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2025 was a challenging year for the cryptocurrency market and industry, and it did not spare the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The US-based Bitcoin ETF market experienced wet and dry spells in equal proportions over the course of the year.

However, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker: IBIT), has been a standout performer at times this year. According to the latest market data, the product’s performance in 2025 has earned it a spot among some of the best funds in the global ETF market.

BlackRock’s IBIT Records $25 Billion Net Inflow In 2025 

In a recent post on the social media platform X, senior Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas revealed that BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has ranked sixth in net capital inflows in the past year. This feat comes despite the BTC exchange-traded fund posting a negative return in the same period.

According to data shared by Balchunas, BlackRock’s IBIT registered a net inflow of approximately $25 billion so far this past year. What’s interesting is that the Bitcoin ETF pulled in this significant capital despite being the only fund with negative performance among the traditional equity and bond ETFs, as observed in the chart below.

Interestingly, SPDR’s GLD ETF, the world’s largest physically backed gold exchange-traded product, lags behind BlackRock’s IBIT in terms of capital inflows despite its 64% return in the year. Notably, Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO) led the cohort with a year-to-date capital inflow of over $145 billion.

Furthermore, Balchunas highlighted that while the crypto community would naturally complain about the Bitcoin ETF’s yield, it is also important to recognize the significant feat of attracting the sixth-largest capital in spite of this negative return. According to the ETF expert, this yearly performance is a good sign in the long term.

Balchunas wrote:

If you can do $25b in a bad year, imagine the flow potential in a good year.

The Bloomberg analyst did credit the older, long-term investors (the boomers) in what he called a “HODL clinic” for the positive net inflows seen by BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF.

Bitcoin ETFs Record $497 Million Weekly Outflow

According to SoSoValue data, the US-based Bitcoin ETFs closed the week with a total net outflow of $158 million on Friday, December 19. This brought the ETFs’ record to about $497.05 million in outflows over the past week.

The dismal run of performances in the Bitcoin ETF market can be seen in the price action of the premier cryptocurrency in recent weeks. The Bitcoin price is down by exactly 30% from its all-time high of $126,080.

As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $88,293, reflecting a 2% decline in the past seven days.

Hyundai Group’s Seoul offices were evacuated after an email threatened explosions unless a Bitcoin ransom was paid, authorities and media reports said.

The message demanded 13 Bitcoin — roughly $1.1 million — and set a deadline of 11:30 AM, prompting an immediate safety response across multiple company sites on December 20, 2025.

Threat Sent To Seoul Offices

According to police and news outlets, the email named two locations: the Hyundai Group building in Yeonji-dong, Jongno-gu, and the Hyundai Motor Group tower in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu.

Staff left work and buildings were cleared while local law enforcement mobilized special units. Reports have disclosed that Hyundai moved operations to remote work as officials searched the premises.

Police Clear Buildings After Sweeps

Bomb squads and officers combed rooms and public areas at both sites. Equipment was used and rooms were checked methodically. No explosives or suspicious devices were found, officials reported.

During the hours of searching, streets near the buildings were closed and entry was tightly controlled. No transfer of the demanded 13 BTC has been traced, and Hyundai did not pay the ransom, according to sources close to the company and law enforcement briefings.

Officers said the threat appeared aimed at causing alarm rather than reporting a verifiable plan. Investigators have been collecting digital evidence from the threatening email and are working with cyber units to trace its origin.

Searches of nearby surveillance footage and building logs were carried out as part of standard procedure. Several witnesses described the scene as tense, with employees escorted out calmly and officers coordinating safe movement.

Part Of A Wider Pattern Of Extortion

Based on reports from multiple outlets, this incident is not isolated. Similar threats have targeted major South Korean firms in recent days, with messages mentioning Samsung Electronics, KT, Kakao, and Naver.

Authorities believe some of the messages may be copycat attempts or coordinated extortion that rely on fear rather than real bombs. Officials said they are treating each tip seriously while trying to separate credible leads from hoaxes.

Financial and cybercrime units have noted an uptick in ransom demands tied to cryptocurrencies in the region over the past months. While attackers favor crypto for its cross-border reach, tracing transactions can sometimes reveal useful leads when firms and exchanges cooperate.

Analysts who follow such cases say investigators now routinely combine physical security sweeps with blockchain analysis to follow any money trail.

Hyundai released a brief statement confirming the evacuations and thanking emergency services for their fast response, but it declined to comment on investigative details.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Пока розничные инвесторы опасаются падения цены эфира, корпоративные игроки готовятся к ралли, так как стоимость актива может достичь $6000–$7500 к концу 2026 года, заявили аналитики инвестфонда Bitwise Asset Management.  

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine and managing partner at Fundstrat, has been a vocal optimist when it comes to the cryptocurrency market, especially for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Most recently, Fundstrat’s managing partner revived his $62,000 target call for the Ethereum price in 2026.

However, it appears that Lee and his investment firm do not align in terms of their market expectations for the coming year. Fundstrat seems to be looking at a more bearish setup for most of the large-cap digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, in 2026.

$60,000 Is The Target, But Not For Ethereum

According to screenshots posted on social media platform X, Fundstrat released a 2026 crypto strategy report, warning internal clients of potential market headwinds in early 2026. The report’s title, however, also suggested that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana could enjoy significant growth in the second half of next year.

Sean Farrell, Fundstrat’s head of digital asset strategy, projected significant drawdowns for the crypto market in the first half of 2026. The research set the target for the Bitcoin price between $60,000 to $65,000, the Ethereum price within $1,800 – $2,000, and the Solana price around $50 – $75.

Farrell wrote in the report:

These levels would present attractive opportunities into year-end. If this view proves incorrect, I still prefer to play defense and wait for confirmation of strength.

This circulating report stands in contrast to the predictions of Tom Lee, who is the chief investment officer (CIO) at Fundstrat. Speaking to attendees at the Binance Blockchain Week earlier this month, Lee stated that the price could run up to as much as $62,000 as Ethereum becomes the core infrastructure for tokenized finance.

In September, at the Korea Blockchain Week, Lee said that the price of Bitcoin could reach as high as $250,000 by year-end, while Ethereum’s value could climb toward $12,000. The rationale for this projection revolved around macro tailwinds and growing institutional interest in crypto assets.

Now, while the Fundstrat internal document has yet to be authenticated by Bitcoinist as of press time, Colin Wu-led outlet Wu Blockchain verified that this document was indeed distributed to internal clients.

Bitcoin And Ethereum Price At A Glance

As of this writing, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is valued at around $88,180, reflecting no significant movement in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the price of ETH stands at around $2,980. 

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Kings County, has charged a man for allegedly defrauding $16 million from unsuspecting individuals by posing as a Coinbase representative. The elaborate scam, which reportedly ran from April 2023 to December 2014, resulted in about 100 victims, 70 of whom were interviewed over the course of the investigation.

Brooklyn Man Indicted In Nationwide Phishing Scam

In a press statement on Friday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the Virtual Currency Unit had indicted one Ronald Spektor of Sheepshead Bay, for orchestrating a multi-million dollar phishing and social engineering scam. Spektor, also known as “Ronaldd”, and identified as 23 years old, allegedly contacted multiple Coinbase users acting as an exchange representative to claim that users’ assets were at risk of being stolen, and directed that they move their assets to a given new cryptocurrency wallet. 

As earlier stated, victims of this scam were found all around the US, including a California resident who reported a $1 million loss, and another Virginia resident who lost over $900,000. Spektor, who has been associated with the Telegram handle @lolimfeelingevil, notoriously cleaned out the stolen assets by laundering them through crypto mixers and gambling sites.  

The 23-year old defendant was arraigned before the Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on a 31-count indictment, including counts of first-degree grand larceny, first-degree money laundering, and scheme to defraud. However, Spektor has been held on bail conditions of $2.5 million, after investigations also revealed plans of the alleged fraudster to escape to Mexico.

Coinbase Collaborates With Authorities

Speaking on the case, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, appreciated the district attorney’s efforts while also noting the exchange’s commitment to protect its customers, evident through its participation in the investigation. 

Grewal said: 

We’re grateful to District Attorney Gonzalez and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office for their partnership and relentless work to protect victims. In this case, Coinbase supported the investigation by helping identify the perpetrator and the customers he defrauded, providing evidence to ensure he could be charged, and assisting law enforcement efforts to trace and recover funds connected to the fraudulent phishing scheme. We’re committed to protecting our customers and working hand-in-hand with law enforcement to hold scammers accountable and help bring justice for those they harm.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez has vowed to cleanse Brooklyn of online scams, especially those exploiting innocent crypto users.

The Brooklyn DA said:

My office is committed to making sure that Brooklyn never becomes a hub for online scams, and we will continue to root out every instance of cryptocurrency fraud, which is a serious problem that’s been exploding throughout the country. We will investigate offenders using the latest technology, freeze their assets whenever possible, and assist the victims.

At press time, Gonzalez’s office also reports that $105,000 in cash and approximately $400,000 in crypto assets have been confiscated from the defendant over the course of the investigation, with ongoing efforts to gain access to more stolen assets.

Стейблкоины перестали восприниматься как «эксперимент с ликвидностью» и перешли в новую фазу, став фундаментом расчетов для трансграничных платежей, заявили эксперты блокчейн-компании Hashed.

Директор по глобальной макростратегии инвестиционной компании Fidelity Юрриен Тиммер (Jurrien Timmer) предположил, что биткоин сломал свой привычный четырехлетний цикл, и крипторынок ожидает целый год коррекции цен.

An unsuspecting crypto user has recently lost $50 million USDT in an address poisoning scam. The incident represents one of the largest on-chain losses in 2025, drawing reactions from crypto security experts as new developments on the matter roll in.

Copy-Paste Mistake Costs User 50M USDT

Address poisoning is a scam in which an attacker sends small transactions from a wallet address that closely resembles a victim’s legitimate address, hoping the victim will later copy the wrong address from their transaction history and unknowingly send funds to the attacker.

Blockchain security page, Web3 Antivirus reports that a crypto user recently fell victim to this scam, sending 49,999,950 USDT to a poisoned address copied from transaction history. Considering the large transaction, the user had tried taking caution by sending a small test transaction to the correct address. However, the nature of address poisoning requires close monitoring, where attackers are able to immediately send dust transactions from wallets resembling the intended address.

Cos, founder of fellow security platform Slowmist, provided valuable insights on this operation, noting the similarity between both addresses, which shared the same first 3 characters and last 4 characters. The victim unknowingly picked the poisoned address from the transaction history to complete the $50 million, thus marking one of the biggest on-chain individual losses of 2025. 

More data from Web3 Antivirus reveals that the victim wallet has been active on-chain for approximately two years and is primarily used for USDT transfers. The stolen $50 million was also initially withdrawn from Binance before the scam occurred. Notably, the stolen USDT has since been converted to ETH by the attackers and shared among multiple wallets, who have also funneled some of the loot through Tornado Cash.

Address Poisoning Victim Offers Bounty With 48-Hour Ultimatum

In other news, blockchain investigator Specter Analyst reports that the victim has attempted to establish communication with the attackers via an on-chain message. 

According to an X post on December 20, the victim claims to have filed a criminal complaint case while also enlisting the relevant law enforcement, cybersecurity, and blockchain protocols to provide needed intelligence on the scammer’s activities. Furthermore, all six addresses associated with the heist are now under constant surveillance. However, the aggrieved party is offering the perpetrators of the address poisoning a peaceful resolution, which involves the willing return of 98% of the loot to a specified address within 48 hours.

Notably, the victim will allow the bad actors to keep $1 million as a bug bounty for spotting such a vulnerability in their operations. However, they warn that failure to accept the amicable offer within the stipulated time will result in legal escalation of the matter to international law enforcement authorities. They further warn that the attackers’ identities will be revealed and shared with the relevant agencies to aid their arrest and persecution. At press time, total crypto losses in 2025 have surpassed $3.4 billion, underscoring the need for continually strengthened security measures within the thriving ecosystem. 

Новые крупные держатели биткоина захватили 50% рынка первой криптовалюты и от их активности во многом будут зависеть котировки актива в среднесрочной перспективе, заявили аналитики ончейн-платформы CryptoQuant.

The Blockchain Association led a broad industry push this week, asking Senate Banking leaders to resist efforts that would widen a ban on stablecoin yields beyond what Congress wrote into law.

According to the association, the letter was signed by more than 125 crypto and fintech groups and companies and was sent to lawmakers to warn against reinterpreting the new rules in a way that would also bar exchanges and apps from offering rewards tied to stablecoin holdings.

Preserving Platforms’ Ability To Offer Rewards

The coalition’s argument rests on the text of the GENIUS Act, which was signed into law earlier this year by US President Donald Trump and explicitly bars permitted stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield directly to holders.

Reports have disclosed that the statute nevertheless leaves room for third-party platforms to provide incentives, a distinction industry groups say is intentional and important for competition.

Banks Call For Closing A Loophole

Banking groups have pushed back hard. A coalition led by the American Bankers Association and other banking trade groups asked Congress to clarify that the prohibition should extend to partners and affiliates, arguing that third-party rewards could circumvent the law and drain deposits from traditional banks.

According to recent coverage, Treasury analyses cited by bank advocates estimate that stablecoins could, in some scenarios, pull over $6 trillion from bank deposits — a figure that has become central to the banks’ case for tightening the rules.

What Industry Leaders Say

Industry spokespeople say expanding the ban would chill new services that rely on stablecoins and would tilt the market toward larger, incumbent financial firms that already control many payment rails.

Based on reports, the Blockchain Association and partner groups contend that changing the law’s interpretation now would reopen negotiations the GENIUS Act resolved and would sow regulatory confusion before agencies finish writing implementing rules.

Competition And Consumer Choice At Stake

Supporters of stronger limits say the aim is consumer protection — to stop stablecoin arrangements from becoming de-facto interest accounts that could undermine the banking system and reduce loans to households and businesses.

Other observers point out the issue could also shape which firms win in payments going forward, since restrictions on rewards would affect the commercial incentives of exchanges and fintechs.

Next Steps In Washington

Senate Banking staff are weighing letters from both sides as they consider potential fixes or clarifying language during upcoming hearings.

Regulators who must implement the GENIUS Act have been urged to issue rules that prevent evasion of the ban, and lawmakers may face pressure to either leave the law as written or to craft narrow changes aimed at banks’ concerns.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

In the financial landscape, Bitcoin stands out as one of the few major assets that have failed to keep pace with broader market gains. This underperformance comes despite strong underlying fundamentals, where its price is being governed by the mechanics of hedging and synthetic leverage rather than the conviction of its holders. Network security remains strong, long-term holders continue to dominate supply, and institutional access has never been broader. 

How This Cycle Looks Different For Bitcoin

There’s no satisfying explanation for one of the strangest market outcomes of the year. An entrepreneur, Bitcoin investor, and founder of Wealth Mastery, Lark Davis, has mentioned on X that Bitcoin is the only asset underperforming, while gold and stocks are printing all-time highs, and 2025 was supposed to be the golden moment for BTC.

Davis highlighted that in 2025, the United States had a pro-BTC administration for the first time in history, and there was demand for the cryptocurrency and peak adoption from institutions and nation-states. Macro conditions turned supportive, and Wall Street has effectively rolled out the red carpet for BTC.

At the same time, Michael Saylor’s Strategy purchased a BTC supply greater than the average daily production of miners. Despite all this bullishness, BTC  is still down 6% from its yearly open and still around 30% below its all-time high. Meanwhile, the rest of the crypto looks worse as altcoins have been crushed, with many down 80% to 90% over the last two years.

The 2026 Bitcoin chart will be the most important to watch. A full-time crypto trader and investor, Daan Crypto Trades, highlighted that Global liquidity is the metric to watch for BTC’s long-term performance. It’s not a holy grail that works every single day, but there are shorter-term deviations right now.

When overlaying global liquidity growth with long-term price performance, it shows that the peaks and troughs align with remarkable accuracy. Daan believes that this BTC setup is more important than a rate cut, and the overall stock market performance will reveal a good signal.

Whale Accumulation While The Market Hesitates

While fear dominates across the market, a whale has been quietly buying BTC since yesterday. Crypto educator Wilberforce Theophilus revealed that over the past 24 hours, more than 2,509.2 BTC, which is approximately $221 million worth of BTC, has been accumulated. 

According to Wilberforce, December 2020 was objectively worse than today, but in January 2021, BTC was $1 and then rallied to $19,000. December 2025 doesn’t stand out as extremely bearish when viewed through a long-term lens. “I have just one piece of advice: HODL and WAIT,” the expert noted.

The price action of Bitcoin over the past week tells a perfect story of its performance this year. The premier cryptocurrency experienced incredible levels of volatility throughout the week, oscillating between the $90,000 and $86,000 range over the past few days.

The latest market evaluation shows that the future of the Bitcoin price might be looking bleaker than mere periods of sideways volatility. According to a prominent cycle, BTC’s price cycle has turned and is entering a bear market.

Bitcoin Cyclical Behavior Depends On Demand Cycles: CryptoQuant

In its latest market report, blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant has associated the steady decline in Bitcoin price with the fading demand boom. According to data on the on-chain platform, the BTC demand growth has slowed down in the course of 2025, signaling the start of a bear market.

CryptoQuant highlighted that Bitcoin has witnessed three major spot demand waves—triggered by the US spot ETF launch, the US presidential election outcome, and the Bitcoin Treasury Companies bubble—since the bull cycle started in 2023. However, the demand growth has slowed down since early October 2025.

Unsurprisingly, this trend reversal for the demand growth coincides with the October 10 market bloodbath, one of the largest liquidation events in crypto history. The Bitcoin price has since struggled to mount any convincing recovery, falling to as low as $82,000 in late November.

CryptoQuant went on to hypothesize that a key pillar of price support has been removed as most of this cycle’s incremental demand has already been realized. For instance, demand from institutional and large investors is in a downturn, with US-based Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) turning into net sellers in 2025’s fourth quarter. 

According to CryptoQuant’s data, the US spot ETF holdings have declined by 24,000 BTC in Q4 2025, which is a far cry from the steady accumulation seen in Q4 2024. “Similarly, addresses holding 100–1K BTC—representing ETFs and treasury companies—are growing below trend, echoing the demand deterioration seen at the end of 2021 ahead of the 2022 bear market,” the blockchain firm added.

Besides the weakening spot demand, the Bitcoin derivatives market has also seen reduced activity and decreased risk appetite. CryptoQuant revealed that BTC’s funding rates have fallen to their lowest level since December 2023, an on-chain signal that suggests the reduced willingness of traders to maintain long exposure; this trend is often associated with bear markets.

Ultimately, the blockchain firm concluded that the Bitcoin four-year cycle hinges more on demand phases—expansions and contractions in demand growth— rather than on the halving event. In essence, a bear market tends to come after the BTC demand growth peaks and topples over.

What Next For BTC Price?

In its report, CryptoQuant revealed that the Bitcoin price structure has worsened in line with the demand weakness. The flagship cryptocurrency is currently trading below its 365-day moving average, a key long-term support level that has historically separated bull and bear phases.

According to CryptoQuant, the downside reference points suggest that the Bitcoin bear market might not be as deep as feared. As in previous bear seasons, the realized price—currently around $56,000—has been identified as the potential bottom.

This implies a possible 55% correction from the latest all-time high, Bitcoin’s smallest drawdown on record (during a bear market). Meanwhile, the market leader has its intermediate support level around $70,000.

As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $88,170, reflecting a 3% jump in the past 24 hours.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back publicly rebuked Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter after Carter explained why his firm backed Project Eleven, a startup that says it will protect bitcoin and other crypto assets from quantum computing risks.

Back told Carter on X that his posts made “uninformed noise” and that they were “not helping.” The exchange highlighted a sharper split in the Bitcoin community over how loudly to warn about future threats.

Back Calls Out Public Warnings

According to Back, Bitcoin developers are not ignoring quantum risks; the work is happening quietly. He argued the technology is still “ridiculously early” and predicted no real threat for a few decades.

Based on reports, Back welcomed the idea of being “quantum ready” while urging calm in public messaging, saying loud alarms can cause confusion rather than useful action.

Bitcoiners and developers are NOT in denial about defensively doing the r&d to prepare for future quantum computers. But they are just quietly doing research while you make uninformed noise and try to move the market or something. You’re not helping…

— Adam Back (@adam3us) December 19, 2025

Carter pushed back, saying he had been “quantum pilled” after conversations with Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden and that he invested because he became deeply concerned.

Carter also pointed out that he disclosed his financial stake in a Substack post on Oct. 20, and he accused some developers of being in “total denial.”

He warned that governments are planning for a post-quantum era and called Bitcoin itself a tempting “bug bounty” if the cryptography is left unchanged.

after, obviously, because we wouldn’t have made the investment if we didn’t think quantum was a risk.

— nic carter (@nic_carter) December 19, 2025

Experts Divided On Timing

Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards told followers that a quantum threat could show up in as little as two to nine years unless networks move to quantum-resistant cryptography.

According to public statements from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, forecasting models place roughly a 20% chance that machines able to break today’s public-key cryptography could arrive before 2030, with a median projection nearer 2040.

Vitalik has said no such machines exist today but has urged early preparation because migrating a global system takes years.

Metaculus’s median date for when quantum computers will break modern cryptography is 2040:https://t.co/Li8ni8A9Ox

Seemingly about a 20% chance it will be before end of 2030.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 27, 2025

Other voices are less alarmed. Multimillionaire investor Kevin O’Leary said he doubts breaking Bitcoin with quantum computing would be the best use of the technology, arguing it would deliver more value in fields like medical research.

Such comments show how views vary not only on timing but also on the practical incentives behind a quantum attack.

Research, Migration, And Market Signals

Technical specialists point out one clear fact: there is currently no quantum computer capable of breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography.

That fact has not stopped investors from placing bets on startups that claim to build protective tools.

Castle Island’s investment, which resurfaced on social media recently, spurred fresh debate about transparency and whether public warnings help or harm the ecosystem.

Featured image from Quartz, chart from TradingView

Cryptocurrency exchange ByBit has announced that it is relaunching a crypto platform in the United Kingdom two years after pausing its operations. The Dubai-based firm wound down its services in late 2023 as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed stricter financial promotion regulations. 

Bybit To Offer 100 Spot Trading Pairs To UK Users

In a press release dated Friday, December 19, ByBit disclosed that it is reentering the UK’s crypto scene after its exit in 2023. According to the report, the exchange’s new UK platform will be offering spot trading on 100 digital asset pairs and peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.

This new launch represents a return for Bybit who paused its operations in the United Kingdom in September 2023 due to the new FCA marketing rules that were set for enforcement later in October that year. These new rules, which centered around solicitation and a cooling-off period for first-time investors, came at a time when the global crypto regulatory landscape was only just starting to take shape.

In its announcement, Bybit said that its fresh UK operations follow rigorous anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) standards and comply with the region’s financial promotion requirements. This was achieved through an arrangement with Archax, the first FCA-approved digital asset exchange, brokerage, and custodian in the UK.

Mykolas Majauskas, Bybit’s senior director of policy, said in a statement: 

Our goal is to give UK users reliable access to global opportunities in digital assets. The UK is home to one of the most sophisticated financial ecosystems in the world, and its clear regulatory direction makes it an ideal environment for responsible innovation. In the months ahead, we aim to embody this innovative spirit by introducing new products tailored to the needs of UK users, always within a framework that prioritises transparency, and compliance.

Bybit’s return to the UK’s cryptocurrency market appears to be strategic, as the region continues to make huge strides in terms of growth and adoption since the turn of the decade. The FCA recently estimated that 8% of adults in the United Kingdom now own crypto assets. 

It is worth noting that this ownership figure appears to be declining, having stood at 12% a year ago. While the drop marks the first dip in overall crypto ownership numbers in the last four years, the current figure is still double the level seen as of 2021.

Total Crypto Market Capitalization

As of this writing, the total crypto market capitalization stands at around $2.95 trillion, reflecting a 0.07% jump so far on Saturday, December 20. According to data from TradingView, the digital asset market has declined by over 2.6% decline in the past week.

The XRP price action is back in focus as an analyst outlines a clear strategy for managing gains in the current market structure. Although XRP has been trending downward for the past few months, the analysis highlights the potential for a recovery and a strong upward move soon. With the price already reacting from a key technical area, the crypto analyst draws attention to a defined upside range where taking profit may offer the most favorable risk-to-reward ratio.  

The Best Take Profit Zone For XRP

XRP analyst Protechtor has released a fresh update on price action, outlining the best profit-taking range in the event of a potential upward move. In his post on X, he explained that the altcoin recently completed a liquidity grab on Coinbase that perfectly filled the anticipated wick. This move confirms a key technical level and marks a reaction from the bottom of a running flat Elliott Wave formation that has been in focus for some time.

Protechtor points out that the reaction from this level opens the door for a short-term upside move if momentum continues to build. From a trading perspective, this area supported a lightly leveraged long position with a cap of 5x or less. Risk management remains a central part of the setup, with the analyst setting a clear stop level near $1.60 to invalidate the idea if the price weakens further.

In his accompanying chart, Protechtor predicts potential upside targets as XRP attempts to recover from its bearish trend. The analyst highlights the region between $2.50 and $2.68, identified by the red resistance line on the chart, as the optimal area to take profit. This range aligns with prior market reactions and represents a zone where upside momentum may begin to fade. Additionally, with the token trading around $1.91, a move to the take profit range would reflect a 30.9-40.3% increase. 

The chart also shows the altcoin moving within a large Descending Channel that has guided price action for months. XRP recently tapped the lower boundary of this channel, reinforcing its role as a dynamic zone. The upper portion of the channel also closely aligns with the proposed take-profit range for XRP. 

Analyst Sees Bounce Potential Despite Ongoing Correction

In a previous post, Protechtor revisited his long-term outlook on XRP, noting that a corrective Elliot Wave structure remains in play despite extended market weakness. He believes completing this pattern could spark a strong rally, potentially leading to new all-time highs. 

The analyst stated that XRP is now approaching its 20-month Moving Average. A sustained move below this level would favor bears, as previous bull cycles have not maintained price action under this threshold. While price action has remained choppy since the market peak, Protechtor suggests that bearish pressure appears stretched. As a result, he expects a bounce soon.

US Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), a renowned cryptocurrency advocate, announced on December 19, 2025, that she will not seek reelection in 2026 and will leave the Senate when her term ends in early 2027. Her decision marks the impending departure of a pivotal advocate for digital asset regulation at a time of growing policy activity in Washington.

Lummis Reflects On Senate Career And Crypto Advocacy

In her announcement on X, Lummis explained that the grueling pace of Senate work factored heavily into her choice to exit Capitol Hill next year. 

The 71-year old Republican said:

Deciding not to run for reelection does represent a change of heart, but in the difficult, exhausting session weeks this fall I’ve come to accept that I do not have six more years in me. I am a devout legislator, but I feel like a sprinter in a marathon. The energy required doesn’t match up. 

Lummis first won her Senate seat in 2020 and quickly distinguished herself as a leading voice on digital asset policy. As chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, she partnered with colleagues across the aisle, most notably Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, on efforts to craft a comprehensive crypto market structure bill aimed at clarifying how digital assets should be regulated and which federal agencies should have oversight. 

Her legislative legacy also includes helping negotiate the GENIUS Act, a landmark legislation that established a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, giving regulators clearer authority over these widely used digital assets. Although Lummis has not publicly named a preferred successor, her open seat in the deeply Republican state of Wyoming is expected to remain in GOP hands. Potential contenders include Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming), and the current governor of Wyoming, Mark Gordon (R-Wyoming).

US Crypto Regulation: Progress And Lummis’ Final Focus

In 2025, the US regulatory landscape for crypto saw meaningful developments. The GENIUS Act successfully passed both chambers of Congress and was signed into law, setting rules for stablecoin issuers and enhancing anti-money-laundering standards.  

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just recently issued updated guidance to brokers and other intermediaries to clarify how to determine and handle custody of digital assets under existing securities laws,  a move welcomed by many industry participants striving for clarity. 

At the same time, broader efforts to enact a comprehensive crypto market structure bill, which would define regulatory boundaries between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), remain in motion, with the Senate Banking Committee targeting early 2026 for markup after delays late in the 2025 session.

With her departure, Lummis plans to focus her final months in Congress on advancing the market structure legislation and other digital asset priorities she has long championed, hoping to cement a legacy of sensible regulation that supports innovation while protecting investors.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has predicted that the Bitcoin price could rally to $200,000 next year despite the current crypto market downturn. He also revealed what will spark this parabolic rally, citing recent liquidity measures by the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

Arthur Hayes Predicts Bitcoin Price Will Reach $200,000 Next Year

In his latest Substack post, Hayes declared that the Bitcoin price will quickly reclaim $124,000 and rally towards $200,000 next year as the market equates the Fed’s Reserve Management Purchases (RMP) to quantitative easing (QE). The crypto founder expects the Fed’s RMP to inject significant liquidity into the market next year, sparking a parabolic BTC rally.  

The Fed had announced, following the FOMC meeting earlier this month, that it would purchase Treasury bills starting December 12 and acquire up to $40 billion in Treasury bills within 30 days. However, the Fed has noted that this move doesn’t qualify, although Hayes and other market experts disagree. 

The BitMEX co-founder remarked that the current misguided belief that RMP isn’t QE in terms of credit creation, and the uncertainty about RMP’s existence post-April next year, are the reasons he expects the Bitcoin price to chop between $80,000 and $100,000 until the new year begins. 

However, the chop would end as the market equates RMP to QE, sparking the Bitcoin rally to $200,000. Hayes stated that March 2026 will mark the peak in expectations for the RMP’s ability to ramp asset prices, causing BTC to decline and form a local bottom well above $124,000. 

Meanwhile, the BitMEX co-founder noted that $40 billion is great, but much less in 2025 than in 2009, based on the percentage of dollars outstanding. As such, he remarked that the market cannot expect its credit impulse at current financial asset prices to be as impactful. 

BTC Still At Risk Of Dropping To $56,000

In a report, on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant predicted that the Bitcoin price could still drop to as low as $56,000 as the market transitions into a bear market. The firm stated that the downside reference points suggest a relatively shallow bear market and that historically, bear market bottoms have aligned with the realized price, which is currently near $56,000. 

Meanwhile, CryptoQuant stated that the intermediate support is expected around the $70,000 level. The firm’s bear market thesis for the Bitcoin price is premised on the fact that BTC’s demand growth has “decisively slowed.” They further revealed that the demand growth has fallen below trend since early October 2025, indicating that the bulk of this cycle’s incremental demand has already been realized. 

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $88,400, up almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Over the last week, Bitcoin recorded waves of significant correction, reaching a price bottom of $85,000 as broader financial markets also tumbled in fear of an impending economic recession. As many are opting to exit their investments, recent on-chain data show that the current tumultuous market presents an ideal accumulation opportunity for risk-seeking Bitcoin investors.

Accumulation Zones – Stressful In Real Time, Rewarding Long-Term: Analyst 

Q4 2025 has largely been an enduring period for most Bitcoin investors. After attaining a new-time high of $126,100 in early October, the leading cryptocurrency has struggled with further price growth, but rather succumbed to strong selling pressure to decline by 30.1%. However, Bitcoin’s latest price drops pushed the market into new dynamics favorable for investors with high risk tolerance, based on historical data from the MVRV percentile metric.

For context, the Bitcoin MVRV (Market Value to Realized Value) compares Bitcoin’s current market capitalization to its realized capitalization (the value of coins at their last on-chain movement), showing whether BTC is over- or undervalued. Raw MVRV can be hard to compare across cycles. Therefore, the MVRV Percentile ranks current MVRV against its historical distribution (0–100), making it easier to judge extremes across different cycles, where high percentiles indicate overheated markets, low percentiles suggest capitulation.

Using this metric, seasoned market analyst RugaResearch explains that the present MVRV percentile falls within 0-10%, a range that is usually associated with heavy investor capitulation and market losses as fear gripped the market. However, the crypto expert also observed similar market situations to have served as ideal entry points to an exponential price rally.

For example, Bitcoin MVRV dropped below 10% when prices crashed to around $200-$300 in 2015, after the Mt.Gox black swan event, spreading waves of pessimism among investors, some of whom might have expected a total regulatory ban. However, the premier cryptocurrency surges in the following months with heavy traction, reaching a peak price of $20,000 in 2017 to represent a 10x gain. 

RugaResearch also references a more recent example after BTC slumped to $15,000 following the FTX collapse in 2022, which was heralded by other events, including the collapse of the Terra Luna Ecosystem, and businesses such as Celsius and Three Arrows Capital. Despite the heavy market fear during this period, Bitcoin would record another resurgence to double its price within the following year.

Related Reading: ‘Think Again’ Before Selling Your XRP; Expert Tells Investors Bitcoin Set To Boom?

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $88,200 after a price gain of 0.54% in the past day. However, its performance on the weekly and monthly charts reports losses of 2.52% and 3.52%, respectively, as many investors remain underwater, and others exit the market. Nevertheless, RugaResearch explains that recent retail capitulation represents an ideal “high-risk, high-reward” zone considering the MVRV Percentile that is less than 10. The analyst nudges investors to get aggressive with accumulation to benefit from the next explosive upside move. 

Сезон альткоинов никогда не заканчивается, но трейдеры иногда пропускают его сигналы, заявил в ютуб-подкасте сооснователь Bitmex Артур Хейз (Arthur Hayes).

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released new sanctions against Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, along with Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, former executives of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, as part of a larger case surrounding FTX’s misconduct.

SEC Targets Key FTX Figures In Fraud Case

On Friday, the regulator announced that it has filed proposed final consent judgments in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning Ellison, Wang, and Singh. 

The complaints against Ellison and Wang were initially filed in December 2022, while the allegations against Singh were issued in February 2023.

The SEC’s filings claim that from May 2019 to November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX raised over $1.8 billion from investors by misleading them into believing that the exchange was a secure trading platform for cryptocurrency. 

They purportedly claimed to employ sophisticated risk mitigation measures designed to safeguard customer assets and insisted that Alameda Research, a crypto asset hedge fund owned by Bankman-Fried and Wang, was merely another customer without any special advantages.

In stark contrast to these representations, the SEC alleges that Ellison, Wang, and Singh knowingly engaged in actions that exempted Alameda from these risk mitigation protocols. 

Ellison Agrees To 10-Year Ban 

The regulator also claimed that Alameda was granted a virtually unlimited line of credit funded by FTX customer deposits. Allegations further assert that Wang and Singh developed the software code that facilitated the redirection of customer funds from FTX to Alameda, while Ellison reportedly misused these funds in her trading activities.

Additionally, the complaints detail how Sam Bankman-Fried, with the knowledge and consent of Ellison, Wang, and Singh, directed “hundreds of millions of dollars” of customer funds to Alameda. 

The complaint asserts that these funds were used for further venture investments and personal loans to Bankman-Fried and other executives, including Wang and Singh.

In light of these serious allegations, Ellison, Wang, and Singh have agreed to final judgments, pending court approval, without admitting to the SEC’s claims. 

They consented to be permanently barred from violating the antifraud provisions outlined in Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as Rule 10b-5 and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933. 

Ellison, who had a romantic relationship with FTX’s former CEO, specifically agreed to a 10-year ban from serving as an officer or director of any public company, while Wang and Singh accepted an 8-year ban.

At the time of writing, FTX’s native token, FTT, is trading at $0.5086, having recorded a notable 6% surge following the SEC’s statement on the matter. However, the cryptocurrency remains far below the highs it reached just before the exchange’s collapse, sitting at 99.3% of its record high. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com