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Over the past 24 hours, liquidations in the cryptocurrency perpetual futures market were as follows: BTC liquidations totaled $49.83 million, with long positions accounting for 50.98%. ETH liquidations reached $30.32 million, with 74.67% from long positions. PIPPIN saw $10.59 million in liquidations, of which 87.18% were short positions.

Mark Greenberg, head of Kraken's consumer division, told CNBC that tokenization allows anything to become money and is changing the very concept of the term. He argued that the era of money being limited to just fiat or local currencies is over. Greenberg explained that tokenization enables nearly any asset to be stored and transferred instantly between platforms, facilitating immediate settlement for stock trades. He assessed that this will overcome the limitations of a securities infrastructure that has remained largely unchanged for the past 50 years.

Kraken plans to launch a prediction market in 2026, Mark Greenberg, the exchange's head of global consumer, told CNBC. The move follows similar announcements from other exchanges, including Coinbase and Gemini.

Multicoin Capital appears to have purchased $30 million worth of Worldcoin (WLD) from the project's team in an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction, according to a report from AmberCN. The report cites on-chain data showing that an address suspected of belonging to Multicoin Capital, which starts with 0xf000, transferred 30 million USDC to a Worldcoin team address. Seven hours ago, the same address received 60 million WLD, valued at $29.06 million.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao posted on X, asking followers if they have ever regretted not buying Bitcoin before it reached its all-time high. He noted that those who bought in early did so not when prices were at their peak, but when the market was rife with fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). Zhao concluded his message with a "Merry Christmas" greeting.

CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index has fallen by one point to 17 from the previous day. The index is calculated by comparing the price performance of the top 100 coins by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and wrapped coins, against Bitcoin. An "altcoin season" is indicated when 75% of these top 100 coins outperform Bitcoin over the preceding 90 days. Conversely, a period where Bitcoin outperforms is considered a "Bitcoin season." A score closer to 100 suggests an altcoin season.

A whale address starting with 1N8x4, which had been dormant for eight years, has deposited 400 BTC, worth $34.92 million, to the crypto exchange OKX, according to Onchain-Lense. The transaction realized a profit of $30.4 million.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has fallen one point from the previous day to 23, maintaining its extreme fear status, according to data from Alternative. The index measures market sentiment on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 signifies extreme fear and 100 represents extreme greed. The index is calculated using several factors, including volatility (25%), market volume (25%), social media mentions (15%), surveys (15%), Bitcoin's market dominance (10%), and Google search trends (10%).

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $88,000. BTC is trading at $88,014.99 on the Binance USDT market.

Several venture capitalists have identified the crypto market's biggest winners and losers for 2025. In a recent podcast, Pantera Capital partner Mason Nystrom, Hash3 co-founder Hootie Rashidifard, and Variant partner Alana Levin named the year's top performers and those who negatively impacted the industry. Among the winners, the VCs cited Robinhood for rapidly capturing market share once regulatory clarity was established. Stablecoins were also highlighted for their surging trade volumes and issuer profitability, with Tether being noted for having one of the highest productivity rates per employee in the world. Prediction markets were named the fastest-growing category of the year, with Polymarket securing a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the NYSE. A year ago, both Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi were valued at under $1 billion. The list of losers included Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs. He was identified as the central figure in the $40 billion collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem and was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison in the U.S. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the previous administration was also criticized for its years of hostile enforcement actions, which the VCs said were politically motivated and caused many crypto founders to move overseas.

KGST, a stablecoin pegged to Kyrgyzstan's fiat currency, the som, has been listed on Binance, Cointelegraph reported. Kyrgyzstani President Sadyr Japarov shared the news on X. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also commented on X, stating that he expects more state-led stablecoins to be listed on the exchange. Previously, Kyrgyzstan appointed Zhao as a cryptocurrency policy advisor and launched USDKG, a gold-backed stablecoin pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar.

Circle has announced that it has not launched gold (GLDC) and silver (SILC) tokens. The statement refutes a fake press release that claimed the company had launched a platform called CircleMetals to support the trading of these tokens.

Trend Research, a subsidiary of LD Capital, purchased an additional 46,379 ETH on Wednesday, increasing its total holdings to over 580,000 ETH, CryptoBasic reported. The firm now holds more Ethereum than almost any publicly listed company tracked by CoinGecko.

The European Union's new tax reporting directive, known as DAC8, will take effect on Jan. 1, CoinDesk reported. Under the new rules, crypto-asset service providers will be required to report detailed user and transaction data to their respective national tax authorities. The compliance deadline across the EU is July 1, 2026. DAC8 will be implemented alongside the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, but the two are separate frameworks. MiCA governs market conduct, whereas DAC8 focuses on tax reporting. The directive also grants tax authorities the power to freeze or seize crypto assets related to unpaid taxes if they detect evasion, even if the assets or platform are located outside the user's home jurisdiction.

The three major U.S. stock indices have opened slightly lower. The S&P 500 is down 0.03%, the Nasdaq Composite has fallen 0.02%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading 0.1% lower.

Hong Kong's Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) plan to legislate a licensing system for cryptocurrency trading and custody firms, Cointelegraph reported. The two agencies announced they have concluded consultations on the new framework. This mandatory system builds upon an optional licensing regime introduced in 2020, under which 11 companies have so far received SFC approval. On the same day, the SFC also released a consultation paper on introducing a licensing system for crypto advisory and management service providers.

Aave (AAVE) founder Stani Kulechov's recent purchase of $10 million worth of AAVE has sparked a debate within the DeFi community over governance fairness, Cointelegraph reports. Critics suggest the move was intended to strengthen his voting power on key governance proposals. DeFi expert Robert Mullins explained that while Kulechov claimed the purchase was to align his interests with token holders, it was actually a move to increase his voting power before a vote on a proposal that runs contrary to holder interests. Mullins described the situation as a clear example of a token's design failing to adequately defend against governance attacks.

U.S. initial jobless claims for the third week of December (Dec. 14-20) totaled 214,000, coming in below the forecast of 224,000.

Bitcoin selling pressure may be easing as the volume of BTC whale deposits to Binance has been cut in half in December, according to a market analysis. CryptoQuant contributor Darkpost noted that monthly BTC whale deposits to the exchange fell from $7.88 billion to $3.86 billion. The analyst explained that this slowdown in inflows from large-scale investors suggests a corresponding decrease in the supply of BTC waiting to be sold. However, Darkpost also pointed out that whales holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC still deposited $466 million, meaning the possibility of large-scale movements remains. The analyst concluded that while significant deposits can trigger sharp volatility, the current trend is relatively favorable for the market in the short term, as reduced whale inflows to Binance are generally a positive signal.

BlackRock has deposited 2,292 BTC, valued at $200 million, and 9,976 ETH, worth $29.23 million, to Coinbase Prime, according to Onchain-Lense. Coinbase Prime is a prime brokerage platform that provides large-scale trading and custody services for institutional investors.

Avian Labs, the operator of cryptocurrency payment service Sling Money, has obtained a virtual asset service provider license from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), CoinDesk reported. The approval follows the company's acquisition of a license in the Netherlands in April and will allow it to expand its business scope within Europe.

The market capitalizations of several blockchain startups, once valued at over $1 billion by venture capital firms, have fallen sharply amid a recent liquidity crunch, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from CryptoRank. For example, Humanity Protocol (H), which received a $1 billion valuation from VCs, now has a market cap of just $285 million. Similarly, Fuel Network (FUEL), valued at nearly $1 billion, currently has a market cap of only around $11 million. Even projects with a smaller initial gap between valuation and market cap have been affected, such as Plasma (XPL), which saw its VC valuation of $500 million drop to a current market cap of $220 million. The report added that VC investment in the cryptocurrency sector has been sluggish in the second half of the year. While a few large investment deals have supported the total amount of capital raised, overall investment activity has remained low.

Author Robert Kiyosaki, who previously stated he would buy more Bitcoin during price drops, has not mentioned the cryptocurrency on X for about a week, U.Today noted. Instead, his recent posts have focused on other topics, such as reminding followers of Warren Buffett's warning about a potential bubble in AI-related stocks and suggesting the U.S. stock market may be driven by hype rather than fundamental value. Kiyosaki's silence follows his Nov. 15 statement that he would purchase more BTC if its price fell. However, he faced criticism after selling approximately $2.25 million worth of the asset on Nov. 22 at an average price of $90,000.

An address linked to Aleksey Bilyuchenko, the indicted Mt. Gox hacker, has deposited 1,300 BTC, worth $114 million, to an unknown exchange over the past seven days, according to on-chain analyst Emmett Gallic. Gallic noted on X that the address currently holds 4,100 BTC ($360 million) and has sold a total of 2,300 BTC. Bilyuchenko was indicted in June 2023 but has not been arrested.

The Philippine National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has blocked access to 50 unregistered virtual asset service providers (VASPs), including Coinbase and Gemini, effective Dec. 22, Cointelegraph reported. The action was taken at the request of the country's central bank. This follows a similar move by the Philippines to block Binance in early 2024.