On January 1, unusual activity in low-liquidity meme coin BROCCOLI(714) on Binance sparked a rapid spike and reversal. Pseudonymous trader Vida said he capitalized on order book anomalies and alert signals to net around $1 million. Lookonchain initially said the pattern was consistent with a market maker account compromise, but a Binance internal review reportedly found no clear evidence of hacking.

In Q4 2025, Tether added 8,888.8888888 BTC to its reserves, a purchase valued at about $779 million and confirmed by CEO Paolo Ardoino. The move lifted the stablecoin issuer's total Bitcoin holdings to more than 96,000 BTC, worth roughly $8.46 billion, and continued its long-running "8888" accumulation pattern amid a weak market.

In April 2024, Bitcoin underwent its halving; in October, it set a new all‑time high above $126,000. According to market data, BTC closed 2025 below its January opening price, marking the first post‑halving year to finish in the red as a late‑year sell‑off erased gains.

According to Joao Wedson, founder and CEO of Alphractal, Bitcoin has historically shown a strong tendency to turn positive in early January, with the week after December 31 delivering at least a 10% gain in roughly two-thirds of past instances. His cycle analysis also highlights that the current halving cycle has seen around 100 weeks beginning with declines and identifies 2025 as the worst year on record for positive weekly starts. On-chain metrics from Axel Adler Junior further indicate limited selling by long-term holders, with the Long-Term Holder Distribution Pressure Index in the accumulation zone and a Z-score of -1.628.

Ethereum has reached an all-time high of 8.7 million smart contract deployments in a single quarter, overtaking the previous peak of about 6 million in Q2 2021. This rebound in developer activity, driven by rollups, Layer 2 networks, RWAs, stablecoins, and wallet infrastructure, follows a prolonged decline through 2024 and much of 2025, while ETH's price remains below its yearly highs. At the same time, on-chain usage has climbed to new records with about 2.2 million daily transactions and average fees near $0.17.

BitMine Immersion Technologies expanded its Ethereum treasury over a four‑hour window on Tuesday, purchasing 32,938 ETH (≈$97.6 million) and staking 118,944 ETH (≈$352 million). The firm's total now stands near 4.07 million ETH, valued around $12 billion, as ETH trades below $3,000 late in 2025.

On-chain analytics show that in the final weeks of 2025, Bitcoin and leading altcoins are undergoing their weakest two-week trading window since the same period a year earlier. With prices largely range-bound and year-end distractions dampening risk appetite, major assets such as Solana, Cardano, and Dogecoin have seen significantly reduced volumes and notable price drops, even as Solana ETFs register fresh inflows.

On December 30, Russia's Ministry of Justice published draft amendments proposing criminal penalties for unregistered cryptocurrency mining. The plan includes fines up to 2.5 million rubles, forced labor, or prison terms up to five years, with thresholds at 3.5 million and 13.5 million rubles. Mining was legalized in November 2024, with registries and monthly reporting already in place.

Investor flows favored XRP and Solana, which took in $70.2 million and $7.5 million last week, extending momentum since their US ETF launches in mid-October. In contrast, Bitcoin products saw $443 million in outflows and Ethereum lost $59.5 million, with overall digital asset funds posting $446 million in weekly redemptions.