Today's top news highlights:
1. CNBC: Federal Reserve Governor Waller had "a very strong interview with US President Trump about becoming the next Fed Chair."
2. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher, with technology and blockchain concept stocks generally rising.
3. Citi predicts Bitcoin may rise to $143,000 in the next year.
4. CryptoQuant: A bear market may have begun; the medium-term support level is estimated at $70,000.
5. Galaxy Research: Bitcoin could reach $250,000 by the end of 2027.
6. Market News: An internal research report from Tom Lee's fund states that BTC and ETH will experience a deep correction, contrary to his claim of reaching new highs at the end of January.
7. A user was targeted by an address with similar first and last characters, resulting in a loss of nearly 50 million USDT.
Macro
U.S. stocks closed higher across the board, with technology and blockchain stocks generally rising.
U.S. stocks closed higher across the board. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.38%, down 0.67% for the week; the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.31%, up 0.48% for the week; and the S&P 500 rose 0.88%, up 0.1% for the week. Major tech stocks generally rose, with Oracle up over 6%, Nvidia up nearly 4%, Broadcom up over 3%, and Google up over 1%. Blockchain concept stocks also generally rose, with Twenty One Capital (XXI) up 7.62%; Galaxy Digital (GLXY) up 6.62%; Circle (CRCL) up 6.35%; and Strategy (MSTR) up 4.16%.
According to CNBC, Federal Reserve Governor Waller had a “powerful interview with the Fed Chair” with US President Trump.
In addition, BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer Rick Rieder will be interviewed for the position of Federal Reserve Chairman at Mar-a-Lago in the last week of this year.
Douyin recently released the "Douyin Community Financial Industry Convention (Trial)," which explicitly prohibits the publication of illegal financial content related to virtual currency exchange, trading intermediaries, and pricing services under the guise of blockchain or digital assets. The convention aims to regulate the financial content ecosystem and combat activities such as speculation in virtual assets, illegal stock recommendations, money laundering, and illegal fundraising.
The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that it is seeking public comment on establishing limited "payments accounts" for certain financial institutions. These accounts would allow these institutions to use the Fed's payment services for clearing and settlement, but would not enjoy the broader rights currently enjoyed by banks. Fed Governor Waller stated that such accounts could "support innovation" while protecting the security of the payments system. If established, these accounts would be distinct from the Fed's main accounts, would not pay interest, and would not offer Fed credit services. They would also be subject to balance limits. Waller first proposed the idea of such accounts last October, when the Fed was seeking a balance that would allow wider use of the Fed's payment services by institutions such as fintech companies without granting full main account privileges to less regulated institutions.
Senator Loomis will not seek re-election after his term ends in January 2027.
Republican Senator Cynthia Loomis' term ends in January 2027, but she has indicated she will not seek re-election. She posted on the X platform on Friday that the events of last fall left her physically and mentally exhausted.
Senator Loomis is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee's Subcommittee on Digital Assets, and she has been actively involved in congressional efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency industry for the past few years. She has worked closely with New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to advance comprehensive legislation aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for digital assets, including clarifying the regulatory responsibilities among agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The Senate Banking Committee has been actively advancing this legislation through multiple meetings, with participants including Democrats, Republicans, representatives from the cryptocurrency industry, and stakeholders from traditional finance. The current goal is to amend the bill and pass committee review early next year, but this still needs to be combined with the ongoing work of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Afterward, the bill will require a full Senate vote and must be reconciled with the version passed by the House this summer.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a lawsuit notice stating that three former executives of FTX and its affiliates have accepted the SEC's final penalties, and the SEC is handling enforcement cases related to the exchange's collapse.
Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried remains in federal prison on fraud charges, while executives including former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison have agreed to a settlement, which still requires court approval. Other executives who signed settlement agreements include former FTX Trading CTO Zixiao Wang and former FTX co-chief engineer Nishad Singh.
The SEC stated that the three individuals will be banned from serving as executives or directors at other companies, with Caroline Ellison facing a 10-year ban and the others facing 8-year bans. The agency also stated that they are subject to a five-year "conduct injunction."
According to a Swift announcement, it is collaborating with over 30 banks globally to advance the design of a blockchain-based ledger system aimed at expanding existing financial infrastructure and supporting the large-scale circulation of tokenized assets. Swift stated that this ledger will record and verify transaction order through smart contracts, enabling it to operate in parallel with existing systems, addressing the fragmentation problem in digital finance, and improving the efficiency of global cross-border payments and asset transfers.
Opinion
Citigroup predicts Bitcoin could rise to $143,000 in the next year.
Amid the recent decline in Bitcoin prices, Citigroup predicts that Bitcoin will reach $143,000 in the next 12 months, representing an increase of approximately 62% from the current price of $88,000.
In a joint report, Citigroup analysts Alex Saunders, Dirk Willer, and Vinh Vo stated, "We predict that driven by potential digital asset legislation in the US during the second quarter, the adoption rate of digital assets will increase, and Bitcoin's active user value could reach around $80,000 to $90,000 in the new year." The analysts pointed out that $70,000 is a key support level, and the price could rise significantly due to a rebound in ETF demand and optimistic market expectations. However, there is also a pessimistic side: against the backdrop of a global economic recession, the price of Bitcoin may fall to $78,500; while in an optimistic scenario, due to increased investor demand, the price of Bitcoin could rise to $189,000.
CryptoQuant: Bear Market May Have Begun, Mid-Term Support Level Expected at $70,000
CryptoQuant, an on-chain analytics firm, published an article stating that Bitcoin demand growth has slowed significantly, foreshadowing an impending bear market. Since 2023, Bitcoin has experienced three major waves of spot demand—driven by the launch of US spot ETFs, the US presidential election results, and the Bitcoin Treasury bubble—but since early October 2025, demand growth has fallen below trend levels. This suggests that most of the new demand in this cycle has been realized, and a key pillar supporting the price has disappeared.
Institutional and large holder demand is currently contracting rather than expanding: US spot Bitcoin ETFs turned net sellers in Q4 2025, with holdings decreasing by 24,000 Bitcoins, a stark contrast to the strong buying in Q4 2024. Similarly, the growth in addresses holding 100 to 1,000 Bitcoins (representing ETFs and Treasury companies) is also below trend, echoing the deteriorating demand trend that emerged at the end of 2021 ahead of the 2022 bear market.
The derivatives market confirms weakening risk appetite: funding rates for perpetual futures (365-day moving average) have fallen to their lowest level since December 2023. Historically, this decline reflects a reduced willingness to maintain long positions, a pattern typically seen in bear markets rather than bull markets.
The price structure is deteriorating as demand weakens: Bitcoin has fallen below its 365-day moving average, a key long-term technical support level that has historically been a dividing line between bull and bear markets.
Bitcoin's four-year cycle is driven by demand cycles, not halvings: the current downturn further demonstrates that Bitcoin's cyclical behavior is primarily governed by the expansion and contraction of demand growth, rather than the halving event itself or past price performance. When demand growth peaks and begins to decline, a bear market often follows, regardless of supply-side dynamics.
Downside reference points suggest a relatively small bear market: historically, Bitcoin bear market bottoms have largely coincided with realized prices, currently near $56,000, implying a potential 55% pullback from recent all-time highs—the smallest retracement on record. Mid-term support is expected around $70,000.
JPMorgan Chase estimates that the supply of stablecoins could reach $500 billion to $600 billion by 2028, far below the most optimistic forecast of $2 trillion to $4 trillion. They stated that the demand for stablecoins is primarily a problem within the crypto market, rather than a payment issue.
JPMorgan Chase points out that the stablecoin market has grown by approximately $100 billion this year, reaching about $308 billion, with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC leading this growth. Demand remains primarily driven by cryptocurrency trading, as well as collateral needs in derivatives and DeFi, with derivatives trading venues adding approximately $20 billion in stablecoin holdings.
Analysts say that the current drivers for payments are relatively small, but this could grow as more service providers test stablecoin-based cross-border transfer channels. However, wider payment usage doesn't necessarily require a larger stablecoin circulation, as token velocity can increase with deeper integration. Furthermore, banks and payment networks are also securing their position in institutional fund flows through tokenized deposits and other blockchain initiatives, while CBDC initiatives could offer regulated alternatives to compete with private stablecoins.
Galaxy Research: Bitcoin could reach $250,000 by the end of 2027
Galaxy Research released 26 predictions for 2026, including: Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by the end of 2027; the market volatility in 2026 is too high to predict, but the possibility of Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high in 2026 still exists. The total market capitalization of the internet capital market on Solana will surge to $2 billion (currently around $750 million). At least one operating general-purpose Layer-1 blockchain will integrate a yield-generating application, thereby directly channeling value back into its native token.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated that the Federal Reserve's new Reserve Management Purchase Program (RMP) is merely a new way to mask its money-printing activities. Once the market realizes that the Fed's RMP is actually a form of quantitative easing, Bitcoin will quickly return to $124,000 and rapidly move towards $200,000. The peak of expectations for RMP-driven asset price increases will be reached in March next year, after which Bitcoin will fall and form a local bottom well above $124,000. Arthur Hayes also stated that he is most bullish on the altcoin Ethena (ENA).
Coinbase Institutional released its "2026 Crypto Market Outlook" report, analyzing various factors that will shape the crypto economy landscape in the coming year. From detailed outlooks for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and SOL, to the latest developments in regulation, market structure, and tokenization, the report argues that the US economy remains resilient, and the crypto market environment in the first half of 2026 will be closer to 1996 than 1999, but uncertainty remains high. A clearer global framework will change how institutions handle strategy, risk, and compliance in 2026. Regarding institutional participation, a "DAT 2.0" model is expected by 2026, moving beyond simple accumulation to focus on the professional trading, storage, and procurement of sovereign block space, viewing it as a significant commodity in the digital economy. The token economy will enter its 2.0 phase, with a trend emerging as protocols increasingly focus on value capture, moving from purely narrative-driven beta models to persistent, yield-linked models.
According to market sources, Tom Lee is betting that Bitcoin and Ethereum will reach new highs in January next year. However, his fund Fundstrat, in its latest 2026 cryptocurrency strategy advice to internal clients, stated that cryptocurrencies will experience a significant correction in the first half of the year, with a target price of $60,000 to $65,000 for BTC; $1,800 to $2,000 for ETH; and $50 to $75 for SOL.
According to previous reports , Tom Lee predicted that ETH might fall back to $2,500 in the short term, but could rise to $7,000-$9,000 in January next year.
Project Updates
Ethereum developers have named the next Glamsterdam upgrade "Hegota".
At its final annual ACDE meeting, Ethereum core developers officially named the next hard fork following the 2026 Glamsterdam upgrade "Hegota," merging the naming tradition of Bogota (execution layer) and Heze (consensus layer). The primary EIP (Engineering IP) has not yet been determined and is expected to be selected in February 2026. Hegota may incorporate long-term plans such as Verkle trees, aiming to promote key goals like stateless clients. Ethereum will continue its biannual upgrade cycle in 2026.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired eight CryptoPunks, including Punk 4018.
CryptoPunks tweeted that eight CryptoPunks (Punk 4018, Punk 2786, Punk 5616, Punk 5160, Punk 3407, Punk 7178, Punk 74, and Punk 7899) have been officially added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
The foundation behind the EigenLayer restaking protocol has proposed a governance change to introduce new incentives for its EIGEN token and align the protocol's reward strategy with prioritizing efficient network activity and fee generation. Under the plan, a newly formed incentive committee will manage token issuance, prioritizing rewards for participants who ensure AVS security and expand the EigenCloud ecosystem. The proposal includes a fee model that returns AVS rewards and revenue from EigenCloud services to EIGEN holders, which could potentially create deflationary pressures as the ecosystem grows.
According to an official announcement, Coinbase has included Brevis (BREV) in its listing roadmap and launched zkPass (ZKP) spot trading.
Brevis is a full-chain data proof platform based on zero-knowledge proofs, designed to enable dApps to access, compute, and use on-chain data across multiple blockchains without trusting third parties.
Coinbase CEO: Stock trading officially launches today, details to be announced soon.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that the global stock market is approximately 25 times the size of the crypto market. Furthermore, its system is outdated and far less efficient than the crypto market. This marks a significant milestone in enabling 24/7, global trading of tokenized stocks. Stock trading officially launches today, with more details to follow.
Binance: Holders of more than 226 Alpha Points can claim a TTD airdrop of 670.
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha TradeTide (TTD) trading will begin on December 20th at 16:00 (UTC+8). After trading begins, users holding at least 226 Binance Alpha Points can claim an airdrop of 670 TTD tokens. This is on a first-come, first-served basis. If the event continues, the point threshold will automatically decrease by 5 points every five minutes. Claiming the airdrop will consume 15 Binance Alpha Points. Users must confirm their claim within 24 hours on the Alpha event page; otherwise, they will be considered to have forfeited their airdrop.
Important data
Three new wallets received 2,509 BTC from FalconX within 12 hours, worth approximately $221 million.
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, in the past 12 hours, three newly created wallets received 2,509 BTC worth $221.07 million from FalconX.
SlowMist founder Yu Xian tweeted that a user was "poisoned" by an address with similar first and last characters, losing nearly 50 million USDT. User X, @web3_antivirus, stated that the user first sent a small test transaction to the correct address. A few minutes later, $50 million was sent to a malicious address copied from the transaction record (the first 3 characters and last 4 characters were the same).
- Player address: 0xcB80784ef74C98A89b6Ab8D96ebE890859600819
- Poisoning address: 0xBaFF2F13638C04B10F8119760B2D2aE86b08f8b5
- The address expected by the player: 0xbaf4b1aF7E3B560d937DA0458514552B6495F8b5
According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $158 million yesterday (December 19, Eastern Time).
The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net inflow yesterday was the Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a single-day net inflow of $15.3341 million. The current total historical net inflow of FBTC is $12.208 billion.
The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net outflow of $174 million. IBIT's total historical net inflow has reached $62.491 billion.
As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $114.873 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Bitcoin's total market capitalization) of 6.53%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $57.407 billion.
According to SoSoValue data, the Ethereum spot ETF saw a total net outflow of $75.8905 million yesterday (December 19, Eastern Time).
The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was the BlackRock ETF ETHA, with a single-day net outflow of $75.8905 million. Currently, the total historical net inflow of ETHA is $12.672 billion.
As of press time, the Ethereum spot ETF has a total net asset value of $18.209 billion, an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Ethereum's total market capitalization) of 5.04%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.444 billion.
