A Bitcoin whale address dubbed "终极空头" has closed another batch of BTC short positions worth about $4.35M in the past 5 hours on December 23, locking in roughly $1.17M in profit, according to Coinbob's popular address tracking. Since November, the address has executed five similar profit-taking moves at local lows without reopening shorts, cutting its BTC short exposure by about $93M from the late-October peak of $136M and closing around $57M so far this month, while still holding approximately $43.63M in BTC shorts with unrealized gains of $12.2M (558%), an average entry of $111,500 and a liquidation level near $102,300. Monitoring data also show the trader has placed take-profit orders in the $67,200–$76,200 range since May 9, and its funding fee settlements on this BTC short campaign have generated around $9.61M in additional profit.

Bitcoin briefly rose above $90,000 on Dec. 23 before retreating to around $87,000, and funding rates on major centralized and decentralized exchanges have shifted back toward a broadly bearish stance, Coinglass data show. Only BTC and ETH contract pairs on Binance and Bitget are still showing neutral funding, while platforms such as OKX and Bybit have seen rates fall into bearish territory. Funding rates on perpetual contracts are a fee mechanism between long and short traders designed to keep contract prices close to spot; a 0.01% rate is viewed as the baseline, readings above 0.01% indicate a generally bullish market, and levels below 0.005% signal broadly bearish positioning.

VanEck said on Dec. 23 that Bitcoin 90-day forward returns are positive 65% of the time after hashrate declines, compared to 54% when hashrate rises, citing data since 2014. Network hashrate fell 4% in the month through Dec. 15, marking the biggest drop since April 2024, the report said.

MacSync Stealer has significantly advanced on macOS with user assets already stolen, 23pds said on Dec. 23, BlockBeats reports. The new build no longer requires Terminal steps and is distributed as zk-call-messenger-installer-3.9.2-lts.dmg, a code-signed, Apple-notarized Swift app under developer team ID GNJLS3UYZ4, with hashes not revoked at analysis time. A Swift helper fetches and executes encoded scripts from a remote server, while the unusually large DMG contains LibreOffice-related PDFs as decoys. The malware targets browser data, account credentials and crypto wallet information.

Bitcoin briefly rebounded toward $90,000 on December 23, but analysts cited by BlockBeats argue the move does not yet mark a durable trend reversal. CoinGlass data show Bitcoin is down more than 22% in the fourth quarter, putting 2024 on track for one of its weakest Q4 performances since 2018, even as total crypto market capitalization has reclaimed the $3 trillion threshold. Several analysts attribute the bounce mainly to technical correction after prolonged declines rather than fresh capital inflows, and FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said the current pattern is "not a real recovery," with only modest sentiment improvement. During Asian trading hours, Bitcoin hovered near $88,000, about 30% below its 2025 peak, while major tokens such as XRP, ETH, SOL, ADA and DOGE posted small gains and AAVE fell roughly 7% in 24 hours amid governance disputes.

US spot Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $84.6 million on Dec. 23, ending seven consecutive trading days of net outflows, Farside data show. ETHE saw $53.7 million in net inflows, while Grayscale's ETH product posted $30.9 million in net inflows.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $142.2 million in net outflows on Dec. 23, marking the third consecutive day of withdrawals, Farside data show. BITB led outflows at $35.5 million, followed by HODL at $33.6 million, GBTC at $29 million, Grayscale BTC at $25.4 million, ARKB at $21.4 million, and FBTC at $3.8 million. IBIT posted a net inflow of $6 million.

Chinese crypto analyst Banmuxia said on Dec. 23 that Bitcoin's current price zone no longer offers an attractive opportunity for new long positions, as ongoing ETF-related selling has weakened the medium-term liquidity thesis, BlockBeats reports. Banmuxia noted this does not rule out future price increases but argued that market risk has risen. During the current adjustment phase, investors might avoid participating unless the probability of success is very high, with the market expected to remain in complex consolidation.

Ghana's parliament passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act on Dec. 23, requiring individuals and institutions in digital-asset businesses to register with the Bank of Ghana or the Securities and Exchange Commission, BlockBeats reports. Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said the legislation establishes a framework for licensing and supervision of the virtual asset industry, and people will no longer face arrests for trading cryptocurrencies under the new regime. Data for July 2023 to June 2024 show roughly $3B in crypto transactions in Ghana and suggest about 17% of adults have used crypto assets, and the country plans to prioritize applications in payments, trade finance, foreign-exchange settlement and market infrastructure in 2026, including targeted exploration of gold-backed stablecoins.