Wu Blockchain News

According to Binance market data, the BTC/USD1 trading pair saw a brief wick at around 17:15 on Dec. 24, with BTC dropping to $24,111.22 before quickly recovering. The pair has since normalized, last trading at $87,880.10. USD1 is a stablecoin launched by Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. — link

According to CryptoRank, the top 10 token sales of 2025 are as follows: Pumpfun - $600 million, WLFI - $550 million, Monad - $217 million, MegaETH - $78 million, Aztec - $52 million, Plasma - $50 million, Gensyn - $16 million, Solayer - $10.5 million, Sahara AI - $8.5 million, and Lombard - $6.7 million. — link

The EU’s crypto tax transparency directive, DAC8, will take effect on January 1, 2026, requiring crypto-asset service providers, including exchanges and brokers, to report user identification and transaction data to national tax authorities, with the information shared across member states. Firms have a transition period and must bring reporting systems, customer due diligence, and internal controls into compliance by July 1. — link

Circle told CoinDesk that a press release claiming it had launched a platform called “CircleMetals,” offering swaps between USDC and purported tokenized gold and silver, is not real. The release used Circle branding and quoted executives including CEO Jeremy Allaire, but a Circle spokesperson said it was “not real.” CoinDesk noted that there is no evidence to suggest that the referenced GLDC, SILC, or CIRM tokens exist. — link

According to DLNews, Metaplanet’s board approved a plan to further purchase Bitcoin, targeting 210k BTC by the end of 2027. The company will expand Class A and B share issuance, add floating-rate features and quarterly dividends, grant a 130% issuer call and IPO-related put rights to Class B preferred shares, and allow issuance of Class B shares to overseas institutional investors. — link

U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending December 20 came in at 214k, below expectations of 224k and down from the previous 224k.

2025 Crypto’s Darkest Year and the Dawn of the Institutional Era: The article contends that 2025, despite weak crypto price performance, marks a structural shift from retail speculation to institutional allocation. Data shows declining retail activity, sustained BTC ETF inflows, and institutions absorbing large-scale selling by long-term holders. Supported by growing corporate adoption and a more favorable U.S. policy environment, the author concludes that 2025 represents an institutional accumulation phase rather than a cycle peak, setting the foundation for the next phase of the market. Read more — link

According to Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic, entities linked to Aleksey Bilyuchenko, who has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the Mt. Gox hack, transferred another 1,300 BTC (about $114 million) to unknown exchanges over the past seven days. They currently still hold 4,100 BTC (around $360 million) and have sold a total of 2,300 BTC. — link

Philippine ISPs have blocked Coinbase and Gemini after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), citing the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), ordered access restrictions on around 50 unauthorized trading platforms. The country previously blocked Binance in March 2024, and the SEC has recently flagged unlicensed exchanges including OKX, Bybit, and KuCoin. — link

Polymarket said that multiple user accounts recently suffered fund losses due to a security vulnerability in a third-party authentication service. The issue has been fixed and no ongoing risk remains. Some users reported on social media that their funds were drained after abnormal login attempts. User feedback suggests that affected accounts were mostly registered via Magic Labs, though Polymarket did not name the service provider or disclose the number of affected users or the amount lost. — link

On December 23(ET), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $189 million, marking the fourth consecutive day of outflows. The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) recorded the largest single-day outflow of $157 million. Ethereum spot ETFs experienced a total net outflow of $95.52 million, with all nine ETFs showing no inflows. — link

Bitcoin-dev mailing list has recently sparked a heated debate over the surge in UTXOs caused by Ordinals and Stamps. Developers have proposed "The Cat" draft, which aims to permanently mark "non-currency UTXOs" below 1000 satoshis as unspendable through a soft fork, potentially reducing UTXO size by 30%-50%. Another proposal, "Lynx," advocates for automatically invalidating dust UTXOs that have been inactive for four years, implementing automated cleanup with a more neutral logic. — link

According to CoinGecko data, after Binance launched the 20% APY promotion for USD1 with a supply of 50,000 USD1 at noon today, the supply of USD1 surged by over 45.6 million tokens within a few hours, bringing its total market cap to over $2.79 billion. USD1 is a stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial, a project backed by the Trump family. — link

Spain will fully implement two key cryptocurrency regulations in 2026: the EU MiCA and DAC8. MiCA will come into effect on July 1, 2026, requiring all crypto service providers to obtain full authorization to continue operations. DAC8 will be enforced starting January 1, 2026, mandating exchanges to report user transactions, balances, and fund flows to EU tax authorities. — link

Wintermute report stating that although the crypto market faced downside pressure early last week, market sentiment gradually stabilized, with Bitcoin's dominance further strengthening. However, altcoins remained weak, heavily influenced by supply pressure and unlocking schedules. Overall, the market is experiencing significant short-term volatility, but funds are increasingly concentrated in BTC and ETH, with a lack of clear macro or policy catalysts. — link

According to CryptoRank, FDVs of several VC-backed projects launched this year are significantly lower than their VC valuations. For example, Humanity Protocol's initial valuation was $1 billion, but its current FDV is $285 million; Fuel Network's initial valuation was $1 billion, but its current FDV is $11 million; Plasma's initial valuation was $500 million, but its current FDV is $224 million; Camp Network's initial valuation was $400 million, but its current FDV is $15 million. — link

Gnosis Chain executed a chain-level hard fork this week to recover funds related to the Balancer hack in November 2024 (involving over $116 million). The team stated that the assets are now "out of hacker control," but did not specify the recovery rate. Gnosis also mentioned that the funds will be transferred to a DAO custodial wallet, with the community to decide on compensation and distribution plans. — link

According to DeFiLlama, Ethena's TVL has dropped from $14.305 billion since the "1011" event to $6.551 billion, a decline of over 50%. Ethena's TVL consists primarily of USDe. Per Entropy Advisors dashboard, USDe has seen over $8 billion in net redemptions since October, including a record-high $5+ billion net outflow in October alone. — link

David Schassler, head of multi-asset solutions at VanEck, predicts that despite Bitcoin's underperformance this year compared to gold and the Nasdaq 100, it is poised for a strong rebound as currency devaluation accelerates and liquidity returns. Schassler believes that gold will continue to rise next year, and while Bitcoin's weakness this year reflects a decline in risk appetite and tight liquidity, its fundamentals remain strong, positioning it to be a top performer in 2026. — link

According to Bloomberg, Russia’s central bank has prepared a framework to regulate the domestic cryptocurrency market, under which non-qualified investors would be allowed to buy only the most liquid cryptocurrencies after passing a knowledge test, with annual transactions capped at about $3,800, while qualified investors, after a risk-awareness test, would be able to buy unlimited amounts of cryptocurrencies except anonymous tokens, with legislative changes planned to be completed next year. — link