The U.S. Senate has approved Mike Selig to serve as the chairman of the CFTC and Travis Hill to lead the FDIC, both of whom have a friendly attitude towards Crypto Assets. The CFTC is gradually becoming the core institution for the regulation of Crypto Assets, facing challenges of insufficient manpower. Meanwhile, the FDIC is dedicated to addressing the regulatory pressures banks face regarding the crypto industry and promoting banking services for the crypto sector.

Author: David, Deep Tide TechFlow

On December 15, Bitcoin fell from $90,000 to $85,616, a single-day drop of over 5%.
There are no significant incidents or negative events on this day, and on-chain data does not show any unusual selling pressure. If you only look at news from the cryptocurrency sphere, it’s hard to find a "reasonable" explanation.
On the same day, the gold price was $4,323 per ounce, down only $1 from the previous day.
One dropped by 5%, while the other barely moved.
If Bitcoin is truly "digital gold" and a tool for hedging against inflation and fiat currency devaluation, then its performance in the face of risk events should resemble that of gold. However, this time its trend clearly resembles that of high beta tech stocks in the Nasdaq.
What is driving this round of decline? The answer may lie in Tokyo.
The Butterfly Effect of Tokyo

With over 100 cryptocurrency ETFs expected to emerge by 2026, the market faces significant bubble risks. Bloomberg analysts point out that many ETFs may be quickly liquidated due to insufficient capital inflows, and the intense market competition has already caused some products to exit prematurely. Although the SEC's new regulations have accelerated the listing process, long-term survival still requires following the stability of funding support.

Although Bitcoin has retraced over 30% in the past 10 weeks, causing concern among many investors, on-chain data indicates that the spark of the long positions market does not seem to have extinguished.
According to Glassnode data, the Bitcoin "Realized Cap" is currently still firmly standing at the historical high of $1.125 trillion, indicating that there has not been a large-scale capital withdrawal from the market, suggesting that the bullish market pattern remains solid.
Unlike the "Market Cap" (current price x total circulation) that we often see, this on-chain indicator is more valuable for reference. The "Realized Market Cap" calculates the total value by using the price of each Bitcoin at the "last time it moved on-chain," excluding the short-term speculative hype, reflecting the "actual cost basis invested by investors" and the "actual capital inflow situation."
In other words, when the total market value fluctuates wildly with the coin price,

Fidelity's Global Macro Research Director Jurien Timmer, who has been long-term optimistic about Bitcoin, has recently become more cautious. He warns that Bitcoin has likely completed another "4-year cycle" and is about to enter a prolonged correction phase, possibly even facing a "Crypto winter."
Jurien Timmer pointed out that, based on historical experience, Bitcoin's price movements have consistently followed repeating cyclical patterns. From historical laws and time structures, this current cycle aligns closely with many previous bull and bear transitions.
He specifically mentioned that Bitcoin reached a historical high of $125,000 in October this year, after approximately 145 months of upward trend, which fully matches the expected range predicted by historical models.
Jurien Timmer stated that Bitcoin's bear market (commonly referred to as "Crypto winter") usually lasts about a year.

The Terra (LUNA) crash in 2022, which shocked the world and caused $40 billion to evaporate overnight, has now reignited a legal storm. The bankruptcy liquidation administrator of Terraform Labs has recently filed lawsuits against top quantitative trading giant Jump Trading and its executives, aiming to hold the company responsible for Terra's collapse and seeking civil compensation amounting to $4 billion.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Todd Snyder, the bankruptcy liquidation administrator of Terraform Labs, has filed a lawsuit in court. The defendants include not only Jump Trading but also co-founder William DiSomma and former President Kanav Kariya, who stepped down in 2024.
Terra

The Bank of Japan today (19th) raised interest rates by 1 basis point as expected, but the financial markets staged a "counterintuitive" show: the yen did not strengthen but depreciated, with the USD/JPY exchange rate falling to the 156 level; Bitcoin temporarily surged past $87,000.
To curb the ongoing risk of rising prices, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to raise the policy interest rate by 25 basis points (1 basis point) to 0.75%, marking the highest level in 30 years and officially ending decades of ultra-loose monetary policy in Japan.
In the decision statement, the BOJ admitted that, influenced by rising import prices and domestic inflation, the inflation rate has remained above the 2% target for a long time. However, policymakers also emphasized that the "real interest rate" after excluding inflation is still negative. This means that even with the nominal interest rate increase, the monetary policy environment remains accommodative.
After the announcement, the market experienced the typical "sell-off."

Analysts point out that Bitcoin is hovering near the "crucial long-term support line" and has been holding on for 3 weeks, causing the bulls in the market to be on edge. However, the publicly traded company Strategy (MSTR), the largest Bitcoin holder in the world, has already broken through this "safety line," sending a strong bearish signal to the crypto market.
CoinDesk senior analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole explained that this "safety line" is the extremely critical "100-week simple moving average (100-week SMA)" in technical analysis, which mainly reflects the average cost over the past two years. It is a key indicator used by major market technicians to identify major trend reversals, long-term support, or confirm crashes.
From the trend, the 100-week moving average has been performing strongly for 3 consecutive weeks.

U.S. Cryptocurrency Regulatory Legislation Moves Forward Again. White House AI and Crypto czar David Sacks announced on Thursday that the highly anticipated Digital Asset Market Clarity Act has been scheduled for final markup in January next year, bringing this key legislation one step closer to official enactment.
David Sacks posted on social platform X: "Today, we had a very positive call with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman. They confirmed that the Clarity Act will enter markup in January."
> We have never been this close to passing this crypto market structure bill, which President Trump personally endorsed.
> We had a

From Tom Lee's multiple interviews, we can roughly see his long-term bullish outlook on Ethereum's core logic:
1. Ethereum is the future financial infrastructure's core settlement layer.
Ether not only serves as digital currency but also as the foundational infrastructure for building and operating DeFi, stablecoins, NFTs, on-chain markets, RWA, and more. Especially in the RWA sector, this will be the biggest narrative in the future. Wall Street is bringing trillions of assets (bonds/stocks, etc.) onto Ethereum. As the dominant settlement layer, this will generate substantial demand and drive up the value of Ether. Tokenization is not short-term speculation but a structural shift that will propel Ether into a bull market independent of Bitcoin.
2. Institutional adoption and ecosystem maturity.
Currently, approximately 4 million Bitcoin wallets worldwide hold assets exceeding $10,000, and similar amounts are held in stock/retirement accounts globally.

This article is written by Tiger Research and explores how the sharp decline in Bitcoin prices has forced miners to change their business models.
Key Points
- Unstable income and rising Bitcoin mining costs make the core business of crypto mining companies unstable.
- Therefore, crypto mining companies are transitioning by leasing data center space to large tech firms using existing mining farms.
- This move reduces intense competition and makes the industry more resilient.
1. Business Risks Faced by Crypto Mining Companies
We previously analyzed the financial risks brought by the decline in Bitcoin prices to Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) reserve companies. However, they are not the only ones under pressure. Bitcoin mining companies that directly operate mining businesses also face significant risks.
The vulnerability of mining companies stems from their simple business model. Revenue is almost entirely dependent on Bitcoin prices, which are inherently volatile.

Original: Odaily Planet Daily
Author: Azuma
On the early morning of December 16, the stablecoin giant Circle officially announced that it has completed the agreement signing, acquiring the core talent and technology of the initial development team of cross-chain protocol Axelar Network, Interop Labs, to advance Circle's cross-chain infrastructure strategy and help Circle achieve seamless, scalable interoperability on its core products such as Arc and CCTP.
This is another typical case of industry giants acquiring high-quality teams, seemingly a win-win situation, but the key issue lies in—Circle explicitly mentioned in the acquisition announcement that this transaction only involves the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property, while Axelar Network

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates, but the market is in panic.
On December 10, 2025, the Federal Reserve announced a 25 bps rate cut and purchased $40 billion in short-term debt within 30 days. Traditionally, this is a major positive signal, but the market reaction was unexpected: short-term interest rates fell, while long-term Treasury yields rose instead of falling.
Behind this abnormal phenomenon lies a more dangerous signal: investors are pricing in the structural risk of "loss of Federal Reserve independence." For crypto investors, this is a critical moment to reassess asset allocation.
Rate Cuts Are Not Simple
On the surface, a 25 bps rate cut is a routine response to economic slowdown. From an economics textbook perspective, rate cuts are usually seen as standard tools to stimulate the economy, reduce corporate financing costs, and boost market confidence.
But the timing is too "coincidental."
Before the decision was announced, Trump's economic aides and the Federal Reserve...