In December 2025, the Solana network reportedly handled a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack peaking at about 6 terabits per second without downtime or a meaningful rise in fees. Co-founders and infrastructure operators attributed this resilience to upgraded defences, validator clustering, the QUIC protocol, and local fee markets, as the validator set shifts toward larger professional operators.

On Wednesday, an affiliate of Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), the issuer of USDC, said it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with licensed cross-border payments provider LianLian Global to explore wider adoption of the stablecoin. The collaboration will assess how USDC-based infrastructure and Circle's Arc blockchain can support faster, more transparent and cost-efficient international payments for merchants, especially in emerging markets.

On Dec. 17, SBI Ripple Asia signed a memorandum of understanding with Doppler Finance to explore XRP-based yield infrastructure and real‑world asset tokenization on the XRP Ledger. The companies described this as their first partnership with an XRPL‑native protocol and named SBI Digital Markets as the institutional custodian with segregated custody, aiming to route XRP into regulated yield sources despite the asset's lack of native staking.

On December 17, 2025, analyst Benjamin Cowen told his 969,000 YouTube followers that Bitcoin's bull phase is likely over. He cautioned a bear market could persist into October 2026 and projected a move toward $60,000–$70,000, citing the 200‑week Simple Moving Average. Cowen noted past cycle gains favored buyers from late 2022.

On December 17, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin used X to question claims that the United States must avoid any AI slowdown to keep ahead of China in the race toward Artificial Superintelligence. He responded to Senator Bernie Sanders' call for a moratorium on large AI data centers by outlining pros and cons and suggesting a "pause button" for supercomputers instead. Citing recent data, Buterin argued that assertions about China's determination and capacity to lead the ASI race are overstated, pointing to higher US AI investment and China's ongoing hardware constraints.

Claimants linked to FTX or Alameda Research are being invited to seek shares of a $10 million class-action settlement tied to Silvergate Bank. The court set a Jan. 30 deadline to opt out or file, with a final approval hearing on Feb. 9. More than 46,000 potential recipients were reached by mail.

ASTER is trading near $0.74 after dropping more than 22% over the last week and a further 8% in the past 24 hours, following a clean break below the $0.85–$0.90 support band. While futures open interest has fallen from over $600 million to $420 million and technical indicators remain bearish, large holders have reportedly accumulated over 1.34 million ASTER tokens valued above $1 million.

In the past 30 days, Bitcoin has fluctuated between $85,000 and $94,000, staying below the key $100,000 mark while analysts monitor signs of a possible rebound. Tom Lee views Bitcoin as extremely oversold, pointing to an RSI under 30 and historical patterns that have previously led to average rebounds of about 25% within 60 days. With BTC recently trading around $89,972.73 and volatility driven by whale activity, market participants are watching whether support near $85,000 and a recovery before year's end can hold.