Cantor says Hyperliquid is trading infrastructure, not speculative DeFi, with HYPD and PURR offering exposure to fees, buybacks, and CEX share gains.
Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch and CrunchBase, has placed XRP among his largest personal crypto holdings, according to a recent social post. Related Reading: Ethereum Meets Wall Street: JPMorgan Rolls Out Tokenized Fund He listed XRP as one of his top five positions by dollar value, alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Immutable. The disclosure landed plenty of attention online and reignited debate about who is buying what and why. Arrington’s Holdings And Community Reaction Reports have disclosed that his post drew heavy engagement, with replies running the gamut from Bitcoin-only stances to more mixed portfolios. Several industry figures echoed Arrington’s mix; Tony Edward, for example, listed XRP with BTC and ETH when discussing core positions. The debate was loud and fast on social feeds. Some users framed the move as a vote of confidence. Others warned that one investor’s choices do not equal a market-wide shift. Tell me your top five crypto holdings (by total dollar value). Mine are XRP, BTC, ETH and IMX — Michael Arrington ????☠️ (@arrington) December 13, 2025 Institutional Moves Follow Based on reports, Arrington’s public support is tied to direct institutional activity. In October, Arrington Capital joined Ripple and SBI Holdings to back an initiative by Evernorth aimed at building a large institutional XRP treasury. The project, which has been described in some circles as among the biggest of its kind, aims to increase institutional use of XRP and to support on-ledger activity such as decentralized finance and lending. That involvement means Arrington is more than a vocal supporter; he is also tied to projects that could change how institutions use the token. XRP Market Moves And Key Figures XRP’s market picture has been mixed. As of December 16, 2025, the token was trading around $1.98, having held in a roughly $2.00 to $2.20 band in recent sessions. There was a small daily lift of about 1.2% to roughly $2.08 on Monday, which helped the token cover some ground after early-December weakness. The year has seen bigger swings: XRP peaked near $3.65 in July before giving back some gains. Activity in regulated derivatives has also grown. Reports point to XRP futures on the CME reaching a record open interest of roughly $3 billion in late October 2025, a figure that market watchers say reflects rising institutional appetite for regulated exposure. Related Reading: Analyst: Bitcoin’s Cycle Is Intact, Yet No Longer Purely Market-Driven A Past Claim That No Longer Holds Arrington has previously highlighted XRP’s strong performance. In March, he tweeted that XRP had been the best-performing major asset across multiple time frames — 90 days, 180 days, one year and three years. That claim no longer lines up with current rankings. Performance metrics have shifted since then, and the statement has been overtaken by later results. Featured image from Bitpanda Blog, chart from TradingView
RedotPay says it processes over $10 billion in annualized volume and generates more than $150 million in annualized revenue.
Russia's stance limits crypto's role in its economy, potentially stifling innovation and affecting global crypto market dynamics.
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The stablecoin will be used to power the Exodus ecosystem, including its upcoming easy-to-use payment feature.
Artists, technologists and other creators formed a new group seeking standards for how AI is trained and used.
Speed, which leverages the Bitcoin Lightning Network to facilitate USDT transfers, has secured $8 million from Tether and Ego Death Capital.
The number of crypto exchange-traded products is going to “accelerate forward at ridiculous speed” in 2026, according to Bitwise researcher Ryan Rasmussen.
Bitcoin (BTC) has been struggling to regain momentum in the market, failing to surpass its nearest resistance level of $94,000 for over a month. The cryptocurrency is currently trading within a broad range between $85,000 and $93,000, leading to growing concerns about further price corrections in the upcoming months. Amid this uncertainty, market expert NoLimit recently expressed on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that he anticipates Bitcoin could bottom out at around $40,000 sometime in 2026. This forecast implies a significant 54% decline from current levels, which are just above $87,860. A Historical Perspective On Market Cycles NoLimit’s analysis outlines several reasons for this predicted downturn. He points out that Bitcoin has a historical tendency to surprise investors, often when confidence in the market is high. While each price cycle may appear unique on the surface, NoLimit argues that the underlying mechanics remain largely unchanged. He emphasizes the cyclical nature of Bitcoin, noting that it moves within a four-year cycle influenced by liquidity, leverage, and human behavior rather than mere sentiment. According to him, the market is currently late in this cycle, and Bitcoin has consistently followed a three-step process during past upward movements. Related Reading: XRP Price Forecast: Key Factors That Could Propel It To $3 In Early 2026 First, Bitcoin tends to surge in price following the Halving event. This is typically followed by an influx of maximum leverage and late-stage buyers. Finally, the cycle concludes with a sharp and often chaotic reset before the next significant price expansion occurs. Historically, Bitcoin has experienced steep declines during these resets, such as an approximate 85% drop in 2013-2014, an 84% drop in 2017-2018, and a 77% drop during the 2021-2022 cycle. In each scenario, investors were convinced that the conditions were different, yet the outcomes remained consistent. $40,000 As Foundation For Bitcoin’s Next Bull Run Considering the current market situation, NoLimit highlights several critical indicators. He notes that Bitcoin has already seen substantial price appreciation, with institutional interest and exchange-trade fund (ETF) approvals now part of the landscape. He also observes that many traders are over-leveraged, market volatility is compressed, and there exists widespread hope for further price increases. These factors often signal a heightened risk of downside movement in the market. Related Reading: Will Bitcoin Suffer A 20% Decline After Japan’s Rate Hike? Historical Patterns Suggest So A potential drop toward the $40,000 range should not be viewed as an unforeseen disaster, according to NoLimit. He argues that significant price declines have historically preceded major upward movements. Additionally, this price target aligns well with several technical indicators, including previous resistance levels that have turned into support, long-term moving averages, and the liquidity gap created by ETF approvals. Such factors suggest that a move toward this region could exhaust forced sellers and provide a solid foundation for recovery. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
Stocks on Securitize will be 'real, regulated shares' that are issued onchain and recorded on an issuer's cap table.
Canada’s central bank will approve only fiat-backed, high-quality stablecoins to ensure they are “good money” as part of the country’s plan to modernize its financial system.
According to a Grayscale outlook released Monday, the asset manager expects rising demand for alternatives and clearer rules in the US to push Bitcoin to a new all-time high in the first half of 2026. Related Reading: Ethereum Meets Wall Street: JPMorgan Rolls Out Tokenized Fund The report lays out 10 key investing themes for 2026 and ties the Bitcoin call to two main forces: growing portfolio demand for stores of value and what Grayscale describes as improving regulatory clarity. Spot-Bitcoin ETPs reached the market in 2024, the firm notes, and Congress passed the GENIUS Act in 2025, steps that the report says reduce barriers for big investors. Macro Risks And Demand For Crypto Grayscale frames its outlook around a simple macro point. Rising public debt and the risk that fiat currencies lose buying power are pushing some money toward Bitcoin and Ether, the report says. That argument will sound familiar to many institutional buyers. It is also a broad claim. No exact price targets were offered for Bitcoin, only a view that valuations will climb in 2026 and that the so-called four-year cycle may be ending. Stablecoins are another major theme. Grayscale expects stablecoin use to grow: cross-border payments, collateral on derivatives, even use on corporate balance sheets are all mentioned as likely developments. Asset Tokenization And DeFi Growth Reports have disclosed that Grayscale sees asset tokenization reaching an inflection point next year. Lending protocols and staking are singled out as areas where activity could expand. The firm foresees practical outcomes: stablecoins in payment rails, more institutional access to staking, and tokenized assets showing up in trading and custody systems. Grayscale also flags two narratives it does not expect to move markets in 2026 — quantum computing risk for crypto and digital asset treasuries — saying research will continue but valuations are unlikely to be affected this soon. Related Reading: Analyst: Bitcoin’s Cycle Is Intact, Yet No Longer Purely Market-Driven Over the past 3 months, the average return across nearly all crypto sectors has underperformed Bitcoin. This persistent relative weakness highlights a market environment where capital concentration favours BTC. ???? https://t.co/rFisuVfSY7 https://t.co/lpXqEe9bbW pic.twitter.com/WNtKEKclX7 — glassnode (@glassnode) December 16, 2025 Onchain Data Suggests Quiet Caution Meanwhile, data from onchain analytics group Glassnode was also cited in this context. Over the last three months, Glassnode reports, the average return across most crypto sectors has underperformed Bitcoin, indicating capital concentration in BTC. That has not translated into strong faith in leadership. A separate institutional feed, Bitcoin Vector, said dominance fell in the second half of the year, with ETH rotations cutting into BTC’s lead and a weaker rebuild after deleveraging events. In short: funds appear to prefer holding Bitcoin, but are not placing big new bets. Featured image from YourStory, chart from TradingView
XRP has slipped below the $2 level, a psychologically important threshold, as broader market conditions continue to deteriorate and selling pressure weighs on risk assets. While Bitcoin dominates liquidity and investor attention, altcoins are struggling to attract sustained demand, and XRP is increasingly reflecting this imbalance. Related Reading: Why Bitcoin’s Quiet Price Action May Be ‘Dangerous’ – IFP Signals Rising Structural Risk According to a CryptoQuant report by Darkfost, the weakness in XRP is not an isolated event but part of a broader contraction across the altcoin market. Whether on spot markets or in derivatives, trading activity has been shrinking significantly over recent months. Liquidity is gradually drying up, signaling a clear retreat from speculative positioning as investors reduce exposure to higher-risk assets. This trend is especially visible in XRP’s derivatives data. The Taker Buy Volume on Binance, which tracks aggressive buy orders in futures markets, has collapsed to its lowest levels of the year. After peaking above $5.8 billion in July, this metric has fallen to roughly $250 million, representing a sharp 95.7% decline. Such a dramatic contraction highlights the near-total evaporation of buying pressure and underscores the lack of conviction among traders. XRP Liquidity Compression Signals Downside Risk According to Darkfost, the broader market context is a major factor amplifying XRP’s current weakness. Liquidations have been accumulating across crypto markets, confidence remains fragile, and many participants are still psychologically impacted by the October 10 event. This lingering stress has reduced risk tolerance, particularly among short-term traders who typically provide liquidity during corrective phases. Beyond sentiment, altcoins are facing a clear structural headwind. Bitcoin continues to absorb the majority of available capital, both in spot and derivatives markets. As BTC dominance remains elevated, liquidity that would normally rotate into altcoins during recoveries is instead staying concentrated in Bitcoin. This leaves very limited room for a sustained rebound across the broader altcoin market, including XRP. Related Reading: Market Stress Continues As Bitcoin STH SOPR Dips Below 1– When Will The Pain End? Within this environment, the sharp collapse in XRP’s Taker Buy Volume is not surprising. The signal becomes even more relevant given that it is unfolding on Binance, which still accounts for the largest share of global XRP trading activity. A sustained drop in aggressive buying on the dominant exchange highlights the depth of demand erosion. At the same time, the Taker Buy Sell Ratio has remained negative for most of the period, confirming that sellers continue to dominate XRP’s derivatives market. Historically, such severe volume compression can precede volatility expansions. However, in the current setup, the lack of meaningful buying pressure and persistent bearish positioning suggests downside risks remain elevated. Even ETF-related optimism has failed to offset these structural weaknesses. XRP Price Struggles Below Key Moving Averages XRP price action on the 3-day chart reflects a clear loss of bullish structure and growing downside pressure. After peaking above the $3.40–$3.60 zone earlier in the year, XRP has formed a sequence of lower highs and lower lows, confirming a medium-term downtrend. The recent breakdown below the psychological $2.00 level is particularly significant, as this zone previously acted as both support and consolidation. From a technical perspective, XRP is now trading below its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, both of which have started to slope downward. This alignment reinforces bearish momentum and suggests that rallies are being sold rather than accumulated. The 200-day moving average, currently near the $1.70–$1.80 area, represents the next major structural support. A sustained move toward this level would not be surprising if selling pressure persists. Related Reading: Bitcoin Whales Refuse to Sell: Historic Signal Emerges As Binance CDD Drops To 2017 Levels Volume dynamics further confirm weakness. Since the August high, volume has steadily declined, indicating fading participation and weak dip-buying interest. The sharp volatility spike in October was followed by distribution rather than continuation, often a sign of a local market top. As long as XRP remains below $2.00 and fails to reclaim the declining moving averages, the path of least resistance remains to the downside. For any meaningful trend reversal, XRP would need to regain $2.30–$2.50 with expanding volume, signaling renewed demand rather than short-term relief rallies. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
The partnership could enhance global digital payment accessibility, offering a stable, regulated alternative to traditional financial systems.
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Musk's financial ascent and SpaceX's valuation surge could reshape global investment trends, influencing future tech and space exploration funding.
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Bitcoin price held above $85,000, but weakening spot BTC ETF flows and a disappointing end-of-year performance cast doubt on a December rally to $100,000.
One of the cleaner tells in crypto is when the old supply decides it’s time. Not “made a quick 20% and clipped it” time — years old. That’s basically what Glassnode researcher CryptoVizArt flagged after an XRP wallet aged roughly 5–7 years (with a cost basis around $0.40) realized more than $721.5 million in profit on Dec. 11. A single wallet doesn’t “break” a market on its own. But the timing is the point: this wasn’t profit-taking into a rip. It landed while XRP was showing weakness right at the $2.0 key level. Related Reading: XRP Dominates Institutional Inflows, But Why Is Price Still Low? CryptoVizArt wrote via X: “On December 11th, a 5-7 year old XRP wallet address (with a cost basis of $0.4) realized over $721.5M in profit! A rare sizable profit-taking while the price shows weakness right at the $2.0 key level.” What This Means For XRP Price That $2 handle matters for the usual reasons — round number, obvious chart magnet, psychological line in the sand — but also because the market’s been treating it like a live wire lately. Since early December last year, the support zone between $2 and $1.90 has been tested endless times. XRP bulls always managed to close above the zone on the weekly timeframe. So what does the $721M print mean? It’s a reminder that supply overhang isn’t theoretical. A 5–7 year wallet taking profits can be read as “de-risking,” sure. But in tape terms, it’s also distribution that the market has to absorb while price is already leaning. If bids are deep, it’s a shrug. If bids are thin, it turns $2 into a trapdoor. And right now, “thin” is kind of the vibe across crypto, not just XRP. Related Reading: Why XRP Isn’t Reacting to Major Institutional and Regional Developments CryptoVizArt’s broader framing from Dec. 13 is that the $80K–$90K Bitcoin consolidation is producing stress “comparable to late Jan 2022.” Via X, he wrote: “The current $80K–$90K consolidation range is generating a magnitude of stress comparable to late January 2022, with Relative Unrealized Loss approaching ~10% of market cap. This places the market in a regime where liquidity is constrained, and sensitivity to macro shocks is elevated, yet still below the levels typically associated with full bear-market capitulation.” That backdrop matters because alts don’t trade in a vacuum. When the whole complex is jumpy, big sell events at key levels have more punch. Not because every XRP holder suddenly panics, but because market-makers and discretionary traders tend to pull risk at the same time. Spreads widen, depth thins, and “one-off” flows start to move price more than they should. Still, it cuts both ways. A single, chunky realization can also be the market clearing a problem — old supply exiting, new demand stepping in, the kind of transfer that (eventually) makes a base sturdier. The trick is whether $2 holds while that handoff happens. At press time, XRP was trading at $1.89, which could make Sunday’s weekly close another extremely important event. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
President Trump said he was open to nominating Democrats to two key financial regulators, after firing Democrats from several agencies this year.
For two years, decentralized finance operated on the concept that purely crypto-native assets could serve as the monetary base for a parallel financial system. Ethereum staked through Lido anchored billions in DeFi loans, wrapped Bitcoin backed perpetual swaps, and algorithmic stablecoins recycled protocol emissions into synthetic dollars. The entire edifice assumed crypto could bootstrap its […]
The post How tokenized US Treasuries are replacing DeFi’s foundation appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The public crypto wallet firm joins Circle and PayPal in issuing stablecoins.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is seeking answers on what she views as the potential national security risks of decentralized crypto exchanges.
The company said the funds will support acquisitions, licensing efforts and expanded hiring as it enters new markets.
Bitcoin has retraced to the $85,000 level, a critical support zone that bulls must defend to prevent a deeper breakdown. After failing to reclaim higher levels, price action has slowed and volatility has compressed, reinforcing a market environment dominated by apathy and fear. Related Reading: Why Bitcoin’s Quiet Price Action May Be ‘Dangerous’ – IFP Signals Rising Structural Risk Sentiment across the crypto space has deteriorated sharply, with a growing number of analysts openly discussing the possibility of a prolonged bear market extending into next year. In this context, understanding who is actually selling becomes far more important than the price move itself. According to a recent CryptoQuant report, Bitcoin’s pullback from the ~$88.2K region toward ~$85K provides a clean on-chain read of market behavior beneath the surface. Exchange inflow data segmented by Short-Term Holders (STH) and Long-Term Holders (LTH) shows that the decline was not driven by structural distribution from long-term investors. Historically, bear markets accelerate when long-term holders begin distributing supply. The absence of that behavior suggests the current drawdown reflects positioning adjustments and risk reduction rather than a collapse in long-term conviction. As Bitcoin tests $85K, the market is not only evaluating price support levels. Short-Term Profit-Taking, Not Structural Distribution The CryptoQuant report by Crazzyblockk provides a precise breakdown of who actually drove Bitcoin’s recent pullback. On December 15, when BTC traded near the $88.2K level, Short-Term Holders sent approximately 24.7K BTC to exchanges. Crucially, 86.8% of this supply was realized in profit, while only 13.2% was sold at a loss. In dollar terms, profitable STH inflows exceeded $1.89 billion, vastly outweighing loss-driven selling. This profile clearly indicates that sellers were primarily near-term buyers exiting from strength, rather than panicked participants capitulating under stress. As the price moved lower on December 16 toward the $86K area, total STH inflows dropped sharply to just 3.9K BTC. Although this smaller flow was realized at a loss, its limited size signals exhaustion rather than an acceleration of selling pressure. While the percentage of loss realization increased, the absolute volume did not—an important nuance often overlooked in surface-level market analysis. Long-Term Holder behavior reinforces this constructive interpretation. Across both days, LTH inflows remained muted, falling from roughly 326 BTC to just 50 BTC. There is no sign of capitulation or meaningful distribution from this cohort. Overall, the data shows a market cooling through short-term profit-taking, not breaking through structural sell pressure. Related Reading: Market Stress Continues As Bitcoin STH SOPR Dips Below 1– When Will The Pain End? Bitcoin Weekly Price Structure and Key Support Dynamics Bitcoin has retraced sharply from its cycle highs and is now consolidating around the $85K–$88K zone. This area is technically significant. Price is currently interacting with the rising 100-week moving average, which has acted as dynamic support throughout the broader uptrend since 2023. So far, buyers are attempting to defend this level, preventing a deeper weekly close below it. Structurally, the market has shifted from strong impulsive expansion into a corrective phase. The loss of the 50-week moving average earlier in the pullback signaled a transition from momentum-driven price discovery to consolidation and mean reversion. However, the longer-term trend remains intact as long as Bitcoin holds above the 200-week moving average, currently well below the price. Related Reading: Ethereum Trades Near Whales’ Cost Basis For The Fourth Time Since 2021 – Historic Test Volume has declined during the retracement, suggesting that selling pressure is not accelerating aggressively. This supports the view that the move is corrective rather than distributive. From a risk perspective, failure to hold the $85K region would open the door to a deeper retrace toward the low-$70K range. Conversely, reclaiming the $90K–$92K zone would be required to restore bullish structure and momentum on the weekly timeframe. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
We can quibble over the exact timeline, but the quantum future is an approaching certainty, argues Arpa Network CEO Felix Xu. The time to act is now, while we still can.
After an active morning Tuesday, bitcoin flattened out in afternoon trading around the $87,500 area, up 2% over the past 24 hours.
With the US Senate set to break for the holidays, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Justice and Treasury Department officials to disclose any potential investigations into the DeFi platform.
Anchorage Digital acquired Hedgey, a startup that builds solutions for managing token allocations, distributions, and vesting schedules.
The company has 180 days to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement after its shares traded below $1 for 30 consecutive business days.
The yen carry trade unwind has been hovering over markets lately — the kind of “plumbing” story that most people ignore right up until volatility spikes and everything suddenly feels connected. Graham Stephan put it into a Bitcoin and crypto-friendly frame yesterday. In a Dec. 15 post, the popular YouTuber described the yen carry trade as Wall Street’s long-running “infinite money glitch” — and argued it’s breaking down just as the Fed is signaling a shift in its outlook for next year. “Wall Street found an ‘infinite money’ glitch 20 years ago. They called it the Yen Carry Trade. It just broke, right when the Fed announced its plans for next year,” Stephan wrote. What The Yen Carry Trade Unwind Means For Bitcoin He presented it as a straightforward trade that scaled because the size was big enough to matter. “For decades, the ‘Yen Carry Trade’ has been the secret engine behind global liquidity. The mechanics were simple enough that a child could understand them, but profitable enough to move trillions of dollars.” Related Reading: Market Stress Continues As Bitcoin STH SOPR Dips Below 1– When Will The Pain End? Stephan then laid out the basic steps in plain English: borrow cheaply in Japan, rotate into higher-yield US assets, keep the spread. “Borrow Cheap: Investors borrowed money in Japan, where interest rates were effectively 0%… Invest Abroad: They took that ‘free money’ and bought US Treasuries paying 4-5%… Profit: They pocketed the difference without using any of their own money.” His argument is that the setup turns toxic when the rate differential compresses and the currency leg moves the wrong way. He framed the timing as especially awkward for risk assets: Japan tightening to support the yen while the Fed eases. “Japan is finally raising rates to save its own currency right at the time when the Fed has started slashing rates. The gap between the rates is getting squeezed. The ‘free money’ isn’t free anymore.” From there, he leaned into the mechanical consequence: when funding gets more expensive and the currency shifts, leveraged positions don’t get a long debate window — they get cut. “As Japanese rates rise, that trade flips. Investors are now being forced to sell their US assets to pay back their Yen loans. Instead of money flowing into the US markets, it is being sucked out to pay debts in Tokyo. This is a massive liquidity drain happening right under our noses.” That’s also where his Bitcoin read comes in. Not “Bitcoin is broken,” but that Bitcoin is where risk appetite and leverage tend to show up early — and where forced selling can look brutal when it hits. Stephan expanded on the same theme in a Substack post, pulling the Fed into the timeline more directly and warning readers to brace for turbulence. “You better get ready for a bumpy ride,” he wrote, claiming the Fed cut rates “for the third time this year,” and that the central bank “has officially ended ‘Quantitative Tightening’ and is quietly moving back toward printing money.” Related Reading: US Bitcoin Session Leads December Returns After Weak November He added a “pilot flying blind” angle as well, arguing the Fed cut “without any inflation data whatsoever” due to shutdown-related disruptions. He attached a specific interpretation of balance-sheet policy, too: “Finally, the most important news of the day: Quantitative Tightening (QT) is over… They even announced they will buy $40 billion of Treasuries over the next 30 days. The tightening era is dead. The ‘stimulus’ era is now being rebooted, and the money printer is being turned on.” Taken together, his thesis ends up with Bitcoin sitting between two forces that don’t necessarily move on the same clock: a potentially sharp deleveraging impulse from carry unwinds, and a slower easing impulse if policy conditions loosen. One can hit price violently in a short window; the other can take time to express itself cleanly. Stephan closed with a familiar Bitcoin-with-training-wheels framing: volatility is normal, drawdowns happen, and mining economics create a reference point. “Bitcoin isn’t broken. It’s just volatile, and this isn’t the first time this is happening. Statistically, Bitcoin has seen drastic crashes of 50% or more, but it has never dropped below its “electrical cost” (the cost to mine one coin), which sits around $71,000 today. If we get close to that number, history suggests it’s a strong buy zone,” he concluded. At press time, BTC traded at $87,082. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
XRP fails to find demand under $2 as futures volume on Binance fell by 96% and traders’ use of leverage hits new lows. Is $1 XRP the next stop?