Bitcoin recorded net outflows of $333 million while USDC saw net inflows of $168 million over the past 24 hours, Coinglass data cited by BlockBeats show. Other tokens posting inflows included FDUSD ($7.72 million), LTC ($6.09 million), PAXG ($3.33 million), and XAUT ($3.06 million). Outflows were also recorded for ETH ($81.56 million), XRP ($60.06 million), ZEC ($16.67 million), and USDE ($14.13 million).

On December 23, Ethereum derivatives whale address pension-usdt.eth reduced its long position by 5,180.87 ETH about 5 hours ago, realizing a $230,000 profit, and rebuilt the position back to 30,000 ETH within the past hour, on-chain analyst Ai 姨 (@ai_9684xtpa) reports. The address trimmed its position in the $3,002.6–$3,019 range and re-added longs between $2,954 and $2,964, completing an intraday swing trade while remaining among the top 3 ETH long positions on Hyperliquid. The current position is valued at $88.9M with an average entry of $2,967.88 per ETH, an unrealized loss of $128,000, and total account profit of $25.13M.

Hyperliquid whale 0x074 faced repeated liquidations over 15 hours, with positions closed totaling approximately $1.19 million, HyperInsight data show. Separately, Aave founder Stani Kulechov withdrew 1,699 ETH (approximately $5.17 million) from Kraken and purchased 32,658 AAVE, according to Ember. He now holds 84,033 AAVE valued at $12.6 million, with an unrealized loss of approximately $2 million.

CoinEx Research chief analyst Jeff Ko said on Dec. 23 that broad-based altcoin rallies are likely to fade in 2025, with liquidity concentrating in "blue-chip" cryptocurrencies, and warned retail investors expecting all altcoins to benefit may be disappointed. He stated the firm does not foresee a traditional altcoin season, but rather a highly selective market where only blue-chip assets attract capital. Ko added he expects mild tailwinds from global liquidity in 2026, though diverging central bank policies could curb support, and noted Bitcoin's historical sensitivity to M2 money supply growth has weakened since ETF launches in 2024. The firm's base case targets Bitcoin at $180,000 by 2026.

Russia's central bank said on Dec. 23 that Bitcoin mining has helped stabilize the ruble, Governor Elvira Nabiullina told RBC media, financefeeds reports. She said mining inflows provide auxiliary support to the exchange rate, though the impact is difficult to quantify amid legal uncertainties.

Lighter (LIT) pre-market perpetual contracts displayed divergent pricing and funding rates across Pacifica and Hyperliquid on December 23, data from both platforms show. Pacifica quoted LIT at approximately $3.94 with a funding rate of -0.0134% (shorts pay longs), while Hyperliquid listed the asset near $4.05 with funding at +0.0013% (longs pay shorts), resulting in a roughly 1% inter-venue spread and opposite funding directions. BlockBeats reports some traders executed hedged arbitrage between the two platforms to capitalize on the discrepancy. Earlier that day, Hyperliquid launched LIT USDC perpetual trading with up to 3x leverage, and Coinbob released Coinbob Pacifica, an on-chain analytics and copy-trading tool enabling users to replicate high-frequency strategies, earn trading points, and position for potential airdrops.

A Bitcoin whale address known as "终极空头" closed BTC short positions worth about $4.35M in a five-hour window on December 23, locking in roughly $1.17M in profit, Coinbob address tracking data show. The trader has executed five similar profit-taking moves at local lows since November without reopening shorts, reducing total BTC short exposure by about $93M from a late-October peak of $136M and closing around $57M this month. The address still holds approximately $43.63M in BTC shorts with unrealized gains of $12.2M (558%), an average entry of $111,500 and a liquidation level near $102,300, with take-profit orders placed in the $67,200–$76,200 range since May 9 and funding fee settlements generating around $9.61M in additional profit.

Bitcoin briefly rose above $90,000 on Dec. 23 before retreating to around $87,000, and funding rates on major centralized and decentralized exchanges have shifted back toward a broadly bearish stance, Coinglass data show. Only BTC and ETH contract pairs on Binance and Bitget are still showing neutral funding, while platforms such as OKX and Bybit have seen rates fall into bearish territory. Funding rates on perpetual contracts are a fee mechanism between long and short traders designed to keep contract prices close to spot; a 0.01% rate is viewed as the baseline, readings above 0.01% indicate a generally bullish market, and levels below 0.005% signal broadly bearish positioning.

VanEck said on Dec. 23 that Bitcoin 90-day forward returns are positive 65% of the time after hashrate declines, compared to 54% when hashrate rises, citing data since 2014. Network hashrate fell 4% in the month through Dec. 15, marking the biggest drop since April 2024, the report said.