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Инвестиционная компания Grayscale назвала квантовые вычисления «отвлекающим маневром», заверив, что эта технология может представлять опасность для крипторынка лишь в долгосрочной перспективе.

За предыдущие семь дней инвесторы из категории так называемых биткоин-акул увеличили свои запасы с 3,521 млн до 3,575 млн BTC. В 2012 сопоставимый всплеск предшествовал ралли, во время которого за год курс взлетел с $10 до более $100, напомнили аналитики Glassnode.

Со вторника, 16 декабря, на территории США партнерам международной платежной системы Visa стали доступны внутрибанковские расчеты в долларовых стейблкоинах USDC.  

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson wants crypto to stop acting like it’s permanently stuck in 2021 brain.

In a Dec. 15 livestream titled “Some End of Year Thoughts,” the IOG CEO delivered a blunt year-end diagnosis of a market that, in his telling, lost its retail engine, let politics turn into a sideshow, and drifted back into the easiest (and laziest) narrative in the business: find the next 10x, then dump it on someone else.

“This has been a really [expletive] up year for our industry as a whole,” Hoskinson said from Colorado, describing 2025 as “a donkey of a year” — “an old donkey with a gas problem.”

Cardano’s Hoskinson Warns Of Retail Exodus

His first big complaint was structural, not emotional. The Cardano founder argued that institutional capital did arrive, but much of it got “locked into the Bitcoin layer,” and didn’t rotate into altcoins the way prior cycles did. “So we lost our trickle down effect that we enjoyed in 2021 and in 2017,” he said, framing it as a market-mechanics issue as much as a sentiment one.

Then he pivoted to politics. Hoskinson described a messy set of expectations heading into 2025 — hopes of a more constructive US regulatory posture, then disappointment as crypto became entangled in headline-grabbing memes and what he characterized as erratic signaling. He pointed to the launch of TRUMP coin at the inauguration (as he recounted it), followed by MELANIA, calling them “cash grab situations” that left the broader industry wearing the reputational fallout while still chasing regulatory relief.

The deeper problem, though, was retail. The Cardano founder argued the industry never rebuilt trust after the 2022 wipeout, and that 2025 didn’t offer a compelling reason for everyday participants to come back beyond speculative churn. “Retail showed up in 2021… and then they got screwed again and again and again,” he said. “And now you want them to come back so you can do it again. Will they? No.”

That sets up his core pitch for 2026: a reset framed as a return to “first principles,” with less reliance on governments, celebrity catalysts, or “the cavalry.” His language wasn’t subtle. “No government is coming to save us. No large company is coming to save us. No large investor is coming to save us,” he said. “We are on the island.”

He also tied that reset to a broader, darker worldview — AI, robotics, and a society he worries will drift into a “dystopian hellscape” without credible systems for agency, ownership, and verification. Whether you buy that framing or not, it’s clearly the rhetorical engine he wants crypto to run on: less number-go-up, more “what are we actually building, and who does it help?”

Hoskinson didn’t completely let his own camp off the hook, either. He acknowledged missed predictions — including his past expectation that bitcoin would reach $250,000 in 2025 — and the ongoing criticism he gets for timelines.

“I honestly believed [Bitcoin] would be back in December of 2024. Because I believed that Trump would be good for crypto. I was wrong. I believed it and I was wrong. I’ll admit that. But I do believe in 2026 there’s a path for it to get there. And I do believe we as an industry will pivot and return to retail and rebuild those relationships and get it done. It’ll be a difficult road, but I see a path to make that happen. Leios will ship. We know how to do it. We wrote all the code down. We got it done,” Hoskinson said.

Some End of Year Thoughts https://t.co/oFWWeKPmRU

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) December 15, 2025

Towards the end, he tried to anchor the “reset” in concrete ecosystem moments, pointing to Midnight’s launch mechanics as an example of retail-first distribution and highlighting heavy trading activity around the token. “The bullshit’s over,” he said. “We’re back to work… in 2026 it’s a return to first principles.”

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.3843.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently sparked a wave of criticism from traditional finance groups following its approval of conditional bank charters for five cryptocurrency firms: Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity. 

Stablecoins Seen As Direct Threat

Following the OCC’s announcement, industry stakeholders quickly voiced their concerns. Traditional banks expressed apprehension that these approvals stretch the definition and historical purpose of the national trust bank charter. 

Rebeca Romero Rainey, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, stated that the conditional approvals endanger consumers and create institutions that the OCC may not effectively manage. 

She further remarked that the new framework allows stablecoin operators access to the federal banking system without the rigorous capital and regulatory requirements that traditional banks must uphold.

Todd Phillips, a professor at Georgia State University and former attorney with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, also noted that stablecoins pose a direct threat to the conventional banking model. 

He remarked that banks are reacting aggressively to counter this emerging competition from stablecoins, which are perceived as encroaching on their market share.

In defense of the OCC’s actions, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould emphasized the benefits of new entrants in the federal banking sector, asserting that they would introduce fresh products and services while enhancing competition. He views this as a positive move for consumers and the broader banking industry.

Banks Raise Alarm Over OCC’s Crypto Trust Charters

One key difference between trust banks and conventional banks is their inability to accept deposits or make loans. Nonetheless, banks are wary that these newly chartered firms may venture beyond merely holding assets to back stablecoins. 

Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, expressed concern that this expansion of the trust charter blurs the lines defining banking activities and could lead to regulatory arbitrage.

The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) also raised questions about the OCC’s approval process, urging transparency to help the public understand the rationale behind these decisions. Greg Baer, the BPI’s president and CEO, emphasized the need for clarity around the applications.

The current conditional approvals for crypto trust banks present a more viable litigation landscape than earlier fintech charters, according to Andrew Grant, co-founder of Runway Group, a consultancy focused on financial technology. 

Many banks are reportedly unhappy about the momentum of the OCC’s recent decisions, suggesting they may take steps to introduce regulatory friction against these new entrants.

Furthermore, the provisions of the GENIUS Act permit the establishment of national banks without deposit insurance, which complicates the ability of traditional banks to mount effective legal challenges against the approved cryptocurrency firms. 

Todd Baker, a senior fellow at the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia Business School, noted that while litigation may yield some restrictions on crypto-related activities, it is unlikely to impact stablecoin issuance, redemption, or custody.

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

Краткосрочные владельцы биткоина (STH) фиксируют значительные убытки. На рынке наступил период «очищения слабых рук», заявили эксперты платформы CryptoQuant.

Согласно публикации издания New York Times (NYT), после возвращения Дональда Трампа на должность президента США, Комиссия по ценным бумагам и биржам США (SEC) приостановила или прекратила около 60% дел, связанных с криптокомпаниями.

Старший стратег Bloomberg Intelligence по сырьевым продуктам Майк МакГлоун (Mike McGlone) заявил, что биткоин может упасть до отметки $10 000 в следующем году.

Президент США Дональд Трамп пообещал рассмотреть дело разработчика биткоин-кошелька Samourai Wallet Кеонна Родригеса (Keonne Rodriguez), которому назначен тюремный срок за содействие отмыванию денег через криптомиксер.

Разработчики криптовалютного кошелька MetaMask добавили поддержку первой криптовалюты, пообещав увеличить количество интеграций в следующем году.