Santiment founder Maksim Balashevich said in a YouTube video on Friday that social media sentiment shows traders are still too optimistic to confirm a market bottom for Bitcoin, which trades near $88,350. He warned that BTC could still fall toward $75,000, while other indicators such as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index have been stuck in "Extreme Fear" since Dec. 14 and the Altcoin Season Index shows a strong "Bitcoin Season" reading.

On Thursday, David Sacks said the landmark crypto market structure bill could be wrapped up in January, while on Friday Peter Brandt told Cointelegraph the US Clarity Act would aid the sector but won't redefine Bitcoin's value. Brandt also sees a potential move to $60,000 in Q3 2026, a 31% slide from $88,000 at publication, according to CoinMarketCap.

Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal said on a podcast released Thursday that Zcash’s sharp price surge this year looks more like capital rotating into the token than the start of a confirmed long-term uptrend. He argued that the key signal will be whether Zcash can form a solid price base and keep rising once the broader crypto market turns higher, noting he would rather wait for a new down cycle before considering an entry.

At a Thursday press conference, US President Donald Trump said his shortlist to replace Jerome Powell has been reduced to three or four candidates and praised Chris Waller. Polymarket currently assigns Waller 14% odds, behind Kevin Hassett at 53% and Kevin Warsh at 28%, with Michelle Bowman at 2%. Trump expects to announce his pick in the next couple of weeks.

Synthetix is returning its perpetuals protocol to Ethereum's mainnet after three years. Founder Kain Warwick said on Wednesday the network can now support high-frequency trading, citing sharply lower gas costs, with average fees about 0.71 gwei versus 18.85 gwei a year earlier. He expects other perp DEXs to follow.

Anthony Pompliano said on a recent podcast that it will be very difficult for any public company to match Michael Saylor's Strategy Bitcoin position of 671,268 BTC, currently worth about $58.61 billion. He noted that although firms could tap capital markets, the scale and early timing of Strategy's roughly $500 million purchase in 2020 give it a major lead, and the company has signaled it does not intend to sell its Bitcoin until at least 2065.