Michael Selig was sworn in as the 16th chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after Senate confirmation on December 18, taking over as acting chair Caroline Pham left the agency after nearly four years. During her final year, Pham advanced initiatives such as spot crypto trading on CFTC-registered futures exchanges, a digital asset collateral pilot, and no-action relief for four prediction markets, while Selig has pledged to guide the regulator through a period of rapid technological change.

On 22 December, analysts pointed to XRP, Solana and Ethereum as standout crypto opportunities ahead of a potential 2026 uptrend, with technical gauges showing oversold or corrective conditions. XRP has corrected around 50% from its peak, SOL trades well below Ethereum's valuation despite higher reported revenue, and ETH remains significantly off its 2025 highs while holding key support zones.

Russia’s central bank has recognized that large-scale Bitcoin mining is supporting the ruble, while senior officials seek to record it as an export item in national trade statistics. Despite formal legalization on November 1, 2024 and tax rates of up to 30%, extensive gray-market mining, electricity theft, and bribery continue, leading to budget losses estimated in the billions of rubles even as banks test regulated digital-asset products.

The Ethereum Foundation has introduced a security-first roadmap for zkEVMs, defining three milestones through the end of 2026 that culminate in 128-bit provable security and strict proof size limits. Alongside these technical targets, Ethereum is promoting institutional adoption with an "Ethereum for Institutions" portal and highlighting its leadership in tokenized real-world assets and privacy technologies. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin has also warned that growing protocol complexity threatens trustlessness, prompting plans to simplify user interactions through smart contract wallets.

Binance's Inflow-Value Band chart signals XRP could slide toward the $1.50–$1.66 area, with initial support noted at $1.82–$1.87. On December 19, 2025, on-chain analyst Pelinay highlighted that large-holder inflows are dominating, aligning with repeated failures to reclaim $2.30 on weekly timeframes and raising the risk of a break below the $2.00 psychological level.

Fundstrat’s head of digital asset strategy Sean Farrell has told private clients that Bitcoin could retreat to a $60,000-$65,000 range in the first half of 2026, with Ethereum and Solana also projected to revisit significantly lower levels. The call follows a prolonged failure by Bitcoin to reclaim $100,000, weakening technical indicators, and U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reportedly turning into net sellers in Q4 2025.

A crypto user mistakenly sent 49,999,950 USDT to a look‑alike address, an incident attributed to address poisoning, according to SlowMist. The funds were rapidly moved into ETH, split across wallets, and partly routed via Tornado Cash; on December 20, 2025, Cos shared the involved addresses. The wallet had been active about two years with frequent USDT transfers.

Led by the Blockchain Association, 125 crypto and fintech organizations sent a letter on December 18, 2025 to Senate Banking leaders Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren opposing efforts to widen the GENIUS Act's stablecoin yield ban beyond issuer payments. The coalition argued the move would suppress consumer rewards and shield traditional banks, and disputed Treasury's $6.6 trillion deposit-flight projection.

On December 19, the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 0.75%, the highest level in around 30 years, while indicating real rates would remain deeply negative. Bitcoin briefly slipped below $86,000 after the announcement but rebounded to trade above $87,000–$88,000 as analysts debated how Japan’s tightening, diverging from anticipated Fed cuts in early 2026, could shape near-term crypto volatility and price targets up to $200,000.