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Starknet (STRK) is experiencing a delay in block production. The team is currently debugging the issue to identify its cause.

Bitcoin traders are increasingly betting on call options with a $100,000 strike price for January expiry, CoinDesk reported. Data from Deribit shows that total open interest for these options stands at $1.45 billion, with $828 million of that amount maturing this month. The open interest for these contracts has grown by 420 BTC in the last 24 hours. According to analysis from QCP Capital, demand for these call options could surge if BTC surpasses $94,000. The firm noted that the funding rate for BTC perpetual futures on Deribit has exceeded 30%, placing options dealers in a short gamma position where they must buy BTC to hedge their losses. QCP Capital added that this buying pressure from dealers would intensify if BTC's price continues to rise.

Binance announced that it has selected Brevis (BREV) for its next Hodler Airdrop and will list the token at 2:00 p.m. UTC on Jan. 6. Users who subscribed to BNB Simple Earn and On-Chain Yield products between 12:00 a.m. UTC on Dec. 17 and 11:59 p.m. UTC on Dec. 19 are eligible for the airdrop.

Trading volume on South Korea's won-denominated cryptocurrency exchanges has plummeted by 80% compared to the same period last year, signaling a rapid market contraction, ZDNet Korea reported. The total trading volume across the five major South Korean exchanges over the past month (Dec. 6, 2025, to Jan. 5, 2026) was approximately 77.6 trillion won ($57.5 billion). This represents a steep decline from the 371.4 trillion won ($275.1 billion) recorded during the corresponding period a year earlier (Jan. 6 to Feb. 5, 2025). During this period, trading volume on the South Korean exchange Upbit fell by approximately 82%, from 271.6 trillion won to 49.0 trillion won. Bithumb saw its volume decrease by 74%, from 91.9 trillion won to 23.6 trillion won.

Digital asset investment products recorded a net inflow of $582 million last week, reversing a two-week trend of net outflows, CoinShares reported in its weekly fund flow analysis. For the full year of 2025, these products attracted a total of $47.2 billion in net inflows, a figure comparable to the $48.7 billion recorded in 2024, CoinShares noted. Within the 2025 total, inflows into Bitcoin products fell 35% year-over-year to $26.9 billion, while Ethereum products saw a 138% surge to $12.7 billion. XRP and Solana also posted strong growth, with inflows of $3.7 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively. However, inflows into other altcoins decreased by 30% from the previous year.

Bybit has announced the listing of BREV at 12:00 p.m. UTC on Jan. 6.

A single contract deployer on the Arbitrum (ARB) network has lost $1.5 million after their account privileges were compromised, according to blockchain security firm CyversAlerts. The attacker reportedly gained control of the deployer account for the USDG and TLP projects and then deployed a new contract. The stolen funds were subsequently bridged to the Ethereum network and deposited into the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Qtum (QTUM) and Qi (QI) beginning at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 11 to support a network upgrade.

The South Korean government has decided to permit the issuance of won-denominated stablecoins, starting with consortia in which banks hold a majority stake of over 50%, the Seoul Economic Daily reported exclusively. Under the plan proposed by South Korea's Financial Services Commission, these bank-centric consortia will be allowed during the initial phase of stablecoin adoption. The framework also recognizes the ability of a technology company to be the largest single shareholder. This structure is expected to enable the formation of consortia where multiple banks share ownership, while a tech firm like Kakao could hold the largest individual stake.

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said she sees integrating digital assets into the traditional financial system as an important next step, The Block reported. Speaking at a New Year's address at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, she stated that stock and commodity exchanges play a crucial role in providing access to digital and blockchain assets. Katayama announced that the government has designated 2026 as the Year of Digital and plans to actively support these exchanges in building an innovative trading environment. She also added that crypto ETFs are gaining popularity among investors as an inflation hedge.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for 12 cryptocurrencies on the Arbitrum network to support an upcoming network upgrade. The suspension is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 8. The affected assets are ARB, GMX, ZTX, MAGIC, XAI, ZRO, BOUNTY, ANIME, OBT, MLK, ETH, and LZM.

Binance has announced it will list three new spot trading pairs: AVAX/USD1, BCH/USD1, and UNI/USD1. Trading is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 6.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the top three global crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 50.22% long, 49.78% short 1. Binance: 50.8% long, 49.2% short 2. OKX: 51.01% long, 48.99% short 3. Bybit: 49.13% long, 50.87% short

The payment volume on cryptocurrency cards linked with global payments giant Visa surged 525% last year, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from Dune Analytics. According to the data, payment volume across six card types issued by blockchain projects in partnership with Visa grew from $14.6 million in January 2025 to $91.3 million in December of the same year. The card issued by Ether.fi (ETHFI) accounted for the largest share of this volume, with $55.4 million in payments.

Over the past seven days, Binance has received approximately $2.4 billion in BTC and ETH deposits, signaling rising selling pressure, yet new buying power to absorb these assets has been scarce. Cointelegraph, citing a CryptoQuant contribution from analyst CryptoOnchain, reported that the inflows included roughly $1.33 billion in BTC and $1.07 billion in ETH. In contrast, stablecoin inflows during the same period amounted to only $42 million. CryptoOnchain further explained that the volume of BTC being withdrawn from exchanges is also decreasing, suggesting a decline in long-term holding demand from whale investors. According to the analyst, this combination of rising exchange deposits and weaker demand from whales could negatively impact any potential price rally.

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a broad upswing, driven by a decrease in trading for tax purposes and a stronger preference for safe-haven assets amid geopolitical risks, according to market analysis. Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, stated that market sentiment is improving, with both BTC and ETH shifting into an uptrend, CoinDesk reported. He analyzed that following the options expiration at the end of last month, tax-motivated selling has declined, and corporate trading desks are expected to secure liquidity to diversify risk. Separately, Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget, interpreted that growing geopolitical risks, such as U.S. actions against Venezuela, are increasing investor demand for safe-haven assets. Lee suggested the crypto market's rise could signal that it is attracting capital from traditional safe-haven markets like gold.

Blockchain company ARK Point, formerly INFCL, has unveiled Ark Rail, a blockchain network specializing in stablecoin payments and settlement, Maeil Business Newspaper reported. Ark Rail was designed for a stablecoin proof-of-concept (PoC). The company stated that the network can maintain low gas fees while controlling the maximum fee cap even during periods of network congestion.

Amid the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, speculation is spreading that the country has been accumulating large amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) in a secret vault to evade international sanctions, Blockmedia reported. Some have suggested Venezuela could hold up to $60 billion in BTC, though its officially confirmed on-chain holdings amount to only around 240 BTC. The U.S. plans to launch an investigation into Venezuela's overseas assets and informal financial networks.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated on X that the network is evolving into a fundamentally new type of decentralized system. This transformation is driven by the Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (ZK-EVM) reaching an alpha stage with production-level performance and the mainnet implementation of PeerDAS, a core feature of the Fusaka upgrade. Buterin contrasted this with previous network types, which he categorized as "Torrent-type" from 2000 and "Bitcoin-type" from 2009. He explained that while torrents offer high network bandwidth, they lack a consensus mechanism. Conversely, Bitcoin has a consensus structure but suffers from low throughput and requires nodes to redundantly store the same data. He emphasized that the combination of PeerDAS and ZK-EVM allows Ethereum to achieve decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth simultaneously. Buterin also provided the following technical outlook for Ethereum: - 2026: Gas limits are expected to rise independently of ZK-EVM, with initial ZK-EVM nodes potentially becoming operational. - 2026-2028: A period of stabilization will include reorganizing the state structure, converting execution payloads into blobs, and redesigning gas fees. - 2027-2030: ZK-EVM is projected to become the default method for block validation, enabling further large-scale expansions of the gas limit.

Trading volume for stablecoins on the Ethereum network surpassed $8 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, setting an all-time high, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from Token Terminal. The figure represents a twofold increase from the approximately $4 trillion recorded in the second quarter, as active Ethereum addresses also reached a new peak. According to the report, the issuance of Ethereum-based stablecoins grew by approximately 43% in 2025. The Ethereum network now accounts for 57% of all stablecoins and about 65% of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Cointelegraph noted that with more than half of all Tether (USDT) now issued on Ethereum, the trend suggests that demand for actual on-chain payments and settlements is growing beyond speculative trading.

Binance has announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Moonriver (MOVR) starting at 12:00 p.m. UTC on Jan. 6 to support a network upgrade.

A $2 billion Ethereum (ETH) position held by LD Capital subsidiary Trend Research has become profitable as the cryptocurrency's price recovered to $3,200, EmberCN reported. The firm had previously acquired 626,000 ETH through a loan from the crypto lending protocol Aave, with an average purchase price of $3,186. While the position faced a maximum unrealized loss of $141 million during the recent price decline, it is now showing an unrealized profit of $8.77 million.

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - BTC: $91.55 million liquidated (94.24% shorts) - ETH: $51.81 million liquidated (85.67% shorts) - SOL: $11.76 million liquidated (91.44% shorts)

South Korean credit card companies are set to launch a second task force to prepare for the introduction of stablecoin-based payment systems, Yonhap Infomax reported. The initiative, led by the Credit Finance Association, will include nine major card issuers: Samsung, Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Hana, Woori, BC, and NH Nonghyup. The group plans to discuss the structure of a stablecoin payment process, from card payments to merchant settlements, and explore the introduction of debit cards that can handle stablecoin transactions at card terminals.

Web3 social infrastructure project UXLINK announced via X that its CEO, Rolland, has used personal funds to buy back an additional 1% of the total UXLINK supply. This follows an official buyback conducted last December. The repurchased tokens have been locked in the UXLINK Reserve. The project added that based on the consistent direction and solidarity of all participants in its token ecosystem, it is now prepared to enter a full-fledged growth phase in 2026.