Coinbase appointed former UK Chancellor George Osborne as chair of its internal advisory council on Dec. 18, Reuters reported. The move aims to expand Coinbase's presence outside the U.S. Osborne also chairs the British Museum and is a partner at Robey Warshaw LLP.

SlowMist's Cosine disclosed on Dec. 18 that the team found severe flaws at two trading platforms, BlockBeats reports. One platform's 24-hour trading volume is 37 亿美元 and the other is 2.4 亿美元. The SlowMist team account said it contacted ICRYPEX Global on Dec. 17.

A whale known as "BTC OG Insider" unstaked 449,000 ETH on Dec. 18, bringing total holdings to 615,000 ETH worth approximately $1.8 billion, BlockBeats reports citing Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic. Arkham data show the unstaking marks the whale's latest position adjustment.

U.S. November CPI data are due on December 18, with markets expecting 3.1% year-on-year headline inflation and 3.0% core, BlockBeats reports. The Bank of England is widely expected to cut rates by 25 basis points to 3.75% today, with market pricing above 90%, as inflation has fallen and growth has softened. The European Central Bank is expected to hold rates, as euro-area data have surprised to the upside and inflation sits near target. A Bitunix analyst notes that global policy divergence is intensifying, and near-term crypto moves will be driven more by macro expectation differentials and liquidity pricing than by a single data point.

The U.S. Department of Labor will release November CPI year-over-year (non-seasonally adjusted, forecast 3.1%), initial jobless claims, and core CPI at 21:30 Beijing time on Dec. 18, BlockBeats reports. Goldman Sachs analyst Kay Haigh said further easing would require weaker labor data.

BitcoinForCorporations said in a December 18 report that affected firms could be forced to sell up to $15 billion in crypto assets if MSCI removes crypto treasury companies from its indices. The group projected between $10 billion and $15 billion of capital outflows across 39 companies with a combined circulating market capitalization of $113 billion. JPMorgan analysis estimates MicroStrategy could face $2.8 billion of outflows if removed from MSCI indices, with the Bitcoin treasury company accounting for 74.5% of the affected companies' total circulating market cap. BitcoinForCorporations' petition opposing the proposal had 1,268 signatures as of the report's publication.

A whale address (0xc8D4...) sold its remaining 7,654 ETH for about $21.62 million on Dec. 18, locking in an estimated $4 million profit, on-chain data show. The address initially bought 12,906 ETH at the bottom in May 2023 and has repeatedly sold at higher prices, generating cumulative gains of more than $15 million from ETH trading over the past three years.

A whale lost approximately $27.3 million on December 18 after a private key leak compromised their multisig wallet, PeckShieldAlert reports. The attacker transferred $12.6 million (equivalent to 4,100 ETH) through Tornado Cash, with about $2 million remaining liquid. The compromised wallet currently holds $25 million in ETH collateral and $12.3 million in DAI debt on Aave.

A large HYPE long position held by address 0xbad saw three liquidations totaling about $26.3M on December 18, including the largest single liquidation in the past 24 hours at $11.08M, HyperInsight and CoinGlass data show. The address has booked losses of $8.0029M, holds a current position size near $26.81M with an average entry of $31.2, and faces an unrealized loss of $7.7M (-143.6%), with next liquidation at $23.6. The largest current HYPE long position belongs to a whale with an unrealized loss of $19.77M (-294%), a position size of roughly $33.61M, an average entry of $38.6, and liquidation price at $20.65. This address previously opened large HYPE long positions on October 23 ahead of Robinhood's announcement of spot HYPE trading.