On Dec. 26, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell three points to 20/100, extending an ‘extreme fear’ streak that began on Dec. 13. Bitcoin traded at $88,650, nearly 30% below its Oct. 6 all-time high of $126,080, as tariff concerns and rate-cut uncertainty weighed on sentiment.

On Thursday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Grok, X's AI chatbot, makes the platform more truth-seeking by challenging users' assumptions. He argued it is a net improvement despite concerns about fine-tuning and recent hallucinations, while Elon Musk blamed adversarial prompting for errors.

Kraken Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg told CNBC on Wednesday that blockchain-based tokenization is pushing the concept of money beyond fiat, allowing people to save, trade, and spend in a wide range of tokenized assets. He noted that Kraken's tokenized stock product has drawn more than 80,000 wallets and around $14 billion in volume since launching in the second quarter of this year, while on-chain real-world assets have reached nearly $415 billion.

Upexi filed a shelf registration to raise up to $1 billion, saying proceeds may fund general purposes and expansion of its Solana holdings. The stock closed Tuesday down 7.54% to $1.84, then rose 4.34% after hours to $1.92. The firm holds 2.1 million SOL valued at $262.3 million.

Matador Technologies has been authorized by the Ontario Securities Commission to issue up to CA$80 million ($58.4 million) in securities over 25 months. The Bitcoin-focused firm plans to use the capital to expand its holdings from 175 BTC toward a 1,000 BTC treasury target by the end of 2026, even as its MATA shares fell 3.57% following the announcement.

The US Federal Reserve is inviting comments on a proposed "payment account", sometimes called a "skinny master account", that could give fintech and crypto firms limited access to its systems. The accounts would not earn interest, have no Fed credit, and face balance caps. Feedback closes 45 days after Federal Register publication, with launch targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Uniswap's UNIfication governance proposal, which introduces a protocol fee switch and large-scale UNI token burns, has cleared the required 40 million-vote threshold and is expected to activate later this week. The plan includes burning 100 million UNI from the Uniswap Foundation treasury and launching a Protocol Fee Discount Auctions mechanism, while UNI's price has rebounded from a seven-month low to trade at $6.08 alongside a roughly 25% gain since voting began on Dec. 20.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Bitcoin miner VBit and founder Danh Vo in Delaware federal court, alleging fraud and misappropriation of around $48 million from 2018 to 2022. The complaint asserts some hosted mining agreements can be securities under Howey, while Blockware Intelligence's Mitchell Askew argues standard hosting lacks pooled capital or profit-sharing.

David Sacks said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is set for a Senate markup in January before debate, amendments, and a floor vote. He added that Chairs Tim Scott and John Boozman confirmed the bipartisan bill's path to the chamber. The proposal aims to clarify oversight between the SEC, CFTC, and other regulators.