consuming net network rate by 100 exahashes per second within one day. China used to be the third largest mining producer in the world, with a mining contribution amounting to approximately 14 per cent of the total network hashrates.

Bitcoin mining is still carried out in several nations despite the crackdown of China in other countries such as Russia, France, Iran, El Salvador, UAE, Oman, Ethiopia, Argentina, Kenya, and Japan. This network support on a global scale adds stability to the network even in times of temporary disruption.

Bitcoin pricing and on-chain activity

The value of Bitcoin is down by 9% in the last 30 days, reaching its bottom point on November 22, at approximately 80,700. The volatility of the market reached more than 45%, which was not observed since April 2025. On-chain statistics indicate that the hash rate has decreased by 1 percent, daily fees are reduced by 14% and the number of active addresses has fallen slightly.

On the upside, the digital asset traders accumulated the maximum number of 42,000 BTC in the past month, the highest amount purchased since mid-July to mid-August 2025. The amount of BTC held by traders has increased to 1.09 million total, being an indicator of increasing demand in a weak market.

According to VanEck’s analysis, the current decrease in hashrate and miner capitulation can be taken as a positive sign. Traditionally, these phases have been beneficial to long-term holders of BTC, and continued accumulation by traders may help in maintaining BTC prices.

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FanDuel is the latest to get on the prediction market bandwagon with a new app that aims at the states where online gambling is not legal. 

The shift indicates increasing competition between the old sportsbooks and new prediction sites. FanDuel is the latest to be on the prediction market bandwagon, following the introduction of FanDuel Predicts by its parent Flutter Entertainment, in five states in the United States. 

The application enables its users to trade event outcomes on federally regulated prediction markets. The launch follows a similar product by DraftKings in most parts of the country.

The introduction is an indication of mounting pressure on the incumbent sportsbooks to act against the rapid development of prediction market startups. 

The Kalshi and Polymarket companies have attracted attention by providing event-based contracts that are regulated by the federal government. Their growth has caused the licensed gambling operators to be concerned about the loss of users.

FanDuel Predicts expands into new U.S. states

FanDuel Predicts has been operational in Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The existing laws in these states do not allow betting on sports online. Prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and this enables greater geographic penetration.

The platform allows users to trade on the results of sporting events, cultural events, and financial indicators. FanDuel indicated that the small opening will assist in gauging user behaviour and the performance of the products. The company intends to increase its presence all around the country in 2026.

James Cooper, the senior vice president of FanDuel, indicated that it will be the basis of future development. He observed that feedback at an earlier stage will influence the platform before it is spread more widely. FanDuel will focus on balancing both innovation and regulation in the process of expansion.

Collaboration with CME Group determines strategy

FanDuel has collaborated with CME Group to uphold the regulation process behind its prediction markets provision. The CME Group offers the exchange platform required to list and clear event contracts in a legal manner. This is the same short-term strategy of DraftKings.

DraftKings has reported that it will ultimately pass trades through an exchange that it owns. FanDuel has not indicated that it is going to construct or purchase its own derivatives venue. It will instead turn to CME Group as it rolls out the product.

FanDuel anticipates providing contracts based on economic data, commodities, and stock indexes of stocks across the country. The contracts of sports will also be confined to the states that do not have legal sports betting online. This restriction can be attributed to the continued regulatory prudence.

Market reaction and regulatory risks

The prediction markets have influenced investor attitudes towards large sportsbooks. During the period between August and November, DraftKings and Flutter stocks fell due to competition issues. Concerns among investors were that startups would reduce market share.

Since the announcement of FanDuel Predicts, Flutter has recovered in its stock. Following the news of the launch, shares increased by up to 1.7%. The recovery is indicative of trust in the strategy of the business.

A number of state regulators have sent warnings regarding sports-related prediction markets. The officials have warned that license holders might be punished in some jurisdictions. These are some of the risks that still play a major role in the way FanDuel goes.

The move that FanDuel made into prediction markets is an indication of a strategy to address the changing trends of betting. The company is trying to regulate alternatives as it maneuvers through complicated state and federal regulations.

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