Crypto Daily — DeFi, NFT, Web3

✔️ Sber conducted a pilot for issuing a corporate loan secured by crypto.

🎲 The year 2025 became a turning pointfor the crypto derivatives market — it shifted from retail speculation to an institutional model with ETFs, regulated infrastructure, and on-chain solutions. Institutional capital became the main driver of growth, and Bitcoin increasingly behaved like a high-risk asset, leading to the largest wave of liquidations in October — more than $19 billion in a single day. With a total trading volume of $85.7 trillion, the market became more mature, but the high concentration of leverage and liquidity still poses systemic risks for 2026.

🍿 Caroline Ellison, the former head of Alameda Research, Sam's girlfriend and a key figure in the FTX collapse, will be released on January 21, 2026.

🐳 During bull rallies, venture investors often overestimate the value of crypto projects, driven by hype and speculation. When the market cools down, these projects face a "reality check": their market capitalization turns out to be significantly lower than previous private valuations. The recent slump in the crypto industry clearly demonstratedthe gap between VC valuations and real market prices.

💰 The number of Ethereum holders with balances from 10,000 to 100,000 ETH ($30M – $300M) has sharply increased.

🇪🇸 In 2026, Spain will fully implement the MiCA and DAC8 laws, strengthening the regulation of the crypto market: 🔴 MiCA from July 1 will require all crypto service providers to obtain licenses. 🔴 DAC8 from January 1 — transfer data on users' transactions and balances to EU tax authorities.

😂 A Brazilian live orchestra will turn the price fluctuations of BTC into music.

🤖 In the trading tournament organized by Aster, the team of humans lost to the neural networks. At the end of the competition, the humans showed a result of -32.21% (a total loss of about $225,000), while the AI team only suffered a drawdown of -4.48% (about $13,000).

🔋 Miner Cipher Mining enters the largest wholesale electricity market in the USA, having purchased a site in Ohio for a data center with a capacity of 200 MW — this is the company's first expansion outside of Texas. The facility is designed not only for Bitcoin mining, but also for high-performance computing and data center hosting, reflecting the growing demand from major cloud players. The deal fits into the general trend, where public miners are increasingly diversifying their business towards energy, HPC, and AI infrastructure.

📈 An analyst compares the current BTC price with the level around $16,000 at the end of 2022, pointing to similar December weakness on the charts. In his opinion, if the market follows the historical pattern again, growth may begin after January 7, as it did in 2023. The conclusion is based on seasonality and recurring market cycles. Do we believe it? 🚬

🇸🇻 The IMF again states that El Salvador has formally ended its Bitcoin experiment: the public accumulation of BTC has been halted, the Chivo wallet is being phased out, and the increase in reserves is explained solely by internal transfers within the EFF program. However, in practice, the Bitcoin Office claims otherwise: the country continues to buy 1 BTC per day, with a balance of over 7,500 BTC, and, according to the head of the office, Stacey Herbert, this is happening despite the IMF's position.

📊 VanEck draws attention to the strongest monthly drop in BTC's hash rate since April 2024, which could be an indication of miners' capitulation. Historically, after such a powerful drop in hash rate, BTC has rebounded in the next 90 days in 65% of cases.

🇪🇺 The EU Council approved offline and online versions of the digital euro (CBDC).

#bnb 🔸 On Kalshi they added support for BNB Chain – deposits and withdrawals in BNB are now available on the American equivalent of Polymarket.

💰 Michael Saylor's company Strategy did not buy BTC last week, but increased its reserves by $748 million and now owns $2.19 billion and 671,268 BTC.

🟦 Coinbase acquires a market forecasting startup The Clearing Company.

🤖Tether announcedthe launch of QVAC Genesis II — a large open dataset for training artificial intelligence. It contains 148 billion tokens, which can be used for training AI in chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, economics, and other sciences. The project is designed for developers and researchers around the world.

🐳 Tom Lee's BitMine purchased an additional 98,800 ETH last week — now the company's balance is 4,066,062 ETH.

🔮 Vitalik Buterin calledprediction markets a more rational alternative to social networks, especially when discussing sensitive topics. Users of online platforms can irresponsibly stoke panic. Similarly, the media often heighten anxiety with sensational headlines, thereby fueling debates. Prediction platforms solve this problem through a mechanism of financial responsibility — imprudent or "stupid" bets lead to real losses.

💰 Spot XRP ETFs have continued their "green streak" for 6 consecutive weeks, during which the funds have accumulated more than $1.2  billion. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs recorded further outflows last week — $497  million and $644  million respectively.