🛠️ Ethereum 2026 Upgrades, $7M Trust Wallet Hack

Good afternoon,

As traditional markets surge to record highs, Bitcoin is sitting out the year-end Santa rally, drifting below key levels while silver, gold, and platinum notch fresh highs. Meanwhile, Ethereum is planning major scaling upgrades for 2026, and a Trust Wallet browser exploit has led to $7M in losses—with Binance stepping in to reimburse affected users.

Let’s unpack this and more. 👇

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News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• The Best Large Language Models of 2025 (Decrypt)

• How the AI Race Fractured the Global Tech Order in 2025 (Decrypt)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• HashKey Capital Secures $250M for Ambitious Blockchain Fund (CoinDesk)

• Ondo Finance Plans ETFs and Tokenized US Stocks on Solana by 2026 (Cointelegraph)

• Three DeFi Shifts Set to Define 2026: Stablecoins, DEXs, and Privacy (DL News)

• Russia’s Major Stock Exchanges Prepare for Regulated Crypto Trading (Cryptopolitan)

• Report Highlights Crypto Assets Frozen By Tether and Circle (AMLBot)

• Fast-Moving Stablecoins Redefined the Market in 2025 as Supply Hit $314B (Decrypt)

• Uniswap Voters Approve Protocol Fees and Token Burn in Landslide Vote (CoinDesk)

• Wintermute Founder Says It Will Oppose AAVE Proposal Over Unclear Token Value Accrual (Evgeny Gaevoy)

• Bank of Lithuania Warns Unlicensed Crypto Firms Face Penalties After Dec. 31 Deadline (Cryptopolitan)

• Sberbank Weighs Crypto-Backed Loans as Russia Explores Digital Asset Use (Tass)

• RWA Tops 2025 Crypto Returns as Most Sectors End in the Red (CoinGecko)

• Hyperliquid Added 600K Users as Trading Volume Hit $2.95T in 2025 (Hyperliquid)

Exchanges

• Bybit Reserves Show Decline in BTC and ETH, Surge in USDT (Bybit)

• Gemini Adds Trading and Custody Support for BNB (Crowdfund Insider)

• Upbit to List YieldBasis (YB) Trading Pairs Against BTC and USDT (Upbit)

• Upbit to Add zkPass (ZKP) Trading Pairs (Upbit)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $175.29 million in net outflows on Dec. 24.

• On Dec. 24, U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs saw $52.7 million in outflows.

• U.S. Solana spot ETFs posted $1.48 million in net inflows on Dec. 24.

• On Dec. 24, U.S. XRP spot ETFs recorded $11.93 million in net inflows.

Infrastructure

• Plans for Major Ethereum L1 Scaling and ZK Upgrades in 2026 (Cointelegraph)

• Lighter to Make Onchain Verification Code Open-Source After Audit Completion (Lighter)

• Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Hack Costs Users $7M, Binance to Reimburse (CoinDesk)

Markets

• Bitcoin Sees Brief Flash Drop on Binance Linked to USD1 Pair (Binance)

• Crypto Derivatives Hit $85.7T in Trading Volume in 2025 (Coinglass)

• Bitcoin Fuels Record Surge in SEC Filings in 2025 (The Block)

• Silver Breaks $76 as Gold and Platinum Extend Record Rally (Reuters)

• Record $28B Crypto Options Expiry Hits Markets on Dec. 26 (Greeks live)

• XRP Hits New Highs in 2025 as Ripple’s SEC Battle Ends (Decrypt)

• Zcash Shielded Supply Holds at 23% as Privacy Use Sticks (The Block)

• Bitcoin Misses Santa Rally as Stocks and Precious Metals Hit New Records (The Block)

Meme Coins

• Dogecoin’s 2025 Was Defined by Politics, Institutions, and a Price Reality Check (Decrypt)

Mining

• U.S. Weighs Crypto Mining at Disputed Ukrainian Nuclear Plant in Peace Talks (The Block)

Politics & Regulation

• Japan Proposes Treating Crypto as Financial Products in FY2026 Tax Reform (Coinpost)

Token Generation Events

• Five Crypto Airdrops to Watch For in 2026 (DL News)

Other News

• CZ’s Year-End AMA Frames 2025 as a Reset—and a Blueprint for Crypto’s Next Phase (Wu Blockchain)

• Crypto’s 12 Biggest Stories of 2025 (The Block)

• Inside Lugano, Where Bitcoin Works Like Everyday Money (Cointelegraph)

Check This Out!

BNB Chain led all L1s in 2025 with 4.32M average daily users, followed by Solana, Near, Tron, and Aptos (CryptoRank).

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