RRP Semiconductor surged 55,000% over twenty months and reached a valuation of $1.78 billion as of press time. The stock hit a high on Nov. 7, then fell 6% after SEBI began reviewing the rally and the exchange shifted trading to once a week. A tiny float, 149 straight limit-up sessions, and social buzz drove the move despite negative revenue and minimal operations.

On December 18, 2025, Ava Labs CBO John Nahas said the network’s future lies in sovereign, purpose‑built chains rather than monolithic block space. He noted nearly 80 Avalanche layer‑one chains are live and more than 100 are in testing, with deployments by Toyota, FIFA, and SMBC aimed at finance, identity, and enterprise workflows.

Bitcoin drifted toward $86,000 on Thursday as Asian markets opened weaker following Wednesday's tech-led slide on Wall Street. A snapshot showed BTC at $86,575 (-1.1%), Ether at $2,832 (-4.2%), and XRP at $1.86 (-3.7%), with total crypto market value at $3 trillion (-1.5%).

Bitcoin recently retreated from resistance near $90,000 and is now trading under $87,000, below the 100-hour Simple Moving Average. The price is consolidating after a drop toward the $85,282 low, with key resistance levels seen around $87,350 and $87,800. A move above $87,800 could open the way to $88,000–$89,200, while failure to break higher may trigger another decline toward $85,000 or even $84,200.

On the night of December 17, 2025, Coinbase activated live U.S. stock trading in its app, allowing users to purchase American equities using USDC. The company is also rolling out futures, perpetuals, prediction markets, and a tokenization stack for institutions, positioning the platform as a hub for traditional assets, derivatives, and on-chain products.

World Liberty Financial, a firm linked to the Trump family, has proposed deploying 5% of its WLFI token treasury, worth about $120 million at current prices, to expand the supply and adoption of its USD1 stablecoin. The live governance vote offers for, against or abstain options, while early community feedback appears slightly tilted against the plan despite USD1 already holding a $2.74 billion market cap.

Hyperliquid's HYPE token traded below $30 while still posting an intraday gain of over 3% after a proposal to burn 1 billion tokens from its Assistance Fund. The planned burn, which validators will vote on between 21 and 24 December, could tighten supply even as upcoming December unlocks of 10 million tokens threaten additional sell pressure. With price already down about 56% from recent levels and approaching the $20 support area, traders are watching whether changing supply dynamics can stabilize the market.

On December 18, the Federal Reserve said it would rescind its 2023 restrictions on state member banks' crypto activities and introduce a new, more flexible framework effective in 2025. The change lets state banks seek approval for digital-asset services under risk and supervisory criteria, signaling a broader shift toward integrating assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum into regulated banking.