Ethereum

On December 18, 2025, PeckShield reported that a whale's multisig wallet was emptied of about $27.3M following a private key compromise. The drainer pushed roughly $12.6M (4,100 ETH) through Tornado Cash, retained about $2M in liquid assets, and controls a wallet that holds a leveraged Aave position with around $25M in ETH against roughly $12.3M in DAI debt.

Bitwise Asset Management's 2026 outlook predicts U.S.-listed crypto ETFs could collectively buy more than 100% of newly issued BTC, ETH, and SOL in 2026. It cites flow trends since spot ETF launches in 2024 and activity on 16 December, when volumes stayed high despite net outflows, as evidence of persistent institutional demand.

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.

Ethereum exchange balances have fallen to their lowest since 2016, with the exchange supply ratio at 0.137. Institutional and corporate treasuries now hold 5,961,187 ETH valued at $17.7bn, representing 4.94% of supply. BitMine Immersion added 407,331 ETH over the last 30 days.

Coinbase projects AI-driven productivity could spur a new crypto upswing in 2026. Total market capitalization peaked near $4.2 trillion in 2025 before easing toward $3.0 trillion, framed as a transition rather than cycle end. Institutional treasuries, tokenization, stablecoins, and regulated DeFi are cited as structural adoption signals.

On Wednesday, December 17, BlackRock moved 74,973 ETH worth $220 million and 2,405 BTC valued around $211 million to Coinbase Prime. With these transfers, its weekly ETH net change stood at -98,250 ETH, while BTC remained positive at +1,066 BTC. It also led Ethereum outflows, representing about 75% of the total 133,130 ETH moved out.

Kyrgyzstan introduced USDKG, a USD-pegged stablecoin the project says is backed by physical gold, with an initial 50 million tokens issued on Tron and plans to support Ethereum. Launch materials describe an issuer with 100% state participation and operations run by a local private firm. Next, independent reserve attestations, clear redemption and real-world liquidity will determine credibility.

Ethereum’s weekly active addresses have risen toward about 2.4 million, near historic highs. Analysts are monitoring a long-term rising support dating back to 2016 and a December monthly close level at $2,930 that could shape price direction. Some also flag potential downside targets at $2,000 and $1,100 if that threshold is lost.

Ethereum's 24-hour trading volume fell 34% while the price remained in the $2,900–$3,000 range. Technical signals show the 200-day EMA overhead and the 50-day/100-day EMAs acting as resistance, with RSI in the low-to-mid 40s; a drop below $2,850–$2,800 could set up a deeper flush.

DTCC partnered with Digital Asset Holdings and the Canton Network to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities custodied at DTC, marking its first step to bring custodial assets on-chain. Following an SEC No-Action Letter earlier this month, the parties are targeting a minimum viable product in the first half of 2026, with DTCC's ComposerX platforms supporting tokenization and interoperability.