Bitcoin closed Q4 2025 with a 23% drop, the weakest quarter since 2018's 42% slide. Analysts outline 2026 scenarios spanning a broad $80,000–$140,000 range, with risks of dips below $80,000 if recession pressures rise and potential extensions toward $170,000 under favorable Fed policy and ETF flows.

All 12 U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $348 million in net outflows on the final trading day of 2025, while BTC closed at $87,496, 6% below its December 2024 finish at $93,381. Ethereum ETFs saw $72.06 million in outflows, whereas Solana and XRP spot products logged $2.29 million and $5.58 million in inflows.

The UK and 47 countries began mandatory crypto transaction reporting under OECD’s Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, requiring exchanges to capture full records and tax residency data for HMRC. Automatic information exchanges with participating tax authorities are slated to start in 2027, while 75 jurisdictions have committed to adopt the rules, with the US implementing in 2028.

In Q4 2025, Tether bought $876 million in bitcoin, lifting its stash to 96,185 BTC and making it the fifth‑largest holder. It moved 961 BTC on November 7 and 8,888.8 BTC on January 1, and now sits on an unrealized gain as prices hover around $88,700.

Franklin Templeton's head of digital assets recently described XRP as a core component for improving cross-border payment efficiency, highlighting the XRP Ledger's real-time, low-cost settlement for large institutional transfers. Since mid-October, spot XRP ETFs have attracted $1.07 billion in inflows and Franklin Templeton's own fund has posted $28.6 million in weekly volume, while analysts watch the $3.00–$3.05 resistance zone as a key level after XRP’s rally from roughly $0.50 to about $3.50 between November 2024 and July 2025.

South Korean prosecutors said on December 30 that 13 members of a Poipet, Cambodia-based organization were charged over a SpaceX-themed romance scam. The group allegedly took 1.93 billion won (about $1.3 million) between December 2024 and October 2025 using a counterfeit app, with 11 arrested and two indicted without detention.

On December 31, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin surfaced a long-form essay arguing that economies of scale are amplifying institutional power. He advocates mandated technology diffusion and adversarial interoperability to restore checks. Ethereum activity reached 2.2 million transactions on December 29, with average fees at 17 cents after recent upgrades.

The wallet behind the official $TRUMP meme coin has withdrawn a further $33 million in USDC from Meteora liquidity pools and moved the funds to Coinbase custody, bringing total withdrawals over the past 30 days to $94 million. The moves come as Trump-linked crypto ventures post large token sale revenues and Bitcoin holdings while facing legal scrutiny, sharp price drops in some tokens, and governance and compliance concerns around associated firms.

On December 30, 2025, Bitwise Funds Trust submitted registration statements to the SEC for eleven strategy-based crypto ETFs that will list on NYSE Arca and focus on major altcoin protocols across DeFi, Layer-2, privacy, AI, and infrastructure networks. The funds aim to go effective 75 days after filing, use a mix of direct token holdings and European ETPs, and are designed to expand institutional access as new generic listing standards reshape the crypto ETF landscape.