Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is calling for wallets to automatically block known poison addresses after a trader lost nearly $50 million in USDT in an address poisoning scam on December 20. He says wallet-level checks, shared blacklists and filtering spam micro‑transactions could eliminate this attack vector entirely.

U.S. stock benchmarks ended a shortened Christmas Eve session at record closing levels as major indexes extended strong 2025 gains. Gold hovered just below a new all-time high and remains up sharply for the year, while Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar both drifted lower alongside weakening labor indicators and softer oil prices.

Russia's central bank has a plan, supported by the Moscow Exchange and the St. Petersburg Exchange, to treat cryptocurrencies as monetary assets. A pilot is slated for March 2025, with full implementation by July 2026. The framework would enable Bitcoin and stablecoin trading for qualified investors, and both exchanges indicate readiness to launch spot markets once rules take effect.

On December 24, the EU confirmed that DAC8 will apply to digital assets and take effect on January 1, 2026. The rules require exchanges and brokers to report user and transaction data to national tax authorities, with system updates due by July 1, 2026 and investor filings by January 31, 2027.

By the 24th of December 2025, data showed total stablecoin supply climbing to around $309–310 billion, with USDT alone reaching a $187 billion all‑time high. Capital largely stayed in stablecoins and tokenized assets, signaling a preference for liquidity and yield while broader risk appetite remained cautious amid evolving macro and regulatory debates.

In August, the EU pledged to President Donald Trump that it would spend $750 billion on U.S. energy over three years, yet from September to December its oil and gas purchases from the U.S. actually fell 7% by value to $29.6 billion. For all of 2025 so far, U.S. energy imports total $73.7 billion, far below what would be needed annually to reach the 2028 goal, and analysts argue that only extreme price increases and large-scale infrastructure expansion on both sides could make the target achievable. While the European Commission cites €200 billion in energy-related imports over the first 11 months of 2025 and rising LNG volumes, experts and former officials question whether the agreement was ever a realistic commercial commitment rather than a political maneuver.

As the crypto market heads into the holiday period with muted activity, Ethereum, Bitcoin and XRP are each showing distinct technical patterns that may precede a shift in trend. Ethereum is holding a rising structure after a sharp correction, Bitcoin is repeatedly defending the same demand zone with fading sell volume, and XRP is stabilizing after roughly 160 days of downside. These setups suggest selling pressure is easing, even though clear bullish breakouts have not yet been confirmed.

On December 24, ICBC's Singapore branch piloted overseas e-CNY wallet top-ups for Singapore residents under PBOC and MAS guidance. MAS indicated a phased e-CNY payment service by 2025, aimed at easing cross-border spending in China and strengthening financial links between Singapore and China.