Market Signal Briefing

Journalist

Tanzeel Akhtar

Journalist

Tanzeel Akhtar

Part of the Team Since

Feb 2018

About Author

Tanzeel Akhtar has been reporting on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology since 2015. Her work has appeared in leading publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Bitcoin...

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Last updated: 

December 17, 2025

Falcon Finance announced the deployment of USDf, its $2.1 billion multi-asset synthetic dollar, on Coinbase-backed Layer 2 network Base, introducing a new “universal collateral” asset.

Falcon Finance’s synthetic dollar is now live on @base.

This expansion introduces Falcon's $2.1 billion market cap synthetic dollar, backed by a diverse mix of crypto blue chips and tokenized RWAs, to a cost-effective, builder-friendly Ethereum L2 that has become a leading hub… pic.twitter.com/g813beBEsf

— Falcon Finance 🦅🟠 (@falconfinance) December 18, 2025
The integration allows users to bridge USDf from Ethereum to Base and access some of the most competitive yields among major yield-bearing stable assets, as onchain activity across the network reaches record levels.

The launch comes as Base continues to consolidate its position as a core hub for decentralized finance and onchain payments, with infrastructure increasingly designed to support both crypto-native and mainstream financial use cases.

Base Activity Surges Following Fusaka UpgradeThe deployment coincides with a pivotal month for Base following the activation of Ethereum’s Fusaka hard fork, which expanded Layer 2 capacity by approximately eight times.

Since the upgrade, Base said it has recorded a sharp rise in network performance, with monthly transactions surpassing an all-time high of more than 452 million.

Lower transaction fees and expanded gas limits have improved the economics of onchain activity, enabling more complex DeFi strategies and high-frequency use cases such as micropayments.

The improved scalability has also strengthened Base’s appeal to developers and institutions seeking reliable, cost-efficient settlement infrastructure.

A Multi-Asset Approach to Stable ValueUnlike traditional fiat-backed stablecoins, USDf is overcollateralized by a diversified basket of assets that includes crypto blue chips such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, alongside tokenized U.S. Treasuries, sovereign bonds, equities and gold.

This structure brings more than $2.3 billion in reserves onchain, positioning USDf among the top ten stable assets by backing and making it a distinct addition to Base’s liquidity layer.

Falcon Finance has also been expanding USDf beyond purely crypto-based collateral. Most recently, the protocol added tokenized Mexican sovereign bills (CETES), introducing emerging-market sovereign yield into its onchain reserve mix.

Yield Mechanics and DeFi IntegrationThe integration introduces new yield opportunities for Base users through Falcon’s yield-bearing token, sUSDf. Since launch, sUSDf has distributed more than $19.1 million in cumulative yield, including nearly $1 million over the past 30 days.

Returns are generated through diversified strategies such as funding rate arbitrage, cross-exchange price arbitrage, options-based strategies and native altcoin staking.

“Expanding USDf to Base is part of a larger shift we’re seeing across onchain markets,” said Fiona Ma, VP of Growth at Falcon Finance. “Stable assets need to be more flexible, more composable, and available across the networks where people are actually building. Base is one of those places.”

Base users can now bridge USDf, stake for yield, provide liquidity on platforms such as Aerodrome, and tap into the network’s expanding DeFi stack.

For Base, the arrival of a multi-asset-backed synthetic dollar adds another core financial primitive as the network increasingly positions itself as a settlement layer for both decentralized and traditional finance rails.

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In brief
Fetch.ai said its AI agents had already booked restaurant reservations and paid deposits in live tests.
The system used existing Visa infrastructure, issuing temporary card credentials tied to specific purchases.
The company said additional review pushed the public rollout to January, with Mastercard support expected later.
Autonomous AI agents have become increasingly proficient at searching and recommending shopping options, but most stop short of completing transactions. Fetch.ai said Thursday that it will roll out a payment system in 2026 designed to let AI agents execute purchases and deposits on a user’s behalf.

The new feature set to launch in January addresses one of the largest barriers to wider adoption of agentic AI. While consumer-facing systems can suggest flights, hotels, or services, virtually all of the agentic systems need real-time human approval before handling payments because of security, liability, and regulatory risks.

Fetch.ai founder and CEO Humayun Sheikh said the obstacle was less about access to payment rails and more about how AI systems are designed.

"We’ve been working on it for at least five years, and the reason is because we’re going to see a transition from the web-based economy to an AI-first economy," Sheikh told Decrypt. "And the only way to do that is where AI agents can communicate with each other and transact with each other."

The new payment functionality is hosted on Fetch.ai’s ASI:ONE platform and aims to allow agents to book services, place orders, and send payments even when a user is offline. The company said it is working with established financial providers instead of building proprietary infrastructure.

“All of these rails matter, but having them isn’t enough if a system can only do one thing at a time internally,” he said. “That’s why ChatGPT hasn’t managed to do this. It doesn’t have a system that allows you to actually buy something from someone.”

“This is a Visa system,” Sheikh said. “We’re connecting it to the agent and making sure there’s trust building, a layer of security, and a KYC element built in.” He added that while the technology is ready, the rollout was delayed to January to allow additional checks by Visa. Mastercard support, he said, is expected to follow.

To address security concerns, Fetch.ai said the system relies on single-use payment credentials rather than permanent card numbers. Transactions are authorized through Visa, which issues temporary credentials limited to specific amounts and purposes.

The platform supports both traditional card payments and on-chain transactions using USDC or Fetch.ai’s FET, the native token. The company said it has avoided direct bank transfers, citing the additional regulatory requirements associated with that approach.

Fetch.ai has also built an identity layer into the system, requiring agents to act on behalf of identifiable users or businesses rather than operating anonymously. The design comes as retailers and platforms push back against automated shopping tools that mimic human behavior.

Last month, Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, alleging that its Comet tool was disguising bots as human shoppers. Sheikh said Fetch.ai’s agents are designed to operate transparently, with persistent identities tied to specific users.

“When an agent isn’t live, for example if it’s hosted on a local machine that goes offline, it has a mailbox,” Sheikh said. “When it comes back online, it checks messages, downloads them, interprets them, and takes action.”

The rollout also comes amid changes inside the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, a group Fetch.ai formed in 2024 with SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. In October 2025, Ocean withdrew from the ASI Alliance, citing disputes over treasury control and the closure of its token bridge.

Despite the turbulence, Fetch.ai said it remains focused on an owner-operated model that allows users and businesses to host and manage their own agents rather than relying on centralized platforms.

“That architecture exists for people who want to run their own agents,” Sheikh said. “We give them the facility to own and operate them, with each agent representing a known user.”

Generally Intelligent NewsletterA weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.

Ethereum has quietly accumulated a problem that does not show up in gas fees or transaction speed charts but threatens the network’s long-term health. It is called state bloat. The Ethereum Foundation’s Stateless Consensus researchers are now sounding a clear warning: Ethereum’s ever-growing state is becoming harder to store, harder to serve, and harder to decentralize.

In a recent proposal, the team laid out why the issue matters, how scaling improvements have unintentionally made it worse, and three concrete paths that could prevent node operation from turning into an elite activity reserved for only the largest infrastructure providers.

What Ethereum’s “State” Really MeansEthereum State: Image Source: Ethereum FoundationEthereum’s state is the sum of everything the network currently knows. That includes account balances, smart contract storage, and the bytecode that runs decentralized applications. It is the live memory of the chain.

This state underpins an ecosystem that settles billions of dollars in value and coordinates thousands of applications across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and enterprise use cases. The problem is simple but severe: the state only grows. Nothing ever gets removed.

As more applications deploy contracts and more users interact with them, the state expands permanently. Every full node must store and serve this data, even if large portions of it are never touched again.

Why Ethereum State Bloat Threatens DecentralizationRunning a full Ethereum node is already expensive. Storage requirements keep rising, sync times increase, and serving data becomes more fragile as the chain ages. According to the Foundation, if the state becomes too large or too complex to serve, the entire stack becomes more centralized and more brittle.

Recent scaling upgrades have unintentionally accelerated this trend. Layer 2 expansion, EIP-4844 proto-danksharding, and higher gas limits all enable more activity on Ethereum. More activity means more contracts, more storage writes, and faster state growth.

The concern is not theoretical. Researchers are actively stress-testing scenarios to understand when state size becomes a bottleneck, when nodes struggle to stay synced with the head of the chain, and when client implementations start failing under extreme storage pressure.

If only a small group of well-funded operators can afford to run full nodes, Ethereum’s censorship resistance and neutrality start to weaken.

Stateless Validation Solves One Problem and Creates AnotherEthereum’s long-term roadmap includes statelessness, where validators can verify blocks without storing the full state. This significantly lowers the burden on validators and opens the door to higher throughput.

But it raises a new question: if validators do not store the state, who does?

In a stateless design, most historical and active state would likely be held by specialized operators such as block builders, RPC providers, MEV searchers, and block explorers. That concentration introduces new risks around censorship, availability during outages, and resilience under regulatory or external pressure.

The Stateless Consensus team is clear about the trade-off. Stateless validation improves scalability, but without careful design, it could push Ethereum toward infrastructure centralization.

Three Proposed Paths to Tackle State BloatTo address the problem, the Ethereum Foundation researchers outlined three complementary approaches, each attacking state growth from a different angle.

State ExpiryState Expiry focuses on removing inactive data from the active state. The team estimates that roughly 80 percent of Ethereum state has not been touched in over a year, yet every node is still required to store it.

Under this model, inactive data is expired from the active set but can be revived later using cryptographic proofs. Two variants are being explored. One marks and expires rarely used entries with an option to revive them later. The other groups state into eras, freezing older eras while keeping recent data active.

The goal is simple: stop forcing every node to carry data that nobody is using.

State ArchiveState Archive separates hot state from cold state. Frequently accessed data remains fast and bounded, while older data is preserved in archival storage for historical verification.

This approach allows node performance to remain relatively stable over time instead of degrading as the chain ages. Even if total state continues to grow, the operational burden on most nodes would stay manageable.

It also creates clearer roles between nodes optimized for performance and nodes optimized for history and research.

Partial StatelessnessPartial Statelessness allows nodes to store only subsets of the state instead of everything. Wallets and light clients would cache the data they rely on, reducing dependence on centralized RPC providers.

This model lowers storage costs, broadens participation, and makes it easier for individuals and smaller operators to run nodes without massive hardware investments.

Across all three approaches, the unifying goal is to reduce state as a performance bottleneck, lower the cost of holding it, and make it easier to serve.

What the Ethereum Foundation Is Doing NextThe Foundation is prioritizing solutions that can deliver real benefits today while remaining compatible with more ambitious protocol changes in the future. Current focus areas include improving archive node tooling, strengthening RPC infrastructure, and making partial stateless nodes easier to run.

These efforts are deliberately practical. The team emphasized that they were chosen because they are immediately useful and forward-compatible with Ethereum’s longer-term roadmap.

Developers, node operators, and infrastructure teams are being invited to participate in testing and discussion. The researchers made it clear that this is not something the Foundation can solve alone.

A Proposal, Not a Final DecisionThe Foundation was careful to stress that this work represents a proposal, not a unified organizational stance. Ethereum’s protocol development includes a wide range of opinions, and no single path has been locked in.

That openness is consistent with the Foundation’s recent push to communicate more clearly about long-term protocol direction. Alongside state management research, Ethereum is also working on an Interop Layer to make Layer 2 networks feel like a single chain, rolling out leadership and R&D changes, adjusting its treasury strategy, and moving to a twice-yearly hard-fork schedule with Fusaka.

Why This Matters Long TermEthereum State bloat is not a headline-grabbing issue, but it sits at the heart of Ethereum’s decentralization promise. If running a node becomes too costly or complex, the network risks drifting toward infrastructure concentration, even as throughput and usability improve.

The Ethereum Foundation’s message is straightforward. Scaling the chain without scaling its ability to store and serve data safely is not enough. How Ethereum manages its state over the next few years will shape who can participate, who controls infrastructure, and how resilient the network remains under pressure.

The debate is just beginning, and the choices made here will echo far beyond the next upgrade cycle.

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Altcoins

Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin has quietly crossed a milestone that few new entrants reach this quickly, highlighting a changing balance of power in the stablecoin market.

RLUSD has grown beyond the $1 billion mark in circulating value, but its trajectory looks very different from the retail-driven expansions seen in earlier stablecoin cycles. Instead of spreading through trading pairs and DeFi incentives, RLUSD’s growth has been shaped by enterprise demand, compliance requirements, and tokenized finance infrastructure.

This makes it less visible in day-to-day crypto trading, but increasingly relevant where traditional finance meets blockchain rails.

Why RLUSD Grew Without Retail Hype
Unlike most stablecoins, RLUSD was never designed to chase volume through exchanges or offer incentives to users. Its adoption has been concentrated among institutions that require strict reserve controls, recognized custodians, and predictable regulatory oversight.

That positioning limited early visibility but created a steady pipeline of demand tied to real financial activity rather than speculative flows. As tokenized assets and on-chain settlement tools expanded, RLUSD became a practical choice rather than a promotional one.

From Payments to Infrastructure
RLUSD’s primary role is not consumer payments but settlement. It is increasingly used as a base layer for moving value between tokenized assets, funds, and cash equivalents that operate around the clock.

This has placed the stablecoin in the background of financial plumbing, where growth is slower but stickier. Once embedded into workflows tied to real-world assets, replacement costs rise and usage becomes less sensitive to market cycles.

Global Acceptance Before Global Scale
Instead of expanding rapidly across every blockchain, Ripple has taken a slower approach, focusing first on regulatory recognition in key financial jurisdictions. This has allowed RLUSD to operate in environments where legal certainty matters more than speed or composability.

Only after establishing that foundation is Ripple moving toward broader network connectivity, preparing the stablecoin for multi-chain settlement without sacrificing its compliance posture.

A Different Path to the Top Tier
Reaching a $1 billion valuation typically marks the point where stablecoins compete directly with incumbents. RLUSD’s path suggests that scale does not require dominance in retail trading or DeFi liquidity pools.

Instead, it reflects a growing demand for digital dollars that behave like regulated financial instruments rather than crypto-native products. As tokenization of traditional assets accelerates, this demand may continue to grow independently of broader market sentiment.

RLUSD’s milestone is less about how fast it grew and more about where it grew. In that sense, it may be a signal of how the next phase of stablecoins takes shape.

Author

Alexander Stefanov

Reporter at CoinsPress

Alex is an experienced finance journalist and a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast. With over five years of experience covering the industry, he deeply understands the complex and constantly evolving world of digital assets. His insightful and thought-provoking articles provide readers with a clear picture of the latest developments and trends in the market. His passionate approach allows him to break down complex ideas into accessible and insightful content. Follow up on his content to be up to date with the most important trends and topics - stay ahead of the curve with CoinsPress.

Easing inflation fuels bullish momentum across the digital asset landscape.

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin surged above $89,000 after CPI data was released.
Bitcoin recovered from $85,300 in early trading, and Ethereum surged 3% to nearly $3,000.

Bitcoin broke above $89,000 today following the release of November consumer price index (CPI) data that surprisingly showed US inflation easing

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the headline CPI rose 2.7% year-over-year, below the 3.1% forecast and slightly above October’s 3% reading. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 2.6% year-over-year, also underperforming expectations of 3%.

Crypto markets and stock futures rose following the report. Bitcoin rebounded from $85,300 in early trading, while Ethereum gained 3% to close at $3,000. Other major crypto assets like XRP and Solana also surged on the news.

However, despite the market rally, uncertainty remains over the Federal Reserve’s next moves, as officials remain divided on interest rate policy and Chair Jerome Powell noted that the figures may not fully reflect underlying inflation trends.

Disclaimer

Thu, 18/12/2025 - 14:28

Almost one trillion SHIB woke up after two years, and these Shiba Inu coins did not stay private as the on-chain trail ran into the OKX wallet, putting a sleeping whale back on every meme coin holder's radar.

Cover image via U.Today

Two dormant Ethereum addresses tied to what may be the same Shiba Inu (SHIB) whale just lit up after about two years of near-zero activity, and the combined move adds up to 933,290,251,691 SHIB, on-chain data on Arkham shows. 

The wallets, "0x58797" and "0x00a63," were originally funded from the same source and then sat there HODLing the asset until a burst of fresh transactions in a single day pushed funds out toward major offshore crypto exchange OKX.

This history matters because both wallets received their big SHIB chunks around two years ago from the same sending address, one getting about 468.989 billion SHIB and the other about 464.31 billion SHIB, which is basically the entire 933.29 billion pile. 

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Source: ArkhamBefore the OKX moves, both addresses even topped up small amounts of ETH from a MetaMask “gas station,” a classic sign of an owner waking a cold wallet up to pay fees and execute exits.

Is sell-off only outcome for SHIB?The outgoing path is the headline: transfers to OKX deposit plus Arkham’s swap log showing multi-million-dollar value transits, the kind of behavior that usually lines up with selling, derivatives collateral or an exchange-side reshuffle that ends with coins basically becoming tradable supply.

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On the price side of things, SHIB is trading around $0.00000742 with the next obvious floor near 0.00000678, so a fresh exchange deposit at these levels can accelerate the downside if buyers keep waiting, and a bounce will look suspect until that OKX flow stops.

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Hailey Welch, the face of the $HAWK token will now have to talk tuah (sic) judge as a federal one recently granted leave to amend the initial complaint filed in December 2024 by investors who had lost money after the token dumped 90-95% in mere hours following its peak around a $500M market cap. 

Haliey Welch and several other associated entities have been named as defendants in an amended lawsuit alleging she profited over $325,000 from the $HAWK memecoin’s fraudulent launch.

Welch may now face legal trouble  
The leave to amend the complaint regarding the $HAWK token was granted because the plaintiffs were contacted by an informant who provided incriminating chat logs that prove the whole process was premeditated and there was coordination among the entities involved. 

The informant reportedly shared evidence that ultimately led the plaintiffs who engaged blockchain forensics experts, who also linked the wallets involved in the scheme to previous similar $LIBRA token, $M3M3, and $AIAI pump and dumps. 

The analysis showed that all those schemes happened on the Meteora platform under the oversight of CEO Ben Chow. These schemes had similar technical signatures, including false “permanently locked” liquidity badges. 

The new defendants now include Hailey Welch, her manager Jonnie Forster and company 16 Minutes LLC, Meteora and its CEO Chow, Solana Sweeper, Memetic Labs, and Dynamic Labs Limited. 

Welch and all her fellow named defendants are now accused of unjust enrichment. This is the part that got her implicated as she was allegedly paid over $300,000. Welch allegedly got $125,000 as an upfront payment and a further $200,000 upon completion of various promotional milestones linked to the token’s allegedly “fraudulent marketing campaign.” 

Those funds reportedly came from the Tuah the Moon Foundation and associated wallet clusters. They allege those payments make Welch a co-conspirator rather than a victim who simply didn’t understand the tech. 

The other new claims, which included breach of contract, securities violations, false advertising, common law fraud, or violating New York general business law, do not pertain to Welch but to the other defendants.  

The complaint also states that, “Every technical component — pre-sale allocation, float restriction, sniper configuration, liquidity provisioning, Meteora infrastructure, and wallet-cluster coordination — functioned together to create a carefully constructed on-chain roadmap for fraud.” 

Where is Hailey Welch? 
Welch parlayed her popularity into her podcast Talk Tuah, but she has gone radio silent and has only resurfaced in brief snatches of time since she alleged she was going to bed just before her memecoin crashed by over 90%. 

The initial complaint did not name her as a defendant. However, she resurfaced toward the end of December 2024 to tell her fans she was cooperating with the investigation. 

In the months that followed, she went quiet again, halting her podcast and avoiding public appearances, most likely in an effort to distance herself even more from the project. 

This year, Welch has turned up in small measure, only relaunching podcasts and granting interviews at high-profile events like VidCon and Vanity Fair. In the Vanity Fair interview, she addressed the scandal, but she has not touched the subject on her social media page. 

At the time of this writing, it appears there are no legitimate X accounts linked to Hailey Welch; only scam accounts posting generic crypto slop. 

As for the other new defendants, Ben Chow has in the past denied allegations of facilitating these schemes.  

Last year, around when the complaint was initially filed, OverHere Ltd. issued a brief statement denying any wrongdoing while expressing confidence in the legal process. 

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Bitcoin Price Stalls Between $85K and $93K$Bitcoin has spent most of the past week moving sideways, trading in a broad range between $85,000 and $93,000. The chart shows a clear lack of trend direction, with sharp intraday moves but no sustained breakout.

This kind of price action creates a familiar dynamic in the crypto market:

When Bitcoin pushes higher, altcoins follow — but modestlyWhen Bitcoin pulls back, altcoins drop much fasterWith no clear BTC trend, risk appetite stays fragile. Traders rotate quickly, leverage gets flushed, and weaker altcoins take the hit first.That’s exactly what played out this week.

Why Altcoins Are Bleeding Harder Than BitcoinSideways Bitcoin markets are often the worst environment for altcoins. Liquidity stays tight, conviction is low, and every $BTC dip triggers outsized selling in smaller caps.

Add sector-specific weakness — AI tokens, RWA narratives, older legacy coins — and losses accelerate quickly.

Below are the five altcoins that lost the most over the past seven days.

1. UNUS SED LEO (LEO)$LEO held up better than most on a daily basis, but the weekly chart tells a different story. The token rolled over sharply toward the end of the week, breaking its short-term structure.

With limited upside participation during Bitcoin bounces, sellers took control as soon as BTC stalled. LEO’s move highlights how even large-cap altcoins aren’t immune when liquidity dries up.

2. Pump.fun (PUMP)$PUMP was one of the hardest-hit tokens this week, posting a steep weekly decline.

As a highly speculative token, PUMP benefitted from risk-on momentum earlier in the cycle. But once Bitcoin started chopping, speculative demand vanished quickly. The result was a steady sell-off with very little bounce, showing how fragile meme-driven flows are in sideways markets.

3. Aster (ASTER)$ASTER saw a sharp weekly drop as its broader sector lost momentum. Despite strong volume earlier in the month, buyers failed to defend key levels once Bitcoin rolled over.

The chart shows a clear pattern of lower highs and accelerating downside, a classic sign that traders are exiting rather than rotating.

4. Dash (DASH)$DASH continues to struggle in the current market environment. As an older altcoin with limited narrative traction, it tends to underperform during periods where liquidity is selective.

This week’s move was less about panic and more about persistent selling pressure, with each Bitcoin pullback pushing DASH to new weekly lows.

5. Bittensor (TAO)$TAO’s decline stands out because it comes from the AI sector, which had been one of the strongest narratives earlier this year.

As Bitcoin stalled, traders locked in profits aggressively. The result was a fast and heavy drawdown, showing that even high-conviction themes are vulnerable when macro and BTC momentum fade.

The Pattern Is ClearThis week reinforced a key market rule:

Bitcoin goes sideways → altcoins bleedBitcoin dips → altcoins crashBitcoin pumps → altcoins lagUntil Bitcoin breaks decisively above resistance or loses the $85K support zone, altcoins remain in a vulnerable position.

The proposal would also execute an immediate burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury, worth over $500 million at current rates.Updated Dec 18, 2025, 12:54 p.m. Published Dec 18, 2025, 12:35 p.m.

Uniswap governance has opened voting on a sweeping proposal that would activate protocol fees for the first time, introduce a permanent burn mechanism for its UNI token and formally align Uniswap Labs with the protocol’s long-term growth strategy.

The proposal, dubbed “UNIfication,” would flip Uniswap’s long-dormant fee switch, allowing the protocol to collect a portion of swap fees across selected v2 and v3 pools. These pools have pocketed over $700 million in the past year, data shows.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Those fees would be routed into a new on-chain mechanism designed to burn UNI tokens, directly linking protocol usage to token supply reduction.

Voting begins at 9:03 a.m. UTC on December 20, 2025, and will continue until 11:27 p.m. on December 25, 2025.

If approved, the proposal would also execute an immediate burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury — worth over $500 million at current rates — in a retroactive move intended to reflect fees that could have accrued had protocol fees been active since Uniswap’s launch.

The burn would permanently reduce UNI’s circulating supply from the current 629 million tokens to 529 million tokens.

Under the plan, Uniswap v2 pools would split fees into 0.25% for liquidity providers and 0.05% for the protocol, while v3 protocol fees would be set on a pool-by-pool basis, initially capturing between one-sixth and one-quarter of LP fees depending on the tier.

Uniswap v2 and v3 are different versions of Uniswap’s trading software that launched years apart. V2 is one simple pool per token pair with one fixed fee, while v3 are more advanced pools that let market makers choose price ranges and different fee levels.

Liquidity providers are users who supply tokens to Uniswap so others can trade, earning a share of trading fees in return.

Beyond swap fees, the proposal directs all Unichain sequencer revenue — net of data costs and Optimism’s share — into the same UNI burn system, expanding the protocol’s fee base beyond Ethereum mainnet trading.

Another central part of the proposal is structural. It shifts operational responsibility from the Uniswap Foundation to Uniswap Labs, consolidating protocol development, growth, ecosystem support and governance coordination under a single entity.

In return, Labs commits to zero fees on its interface, wallet and API products and to focusing exclusively on protocol growth rather than standalone monetization.

To fund that effort, governance would approve a 20 million UNI annual growth budget, distributed quarterly via vesting starting in 2026. The budget would be governed by a services agreement between Labs and the DAO’s legal entity, DUNI.

Meanwhile, the proposal also sketches out future upgrades, including ways to capture value from trading bots, route trades beyond Uniswap’s own pools, and boost returns for liquidity providers.

If passed, the proposal would mark Uniswap’s most significant economic shift to date, transforming UNI from a governance token into one directly tied to protocol revenue and usage.

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As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.View Full Report

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U.S. inflation data surprises, with CPI higher by just 2.7% in November

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Bitcoin rose above $88,000 as forecasts had been for inflation to continue to run above 3%.

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November CPI was higher by 2.7% against forecasts for 3.1%.The core rate fell to 2.6% versus expectations for 3%.Bitcoin added to early gains on the news.Read full story

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SponsoredDogecoin and Shiba Inu lag market as memecoins continue to lose ground to bitcoinDespite increased whale accumulation, both DOGE and SHIB face selling pressure unless they reclaim key technical levels.Updated Dec 18, 2025, 12:53 p.m. Published Dec 18, 2025, 12:53 p.m.

What to know: Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue to underperform compared to broader crypto markets, highlighting ongoing de-risking in speculative assets.Despite increased whale accumulation, both DOGE and SHIB face selling pressure unless they reclaim key technical levels.Recent regulatory developments for SHIB have not translated into immediate price gains, as technical factors dominate meme coin trading.Dogecoin and Shiba Inu moved lower in tandem Tuesday, extending a period of underperformance for meme coins as rising volume and tightening chart structures outweighed signs of accumulation by larger holders.

News backgroundMeme coins remained under pressure as traders continued to rotate away from higher-beta exposures, even as broader crypto markets showed selective stabilization. Assets such as ether ETH$2,938.22 held comparatively firm, while speculative tokens like DOGE and SHIB continued to lag, reinforcing a widening performance gap inside the market.The divergence comes despite incremental improvements in market structure for Shiba Inu. Coinbase recently launched regulated SHIB futures contracts tied to its 1,000-token index, expanding compliant derivatives access in the U.S. While the development strengthens SHIB’s longer-term institutional framework, near-term price action across meme coins has remained dominated by technical factors rather than regulatory milestones.Technical analysisDogecoin fell 3.3% from $0.1302 to $0.1262, extending a sequence of lower highs and remaining capped beneath a descending trendline. Trading volume rose more than 50% above the seven-day average, pointing to active repositioning rather than thin-liquidity drift.The structure shows a descending triangle compressing around the $0.13 psychological zone. Repeated failures to reclaim $0.1265–$0.1270 have flipped former support into resistance, while heavier supply remains visible near $0.1360 following a high-volume rejection earlier this month.Shiba Inu displayed a similar profile. SHIB tracked DOGE lower during U.S. hours, failing to reclaim short-term resistance after slipping below its own consolidation floor. Volume picked up during declines, suggesting sector-wide distribution rather than isolated selling in a single token.Price action summaryDOGE traded within a narrow $0.004 range, briefly stabilizing near $0.1258 before settling around $0.1262. Bounce attempts were short-lived, with sellers re-emerging quickly above $0.13.SHIB showed comparable behavior, stabilizing after intraday weakness but failing to generate meaningful upside follow-through. The synchronized price action reinforces the view that meme coins are currently trading as a single risk bucket rather than on token-specific catalysts.What traders should know• DOGE and SHIB continue to underperform the broader market and assets like ETH, signaling ongoing de-risking in speculative corners of crypto.
• DOGE must reclaim $0.13 on sustained volume to neutralize the bearish structure. SHIB likewise needs to regain prior consolidation levels to shift momentum.
• Whale accumulation in DOGE contrasts with weak price action, suggesting longer-term interest but little short-term conviction. Until broken levels are reclaimed, rallies are likely to face selling pressure.

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U.S. inflation data surprises, with CPI higher by just 2.7% in November

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Bitcoin rose above $88,000 as forecasts had been for inflation to continue to run above 3%.

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November CPI was higher by 2.7% against forecasts for 3.1%.The core rate fell to 2.6% versus expectations for 3%.Bitcoin added to early gains on the news.Read full story

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December 18, 2025

Fartcoin has shed nearly 20% of its value in the past 24 hours as Solana meme coins seem to be once again out of fashion. One trader sees a much deeper correction ahead as the evidence supports a bearish Fartcoin price prediction of $0.20.

Despite the upswing that Fartcoin experienced between April and July this year, this meme coin currently sits on a 12-month loss of 68% as the market has shunned meme coins.

Meanwhile, trading volumes have surged by 28% in the past 24 hours, currently accounting for 43% of the asset’s circulating market cap. This indicates that the selling pressure is increasing.

Crypto trader Popeye shared an interesting analysis of Fartcoin’s price action a few hours ago. The chart shows how a rejection of the $0.35 level favors a bearish price prediction for the token.

Based on his analysis, the price could drop to as low as $0.20 in the next few days. This results in a downside risk of 28% based on today’s price.

Fartcoin Price Prediction: FARTCOIN Needs to Recapture $0.40 to Reverse Its DowntrendAlthough other top Solana meme coins like Bonk (BONK) and SPX6900 (SPX) are also taking losses today, Fartcoin’s drop is nearly 4X higher than that of the average token in this category.

The daily chart shows that FARTCOIN hit a sell wall once it hit $0.40. Pretty much in line with Popeye’s prediction, the token now seems headed to retest the $0.20 support.

FARTCOIN has been consolidating in this range for a while. Hence, a break below this mark could result in additional losses in the near term.

Meanwhile, if the price bounces off this level, it will still need to break past the $0.40 area to reverse its downtrend. In that scenario, FARTCOIN could rapidly climb to $0.70, meaning a potential 75% gain.

Even though meme coins have faced significant selling pressure lately, top crypto presales like Pepenode ($PEPENODE) are still attracting millions from investors. This mine-to-earn (M2E) game allows players to easily mine meme coins without investing thousands of dollars in hardware.

Pepenode ($PEPENODE) Makes Crypto Mining Easy and Accessible for EveryoneMining cryptocurrencies commonly requires thousands of dollars invested in expensive equipment. Pepenode ($PEPENODE) is here to change that paradigm by introducing a fun and rewarding M2E model that lets you set up virtual servers and fire up mining rigs without any hardware requirements.

Simply buy $PEPENODE to get started. You can launch as many rigs as you want and upgrade them to increase their output. As you climb the leaderboard, you’ll get surprising airdrops of token meme coins like Bonk ($BONK) and Fartcoin ($FARTCOIN).

Up to 70% of the tokens invested in upgrades will be burned forever to reduce $PEPENODE’s circulating supply, which sets the stage for an explosive move as the game’s popularity increases.

To buy $PEPENODE, simply head to the official Pepenode website and connect a compatible wallet like Best Wallet.

You can swap tokens like USDT or ETH or use a traditional bank card to complete your purchase.

Visit the Official Pepenode Website Here

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The crypto industry experienced a major escalation in global cryptocurrency theft in 2025, with losses exceeding $3.4 billion between January and early December, according to a new report from Chainalysis.

The surge was largely driven by North Korea-linked hackers, who were responsible for the majority of stolen funds during the year.

Inside North Korea’s Record $2 Billion Crypto TheftIn its latest report, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis pointed out that there was a significant decline in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) attack frequency. Still, they achieved a record-breaking year in terms of cryptocurrency theft.

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North Korean hackers stole at least $2.02 billion in digital assets in 2025. This marked a 51% year-over-year increase. Compared with 2020 levels, the amount represents a surge of approximately 570%.

“This year’s record haul came from significantly fewer known incidents. This shift — fewer incidents yielding far greater returns — reflects the impact of the massive Bybit hack in March 2025,” Chainalysis noted.

Furthermore, the report revealed that DPRK-linked actors were responsible for a record 76% of all service compromises during the year.

Taken together, the 2025 figures push the lower-bound cumulative estimate of cryptocurrency funds stolen by North Korea to $6.75 billion.

“This evolution is a continuation of a long-term trend. North Korea’s hackers have long demonstrated a high degree of sophistication, and their operations in 2025 highlights that they are continuing to evolve both their tactics and their preferred targets,” Andrew Fierman, Chainalysis Head of National Security Intelligence, told BeInCrypto.

Drawing on historical data, Chainalysis determined that the DPRK continues to carry out significantly higher-value attacks than other threat actors. 

“This pattern reinforces that when North Korean hackers strike, they target large services and aim for maximum impact,” the report reads.

DRPK vs Other Hackers. Source: ChainalysisAccording to Chainalysis, North Korea-linked hackers are increasingly generating outsized results by placing operatives in technical roles within crypto-related companies. This approach, one of the principal attack vectors, enables threat actors to gain privileged access and execute more damaging intrusions.

In July, blockchain investigator ZachXBT published an exposé claiming that North Korea-linked operatives infiltrated between 345 and 920 jobs across the crypto industry.

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“Part of this record year likely reflects an expanded reliance on IT worker infiltration at exchanges, custodians, and web3 firms, which can accelerate initial access and lateral movement ahead of large‑scale theft,” the report stated.

Threat actors have also adopted recruitment-style tactics, posing as employers to target individuals already working in the sector.

Furthermore, BeInCrypto recently reported that hackers were impersonating trusted industry contacts in fake Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. Using this tactic, they stole more than $300 million.

“DPRK will always seek to identify new attack vectors, and areas where vulnerabilities exist to exploit funds. Combine that with the regimes’ lack of access to the global economy, and you end up with a motivated, sophisticated nation state threat that seeks to gain as much capital for the regime as possible. As a result, private key compromises of centralized services have driven significant proportions of exploit volume this year,” Fierman detailed.

These North Korean hackers are advanced, creative and patient. I have seen/heard:

1. They pose as job candidates to try to get jobs in your company. This gives them a “foot in the door”. They especially like dev, security, finance positions.

2. They pose as employers and try to… https://t.co/axo5FF9YMV

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) September 18, 2025
Chainalysis Maps a 45-Day Laundering Playbook Used by North Korean HackersChainalysis found that North Korea’s laundering behavior differs sharply from that of other groups. The report showed that DPRK-linked actors tend to launder money in smaller on-chain tranches, with just over 60% of volume concentrated below a $500,000 transfer value. 

By contrast, non-DPRK threat actors typically transfer 60% of stolen funds in much larger batches, often ranging from $1 million to more than $10 million. Chainalysis said this structure reflects a more deliberate and sophisticated approach to laundering, despite North Korea stealing larger overall amounts.

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The firm also identified clear differences in service usage. DPRK-linked hackers show a strong reliance on Chinese-language money movement and guarantee services, as well as bridge and mixing tools designed to obscure transaction trails. They also utilize specialized platforms, such as Huione, to facilitate their laundering operations.

In contrast, other stolen-fund actors more frequently interact with decentralized exchanges, centralized platforms, peer-to-peer services, and lending protocols.

“These patterns suggest that the DPRK operates under different constraints and objectives than those of non-state-backed cybercriminals. Their heavy use of professional Chinese-language money laundering services and over-the-counter (OTC) traders suggests that DPRK threat actors are tightly integrated with illicit actors across the Asia-Pacific region, and is consistent with Pyongyang’s historical use of China-based networks to gain access to the international financial system,” the firm mentioned.

Chainalysis also observed a recurring laundering pattern that typically unfolds over 45 days. In the days immediately after a hack (Days 0-5), North Korea-linked actors prioritize distancing the stolen funds from the source. The report noted a sharp increase in the use of DeFi protocols and mixing services during this initial period.

In the second week (Days 6-10), activity shifts toward services that enable broader integration. Flows begin reaching centralized exchanges and platforms with limited KYC requirements.

Laundering activity persists through secondary mixing services at a reduced intensity. Meanwhile, cross-chain bridges are used to obscure movement. 

“This phase represents the critical transitional period where funds begin moving toward potential off-ramps,” the firm remarked.

In the final phase (Days 20-45), there is increased interaction with services that facilitate conversion or cash-out. No-KYC exchanges, guarantee services, instant swap platforms, and Chinese-language services feature prominently, alongside renewed use of centralized exchanges to blend illicit funds with legitimate activity.

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Chainalysis emphasized that the recurring 45-day laundering window provides key insights for law enforcement. It also reflects the hackers’ operational constraints and reliance on specific facilitators. 

“North Korea executes a quick, and effective laundering strategy. Therefore, a quick, whole of industry response is required in response. Law enforcement, and private sector, from exchanges to blockchain analytics firms need to coordinate effectively to disrupt any funds as soon as an opportunity exists, whether as funds pass through stablecoins, or reach an exchange where funds can be frozen immediately,” Fierman commented.

While not all stolen funds follow this timeline, the pattern represents typical on-chain behavior. Still, the team acknowledged potential blind spots, as certain activities, such as private key transfers or off-chain OTC transactions, may not be visible through blockchain data alone without corroborative intelligence.

The 2026 OutlookChainalysis’ Head of National Security Intelligence disclosed to BeInCrypto that North Korea is likely to probe for any available vulnerability. While the Bybit, BTCTurk, and Upbit incidents this year suggest that centralized exchanges are facing increasing pressure, tactics could change at any time.

Recent exploits involving Balancer and Yearn also indicate that long-established protocols may be coming under the radar of attackers. He said,

“While we can’t say what’s in store for 2026, we do know DPRK will look to maximize return on their target – meaning services with high reserves need to maintain high security standards to ensure they don’t become the next exploit.”

The report also stressed that as North Korea increasingly relies on cryptocurrency theft to finance state priorities and evade international sanctions, the industry must recognize that this threat actor operates under a fundamentally different set of constraints and incentives than typical cybercriminals.

“The country’s record-breaking 2025 performance — achieved with 74% fewer known attacks — suggests we may be seeing only the most visible portion of its activities,” Chainalysis added.

The firm outlined that the key challenge heading into 2026 will be identifying and disrupting these high-impact operations before DPRK-linked actors can execute another incident on the scale of the Bybit hack.

In brief
SoFi introduced a stablecoin with “bank-grade oversight.”
The token will debut on Ethereum first.
The bank’s members can trade 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ETH, and Solana.
Financial services firm SoFi Technologies said on Thursday that it will soon offer its own stablecoin, following the company’s re-entry into crypto last month.

The stablecoin, dubbed SoFiUSD, will be issued by SoFi Bank, positioning the firm as an infrastructure provider for banks and fintechs, according to a press release.

SoFi described itself as among the first national banks to issue a stablecoin on a public, permissionless blockchain. Last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval for national banking charters to several stablecoin issuers.

SoFi didn’t say which networks its stablecoin could ultimately be issued on, but the company told Decrypt that the token will debut first on Ethereum. The plan is to expand the token to multiple blockchains over time to spur global availability, SoFi added.

“We’re using the infrastructure we’ve built over the last decade and applying it to real-world challenges in financial services,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said in a statement. “Companies today struggle with slow settlement, fragmented providers, and unverified reserve models.”

SoFi said it would be able to share “an attractive yield” with SoFiUSD holders and partners, while parking cash reserves within its account at the Federal Reserve. For “immediate redemption capability,” SoFi said SoFiUSD is fully backed by cash.

Last month, SoFi began allowing members to purchase cryptocurrencies directly from checking and savings accounts. In total, SoFi said that its clients can now trade 30 different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

The company said that SoFiUSD will serve a key role in its crypto trading business, but it can also be used by businesses looking for cheaper and faster ways to move funds. SoFi said it plans to use the stablecoin in areas such as remittances and payments.

SoFi said that its stablecoin infrastructure will allow companies to issue white-labeled stablecoins. Before a framework for stablecoins was passed this summer, some onlookers anticipated that regulation could unleash myriad branded stablecoins on the market.

SoFi shares changed hands around $25 on Thursday, according to Yahoo Finance. The company’s stock price has soared 75% over the past six months.

In January, Noto declared that SoFi would be “incredibly aggressive” with its crypto offerings as the regulatory picture evolved under President Donald Trump. Prior to that, the company had offered trading for 30 digital assets, but it shuttered that offering in 2023.

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Canary Capital has filed a revised S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its proposed staked INJ exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The proposed ETF aims to combine the potential price appreciation of Injective (INJ) with the yield generated from staking the token, providing a unique avenue for investors seeking a more structured entry into the crypto market.

The proposed staked INJ ETF
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The revised S-1 filing, which amends the earlier submission, details the structure and mechanics of the ETF.

If approved, the fund will list on the Cboe BZX Exchange, offering investors regulated exposure to INJ.

The trust will track the price of INJ using the INJ-USD CCIXber Reference Rate price index, which is calculated by CoinDesk Indices, ensuring a transparent and reliable benchmark for the token’s performance.

Investors will be able to participate in the ETF through creations and redemptions in blocks of 10,000 shares, allowing for institutional-grade liquidity and efficiency.

US Bancorp Fund Services has been appointed as the transfer agent and cash custodian, while BitGo Trust Company will serve as the custodian for INJ tokens.

The filing notes that all INJ tokens held by the trust will be staked through one or more staking providers, although the specific providers have not yet been disclosed.

The ETF’s staking program will allow investors to benefit from additional returns, but these rewards are subject to potential slashing and lock-up risks inherent to proof-of-stake networks.

Key operational details of the proposed ETF
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The S-1 amendment reveals several operational details, including the price index, share distribution plan, and marketing agent, identified as Paralel Distributors LLC.

Despite these disclosures, certain critical information remains pending.

The ETF’s ticker symbol and management fee have not yet been specified, and these details are expected in future filings.

The sponsor, Canary Capital Group LLC, also emphasises that the ETF is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, meaning it does not offer the same regulatory protections as traditional investment funds.

Investors should be aware that the shares are speculative and may fluctuate significantly in value.

Injective (INJ) price reaction
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Contrary to most crypto ETF filings, the filing of the revised staked INJ ETF has had little impact on the price of Injective’s native token, which has been under immense bear pressure.

INJ price has depreciated by over 83% over the past year, with the last two weeks accounting for a 24% drop.

At press time, the altcoin traded at $4.56, down 5.5% in 24 hours and with recent activity showing a slight increase in trading volume and derivatives open interest on exchanges such as Binance and Bybit.

Injective price chart | Source: GeckoTerminalTechnical indicators suggest the token is below key moving averages, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI), which is currently in the overbought region on the daily chart, hints at a potential rebound.

According to market analysts, if the cryptocurrency holds above $3.47 until a rebound occurs, it has the potential to recover above the first major resistance level at $5.25 in the next few days.

However, if the Injective’s price drops below $3.47, a further decline to the next support level at $1.57 is possible.

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The long-standing hierarchy between major crypto networks is being questioned again, this time through a provocative claim about how market leadership could shift over the next two years.

Rather than focusing on short-term price movements, the discussion centers on whether XRP’s role in the crypto ecosystem has fundamentally changed enough to challenge Ethereum’s dominance. The idea gained traction after YoungHoon Kim, a controversial public figure known for making bold intellectual and market claims, suggested that XRP could overtake Ethereum in total market value by 2026.

Kim framed his view as a structural argument, not a trading call. He emphasized that crypto markets are not static and that shifts in regulation, infrastructure, and interoperability can alter competitive dynamics faster than many expect. He also stressed that his comments were speculative and not intended as investment advice.

Why XRP’s Position Looks Different Than Before
For much of the past decade, XRP’s trajectory was constrained by legal uncertainty and limited ecosystem expansion. That period appears to be ending. Regulatory clarity has reduced existential risk around the asset, while renewed integration efforts are pushing XRP back into relevance within institutional and cross-chain discussions.

According to Kim, XRP’s increasing ability to interact with other networks, including recent developments involving Solana, signals a move away from its historically siloed position. In a market increasingly defined by interoperability, that shift could matter more than raw transaction counts or developer activity.

Ethereum’s Lead Is Structural, Not Just Numerical
Despite the renewed attention on XRP, Ethereum’s advantage remains substantial. Its ecosystem underpins much of decentralized finance, token issuance, and on-chain application development. That dominance is reinforced by deep liquidity, entrenched developer communities, and strong network effects.

For XRP to surpass Ethereum, the change would need to come from a broad reallocation of capital based on perceived utility and regulatory certainty, not from a single rally or narrative shift. That makes the scenario possible in theory but difficult in practice.

A Break From Bitcoin-Only Narratives
Kim’s comments also reflect a personal shift in outlook. Previously associated with Bitcoin-centric views, he has increasingly argued that market value should reflect real-world integration and legal positioning rather than ideology alone.

In that context, he has described XRP as undervalued relative to its use cases and institutional accessibility, even floating long-term scenarios where the token reaches significantly higher valuations over a multi-year horizon.

Debate Over Possibility, Not Probability
The prediction has sparked debate largely because it challenges assumptions many investors consider settled. Most analysts still see Ethereum’s position as secure, while viewing XRP’s resurgence as meaningful but limited.

Even so, the discussion highlights a broader theme in crypto markets: rankings are not guaranteed forever. As regulation, interoperability, and institutional preferences evolve, so too can the balance of power between networks – even if outcomes as dramatic as XRP overtaking Ethereum remain speculative rather than expected.

Author

Alexander Stefanov

Reporter at CoinsPress

Alex is an experienced finance journalist and a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast. With over five years of experience covering the industry, he deeply understands the complex and constantly evolving world of digital assets. His insightful and thought-provoking articles provide readers with a clear picture of the latest developments and trends in the market. His passionate approach allows him to break down complex ideas into accessible and insightful content. Follow up on his content to be up to date with the most important trends and topics - stay ahead of the curve with CoinsPress.

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December 18, 2025

Bitcoin Price Prediction
Bitcoin is trying to stabilise after a sharp $4,000 sell-off on December 17, trading near $87,000. The immediate question for market participants is straightforward: can BTC recover enough ground to reclaim $90,000 before Christmas, or has the recent drop shifted momentum decisively lower?

The timing matters. Markets are entering a period of thinner liquidity, and US CPI data due today could determine whether risk appetite stabilises or fades further. With inflation expectations shaping interest-rate outlooks, Bitcoin is responding less to crypto-specific developments and more to macro signals.

Sentiment Weakens as Risk Appetite FadesInvestor positioning has turned defensive following last week’s decline. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has fallen to 22, placing sentiment firmly in fear territory. This reflects reduced risk-taking rather than forced selling, with traders scaling back exposure while waiting for clearer confirmation.

ETF activity supports this view. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of roughly 5,210 BTC on December 17, according to CoinGlass data. However, inflows stalled in subsequent sessions. While cumulative net inflows remain substantial at around 626,600 BTC, the lack of consistent daily additions points to hesitation rather than renewed demand.

Trading activity also remains contained. Daily spot ETF trading volume stood near $6.76 billion, with total net assets holding close to $121 billion, indicating stability but limited appetite for aggressive positioning.

Fundamentals Hold, but Macro Sets the Pace; US CPI In FocusBitcoin’s longer-term fundamentals remain intact. Circulating supply stands near 19.96 million BTC, continuing its gradual move toward the fixed 21 million coin cap. Network security remains stable, and while institutional activity has slowed, there is no sign of a broad exit from the market.

In the near term, macro conditions are driving price action. Markets are focused on US CPI data due at 13:30 UTC, which carries added weight after October’s report was cancelled and November data were partially incomplete due to the federal government shutdown.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most recent complete data showed headline CPI at 3.0% year on year, with core inflation slowing to 3.0%.

United States Core Inflation Rate – Source: TradingeconomicsConsensus forecasts now point to headline CPI at 3.1% and core inflation at 3.0%, both above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

With daily Bitcoin trading volume near 44 billion dollars, participation appears steady but cautious. A stronger CPI reading could weigh on risk assets, while a softer print may give Bitcoin room to stabilise.

Bear Flag Breakdown Keeps Pressure OnTechnically, Bitcoin remains under pressure. The daily chart confirms a bear flag breakdown, signaling continuation of the prior downtrend rather than a pause. BTC is trading below the 50-day EMA near $94,500 and the 100-day EMA around $100,100, both of which continue to cap upside attempts.

Momentum indicators align with this view. The RSI in the low-40s shows persistent bearish pressure without reaching oversold levels. Recent candles reflect weak follow-through on rallies, suggesting buyers are hesitant ahead of macro risk.

Bitcoin Price Chart – Source: TradingviewKey support sits in the $85,000–$84,000 zone. A daily close below this area would expose $80,600. On the upside, Bitcoin needs to reclaim $90,200 decisively to challenge the bearish structure.

Bitcoin Price Prediction Ahead of ChristmasIn the near term, Bitcoin’s path hinges on US CPI and follow-through price action. A move above $90,000 before Christmas is possible, but it likely requires a softer inflation print and a quick reclaim of broken support. Without that, rallies may struggle and remain vulnerable to selling pressure.

For now, Bitcoin appears caught between macro uncertainty and technical resistance. Whether the next move is a recovery toward $96,800 or a deeper test toward $80,000 will depend less on sentiment and more on how markets digest inflation data and risk heading into year-end.

While Bitcoin reacts to macro pressure, some investors are also watching early-stage crypto projects nearing critical presale deadlines.

PEPENODE: A Mine-to-Earn Meme Coin Nearing Presale ClosePEPENODE is gaining momentum as a next-generation meme coin that blends viral culture with interactive gameplay. With over $2.36 mn raised and the presale approaching its cap, interest is building fast as the countdown enters its final stretch.

What makes PEPENODE stand out is its mine-to-earn virtual ecosystem. Instead of passive holding, users can build digital server rooms using Miner Nodes and facilities, earning simulated rewards through a visual dashboard. The concept brings gamification and competition into the meme coin space, giving holders something to do before launch.

The project also offers presale staking, allowing early participants to earn boosted rewards ahead of the token generation event. Leaderboards and bonus incentives are planned post-launch to keep engagement high.

With 1 $PEPENODE priced at $0.0012016 and limited allocation remaining, the presale is entering its final opportunity window for early buyers.

Click Here to Participate in the Presale

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Bitcoin's been in a mood lately—dipping, bouncing, and teasing chartists with every candle. Hovering just below $88,000 on Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m. EST, the king of crypto seems caught in a flirtation between bears reluctant to let go and bulls trying to gather their courage.

Thu, 18/12/2025 - 11:36

This marks an important step toward bringing formal verification, a standard used in banking and aerospace, to core XRP Ledger components.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

In a remarkable milestone, the first formal specification of the XRPL Payment Engine has now been published. This marks an important step toward bringing formal verification, which is a standard used in banking and aerospace, to core XRP Ledger components.

According to RippleX developer Vito Tumas, Ripple is working with Common Prefix, a blockchain research and development company, to specify and formally verify key components of the XRP Ledger: the Payment Engine and the Consensus Protocol.

Much safer amendments possible, edge cases can be mathematically proven to exist or not. LOVE IT!

New additions that become formally verified will have highest security -> much safer XRPL updates.

Nothing better than mathematical certainty.

the true archaeology is happening pic.twitter.com/2uB24oZDEp

— Vet (@Vet_X0) December 17, 2025 In line with this, Common Prefix has documented XRPL's Payment Engine by publishing the first comprehensive specification of the system. This lays the foundation toward formal verification of the Payment Engine, followed by the Consensus protocol and then  all crucial components of  "xrpld."

The Payment Engine is the system responsible for all value transfer, including complex operations like crossing the decentralized exchange and rippling. The Consensus Protocol is the heart of the ledger, enabling nodes to reach consensus on a common state. 

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This initiative marks a crucial step in maturing the XRPL into a platform ready for the next decade of institutional finance and decentralized innovation.

What to expect In 2012, when the XRP Ledger first went live, its creators had one major goal: to make a new, more efficient blockchain, with the limited resources available.

However, for the foundational components, the single C++ implementation, xrpld — which served as the only definitive source of truth — posed fundamental challenges. 

XRP Ledger is advancing with new, highly complex features being continuously proposed and added. However, intricate amendments such as The Lending Protocol, Multi-Purpose Token (MPT) DEX, Batch Transactions and Permissioned DEXes must be integrated into the decades-old logic of the XRP Ledger, which raises questions. 

In this light, establishing a formal specification builds a stronger foundation expected to deliver compounding benefits across the entire XRP Ledger ecosystem.

For instance, instead of relying solely on traditional testing, which can only prove the presence of bugs, formal methods might prove the absence of certain classes of bugs.

Currently, the Payment Engine specification is being built upon with formal verification beginning, and that of the Consensus Protocol in 2026.

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers can now pay their cloud computing bills using BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, through the Better Payment Network (BPN). The move expands the practical use of digital assets for enterprise-level operations, enabling real-time, low-cost, and secure transactions. 

In its press release published on Thursday, BNB Chain announced its partnership with AWS, signed earlier this year, will include a BNB payment system, which now provides companies with an alternative to traditional banking methods.

Binance and AWS are helping organizations bypass costly third-party payment processors through BNB payments, reducing transaction fees by up to 70% and offering near-instant settlements. BPN’s architecture enables secure, transparent, and programmable settlement that will be integrated directly into AWS billing workflows for businesses globally.

Rica Fu, founder of BPN, revealed that the network tests the scalability of digital assets in enterprise payments, which has proven to be viable enough for AWS users. 

“BPN delivers secure transaction processing designed specifically for institutional and retail businesses operating at high volumes,” the BPN CEO said. 

Head of Business Development at BNB Chain, Sarah Song, supported Fu’s comments, saying: “Through this integration, AWS customers gain access to fast, low-cost payments with global reach, while BNB strengthens its presence as a practical payment asset used in crypto-native and mainstream enterprise environments. This opens the door for more companies to integrate on-chain payments into their operations.”

The integration comes two months after BPN secured $50 million in seed funding to develop a global stablecoin payment platform on BNB Chain. The investment round was led by YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, and included participation from several undisclosed financial and blockchain investors.

BNB integration builds on AWS partnerships in crypto and AI
The BPN adoption by AWS adds on to a collaborative effort in October last year, when Binance announced it would use AWS cloud services to improve its user onboarding, customer support, and internal automated diagnostics. 

Amazon Bedrock and Amazon ECS, both part of the service’s features, were integrated into Binance’s generative AI (GenAI) applications and containerized programs. Amazon Bedrock makes foundation models for building AI applications easily accessible, while Amazon ECS helps users deploy containerized services without scalability issues.

At the end of October last year, Binance implemented a GenAI-powered Know Your Customer (KYC) solution, which automates user data entry, performs proof-of-address checks, and speeds up World-Check screenings. 

A few months after adopting the AWS services, Binance was boasting a 95% recognition rate for user information, an 80% reduction in optical character recognition costs, a 6% uptick in PoA approval rates from more than 100 countries, and a 30% reduction in manual World-Check review time.

During the collaboration’s announcement, which came during the AWS-sponsored Binance Blockchain Week 2024, Director of Cloud and AI Innovation Arni Raghvender explained that the crypto exchange had made a transformative choice to integrate generative AI with the Amazon service’s comprehensive cloud services in a complex. 

“Amazon Bedrock, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Lambda will help Binance to pioneer new approaches to system optimization and automated problem-solving,” Raghvender said.

AWS security team discovers crypto mining exploit
While AWS adds to its crypto-related offerings, Amazon’s GuardDuty team recently found an ongoing crypto-mining campaign targeting its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Elastic Container Service (ECS). 

The operation has reportedly been active since November and has so far compromised credentials for Identity and Access Management (IAM) accounts. The attackers deployed a Docker Hub image, created in late October and downloaded more than 100,000 times, containing a cryptominer known as SBRMiner-MULTI. 

According to the GuardDuty researchers, the image automatically launched mining operations when containers were started. After the launch, the hackers begin mining while reviewing EC2 quotas and IAM permissions to maximize resource utilization.

Amazon mentioned that the campaign used a persistence mechanism, including the “ModifyInstanceAttribute” command in EC2 instances to disable API termination. While termination protection prevented accidental shutdowns, it complicated incident response and disrupted automated remediation controls. 

Speaking to Bleeping Computer, AWS representatives said the web service took proactive measures to detect the mining exploit and notified affected customers of the threat. The malicious Docker Hub image has been removed from the platform; however, Amazon notes that hackers could still create similar images under different names or publisher accounts.

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Key NotesSome analysts point to XRP’s prolonged trading below the 50-week SMA as a historically bullish signal.Prior cycles show that when similar conditions have led to rallies of 200% to over 800%, implying upside targets as high as $9.55–$17.30.Spot XRP ETFs have recorded over 30 consecutive days of inflows and surpassed $1 billion cumulatively.
After failing to hold the $2.0 support level, XRP

XRP
$1.87

24h volatility:
2.1%

Market cap:
$113.23 B

Vol. 24h:
$3.53 B

price has been showing a one-directional move to the bottom. This has left market investors confused about where XRP is heading next. Moreover, inflows into spot XRP ETFs have also failed to support the price action to the upside.

XRP Price Remains at Crossroads
Amid the broader crypto market correction today, XRP has tanked another 3.2%, slipping all the way to $1.84. Amid these developments, veteran trader Peter Brandt has shared a bullish outlook for XRP.

Brandt stated XRP price could face a sharp decline to $1 level if buyers fail to overcome this bearish pattern. He pointed to the formation of a double-top pattern, a technical structure widely viewed as a strong reversal signal. Meanwhile, XRP has recorded two significant price peaks this year, with a key neckline support level around $2.

I know in advance that all you Riplosts $XRP will forever remind me of this post — ask me if I care
This is a potential double top. Sure, it may fail, and I will deal with this if it does
But for now this has bearish implications
Love it or not — you need to deal with it pic.twitter.com/yPGjzuqNN3

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) December 17, 2025

However, other market experts see it through a different lens, while staying confident that XRP price will hold above the $2.0 support levels. The coin is trading under its 50-week simple moving average (SMA) for 70 consecutive days.

Despite this ongoing weakness, market analyst Steph (Steph_iscrypto) noted on the X platform that XRP may be nearing a turning point. In a recent analysis, he highlighted that XRP has been trading below the 50-week SMA since the latest selloff began.

Although this signals a bearish momentum, historical data show XRP has often staged explosive rallies after spending extended periods below the 50 SMA. According to Steph’s weekly chart data, the pattern has appeared three times since 2018.

After XRP peaked at $3.31 in January 2018, it fell below the 50-week SMA in June and remained under it for about 70 days. Later, it bottomed out $0.245 before rallying more than 200% to $0.764 by September.

A similar setup emerged in late 2021, when XRP traded below the 50-week SMA for 49 days before rebounding nearly 70% in early 2022.

The most recent occurrence was in 2024, when XRP stayed below the 50-week SMA for roughly 84 days. That period was followed by a sharp rally that pushed prices to a $3.66 peak in July 2025, marking an 850% upside.

XRP price action around 50 SMA | Source: Steph Is Crypto

After trading above the 50-week SMA for much of 2025, XRP fell below the level again in October and has now spent approximately 66 days under it.

If the historical pattern were to repeat, an 857% rally from the current downtrend low near $1.81 would push XRP price toward roughly $17.30. Even considering a conservative scenario, a 428% gain would push the coin to $9.55.

Moreover, market analyst Chart Nerd noted that XRP’s relative strength index (RSI) has moved into oversold territory, while the MACD indicator is showing early signs of stabilization.

$XRP: Several indicators on the weekly are pointing to a low being marked back down in this Trading Range support territory we've been holding for over a year.

– Stoch RSI = Oversold ✅
– MACD Foundation Build ✅
– RSI Compression ✅
– 5 Wave Corrective Structure ✅

Patience.. pic.twitter.com/4TXYeLOVXq

— 🇬🇧 ChartNerd 📊 (@ChartNerdTA) December 17, 2025

Will XRP ETFs Support Upside?
Spot XRP ETFs have seen 32 days of consecutive inflows, showing strong market sentiment surrounding the investment product. According to data from SoSoValue, the net inflows on Dec. 17 stood at $18.99 million, with the cumulative inflows already crossing $1 billion earlier this week.

Despite six weeks of consecutive inflows, the momentum seems to be cooling down over the past two weeks. The slowdown in inflows helps explain why XRP’s price has not continued to rise in line with earlier ETF demand.

Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.

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Zcash has struggled to show recovery signals over recent sessions, with price action remaining under pressure below key resistance levels. 

Despite this softness, large holders appear unfazed, treating the pullback as a strategic accumulation opportunity rather than a warning sign.

Zcash Whales Are AccumulatingOn-chain data indicates growing confidence among Zcash whales. Wallets holding more than $1 million in assets increased their ZEC balances by 21% over the past week. This cohort added 3,207 ZEC, lifting total holdings to 6,681 ZEC and signaling sustained accumulation during the price dip.

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The increase represents roughly $1.27 million in added exposure, highlighting conviction among large investors. Whale accumulation often provides downside support by absorbing sell pressure. This behavior suggests expectations of a rebound, as larger players position ahead of potential volatility and price recovery.

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ZEC Whale Holding. Source: NansenMacro indicators are beginning to align with the bullish on-chain trend. The Squeeze Momentum Indicator is forming a squeeze, pointing to a period of reduced volatility. Such phases often precede sharp price movements once the squeeze is released.

Notably, the histogram shows bullish momentum strengthening for the first time in more than three weeks. If volatility expands while momentum remains positive, Zcash could experience a rapid price surge.

ZEC Squeeze Momentum Indicator. Source: TradingViewZEC Price May See Some RecoveryZcash trades near $396 at the time of writing, sitting below the $403 resistance. The Parabolic SAR remains above the candlesticks, indicating the downtrend is still active. This signal reflects lingering bearish pressure despite improving on-chain and momentum indicators.

Whale accumulation and strengthening momentum could counter the technical weakness. These factors may push ZEC toward the $442 resistance. Converting this level into support would be critical. A sustained breakout could open the path toward $500, restoring broader bullish confidence.

ZEC Price Analysis. Source: TradingViewRisks remain if momentum fails to materialize or whale behavior shifts. Continued weakness could drag ZEC toward the $340 support. A deeper sell-off may extend losses to $300 or even $260. Such a move would invalidate the bullish thesis and confirm extended downside pressure.

Blowout Micron results reignite AI optimism, lifting tech futures and stabilising bitcoin even as parts of the AI equity complex remain under pressure. Dec 18, 2025, 12:05 p.m.

From "it's so over" to "we're so back" – market sentiment flips fast these days on social media.

Just days after AI bubble fears resurfaced, Micron (MU), a critical supplier of memory chips used in AI infrastructure and data centers, has posted blowout earnings, reversing that gloom in a flash.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

The result is U.S. technology futures are up in pre-market trading on Thursday, with the Invesco QQQ up nearly 1% pre market after falling almost 2% on Wednesday. Bitcoin, too, has stabilized above $87,000 following its wild swings in both directions on Wednesday. BTC and tech stocks tend to move in lockstep, with AI boom at the center of the positive correlation since late 2022.

According to the latest 10-Q filing via TradingView, Micron reported Q1 2026 revenue of $13.6 billion, up 57% year on year. Gross margins surged to 56%, compared with 38% a year earlier, while operating income jumped to $6.1 billion. Net income reached $5.24 billion, nearly triple last year’s level, with diluted EPS of $4.60.

AI driven demand was the standout theme. Micron’s cloud memory business unit saw revenue double year on year, while mobile and client revenue rose 63%. According to Bloomberg, management now forecasts Q2 2026 revenue of $18 to $19 billion, above expectations, noting it is effectively sold out of key AI memory products through 2026. Shares rose around 12% pre market to about $250.

The strong results offered relief amid ongoing AI jitters at Oracle (ORCL), Broadcom (AVG) and CoreWeave (CRWV). AI and crypto linked equities edged slightly higher pre market, highlighting the growing crossover which is being fueled by the AI narrative.

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BNB holds onto fourth-largest crypto spot even as price falls, selling pressure builds

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The token's short-term price action is sluggish, with trading volume spiking during sell-offs. Technical charts show support at $830 and resistance at $845.

What to know:

BNB remains the fourth-largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency by market cap at $115.3 billion, despite falling 2.55% to $837.The token's short-term price action is sluggish, with trading volume spiking during sell-offs, and technical charts show support at $830 and resistance at $845.BNB Chain's adoption is growing, with daily transactions and active addresses increasing during the third quarter, indicating a disconnect between fundamentals and price.Read full story

Bitcoin is holding firm near $87,000 as traders stay cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan interest rate decision; liquidations stand at $545.09 million over the past 24 hours. 

Bitcoin ETFs saw $457.3 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while Ethereum ETFs reported $22.4 million in net outflows.

BTC Has Survived Much Worse

Michael van de Poppe said most traders are sidelined into the BOJ event, warning that crowded expectations could lead to a surprise move. A clean break above $88,000 would signal renewed bullish momentum.

Crypto trader Jelle highlighted Bitcoin's resilience, noting the asset is down roughly 36% from cycle highs, its deepest pullback so far this cycle, yet mild compared to historical drawdowns.

Ted Pillows said Ethereum is retesting $2,800. Holding that level could open a push toward $3,000, while a breakdown risks a move to $2,500.

Peter Brandt flagged a potential double top on XRP, keeping the near-term bias bearish unless the pattern fails.

Satoshi Flipper noted Solana is retesting descending channel support on the 4-hour chart; a breakdown could send price toward $145.

CryptocurrencyTickerPriceBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC)$87,270Ethereum(CRYPTO: ETH)$2,852.20Solana(CRYPTO: SOL)$123.31              XRP(CRYPTO: XRP)$1.86The meme-coin sector slid another 4% to $41.3 billion.

Crypto Tony said DOGE only turns attractive if it reclaims and holds $0.128 as support.

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Thu, 18/12/2025 - 12:15

XRP just printed a 122,680% liquidation imbalance in under 24 hours, and it was not shorts getting hit, but the long side that got crushed, right before the price made a pivot.

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XRP just colored a liquidation heatmap on CoinGlass in a way that looks almost fake at first glance, as $2.38 million were liquidated, and it was basically all longs, with shorts at only $1,940. That split is where the headline number comes from. 

Long liquidations were about 1,226.8 times larger than shorts, which converts to a 122,680% liquidation imbalance, all inside a four-hour window full of a roller coaster of price action for XRP.

The bigger heatmap reveals this was targeted — not a full-market wipeout. Others led the purge at $7.23 million, and WLFI showed $3.29 million, while XRP’s $2.38 million sat above FARTCOIN at $1.91 million, ASTER at $1.79 million, ETH at $1.62 million and SOL near $908,000. 

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Source: CoinGlassSize matters, but the story here is the positioning: bull traders piled into upside bets, and the crypto market only needed a mild push lower to wipe them out.

What happened to XRP price today?On Binance, XRP/USDT traded through a sell-off-and-stabilize sequence. 

The price dropped from the high $1.86 area into the low $1.83s, spent time chopping in that band and then lifted back toward the mid-$1.83s. That lines up with the liquidation profile: late longs chased small bounces, stops stacked under the range, forced selling hit and once it ended, the price could rebound on regular bids.

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If XRP fails to reclaim $1.85-$1.86 soon, the same long-heavy behavior can reload and set up another flush. If XRP does reclaim it, today’s long washout can leave a lighter derivatives book and give the next move more room.

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