Tether and Circle, issuers of the two largest stablecoins in the world, have just received major regulatory greenlights in UAE’s Abu Dhabi.

Tether’s Stablecoin Recognized As ARFT, While Circle Obtains FSP License

Major developments related to the cryptocurrency sector have occurred in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week, with Tether and Circle both winning approvals in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial center and free economic zone of Abu Dhabi, UAE’s capital.

First, as Tether has announced in a press release, USDT issued on a number of blockchains has been recognized as an Accepted Fiat-Referenced Token (ARFT) in ADGM. USDT already received approval from ADGM last year, but the previous recognition only included the Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche versions. With the new regulatory nod, USDT available on Aptos, Celo, Cosmos, Kaia, Near, Polkadot, Tezos, TON, and TRON has also entered the market.

“By extending recognition to USD₮ on several major blockchains, ADGM further strengthens Abu Dhabi’s position as a global hub for compliant digital finance,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.

USDT being considered as an ARFT means that authorized persons licensed by ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) can offer regulated activities involving the stablecoin on nearly all its native blockchains. “Introducing USD₮ within ADGM’s regulated digital asset framework reinforces the role of stablecoins as essential components of today’s financial landscape,” noted Ardoino.

Meanwhile, Circle, the issuer of USDC, has also advanced in the region with a new license from the FSRA, according to an announcement. The license, called the Financial Services Permission (FSP), allows the company to operate as a Money Services Provider in ADGM.

Arvind Ramamurthy, ADGM Chief Market Development Officer, said:

Circle’s regulated presence in ADGM reinforces our ambition to build a trusted, institutional-grade digital asset ecosystem in Abu Dhabi, one that enhances market confidence, supports real-world use cases, and cements the UAE’s role as a leading hub for regulated digital finance.

The greenlight from ADGM follows the recognition of Circle’s USD and EUR stablecoins by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in February of this year. The move made USDC and EURC the first stablecoins to be approved in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The new FSP license means “Circle is positioned to expand regulated payment and settlement use cases in the UAE for businesses, developers, and financial institutions,” the statement noted.

Stablecoins have witnessed rapid growth throughout 2025, setting multiple records. The near-constant growth in these tokens, however, saw a break in October, as the combined market cap of this side of the cryptocurrency sector reversed course.

As the above chart from DefiLlama shows, the stablecoin market cap declined to a low in mid-November. Since this bottom, though, capital inflows have returned for these fiat-tied assets, with the market cap once again nearing in on a new record.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $90,100, up almost 4% in the last seven days.

On-chain data shows the popular Bitcoin Hash Ribbons indicator has just given a miner capitulation signal. Here’s what this could mean.

Bitcoin Hash Ribbons Now Signaling Miner Stress

As pointed out by CryptoQuant author Darkfrost in an X post, the Bitcoin Hash Ribbons have shown a crossover that has historically corresponded to rising stress among the miners. The Hash Ribbons indicator aims to gauge the situation of the miners by comparing the 30-day and 60-day moving averages (MAs) of the BTC Hashrate, a metric that measures the total amount of computing power that the validators as a whole have connected to the blockchain.

The trend in the Hashrate can act as a representation of the sentiment among the miners, as they usually expand computing power (an increase in the Hashrate) when mining is profitable and/or they believe BTC is heading toward a bullish outcome, while they decommission mining rigs (a drop in the Hashrate) when they are having a hard time breaking even.

The Hash Ribbons indicator basically captures shifts between these two behaviors. When the 30-day ribbon falls below the 60-day one, it means miners are reducing power at a fast rate. This can be a sign that this group is going through capitulation.

Such a crossover has recently formed again for Bitcoin, as the chart below shared by Darkfrost shows.

Thus, it would appear that miners are once again in a phase of capitulation. “Historically, these periods of mining stress have been profitable for Bitcoin investors, with one exception during the 2021 mining ban in China,” noted the analyst.

The signal doesn’t act as a straightforward buy indicator, however, as mining capitulation often doesn’t directly coincide with a bottom. “In the short term, these periods tend to be bearish because miners may need to increase their selling to cover production costs,” explained Darkfrost.

In general, miner capitulation periods have tended to lead into profitable buying windows for the cryptocurrency, although it’s unpredictable how long such a phase would last. From the chart, it’s apparent that sometimes the Hash Ribbons signal has been quite brief, while other times it has been maintained for weeks.

As for what has forced miners to turn off Hashrate recently, the answer likely lies in the bearish trajectory that Bitcoin has witnessed. Miners obtain their reward in BTC denomination, so how the USD value of the coin fluctuates directly affects their dollar revenue.

Before this, miners had been in a phase of rapid expansion alongside the bull rally, which had led to an explosion in the network’s mining Difficulty. With the price plummeting and Difficulty being at extraordinary levels, miners have faced a double whammy during the past month.

BTC Price

Bitcoin saw a recovery above $92,000 on Monday, but it would appear that the asset wasn’t able to maintain it, as its price is now back at $90,300.

Glassnode’s senior researcher has pointed out how Bitcoin perpetual futures market is looking like a “ghost town,” with Open Interest continuing to be at muted levels.

Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Has Remained Low Since October Reset

In a new post on X, Glassnode senior researcher CryptoVizArt.₿ has talked about the recent trend in the Bitcoin Open Interest for the perpetual futures market. The “Open Interest” refers to an indicator that measures the total amount of positions related to the asset that are currently open on all centralized derivatives platforms.

When the value of the metric rises, it means the investors are opening new positions related to the asset. Generally, new positions come with fresh leverage for the sector, so the cryptocurrency’s price can become more volatile following an increase in the Open Interest.

On the other hand, the indicator going down suggests the perpetual futures traders are either closing up position of their own volition or getting forcibly liquidated by their platform. Such a trend can lead to more stable price action for BTC due to the clearing of leverage.

Now, here is the chart shared by CryptoVizArt.₿ that shows the trend in the Bitcoin perpetual futures Open Interest (BTC-denominated) over the last few months:

As displayed in the above graph, the BTC-denominated Bitcoin perpetual futures Open Interest saw a sharp plunge back in October as a result of the crash in the cryptocurrency’s price.

Following the leverage flush, the indicator traveled sideways around its lows, but in mid-November, speculation noted an uptick as the asset’s drawdown continued, with the metric’s value peaking alongside the level that has so far acted as the bottom.

Since this high, however, the indicator has cooled off once again and approached the same lows as the ones that followed the massive liquidation event in October. Thus, with Open Interest back under 310,000 BTC, it seems speculative interest in the market has once again become muted.

The recent decline in speculative participation has come alongside a drop in the perpetual futures Funding Rate, a metric tracking the amount of periodic fee being exchanged between the short and long investors.

From the chart, it’s visible that the Bitcoin perpetual futures Funding Rate has been going down since a while now. “This persistent drift lower reflects a decline in leveraged long conviction, with traders unwilling to pay a premium to maintain upside exposure,” noted the Glassnode researcher.

Based on the recent developments, CryptoVizArt.₿ has called the perpetual futures market a “ghost town.”

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $90,500, up almost 6% over the last seven days.

Just a week after announcing its $1.44 billion USD Reserve, Strategy has made a Bitcoin purchase of nearly $1 billion, one of the largest for 2025.

Strategy Has Made Its Ninth Largest Bitcoin Buy Of The Year

In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has shared info related to the latest routine Monday Bitcoin purchase made by the treasury company.

While the timing of the buy is routine, its scale is not. In total, Strategy has added 10,624 BTC to its holdings with the acquisition. This is the biggest purchase since July’s 21,021 BTC mega-buy.

The new acquisition has cost the firm $90,615 per token or $962.7 million in total. In USD terms, this is the ninth largest addition to the company’s Bitcoin reserves.

This big purchase has come a week after Strategy announced a new shift for the company with its $1.44 billion USD reserve. Saylor said that the reserve will better position the firm to navigate short-term volatility.

The announcement was also accompanied by the usual Monday Bitcoin buy, but at just 130 tokens, it was a relatively small one. If the latest acquisition is to go by, however, the USD reserve doesn’t seem to be stopping Strategy in hoarding more of the cryptocurrency.

According to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the new buy, which occurred in the period between December 1st and 7th, was funded using sales of the firm’s STRD and MSTR at-the-market (ATM) stock offerings.

Strategy now holds a total of 660,624 BTC, with an average cost basis of $74,696 per coin or total investment of $49.35 billion. At the current price of the asset, the Bitcoin treasury company’s holdings are worth about $59.68 billion, which means that it’s sitting on a profit of nearly 21% right now.

In some other news, while Strategy has continued its Bitcoin accumulation, the same hasn’t been true for another side of the sector: the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The spot ETFs refer to investment vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to BTC. That is, the funds hold the cryptocurrency on behalf of the investors, enabling them to invest into the asset without having to bother with the on-chain side of things.

Since mid-October, the US Bitcoin spot ETFs have mostly faced waves of net outflows as the cryptocurrency’s price has followed a bearish trajectory. The last week of November registered a small positive netflow, however, breaking a streak of four consecutive weeks of outflows.

This turnaround didn’t last, though, with the latest week once again ending with net outflows, as the below chart from SoSoValue shows.

The outflows were only modest, coming out at about $87.8 million, but still indicate lingering pessimism in the market.

BTC Price

Bitcoin broke above $92,000 earlier in the day, but the coin has since faced a pullback as it’s now back at $89,900.

Digital asset exchange Coinbase has restarted crypto trading in India after a two-year absence, with fiat deposits planned to arrive in 2026.

Coinbase Has Returned To India For The First Time Since 2023

As reported by TechCrunch, Coinbase has resumed user onboarding in India for the first time since pulling out of the country back in 2023, more than two years ago. The American crypto exchange ranks as the largest public digital asset company in the world, hosting around $516 billion in assets on its platform.

Initially, the exchange first entered India in 2022, but only a few days after beginning services, it had to suspend UPI payments. UPI, short for Unified Payments Interface, is the most widely adopted real-time digital payments instrument in India. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had said shortly after Coinbase’s launch that it wasn’t aware of any crypto exchange using UPI.

With UPI access gone, Coinbase users no longer had a way to purchase digital assets on the platform using fiat. The exchange stopped new user signups in June 2023, with a complete discontinuation of services happening in September 2023.

“We had millions of customers in India, historically, and we took a very clear stance to off-board those customers entirely from overseas entities, where they were domiciled and regulated,” said Coinbase’s APAC director, John O’Loghlen, at India Blockchain Week (IBW). O’Loghlen added that the decision to pull out didn’t come without hesitation.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Coinbase announced in March that it had registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), allowing it to provide crypto services in the country. The platform opened in early access in October, and now, it has seen a full public launch. So far, users can only access crypto-to-crypto trading, but according to O’Loghlen, a fiat on-ramp is planned to become available next year. This would allow users to buy digital assets using the Indian Rupee (INR).

While India isn’t closed off to cryptocurrencies like its northern neighbor, China, it still has a relatively strict digital-asset regulation regime. The nation collects a 30% tax on investor crypto profits and allows for no offsets against losses. Additionally, it charges a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on all transactions, as a method of tracking digital asset activity.

Naturally, this taxation regime isn’t ideal for crypto companies, as it directly affects adoption. O’Loghlen said that Coinbase is hoping the Indian government will relax the tax to make it more convenient for investors to hold digital assets.

Reopening its exchange isn’t the only move that Coinbase has made in the subcontinent recently. As announced on its blog, the platform has made an investment in Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX. “Taken together, these steps reflect a clear commitment: we believe India and its neighbors will help shape the future of the global onchain economy,” noted the post.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $91,800, up more than 7% over the last week.

On-chain data shows the XRP whales have distributed a significant amount during the past week, a sign of negative sentiment among large holders.

XRP Whales Have Shed 510 Million Tokens From Their Holdings

As announced by analyst Ali Martinez in a new post on X, XRP whales have participated in a notable amount of selling recently. A “whale” is typically defined as an XRP investor holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens. At the current exchange rate of the cryptocurrency, this range converts to $2 million at the lower end and $20 million at the upper one.

Given the size of the range, the only investors who would qualify for the cohort would be the big-money hands. These holders can carry some influence in the market, making the group a key one for the network.

Now, here is the chart from on-chain analytics firm Santiment shared by Martinez that shows how the supply of the XRP whales has changed over the last few months:

As displayed in the above graph, the XRP whale supply has been following a downtrend since mid-November, indicating that the large holders have been distributing. The trend has continued during the past week, with entities belonging to the group collectively selling 510 million coins, worth more than $2 billion at the latest price.

At the same time as the selloff over the last few weeks, XRP has witnessed some net bearish price action, implying that the whales may have had a role to play in it.

Given that these humongous entities haven’t shown any signs of slowing down recently, it’s possible that the coin could see a further drop. It only remains to be seen, however, how whale behavior will develop in the coming days.

In some other news, XRP could be set up for a 16% move according to a technical analysis (TA) pattern, as Martinez has pointed out in another X post.

From the chart, it’s visible that XRP has roughly been traveling inside a Symmetrical Triangle on the 1-hour timeframe since November. A Symmetrical Triangle is a consolidation channel that involves two converging trendlines approaching each other at an equal and opposite slope.

The coin is already more than halfway through the channel, meaning that its range is getting narrow. A narrower range means retests of the support and resistance levels become more frequent, making either more probable.

Based on the height of the channel, the analyst has noted that a breakout could lead to a 16% move for XRP. It now remains to be seen which direction the asset will exit, and whether the pattern will hold.

XRP Price

XRP has again found a rebound since its retest of the $2.00 level, as its price is now back at $2.09.

Data shows distribution on the Bitcoin network has dropped off, with both the largest of whales and small retail hands taking to accumulation.

Bitcoin Accumulation Trend Score Shows Shift Toward Buying

As explained by Glassnode analyst Chris Beamish in an X post, Bitcoin investors have been showing a lot less distribution at the recent price levels. The on-chain indicator of relevance here is the “Accumulation Trend Score,” which tells us about whether BTC holders are buying or selling.

The metric tracks investor behavior using not just the changes happening in their wallet balance, but also accounting for the size of their wallets. This means that larger entities have a higher influence on the score.

When the value of the Accumulation Trend Score is greater than 0.5, it means the investors are displaying a net trend of accumulation. On the other hand, it being under the threshold suggests the dominance of distribution.

Now, here is the chart shared by Beamish that shows how the Accumulation Trend Score has changed for the different Bitcoin investor segments over the last few years:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Accumulation Trend Score has reflected a varied behavior for the different investor segments during the last couple of months, but very recently, a uniform picture has started to develop.

The smallest of investors in the market, those holding less than 1 BTC, started participating in aggressive accumulation around the time of BTC’s low in November and have since maintained the indicator nearly at a perfect value of 1. This suggests that retail investors have been buying the dip.

Meanwhile, the 100 to 1,000 BTC traders, popularly called the sharks, have been accumulating throughout the drawdown that has followed since the early October peak, indicating that these investors haven’t lost conviction despite the deep decline.

The story is a bit different for the whale cohorts, however. The 10,000+ BTC holders, corresponding to the largest of hands on the network, were in a phase of distribution between August and November, but they have finally started accumulating since the price low, although the Accumulation Trend Score isn’t as high as the retail investors in their case.

The 1,000 to 10,000 BTC whale group didn’t stop distributing even after the bottom, but very recently, their score has just breached the 0.5 mark. With this, a uniform behavior has begun to appear on the Bitcoin blockchain, with investors as a whole opting to expand their wallet balance.

It now remains to be seen how long this trend of accumulation will continue.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has faced a drop of more than 3% over the last 24 hours that has taken its price to $89,300.

An analyst has pointed out where a key resistance could be located for Dogecoin, based on on-chain supply distribution data.

Dogecoin Has A Large Supply Cluster Present At $0.20

In a new post on X, analyst Ali Martinez has talked about where resistance lies for Dogecoin based on Glassnode’s Cost Basis Distribution (CBD). The CBD is an indicator that tells us about the amount of DOGE supply that was last acquired at the various price levels that the memecoin has visited in its history.

Below is the chart shared by Martinez that shows the recent CBD heatmap for Dogecoin.

As is visible in the graph, the Dogecoin CBD has flagged the zone around $0.20 as one where investors did some heavy buying. More specifically, over 11.7 billion tokens have their cost basis at this level.

Considering that DOGE is trading notably under the mark right now, all this supply would naturally be in the red. The asset rising to this level could cause a strong reaction from the investors, as these tokens will get back to their break-even.

Generally, holders in loss can be desperate for the price to reach back to their cost basis. Once the asset does rise to their acquisition level, some of these investors choose to sell, fearing that the rebound is only temporary. This can make large cost basis levels above the asset’s price potential zones of resistance.

Between the current price and $0.20, there aren’t any other regions in the CBD that are as dense with supply. Based on this, Martinez has noted, “$0.20 is the key resistance for Dogecoin.” It now remains to be seen whether DOGE will retest this level anytime soon.

In some other news, the memecoin has seen a spike in network activity recently, as the analyst has pointed out in another X post.

In the chart, the indicator shown is the Number of Active Addresses, which measures, as its name suggests, the daily number of addresses that are participating in some kind of transaction activity on the Dogecoin network.

It would appear that this indicator has registered a surge recently, with a peak 71,589 addresses making transfers on the blockchain. This is the largest spike that the metric has observed since September.

The trend suggests that attention has returned back to the Dogecoin network after a slump, but only time will tell whether this activity pertains to accumulation or distribution.

DOGE Price

At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading around $0.138, down over 7% in the last week.

Kraken and Deutsche Börse has announced a strategic partnership that will integrate crypto with traditional market infrastructure.

Kraken And Deutsche Börse Have Partnered Up

As announced in a press release, US-based digital asset exchange Kraken has teamed up with Deutsche Börse Group to bridge crypto and traditional finance and deliver institutional investors access across asset classes.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Deutsche Börse Group is one of the biggest financial market infrastructure providers in the world. It operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which ranks the 12th largest in market cap globally.

In the first phase of the partnership, Kraken will integrate directly with 360T, a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation that provides foreign-exchange trading services. This integration will provide Kraken clients access to the latter’s foreign-exchange liquidity.

The partnership will go the other way, as well. Via Crypto Finance, another Deutsche Börse subsidiary, and Kraken, Deutsche Börse Group clients will be able to trade cryptocurrencies and derivatives.

The two firms also plan to leverage Kraken Embed, the crypto trading infrastructure solution created by Kraken, to provide institutions in Deutsche Börse Group’s network with digital asset access.

The press release noted:

Together, the companies will develop advanced white-label solutions enabling banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions to offer secure, compliant crypto trading and custody services to clients across Europe and the U.S.

Another thing Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group are collaborating on is integration of xStocks in the ecosystem of 360X, Deutsche Börse’s tokenized trading venue. xStocks is a stock tokenization standard that has been gaining adoption. Kraken announced the acquisition of Backed, the company behind xStocks, just this Tuesday.

Arjun Sethi, Kraken Co-CEO, said:

By linking traditional and digital markets across a wide range of asset classes, we’re building a holistic foundation for the next generation of financial innovation: defined by efficiency, openness, and client access.

The companies are also looking to make derivatives listed on Deutsche Börse Group’s Eurex, the largest futures and options marketplace in Europe, available on Kraken, if regulators provide the nod.

Stephan Leithner, Deutsche Börse CEO, noted:

This collaboration with Kraken is a great strategic fit for Deutsche Börse Group. It underscores our ongoing commitment to shaping the future of financial markets by combining the trust and resilience of our regulated infrastructure with the innovation of the digital asset ecosystem.

Back in October, the German organization also announced another crypto partnership, this one with USDC issuer Circle. The collaboration aimed to integrate the latter’s USD and EUR stablecoins in the former’s infrastructure to boost stablecoin adoption in Europe.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $92,500, up 1% over the last week.

On-chain analytics firm Glassnode has pointed out how the current Bitcoin market is reminiscent to the structure from the first quarter of 2022.

Bitcoin Dynamics Are Currently Looking Similar To Early 2022 Bear Market

In its latest weekly report, Glassnode has discussed about how the broader Bitcoin market structure is starting to resemble Q1 2022. First, the analytics firm has shared the data of its Supply Quantiles Cost Basis Model, highlighting price levels that correspond to a certain degree of investor profitability.

In the chart, three supply quantiles are listed: 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95. If Bitcoin trades at the first of these levels, 75% of the supply will be in profit. Similarly, the latter two correspond to 85% and 95% profitability, respectively.

It’s visible in the graph that Bitcoin has recently fallen below all three of these levels, indicating more than 25% of the cryptocurrency’s supply is now underwater. “This creates a fragile balance between the risk of top-buyer capitulation and the potential for seller exhaustion to form a bottom,” explained Glassnode.

BTC similarly broke below the 0.75 quantile back during the sideways market of early 2022. Another indicator that reinforces the resemblance is the Total Supply in Loss, which measures, as its name suggests, the amount of the Bitcoin circulating supply that’s being held at some net unrealized loss.

Below is a chart showing the 7-day moving average (MA) trend in the metric.

As displayed in the graph, the 7-day MA Bitcoin Total Supply in Loss hit a high of 7.1 million BTC last week, which is the highest that it has been since September 2023, more than two years ago.

The analytics firm noted:

The current scale of supply in loss, ranging between 5M–7M BTC, is strikingly similar to the early-2022 sideways market, further reinforcing the resemblance noted above.

Finally, the Bitcoin long-term holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) also implies that the current market structure is mirroring Q1 2022. This metric tells us, in short, whether the Bitcoin investors holding since more than 155 days ago are selling their coins at a profit or loss.

The Bitcoin long-term holder SOPR has witnessed a sharp decline recently, but its value is still above 1, indicating the long-term holders are selling at some net profit. With its current value of 1.43, however, there has been a notable shrinkage in the profit margins of the cohort.

It now remains to be seen whether the trends in these indicators mean that the cryptocurrency is on the cusp of a bear market transition like in early 2022, or if a rebound will come before long.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has seen a slight pullback during the past day as its price has dropped to $91,800.

A new report has revealed that a total of $732 billion in capital has flowed into Bitcoin this cycle, more than all other cycles combined.

Bitcoin Has Seen Historic Growth In Realized Cap This Cycle

On-chain analytics firm Glassnode has released its Q4 2025 Digital Assets Report in collaboration with crypto investment firm Fasanara Digital, shedding light on how the market landscape has developed in the fourth quarter of 2025.

One of the things the report has talked about is the trend in the Realized Cap of Bitcoin. This capitalization model calculates the total value of the cryptocurrency by assuming the the value of each individual token is equal to the price at which it was last transacted on the blockchain.

The last transaction of any token is likely to represent the last time it changed hands, so the price at its time could be considered as its current cost basis. As such, the Realized Cap is a sum of the acquisition values of all coins in circulation. In other words, the model represents the total amount of capital that the investors used to purchase the asset’s supply. Considering this, changes in the indicator naturally correspond to the netflow of capital.

Below is a chart that shows how the Bitcoin Realized Cap has fluctuated over the last few years.

As displayed in the graph, the monthly change in the Bitcoin Realized Cap has remained positive over the last couple of years, indicating that the network has been enjoying a sustained expansion in stored capital.

The rate of inflows has varied a lot over the cycle, however, accelerating to high levels during rallies and slowing down during flat or bearish periods. Most recently, the monthly increase in the metric hit a high of $39.8 billion in October, but the bearish momentum since then has meant a cooldown to $15 billion.

Following the continued rise in the Realized Cap, its value has reached a new all-time high (ATH) of $1.1 trillion. The report noted that this marks “a historic milestone that underscores Bitcoin’s continued evolution as a globally held, high-liquidity asset.”

The Realized Cap has clearly witnessed a significant amount of growth this cycle. But how does it stack up against the capital inflows of the past cycles? Here is another chart, this one comparing the cumulative Realized Cap change for each cycle:

In total, the current cycle has attracted over $732 billion in capital. The last cycle saw $388 billion in inflows, and the two cycles before that about $90 billion combined. Thus, the latest cycle has not only outpaced each of the past cycles, but it has in fact seen a higher Realized Cap increase than all of them combined.

BTC Price

Bitcoin’s latest recovery has so far been holding as its price is trading around $92,800.

Ethereum has witnessed a recovery surge recently as on-chain data shows the shark-sized investors have been participating in strong buying.

Ethereum Sharks Have Added 450,000 ETH Since Mid-November

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the supply of the Ethereum sharks has gone up recently. The indicator of relevance here is the “Supply Distribution,” measuring the total amount of tokens that a given wallet group as a whole is holding right now.

In the context of the current topic, the cohort of focus is the one corresponding to a coin range of 1,000 to 10,000 ETH. At the current exchange rate, the lower bound of the range roughly converts to $3.2 million and the upper one to $32 million. Investors of this large size are popularly known as the sharks. While not as massive as the whales (addresses with more than 10,000 ETH), the sharks are still considered influential entities. This can make their behavior often worth keeping an eye on.

As the chart below, shared by Santiment, suggests, the latest Ethereum shark behavior has been one of accumulation.

During the November price decline, the Supply Distribution had been going down for the Ethereum sharks, but around the time of the market bottom, its trend began to reverse. Between November 18th and December 2nd, the sharks added a total of 450,000 ETH (worth about $1.4 billion) to their wallets, a massive amount. Alongside this sharp uptick in the metric, ETH went through its price recovery.

The cryptocurrency’s sharp retrace to start December didn’t dissuade these large hands, either, as their supply only continued to rise. This may be one of the factors behind the quick resumption of bullish momentum that the asset has seen. Another bullish factor has been the trend in the Network Growth, another on-chain indicator displayed in the chart. This metric measures the daily number of addresses that are coming online on the Ethereum network for the first time.

A wallet is considered “online” when it participates in transaction activity on the blockchain, so the Network Growth essentially tracks the addresses making their very first transfer.

From the graph, it’s visible that this Ethereum metric has also surged recently, hitting a peak value of 190,000 addresses. Generally, a surge in network activity is usually a positive sign for any rally’s sustainability, as it implies that the network is able to attract fresh attention.

That said, too much attention too fast can actually end up having a negative effect on the cryptocurrency. It now remains to be seen whether the sharks will continue to buy in the near future and if investor FOMO will remain at healthy levels.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is floating around $3,185, up more than 5% over the last seven days.

A consortium of major European banks has formed Qivalis, a new entity in Amsterdam to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in 2026.

A Tenth Bank Has Now Joined The Euro Stablecoin Consortium

Back in September, nine big European banks announced a consortium aimed at developing and launching a euro-based stablecoin, a digital asset that will have its price pegged to the euro (EUR).

Currently, stablecoins are overwhelmingly dominated by the US dollar (USD), with USDT and USDC, the two largest such cryptocurrencies in the space, accounting for 85% of the market. The consortium’s euro stablecoin intends to provide a real alternative to the USD tokens.

The nine banks that initially kickstarted the plan included ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank, and Raiffeisen Bank International. As announced in a press release, a tenth European bank in France’s BNP Paribas has now joined the effort.

BNP Paribas is the second largest bank in the bloc and eighth largest globally with over $2.8 trillion in assets. The list of banks part of the consortium already included some heavy-hitters, but BNP Paribas now adding its backing further elevates the project.

BNP Paribas is classified as a global systemically important bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board, meaning that its stability is integral to the world financial order. Netherlands’ ING, another member of the consortium, is also included in a lower bucket of the same category.

In the initial announcement, the banks had noted that they had formed a new company in the Netherlands to handle the issuance of the euro stablecoin. As revealed by the consortium’s CaixaBank, the Amsterdam-based firm has now been incorporated and named Qivalis.

Qivalis is working on obtaining an electronic money institution license from the Dutch Central Bank, seeking to launch the euro-denominated stablecoin in the second half of 2026. This asset will be compliant with Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR), the EU’s framework for digital assets.

Jan-Oliver Sell has been lined up to serve as Qivalis’ CEO. Sell has previously had roles at Coinbase Germany and Binance. “A native Euro stablecoin isn’t just about convenience – it’s about monetary autonomy in the digital age,” noted the CEO.

Caixabank has said that the consortium is open to more banks joining. In October, Bloomberg reported that America’s Citigroup would be joining the group, but so far, the bank’s name hasn’t appeared in any subsequent press release related to the stablecoin project.

In some other news, PayPal’s PYUSD has witnessed some sharp growth since September, as DeFi analytics firm DefiLlama has highlighted in an X post.

As displayed in the above chart, PayPal’s stablecoin had a supply of $1.2 billion in September, but today that figure has sharply gone up to $3.8 billion.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $92,800, up more than 7% over the last week.

A cryptocurrency analyst has pointed out how the next XRP support may be $1.2 if the lower level of the asset’s Parallel Channel breaks down.

XRP Is Currently Above A Parallel Channel’s Support Level

In a new post on X, analyst Ali Martinez has shared a pattern that has been forming in the 3-day price of XRP. The pattern in question is a Parallel Channel, a type of consolidation channel in technical analysis (TA).

A Parallel Channel appears whenever an asset’s price consolidates between two parallel trendlines. The upper level of the pattern tends to be a source of resistance, while the lower one that of support. Together, the two lines keep the asset locked in the range between them.

Either of the levels not holding up can imply a continuation of the trend in that direction. This breakout is bullish when the price breaks the upper level, while bearish in the case of the lower one.

Based on how the channel is aligned relative to the graph axes, Parallel Channels can be divided into a few types. The Ascending Channel corresponds to the case when the channel has a positive slope. Similarly, the Descending Channel is the type where consolidation occurs to a net downside.

The channel that XRP has been following over the past year falls in neither category, however, as it belongs to the third and simplest case: a Parallel Channel that’s also parallel to the time-axis. This pattern naturally signifies a phase of true sideways movement in the price.

Now, here is the chart shared by Martinez that shows the Parallel Channel that the 3-day price of XRP is trading inside:

As displayed in the above graph, the 3-day XRP price recently retested the Parallel Channel’s lower level situated at $2. The coin has since rebounded, indicating that support is holding for now.

In the scenario that the coin returns to the level and a retest fails, the analyst has noted that the next level that stands out is the $1.2 level. This level and the support line are separated by the same distance as the height of the Parallel Channel. It now remains to be seen how XRP will develop in the near future and whether the rebound will continue to hold.

XRP isn’t the only cryptocurrency that has been following a Parallel Channel recently. As Martinez has pointed out in another X post, Ethereum‘s daily price has seemingly been trading inside such a pattern for a few years now.

XRP Price

XRP has shot up alongside the rest of the cryptocurrency sector as its price has recovered to $2.17.

Bank of America is the latest traditional institution to warm up to Bitcoin, with its investment strategists set to cover four ETFs starting in January.

Bank of America To Begin Endorsing Crypto Exposure

As reported by Yahoo Finance, Bank of America will start recommending its clients a 1% to 4% portfolio allocation to digital assets. Until now, the bank’s wealth advisors couldn’t endorse crypto exposure and clients had to request access to digital asset products if they wanted them in their portfolio.

With this move, Bank of America advisors can begin recommending digital asset exposure to clients across the bank’s Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank, and Merrill Edge Platforms. “Our guidance emphasizes regulated vehicles, thoughtful allocation, and a clear understanding of both the opportunities and risks,” said Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer at Bank of America Private Bank.

Investment strategists will initially cover four Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) starting January 5. ETFs are investment vehicles that allow traders to invest into an underlying asset without having to directly own it. Since they trade on traditional platforms and are regulated, institutional entities prefer to invest through them.

The four spot Bitcoin ETFs Bank of America will be focusing on include Bitwise’s BITB, BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, and Grayscale’s BTC.

Bank of America is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ranking only second behind JPMorgan Chase in market cap and placing sixth largest in terms of total assets. It’s designated as a global systemically important bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), meaning it’s so entrenched in world economy that instability related to it could have widespread consequences.

Even an institution of its size no longer being able to ignore Bitcoin showcases just how far digital asset adoption in traditional finance has come. “This update reflects growing client demand for access to digital assets,” noted Nancy Fahmy, head of Bank of America’s investment solutions group.

The news arrives just a day after Vanguard Group, one of the largest asset managers in the world, opened its doors to crypto ETFs and mutual funds.

Morgan Stanley, another G-SIB, broadened access to crypto exposure for its clients back in October. The financial services institution’s global investment committee suggested 2% to 4% allocation in digital assets.

Bank of America’s recommendation of 1% to 4% is quite similar. “The lower end of this range may be more appropriate for those with a conservative risk profile, while the higher end may suit investors with greater tolerance for overall portfolio risk,” added Hyzy.

Bitcoin Price

Bitcoin has already recovered from its Monday blow as its price has returned to $92,100.

Bitcoin has turned itself around with a sharp surge to $92,000, unleashing a fresh wave of short liquidations on the derivatives exchanges.

Bitcoin Has Seen A Flash Recovery Back To $92,000

Bitcoin suffered a blow on Monday as its price slipped under $84,000, but just as quickly as it had crashed, the cryptocurrency has made a swift recovery on Tuesday.

With the asset’s price now floating above $92,000, its price has surged by more than 8% over the last 24 hours.

Like is usually the case, Bitcoin hasn’t been alone in this rally; the rest of the cryptocurrency market has also shot up alongside the number one digital asset. Some of the top altcoins have even managed to outperform BTC, with Ethereum (ETH) sitting in a profit of nearly 10% for the past day.

The fresh wave of volatility in the sector has triggered a liquidation squeeze in the derivatives market.

Crypto Liquidations Have Crossed $400 Million In Last 24 Hours

According to data from CoinGlass, the cryptocurrency market as a whole has suffered over $410 million in liquidations during the past day. “Liquidation” here naturally refers to the forceful closure that any contract undergoes after it has amassed a certain percentage of loss (as defined by the platform).

Considering that the price action in this window was majorly to the upside, it’s not surprising to see that short contracts made up for most of the derivatives flush.

As is visible in the above table, $348 million in short positions found liquidation in the last 24 hours, equivalent to about 85% of the total flush.

In terms of the individual symbols, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana were the top three contributors to the liquidation event with $196 million, $95 million, and $18 million in positions, respectively.

Just $13 million of the Bitcoin liquidations involved long investors; the rest $182 million in liquidations struck the traders betting on a bearish outcome for the cryptocurrency.

A mass liquidation event like this latest one is popularly known as a squeeze. Today’s squeeze involved shorts in an extreme majority, so the event will be termed a short squeeze.

During a squeeze, a sharp swing in the price triggers a large derivatives flush, which only ends up feeding back into the price move. The amplified price swing then unleashes a further cascade of liquidations.

Such events aren’t a particularly rare sight in the cryptocurrency market, as assets tend to be volatile and many traders opt for significant amounts of leverage.

Grayscale Research has gone against the grain, rejecting Bitcoin’s popular 4-year cycle thesis and saying new highs could be possible next year.

Grayscale Research Doesn’t Believe A Prolonged Bitcoin Decline Is Coming Yet

In a new report, Grayscale Research has discussed what the latest pullback in the market could mean for Bitcoin. This drawdown, which began in early October and lasted until two-thirds of the way into November, resulted in a price decrease of about 32% from peak to trough.

While the scale of the drop hasn’t been small, Grayscale has noted that it has still been close to the historical average for bull market drawdowns. “Since Bitcoin’s price bottomed in November 2022, it has declined at least 10% nine times,” said the crypto asset manager’s research arm. “It has been a bumpy ride, but not atypical for a Bitcoin bull market.”

2026 will mark four years since the 2022 bear market. Among BTC traders, there is a popular idea that the cryptocurrency’s price cycles run over a length of roughly four years. According to this thesis, the next year could see the asset go down, as it has now enjoyed three years of appreciation.

The 4-year cycle thesis originates from the fact that Bitcoin Halving events are spaced apart by approximately four years. During such an event, BTC’s block subsidy, a fixed reward that miners receive for adding the next block to the chain, is slashed in half.

As the block subsidy is the only way to mint more of the cryptocurrency, Halvings have a direct effect on its supply growth. This scarcity effect of the Halving is what has made many in the community believe that the event sits in the center of bullish phases.

Historically, Bitcoin has seen large drawdowns about every four years, which has strengthened the belief in the idea of a cycle being four years in length. Grayscale doesn’t think that the current cycle will go the same way, however. “Although the outlook is uncertain, we believe the four-year cycle thesis will prove to be incorrect, and that Bitcoin’s price will potentially make new highs next year,” explained the report. Grayscale Research has given three reasons for this expectation.

The first is the fact that the latest BTC cycle hasn’t seen any phase of parabolic price increase, as the below chart highlights.

The second is that Bitcoin has seen a shift this cycle, with instruments like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and digital asset treasuries (DATs) bringing in fresh capital. Before, BTC relied on inflows through retail exchanges.

Lastly, Grayscale has pointed out that the macro market backdrop is still looking favorable for cryptocurrencies; the potential for lower interest rates and continued progress on bipartisan digital asset legislation could drive institutional investment.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $87,000, unchanged from one week ago.

On-chain data shows that the Bitcoin investors with a holding time greater than six months have seen an upward reversal in their supply for the first time in months.

Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supply Has Just Turned Around

As pointed out by Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards in a new post on X, the 6-month inactive supply has recently witnessed its first uptick since April. This part of the supply, covering tokens that have been dormant (that is, not involved in any transaction on the blockchain) since at least six months ago, belongs to investors popularly known as long-term holders (LTHs).

Statistically, the longer investors keep their coins dormant, the less likely they are to sell them in the future. As such, the LTH cohort with its relatively long holding time includes the resolute hands of the market. Despite their resilience, however, these investors have participated in selling during the past few months. Below is the chart shared by Edwards that shows the trend in the amount of supply dormant for longer than six months.

As is visible in the graph, the drawdown in the Bitcoin LTH supply changed for the worse during the cryptocurrency’s crash last month, indicating that the diamond hands took part in a significant amount of distribution. Since this selloff, however, the decline in the metric appears to have paused, at least for now. There has even been a small increase in the indicator recently, a potential sign of a shift in investor behavior.

Something to note is that while drops in the LTH supply can correspond to selling that’s occurring in the present, the same isn’t true in the case of an increase. An uptick in the metric isn’t a sign that members of the cohort are buying right now. Rather, it suggests some accumulation occurred six months ago, and now those coins have been held long enough to mature into the group.

That said, the trend is naturally still a positive sign for Bitcoin, as it implies HODLing behavior could be becoming more dominant on the network. The last time such a shift occurred was around the time of the cryptocurrency’s lows back in April.

What followed that LTH supply rise was BTC’s rally to new all-time highs (ATHs). Considering this, it only remains to be seen whether the latest shift toward long-term holding will lead to anything similar, or if the cryptocurrency’s decline is here to stay this time around.

BTC Price

Bitcoin briefly slipped under $84,000 on Monday, but its price has since seen some recovery as it’s now back at $87,500.

Strategy has announced a new $1.44 billion US Dollar (USD) reserve, signaling a major shift for the Bitcoin-focused treasury company.

Strategy Establishes New USD Reserve

In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has revealed the formation of a USD reserve for the firm. Worth $1.44 billion, the reserve has been established using sales of class A common stock under the company’s at-the-market (ATM) offering program.

Since pivoting to being a Bitcoin treasury company back in 2020, Strategy has focused on expanding its BTC holdings, so this USD reserve reflects a shift for the company.

The current goal for Strategy is to maintain a USD reserve that can fund at least twelve months of dividends and interest payments (collectively referred to as just “Dividends”). Eventually, the firm intends to cover 24 or more months with the dollar reserve.

According to Phong Le, the treasury company’s president and CEO, the newly established USD reserve can currently cover 21 months of Dividends. “We intend to use this reserve to pay our Dividends and grow it over time,” noted Le.

Strategy has established this reserve as Bitcoin has witnessed a bearish transition recently, with its price dropping into the low $80,000 levels from a high of $126,000 in October.

Saylor noted:

Establishing a USD Reserve to complement our BTC Reserve marks the next step in our evolution, and we believe it will better position us to navigate short-term market volatility while delivering on our vision of being the world’s leading issuer of Digital Credit.

Strategy has also updated its year-end target for Bitcoin, slashing down its $150,000 assumption to a range between $85,000 and $110,000. The update in assumption is to reflect a range more consistent with recent BTC prices, the company said in the press release.

While the USD reserve is a fresh change for the firm, it hasn’t stopped buying Bitcoin. Alongside the same announcement, Strategy has also unveiled a new BTC acquisition.

With this new purchase, the company has added 130 BTC to its treasury, spending $89,960 per token, or $11.7 million in aggregate. A relatively modest buy; in fact, the smallest acquisition by the firm since March 2025.

Strategy now holds 650,000 BTC, equivalent to 3.1% of the total Bitcoin supply cap. The company used a total of $48.38 billion to assemble these holdings, putting its cost basis per token at $74,436. At the current BTC price, the treasury is still in a profit of about 13.65%.

Saylor’s firm is by far the largest Bitcoin corporate treasury in the world, outweighing the second-placed MARA Holdings by nearly 600,000 BTC.

Bitcoin Has Plunged To $84,500

The past day has been quite bearish for Bitcoin as its price has gone through a decline of almost 8% and has erased much of its recent recovery. Initially, BTC fell toward $86,000, but it has seen another leg down to $84,500 after the Strategy USD reserve announcement, a sign that investors have taken the news negatively.

A cryptocurrency analyst has pointed out how the Tom Demark (TD) Sequential has just given a buy signal on the weekly XRP price chart.

TD Sequential Is Printing A Weekly Buy Signal For XRP

In a new post on X, analyst Ali Martinez has talked about a TD Sequential signal that has appeared on the weekly XRP chart. The “TD Sequential” refers to an indicator from technical analysis (TA) that’s generally used for locating points of probable reversal in a given asset’s price.

It involves two phases: the setup and countdown. In the first phase, the “setup,” the indicator counts up candles of the same polarity (that is, whether red or green) up to nine. Once these nine candles, which don’t have to be consecutive, are in, it gives a reversal signal.

Naturally, this signal is a bullish one if the candles leading up to the setup’s completion were red. Similarly, the asset may see a bearish turnaround if the candles were green.

As soon as the setup is over, the second phase, the “countdown,” picks off. This phase is quite similar to the setup, with the only difference being that the TD Sequential counts up thirteen candles here instead.

After the thirteen candles of the countdown are also in, the asset could be considered to have reached another point of trend exhaustion. In other words, it may be likely to see another reversal.

Now, here is the chart shared by Martinez that shows the TD Sequential setup that has formed in the 1-week price of XRP:

As displayed in the above graph, XRP has completed this TD Sequential setup with nine red candles, a sign that the bearish trend may have reached an end. The signal has appeared as the cryptocurrency’s price has started to breach below the $2.0 level following a significant decline of 9.5% during the past day.

It now remains to be seen whether XRP will now turn itself around like the TD Sequential suggests, or if more bearish price action is in store. Another digital asset that has witnessed a TD Sequential setup is Ethereum. In its case, the signal may be holding up so far.

As Martinez has highlighted in another X post, Ethereum’s 12-hour price completed a setup with nine green candles on Saturday.

Since this bearish signal has emerged, Ethereum’s price has plummeted back to the $2,750 level and has erased its recent recovery gains.

XRP Price

At the time of writing, XRP is floating around $2, down more than 9% in the last seven days.