Russia Plans to Allow Domestic Crypto Trading, Retail Investors to Participate with Limited Testing: The Russian central bank is developing a regulatory framework for crypto, planning to allow retail investors to participate in trading after passing knowledge tests. Non-qualified investors can only purchase highly liquid cryptocurrencies through a single intermediary, with an annual trading limit of 300,000 rubles (about $3,800); qualified investors can trade without limits after passing risk tests, except for anonymous tokens, which is seen as a significant adjustment in crypto attitude amid sanctions.
Arizona Senator Proposes Tax Exemption for BTC and Cryptocurrencies: State Senator Wendy Rogers proposed amendments to state laws to exempt Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from taxes, easing the tax burden for local crypto users.
ECB Plans to Set Limits on Digital Euro Holdings to Avoid Becoming a Store of Value: The EU Council supports the ECB's exploration of a digital euro plan but requires limits on the total amount of digital euros held in online accounts and digital wallets to prevent it from becoming a store of value, ensuring financial stability.
BlackRock Lists Bitcoin as a Core Investment Theme for 2025, VanEck Predicts 2026 May Become Best-Performing Asset: In its year-end report, BlackRock lists Bitcoin alongside U.S. short-term Treasuries and seven leading tech stocks as a core investment theme for 2025; VanEck director David Schassler states that Bitcoin has underperformed the Nasdaq by 50% this year but is expected to catch up in 2026 amid a return of liquidity, becoming one of the best-performing assets, while also seeing gold rise to $5,000 next year.
Analyst Warning: Bitcoin May Face Worst Q4 Performance Since 2018, Rebound in Doubt: Bitcoin has recently rebounded to around $88,000, but has fallen over 22% in Q4, down 30% from the 2025 peak, potentially marking its weakest year-end period aside from major bear markets. Analysts believe the current rebound reflects market fatigue rather than a rebuilding of confidence, with the Fear and Greed Index rising to 24 still at a low level, making the market susceptible to sharp reversals.
Five Major Indicators Warn: Bitcoin May Enter Bear Market in Early 2026: On-chain and market data show that Bitcoin demand growth is slowing, ETF inflows are weakening, medium-sized investors are reducing positions, funding rates are declining, and consistently falling below the 365-day moving average, with five major indicators signaling a rise in downside risk. Historical data shows that if a bear market takes shape, $56,000 may become a support range during the period.
Institutions and Treasury Companies Continue to Deploy: Bitmine Increases ETH Holdings, Matador Raises Funds to Increase BTC: Bitmine has again increased its holdings by 29,463 ETH (worth approximately $88.2 million); Canadian Bitcoin treasury company Matador Technologies has been approved to raise CAD 80 million, planning to increase its BTC holdings from 175 to 1,000 by the end of 2026; Singapore's DBS Bank received 4,400 ETH (about $1.32 million) from GSR in the past two days.
359 Entities Hold Over 4.03 Million BTC, Valued at $36.012 Billion: As of December 22, the 359 tracked entities collectively hold 4,033,029 Bitcoins, corresponding to a value of $36.012 billion, with institutional holdings remaining at a high level.
Vitalik: Ethereum Contract Size Limit is to Prevent DoS Risks, May Be Lifted After Future Upgrades: In response to community discussions, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik stated that the contract size limit is to avoid the risk of DoS attacks. Once the state structure is upgraded to a unified binary tree (EIP-7864), it is expected that unlimited contract size will be possible, but issues related to gas costs and mechanism design for publishing super-large contracts need to be resolved first. The current actual contract limit is approximately 82KB.
Coinbase Supports Base Network Deposits and Withdrawals of SOL, Achieves Cross-Chain Transfers: Coinbase has added the Base network as an option for SOL deposits and withdrawals, enabling cross-chain transfers via the Base > Solana bridge, allowing users to use SOL in ERC20 format on the Base network. Currently, it is not available in several countries and regions, including New York, Japan, and Germany.
Former FTX US President's Architect Financial Completes $35 Million Financing: This fintech company focuses on providing trading technology and brokerage services for institutional investors across global futures, options, traditional assets, and digital assets, with a post-financing valuation of approximately $187 million.
a16z Partner: Privacy Will Become the Most Important Moat in the Crypto Space: a16z General Partner Ali Yahya pointed out that privacy features can create an on-chain lock-in effect, allowing new chains to form differentiated competitive advantages. Due to the high risks of migrating private information, a few privacy chains may occupy a large part of the crypto ecosystem market, becoming the industry's core moat.
Trump Criticizes Market 'Good News Not Rising,' Warns Fed Chair Candidate Must Align with His Views: Trump praised the U.S. Q3 GDP annualized quarterly growth rate initial value of 4.3% (far exceeding the expected 3.3%), criticizing the current market's unusual phenomenon of 'good news not rising,' believing that Wall Street's excessive concern over rate hikes has suppressed market prosperity. He emphasized the need for the new Fed chair to lower rates when the market is doing well, stating that anyone with opposing views cannot hold the position.
Basent: Fed May Modify 2% Inflation Target to a Range in the Future: U.S. Treasury Secretary Basent stated that once inflation falls back to the 2% target, discussions could be held about adjusting the inflation target to a range of 1.5%-2.5% or 1%-3%, arguing that pursuing decimal-level precision is unrealistic, but warning that adjustments to the target should not be made during periods of high inflation.
Hassett: U.S. Rate Cut Pace Lags Global Trends: Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, pointed out that the current pace of rate cuts in the U.S. is far behind the trends of other major economies around the world.
Fed's Probability of Keeping Rates Unchanged in January Rises to 86.7%: According to CME's FedWatch, the probability of keeping rates unchanged in January is 86.7%, with a 13.3% chance of a 25 basis point cut; the probability of keeping rates unchanged in March is 54.4%, with a cumulative 40.7% chance of a 25 basis point cut.
