On Tuesday, Strategy CEO Phong Le said Bitcoin's market setup "couldn't be better," urging less focus on short‑term swings. BTC set a $125,100 all‑time high on Oct. 5 before dropping nearly 30% to $87,687, and the Fear & Greed Index has shown "Extreme Fear" since Dec. 12 as Strategy's mNAV traded at 0.93.

The crypto market is moving quietly during the holiday period, with low volatility and calm trading activity as several major assets form different technical setups. Shiba Inu has been sliding for weeks into oversold territory, while XRP shows early structural signs of recovery and Bitcoin trades in a narrow range with falling volume. These diverging patterns could shape how traders position themselves going into the new year.

On 25 December, a long-dormant Bitcoin whale and BlackRock reportedly transferred a combined 2,692 BTC, worth about $234.7 million, to Coinbase and OKX while BTC’s price remained range-bound. At the same time, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw five straight days of net outflows and futures open interest declined, signaling reduced leverage and cautious sentiment around key support near $86,000.

On December 26, Trust Wallet issued a security notice for its browser extension version 2.68 and told users to move to version 2.69 via the official Chrome Web Store. The project said the new release addresses identified risks in the older build, while mobile apps and other extensions are not affected.

On Dec. 24, XRPL Labs lead software engineer Denis Angell announced that the XRP Ledger’s AlphaNet has integrated post-quantum cryptography and native smart contracts. The upgrade replaces elliptic curve signatures with the NIST-standardized ML-DSA (CRYSTALS-Dilithium) scheme, introducing Quantum Accounts, Transactions, and Consensus while significantly increasing signature size to about 2,420 bytes. Alongside enhanced quantum resistance, the update brings base-layer smart contract capabilities designed to expand XRPL’s DeFi ecosystem beyond payments.

Analyst Steph said on X that XRP’s 3-week chart shows the Stochastic RSI at 0.00, a reading previously seen only at the 2022 bear‑market low. CryptoXLarge flagged $1.95 as a pivotal zone on the weekly chart, while ETF products have logged daily inflows since November 13 and hold over $1.1 billion, with XRP trading near $1.87 at the time of writing.

China's Guangzhou Futures Exchange will from December 29 restrict non-futures firms to opening 300 lots per day in designated platinum and palladium contracts and raise the minimum opening size to two lots. The move comes after platinum surged to $2,377.50 and palladium jumped more than 85% this year, while Shanghai silver spiked to $80 per ounce and China's main silver fund hit its 10% daily limit down.

As 2025 enters its final week, DeepSeek AI released updated projections for XRP, Solana and Cardano through the end of 2026. The model flags a high-volatility phase and maps bull and bear paths: XRP's upside targets $4.50–$6.00 with a risk to $1.00, Solana's $275–$350 with $80–$95 downside, and Cardano's $0.85–$1.20 with a $0.25–$0.28 floor.