A whale address expanded its 10x leveraged short position on ETH to 21,820.69 ETH with a notional value of $66.51 million on Jan. 2, on-chain analyst Ai 姨 (@ai_9684xtpa) said via BlockBeats. The address' average entry price for the ETH short stands at $3,016. The position currently shows an unrealized loss of $719,000.

Between 10:00 and 20:00 on January 2, on-chain data show several whale reallocations, Hyperinsight reports. A whale/institution that lost $13.73 million on ETH in November by buying high and selling low spent $9.95 million to acquire 2,251 XAUt at an average price of $4,420. Huang Licheng reduced a 25x leveraged ETH long to 8,000 ETH to take profit and opened a 10x leveraged long on 11,888.88 HYPE. A whale that borrowed 5,000 ETH one month ago to short closed the position after ETH rose above $3,000, with an estimated gain of $390,000, while another whale (0x218) increased its ETH short to 18,875.18 ETH, valued at $57.32 million, and the LIT short position rose to 3,813,196 LIT, now the largest on-chain LIT short.

Funding rates on major centralized and decentralized exchange altcoin trading pairs returned to neutral levels on Jan. 2 following recent gains, Coinglass data show. As Bitcoin approached the $90,000 resistance level, market sentiment turned bearish, though overall funding rates remained positive—contrasting with earlier weakness when BTC and ETH held neutral rates while altcoins showed negative rates. Funding rates are used in perpetual contracts to align contract prices with spot prices through payments between long and short traders, with levels above 0.01% indicating bullish sentiment and below 0.005% reflecting bearish outlook, BlockBeats reports.

Binance will delist nine spot trading pairs at 16:00 Beijing time on January 3, the exchange announced. The pairs are AI/BNB, ETC/BNB, FLOW/BTC, LPT/BNB, SFP/BTC, VET/BNB, WCT/FDUSD, WIF/BRL and WLFI/BRL.

Bitcoin's annual volatility fell to 2.24% in 2025, measured by the standard deviation of daily returns, the lowest level in the asset's history, K33 Research data show. The research firm said the subdued price movement suggests the Bitcoin market is maturing as institutional participation expands and ETF approvals increasingly shape trading dynamics.

BlackRock deposited 1,134 BTC valued at $101.37 million and 7,255 ETH worth $22.10 million to Coinbase on Jan. 2, Onchain Lens data show. The transfers involved both Bitcoin and Ethereum moving from BlackRock to the Coinbase platform.

A whale purchased 2,251 XAUt (gold-backed tokens) at an average price of $4,420 for a total of $9.95 million about half an hour ago, on-chain analyst Yu Jin reports. The same entity previously recorded a $13.73 million loss on ETH trading over one week in November, Yu Jin said.

A whale closed a 5,000 ETH short position after the asset returned above $3,000, on-chain analyst Ember reports. The trader withdrew 4,830 ETH (about $14.75 million) from Binance to repay the loan. The short generated around $390,000 in profit after borrowing and selling ETH at $3,132 on Dec. 5 and buying back at $3,054 today.

Binance will expand its Monitoring Tags on Jan. 2, 2026, to cover four additional tokens—Acala Token (ACA), DAR Open Network (D), Streamr (DATA) and Flow (FLOW)—BlockBeats reports. The exchange said the newly tagged assets exhibit significantly higher volatility and risk than its other listed tokens. Monitoring-tagged tokens will be subject to closer observation and regular reviews, and assets failing to meet Binance's listing criteria may face delisting.