🟠 Bitcoin Devs Debate, Gnosis Forks After Hack

Happy Holidays!

Bitcoin dominance is strengthening as altcoins continue to underperform. Under the hood, Bitcoin developers remain divided over the growing UTXO bloat caused by Ordinals and Stamps. Meanwhile, Gnosis Chain has executed a hard fork to recover funds tied to the $116M Balancer hack.

More news below! 👇

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News Roundup

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• State of DeFi 2025: From Speculation to Structured Finance (DL News)

• Aave Founder’s $10M Token Buy Sparks Governance Backlash (Cointelegraph)

• Ethena TVL Slumps Over 50% as USDe Faces Massive Redemptions (Dune)

• Japan and South Korea Are Pushing for Stablecoin Breakthroughs in 2026 (DL News)

• USD1 Supply Jumps After Binance 20% APY Promotion (CoinGecko)

• Fake ‘CircleMetals’ Press Release Promotes Nonexistent Gold and Silver Tokens (CoinDesk)

Exchanges

• Coinbase Enables SOL Transfers on Base Network (Coinbase Markets)

• Philippines Blocks Coinbase and Gemini in Crackdown on Unlicensed Crypto Exchanges (Cointelelgraph)

• Binance Lists Kyrgyzstan’s Nation-Backed KGST Stablecoin (CoinGape)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• On Dec. 23, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $188.64 million.

• U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs saw net outflows totaling $95.53 million on Dec. 23.

• On Dec. 23, U.S. Solana spot ETFs posted $4.2 million in net inflows.

• U.S. XRP spot ETFs posted $8.19 million in net inflows on Dec. 23.

Gaming

• Seven Underrated Games That Slipped Through the Cracks in 2025 (Decrypt)

Infrastructure

• How Wall Street Quietly Uses Ethereum as Financial Infrastructure (Cointelegraph)

• Gnosis Chain Hard Fork Recovers Funds From $116M Balancer Hack (Gnosis Chain)

• Bitcoin Devs Clash Over Ordinals and Stamps-Driven UTXO Bloat (Claire Ostrom)

• Arbitrum Tops 2.1B Lifetime Transactions in 2025 (Brendan Ma)

Markets

• Bitcoin Prints Bullish Signals as Gold Nears $4.5K Record (Cointelegraph)

• Crypto Stocks Soared Early in 2025, Then Gave Way to Fundamentals (Decrypt)

• Crypto Sell-Off Exposes Gap Between VC Valuations and Reality (Cointelegraph)

• Bitcoin Dominance Strengthens as Altcoins Lag (Wintermute)

• Hyper Foundation Burns $HYPE Tokens After Governance Vote (Hyper Foundation)

• Polymarket Blames Third-Party Provider for User Account Hacks (The Block)

• U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 214K, 224K Expected (DOL)

• XRP Flat as New Yield Vault Launches, Bearish Sentiment Turns Contrarian (CoinDesk)

• Crypto Stocks Split in 2025 as Treasury Plays and AI Bets Shine While Bitcoin Proxies Lag (The Block)

• Dow and S&P 500 Hit Record Highs as Santa Rally Kicks Off (Reuters)

Meme Coins

• Memecoin Boom Recycles Celebrity and Nostalgia Plays Across Asia (Cointelegraph)

• How Pudgy Penguins Made It Onto the Las Vegas Sphere (Decrypt)

Mining

• Cipher Expands Beyond Texas With Ohio Power Market Entry (Cointelegraph)

Politics & Regulation

• Hong Kong Advances Licensing Rules for Crypto Dealers and Custodians (Cointelegraph)

• US Crypto Policy in 2026: What Comes Next After a Pivotal Year (Cointelegraph)

• SEC Charges $14M Social Media Crypto Investment Scam (The Block)

• Spain to Enforce MiCA and DAC8 Crypto Rules in 2026 (Criptonoticias)

• EU Crypto Tax Reporting Begins in January With Asset Seizure Powers (CoinDesk)

Token Generation Events

• How Crypto Airdrops Are Evolving in 2026 (DL News)

Treasuries

• Metaplanet Approves New Plan to Fund Additional Bitcoin Purchases (DL News)

Other News

• Caroline Ellison Set for Early Release From Custody in January (Cointelegraph)

• Brazil Orchestra to Turn Bitcoin Price Volatility Into Live Music (Cointelegraph)

• Mt. Gox-Linked Wallets Move Another 1.3K Bitcoin to Exchanges (Emmett Gallic)

Check This Out!

The number of wallets holding at least 1 BTC has fallen 2.2% since March, yet the remaining holders have added a combined 136,670 BTC, according to Santiment.

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