Wu Blockchain News

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said the Fed’s RMP is effectively “QE in disguise,” predicting renewed liquidity and crypto upside. He expects BTC to trade at $80K–$100K near term, then reclaim $124K and potentially target $200K, with a possible sentiment peak around March. Hayes also said he is rotating from ETH into high-quality DeFi assets. — link

Coinbase Institutional released its 2026 Crypto Market Outlook, noting that although the U.S. economy remains resilient, uncertainty is elevated and the crypto market environment in the first half of 2026 is closer to 1996 than 1999. The report introduces a “DAT 2.0” model, suggesting institutions will move beyond simple asset allocation toward specialized trading, custody, and block-space procurement, while highlighting growing demand for privacy technologies, AI-driven autonomous agents, application-specific blockchains with interoperability, and tokenized assets, including equities. — link

Coinbase Markets said that Brevis (BREV) has been added to its asset listing roadmap. Brevis is a zero-knowledge–based cross-chain data proof platform designed to enable dApps to access, compute, and use on-chain data across multiple blockchains without relying on trusted intermediaries. — link

According to Bloomberg, crypto hedge funds have struggled in 2025, marking their worst year since the 2022 industry downturn. Through November, directional strategies are down about 2.5%, while fundamental and altcoin-heavy strategies have fallen roughly 23%, with only market-neutral funds posting gains of around 14.4%. Institutional inflows via ETFs and structured products have compressed traditional arbitrage opportunities, prompting many funds to cut altcoin exposure and pivot toward DeFi, where structural opportunities remain. — link

The U.S. SEC said it has filed proposed final consent judgments in the Southern District of New York against Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, Zixiao “Gary” Wang, former CTO of FTX, and Nishad Singh, former co-lead engineer of FTX. Subject to court approval, the three agreed to permanent antifraud injunctions and five-year conduct-based injunctions; Ellison also agreed to a 10-year officer-and-director bar, while Wang and Singh each agreed to eight-year bars. — link

U.S. Michigan consumer sentiment edged up in December to 52.9, slightly above November but still nearly 30% lower than a year ago, reflecting ongoing cost-of-living pressures. Short-term inflation expectations fell for a fourth straight month to 4.2%, while long-term expectations eased to 3.2%, suggesting moderating inflation concerns despite weak overall confidence.

NY Fed President John Williams said November’s CPI was likely understated due to technical data collection issues after October data couldn’t be gathered, estimating the distortion lowered CPI by about 0.1 percentage point. He said December data should give a clearer picture of inflation trends. — link

South Korea’s Hyundai Group and Hyundai Motor Group offices in Seoul received bomb threat emails demanding 13 BTC on Dec. 19, with the sender threatening further attacks if unpaid. Police deployed special forces and found no explosives; similar threats have recently targeted Samsung, KT, Kakao and Naver, with investigations ongoing. — link

Ethereum developers named the post-Glamsterdam 2026 upgrade “Hegota,” combining execution-layer Bogota and consensus-layer Heze. Hegota will follow Glamsterdam later in 2026 as part of Ethereum’s twice-yearly upgrade cadence, with potential focus areas including Verkle Trees, state management, and execution-layer optimizations. — link

WuBlockchain Weekly: U.S. CPI undershoots expectations; BOJ raises rates to a 30-year high; U.S. Senate confirms new CFTC and FDIC chairs; UK to bring crypto under FCA oversight by 2027; Bhutan allocates 10,000 BTC for GMC development; Strategy buys 10,645 BTC; Bitwise predicts Bitcoin will break the four-year cycle, and more. — link

Coinbase has filed lawsuits in Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan, challenging state efforts to regulate prediction markets. The exchange argues that prediction markets fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. CFTC, not state gaming regulators, and says state-level restrictions unlawfully treat these markets as gambling. — link

Bybit reentered the U.K. after a two-year exit, resuming spot trading on 100 crypto pairs under a framework that complies with FCA financial promotion rules. Bybit will operate and provide marketing of its services under the auspices of London-based crypto exchange Archax. — link

According to @sankin_eth’s dashboard, Hyperliquid saw net outflows exceeding $430 million this week, marking its third-largest weekly outflow on record. Amid rising competition, Hyperliquid’s AUM has continued to decline from a peak of over $6 billion in mid-September to around $4 billion. — link

According to Arbiscan, Robinhood: Deployer deployed 500 stock tokens on the Arbitrum network on December 17, marking the highest single-day deployment on record. To date, Robinhood: Deployer has deployed a total of 1,997 stock tokens on Arbitrum. — link

On Dec. 18 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $161 million. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $96.62 million, marking six consecutive days of net outflows. Spot Solana ETFs posted net inflows of $13.16 million, while spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $30.41 million. — link

The Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest level in 30 years. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said the policy board unanimously decided to increase the rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75%.

Aptos proposed the post-quantum signature improvement AIP-137, aiming to add optional account-level support for post-quantum digital signatures to address long-term quantum computing risks. The proposal would not affect existing accounts and plans to support the hash-based signature scheme SLH-DSA standardized as FIPS 205. — link

The administrator overseeing the wind-down of Terraform Labs has sued high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading, alleging it unlawfully profited from and helped contribute to the collapse of Do Kwon’s crypto empire. The filing seeks $4 billion in damages from Jump, co-founder William DiSomma, and former crypto division head Kanav Kariya. — link

David Sacks, the White House AI and crypto czar, said the CLARITY Act is expected to enter the Senate markup stage in January for review and amendment before moving to a full Senate vote. Sacks added that Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott and Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman have confirmed this. — link

JPMorgan reiterated in its latest report that it does not expect the stablecoin market to reach a trillion-dollar scale by 2028, projecting a total market capitalization of around $500 billion to $600 billion. The bank said stablecoin growth continues to be driven primarily by crypto trading activity, while the expansion of payment use cases does not necessarily translate into a significant increase in outstanding supply, as higher velocity reduces the amount of stablecoins required. — link