The year opened with a sitting president launching his own token three days before inauguration and closed with researchers proving that one of the year's “comeback stories” was controlled by a few dozen wallets. Between those bookends, 2025 turned memecoins from niche absurdity into crypto's most visible, and most embarrassing, corner. A sovereign leader rugpulled […]
The post The memecoin hall of shame: 10 tokens that defined 2025 wildest trades appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has shared his thoughts on how Ethereum and Solana may perform as the crypto market moves toward 2026. His comments show the different strengths and challenges facing both blockchains. Hoskinson said that Solana has better growth potential in the short term. He explained that Solana can move faster when it comes …
Bitcoin has seen very little movement in the past 24 hours, with prices trading in a narrow range as the holiday season keeps activity low. Market conditions remain calm, and there have been no major breakouts so far. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is holding above an important short-term support zone near $85,500. As …
Ethereum is preparing for major network upgrades in 2026 that could transform how the blockchain works. According to recent developer roadmap updates shared in late 2025, Ethereum is planning two major protocol upgrades in 2026, the Glamsterdam fork and the Heze-Bogota fork. These upgrades target faster transactions, stronger privacy, and better decentralization, helping the ETH …
DTCC’s move to bring US Treasurys onchain highlights growing institutional momentum behind tokenized real-world assets.
The move could integrate crypto into Russia's financial system, potentially boosting market legitimacy and attracting new investors.
The post Russia’s top stock exchanges plan to launch crypto trading once legal framework is in place appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
The filing surge coincided with meaningful legislative progress that provided clearer operational frameworks for market participants.
The ongoing Bitcoin price play out leading into a bear market is now one of the most pressing questions in the crypto industry. Right now, Bitcoin is trading between $87,700 and $88,000, which is a 30% drop from the all-time high it reached in October 2025. Price action alone often leaves room for debate, but on-chain data is beginning to offer clearer guidance. Notably, analysis from CryptoQuant shows that Bitcoin’s internal market structure is shifting in a way that aligns more closely with early-stage bear market conditions. BCMI Drops Below Equilibrium The important bear market signal is from Bitcoin’s Combined Market Index, or BCMI, which is a composite indicator that blends price behavior with on-chain momentum. According to Woo Minkyu, a verified analyst on the CryptoQuant platform, Bitcoin’s BCMI returned to the 0.5 level in October. This was initially interpreted as a cooling phase rather than a definitive cycle top. At the time, the assumption was that Bitcoin was consolidating after an extended rally. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Remains Stuck Inside This Range, But A Breakout Could Follow However, that view has weakened with the deterioration of market conditions. Particularly, Bitcoin’s price action has declined materially since late October, and the BCMI has fallen in tandem with the price. This joint decline suggests the market has reset not only through time but also through valuation and participation. As shown on the chart below, the BCMI has now slipped below its equilibrium zone, and this is a development that is known to coincide with transitions into bearish phases, where rallies tend to be capped, and downside risks increase. A closer look at prior Bitcoin cycles adds more context to the current setup. In both 2019 and 2023, meaningful cycle bottoms formed only after BCMI compressed into the 0.25 to 0.35 range. Those levels reflected deep sentiment compression, washed-out positioning, and a structural reset of the market. At current readings, Bitcoin’s Combined Market Index is less than 0.4. This reading is below equilibrium but still well above a bottom zone. This opens the possibility that the market is transitioning into a bear phase, not just experiencing a pullback. According to the analyst, a more durable bottom may only form if history repeats itself and the BCMI revisits 2019-2023 levels. Weak Sentiment Adds To Bear Market Evidence Market sentiment is also supporting the idea that Bitcoin is moving deeper into a bearish phase. Optimism has been really scarce in recent weeks, with traders showing little confidence that the price has found a sustainable floor. CoinMarketCap’s Crypto Fear and Greed Index is currently posting a reading of 28, which places sentiment firmly in the Fear zone. Related Reading: The Bitcoin Bull And Bear Cases That Crypto Traders Should Know About This poor sentiment backdrop has been affirmed by industry commentary. For instance, Changpeng Zhao recently noted that many investors only wish they had bought Bitcoin early when prices were already at all-time highs. In practice, those early accumulations happened during periods like the present one, when fear, uncertainty, and doubt dominate market psychology. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
Post-halving stress is reshaping Bitcoin mining. As margins compress, miners turn to AI, HPC and consolidation to survive heading into 2026.
As Bitcoin (BTC) struggles to maintain its position below the $90,000 threshold, market sentiment appears to be shifting toward the possibility of a new bear market. Notably, analyst Ali Martinez has drawn comparisons with historical market cycles to forecast Bitcoin’s trajectory. Bitcoin Market Patterns In a recent social media post, Martinez highlighted a recurring pattern that suggests it typically takes around 1,064 days for Bitcoin to transition from a market bottom to a market top, followed by approximately 364 days from a market peak back to the next bottom. Related Reading: Ethereum Fails To Surpass $3,000: Predictions For The Final Days Of The Year In the first cycle, the market bottomed out in January 2015 and reached its peak in December 2017, exactly 1,064 days later. This was followed by a bear market that lasted 364 days, culminating in the bottom in December 2018. The second cycle mirrored this pattern: the market bottomed in December 2018 and reached its apex in November 2021, again over a span of 1,064 days. Subsequently, another downturn followed, leading to a bottom in November 2022, when Bitcoin traded around $15,500. Next Bottom At $37,500? Currently, the analyst highlights that the market is in what could be the third cycle, having witnessed a market bottom in November 2022 and a current peak above $126,000 reached back in October. Applying the historical patterns of these cycles, it suggests that Bitcoin is now within the 364-day correction window, indicating a potential bottom could materialize around October 2026 — approximately 288 days from now. Related Reading: Altcoin Struggles: What The Future Holds And The Potential For A 2026 Revival Examining past bear markets offers additional context for projecting potential downside. The bear market from 2017 to 2018 saw a correction of approximately 84%, while the market decline from 2021 to 2022 experienced a retracement of roughly 77%. Averaging these two corrections, Martinez suggests an expected retracement of around 80%, positioning Bitcoin’s next market bottom at around $37,500. Currently, the market’s leading cryptocurrency is trading slightly above the $88,290 mark, which is a 30% gap from the current peak. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
2025 saw the US-China rivalry weaponize every layer of the technology stack—from minerals to models to military doctrine.
Emerging markets are finally accessing finance, with a $310-billion stablecoin market showing that adoption is not hype. Here is what this milestone actually means.
Data of the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index suggests the average investor sentiment has now been inside the extreme fear zone for 13 straight days. Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index Is Still Pointing At Extreme Fear The “Fear & Greed Index” refers to an indicator created by Alternative that tells us about the average sentiment shared by traders in the Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency markets. The index determines the sentiment by referring to the data of five factors: market cap dominance, trading volume, Google Trends, social sentiment, and volatility. It then represents it using a numeric scale that runs from zero to hundred. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Trading Near ‘Fair Value,’ Says On-Chain Model All values above 53 indicate the presence of a greed sentiment among the investors, while those below 47 suggest the dominance of fear. Levels lying between the two thresholds correspond to a net neutral mentality. Besides these three core regions, there are also two “extreme” zones in the Fear & Greed Index, known as the extreme fear and extreme greed. The former occurs at and below 25, while the latter occurs above 75. Now, here is how the sentiment among investors in the current Bitcoin market is, according to the Fear & Greed Index: As is visible above, the majority sentiment in the cryptocurrency sector is one of extreme fear at the moment, with the indicator sitting at a value of 23. The despair among the investors isn’t new, as the index has, in fact, remained in this region for the last couple of weeks. As displayed in the chart, the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index has indicated extreme fear for 13 consecutive days now, underscoring the FUD that has been present in the market. If history is anything to go by, though, the extremely fearful sentiment may not actually be such a bad sign for BTC and other cryptocurrencies. Often, digital asset markets tend to move in a direction that goes contrary to the crowd’s belief. This probability of an opposite move generally becomes the strongest inside the extreme sentiment zones, with major tops and bottoms historically forming while the index has been in the respective region. The price low in November, which has acted as the bottom for Bitcoin so far, also occurred alongside an extended stay inside the extreme fear territory. Clearly, though, that extreme fear streak wasn’t enough to reignite sustained bullish momentum for BTC, as the asset has only consolidated since then. Related Reading: When Will Bitcoin Bottom? History Points To October 2026, Says Analyst As such, it only remains to be seen whether the latest stay inside extreme fear will be able to change that or if it will be a while before the bottom is reached in the current cycle. BTC Price At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $87,500, unchanged from one week ago. Featured image from Dall-E, Alternative.me, chart from TradingView.com
Crypto sentiment gauges have spent the past two months deep in the red. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has spent more than 30% of 2025 in fear or extreme fear territory, and alternative trackers put the market in a 10-25 range out of 100 since mid-November. Bitcoin is on track for its worst fourth […]
The post Crypto sentiment is trapped in extreme fear because the industry’s biggest structural wins are failing to move prices appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The overwhelming support for the UNI burn vote could enhance token scarcity, potentially boosting value and aligning incentives within the ecosystem.
The post Uniswap surges as vote to burn 100 million UNI shows overwhelming support appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
BTC may fall to $70,000 and ETH to $2,400 if the Fed pauses rate cuts in the first quarter of 2026 and inflationary pressure persists.
Dogecoin found itself at the center of a controversial political storm, all while being embraced by traditional institutions.
There's always something going on in the crypto space, and this year was no exception. We take a look back at 2025's highlights.
Five years of CME futures data shows where bitcoin has, and has not, built meaningful price support.
Quantum computing won’t break Bitcoin in 2026, but the growing practice of “harvest now, decrypt later” is pushing the crypto industry to prepare sooner rather than later.
Tron's rising on-chain perps volume indicates increasing DeFi interest, potentially boosting its ecosystem amid broader market stagnation.
The post Tron leads on-chain perps as WoW volume jumps 176% appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
A prison letter from Keonne Rodriguez has reignited debate over crypto privacy tools, developer liability and executive clemency.
According to reports, Joshua Dalton, founder of Triblu, has put forward a striking scenario: that XRP holders could become millionaires, billionaires, or even trillionaires if the token were used as part of a US strategic crypto reserve. Related Reading: JPMorgan Eyes Crypto Services As Institutional Demand Grows – A Boost For BTC Price? Dalton argued that XRP, because of its ties to a US-based company, is a safer fit for a national reserve than Bitcoin. The claim has energized some corners of the crypto community, but it also faces steep legal and market obstacles. Dalton’s Bold Claim And The Numbers Dalton’s case relies on hard math. Based on reports, the US national debt is about $38 trillion. Ripple’s escrow holds roughly 34.4 billion XRP. Using those figures, Dalton and others calculate that an XRP price near $883 would be needed to offset roughly 80% of that debt. Many people won’t like what I say below. “Bitcoin cannot be the official currency for the United States’ reserves because Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown and it could be the currency operated by China. The government can ???? trust XRP because it is operated by @Ripple and ????… — Joshua Dalton (@J9Dalton) January 23, 2025 At present, XRP trades around $1.91. That would mean a rise of over 46,000% for the token. By comparison, Bitcoin is trading near $89,000 and would have to reach about $30 million per coin to meet a similar debt-offset goal if the plan focused on 1 million BTC, an idea once floated by US Senator Cynthia Lummis. That would be a gain of more than 33,000% from current levels. Legal And Market Limits US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year creating a national Bitcoin reserve and a wider crypto stockpile framework. But policymakers appear to be focused mainly on Bitcoin for the reserve role, with other coins treated as seizure assets or general holdings. Importantly, Ripple’s escrow is privately controlled and governed by contracts. It cannot be commandeered by a government without legal action and likely long court fights. Even if US authorities somehow obtained large amounts of XRP, unloading such a position on global markets would likely push the price down, not up. Markets are not built to absorb trillions of dollars without heavy distortion. Holders And Wealth Scenarios Based on wallet data, some XRP addresses would see big nominal gains at an $880 price. For example, a holder of 10,000 XRP — currently worth about $19,100 — could see that stake climb to nearly $9 million on paper. Reports show 179,546 wallets hold between 5,000 and 10,000 XRP. About 2,006 addresses sit between 500,000 and 1 million XRP. Yet most of the largest reserves are held by Ripple, its founders, or exchanges. Only 20 wallets contain between 500 million and 1 billion XRP, and six addresses hold more than 1 billion. 2026 is going to be epic! Locked in! XRP will be the star of 2026. — Coach, JV (@Coachjv_) December 23, 2025 Market Reaction And Expert Views Matthew Sigel, lead researcher at VanEck, has argued in public that Bitcoin offers the best path to large-scale fiscal uses, and other analysts remain skeptical of any single token being used to “solve” national debt. Related Reading: XRP To $1,000? Korean Researcher Lays Out 10-Year Roadmap Coach JV and other commentators have shifted attention to 2026 as a potentially strong year for XRP price action, framing the outlook as speculative and time-bound. These views are primarily sentiment-driven and rely on factors beyond government policy, such as market demand and regulatory clarity. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
This year opened with Bitcoin (BTC) proponents expecting a clean rally, driven by halving narratives, spot ETF momentum, and a Fed pivot all stacked neatly in their favor. Instead, the year closed with BTC stuck 30% below its October peak, North Korean hackers walking away with $2 billion, and the US government quietly building a […]
The post 10 stories that rewired digital finance in 2025 – the year crypto became infrastructure appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The coming year will see perfect parallel processing, big increases in the gas limit and number of data blobs, and 10% of Ethereum’s network switching to ZK.
Bitcoin's declining RSI suggests potential for a prolonged bearish trend, impacting investor confidence and shifting focus to traditional assets.
The post Bitcoin correction enters watch zone as RSI breaks below average: CryptoQuant appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Ethereum (ETH) is approaching a pivotal derivatives deadline as billions of dollars in options contracts near expiration, placing the $3,000 price level firmly in focus for traders. While traders are betting on a move higher, Ethereum’s near-term price action remains uncertain. The outcome of this options expiry could help shape ETH’s next big move, either to the upside or down to lower levels—particularly as investors reassess their expectations following November’s volatility and choppy conditions. The price of Ethereum is currently sitting above $2,900 as a massive options expiration worth roughly $6 billion approaches. This event is expected to play a major role in shaping short-term price action and could influence investor sentiment heading into 2026. Ethereum Options Set To Expire This Friday Data from the derivatives platform Laevitas show that $6 billion in ETH options will expire on Friday, 26 December, with call positions outnumbering puts by more than 2.2 times. Despite this imbalance, bears still hold the edge unless Ethereum’s price moves decisively above $3,100. Related Reading: Ethereum Exchange Supply Just Crashed To New Lows, Why This Is Bullish For Price Earlier this year, many traders had positioned for Ethereum to surge significantly by year-end. However, those bullish expectations were undermined by a massive November decline, leaving ETH’s current options expiry vulnerable to further downside pressure. While call options still dominate Open Interest (OI), many of these positions would expire worthless if the Ethereum price fails to recover and push higher. This creates a fragile setup and leaves the market in a delicate position, where overly optimistic bets could quickly unwind if key price levels do not hold. Notably, the $3,100 price level has emerged as a critical pivot ahead of the options expiration set for this Friday. Traders have called this level “max pain,” as it represents the price at which the most options contracts would expire worthless. A close below this zone could give bears control and potentially open the door to further price declines. On the other hand, a clean break above $3,100 could flip momentum rapidly. Presently, around $3.8 billion in ETH options are expected to expire on Deribit, the world’s largest Bitcoin and Ethereum options exchange. In addition, more than $23.6 billion in Bitcoin options are scheduled to expire on Friday, potentially adding significant volatility to the already fragile market. Analyst Expect Further Volatility For Ethereum With the massive $6 billion Ethereum options expiry on the horizon, traders appear to be bracing for significant market volatility, as the event could trigger a sharp, decisive move in ETH’s price. Separately, crypto analyst Ted Pillows anticipates further volatility for ETH if its price moves in either of two key directions. Related Reading: Major Ethereum Metric Just Hit A New All-Time High – Can Price Reclaim $3,000? He says that Ethereum is currently in a no-trading zone; however, volatility could occur if the price reclaims the $3,000 level or retests the $2,700-$2,800 zone. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
The FSTB and SFC concluded consultations on virtual regimes and plan to introduce new bill to LegCo next year.
Crypto derivatives trading surged to $86 trillion in 2025, averaging $265 billion per day, as Binance captured almost 30% of global volume, CoinGlass reported.
Zhao urged the blockchain industry to adopt new security measures, including scam address blacklist, after an investor lost $50 million to an address poisoning scheme.