In December, tokenized RWA value on Solana rose nearly 10% to a record $873.3 million, with holders up 18.4% to 126,236. Six spot Solana ETFs have gathered $765 million in inflows, and Western Union selected Solana for stablecoin settlements, setting up additional momentum as 2026 begins.

US investors allocated $31.77 billion to crypto ETFs in 2025, led by $21.4 billion into spot Bitcoin funds and $9.6 billion into Ether products. BlackRock's IBIT attracted $24.7 billion, five times FBTC, while Solana ETFs amassed $765 million since late October. Data indicate waning demand into year's end, hinting at a slow start to 2026.

Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies bought 32,938 ETH worth $97.6 million on Tuesday, bringing its total holdings to 4.07 million ETH valued at $12 billion. The purchase came as year-end tax-loss selling and reduced institutional activity kept the broader crypto market subdued around a $3 trillion capitalization.

Protests erupted in Tehran on Monday after the rial plunged to record lows against the US dollar. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said in an X post that Bitcoin offers a way to safeguard savings as currencies weaken, while the Financial Times reported the rial is around 1.4 million per dollar after losing over 40% purchasing power since June.

In a post on X, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi forecast that by 2026 a Big Tech firm could launch or buy a crypto wallet and more Fortune 100 financial institutions will roll out their own blockchains using stacks such as Avalanche, OP Stack, Orbit and ZK Stack. He expects these corporate and fintech layer 1s to struggle for activity against Ethereum and Solana, predicts Bitcoin will trade above $150,000 while losing dominance, and sees the stablecoin market expanding by about 60% as Tether’s share slips.

In a recent interview, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that Bitcoin acts as a market-based check on excessive US inflation and deficit spending, indirectly supporting the dollar's position as the leading reserve currency. He suggested that investors could move into Bitcoin during periods of economic uncertainty, pressuring policymakers to maintain fiscal discipline. The article also notes that US national debt has climbed to $37.65 trillion and highlights debate over whether Bitcoin or rapidly growing dollar-pegged stablecoins play the larger role in preserving dollar dominance.

Validators on the Flow blockchain are being urged to pause transaction processing after a controversial chain rollback tied to a $3.9 million exploit. The decision has stalled the network, triggered a sharp drop in the FLOW token, and raised concerns over decentralization, user balances, and cross-chain bridge risks.

On Dec. 26, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell three points to 20/100, extending an ‘extreme fear’ streak that began on Dec. 13. Bitcoin traded at $88,650, nearly 30% below its Oct. 6 all-time high of $126,080, as tariff concerns and rate-cut uncertainty weighed on sentiment.

On Thursday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Grok, X's AI chatbot, makes the platform more truth-seeking by challenging users' assumptions. He argued it is a net improvement despite concerns about fine-tuning and recent hallucinations, while Elon Musk blamed adversarial prompting for errors.