Russia's Urals crude fell to about $34 a barrel on Friday, with Baltic loadings at $34.82 and Black Sea cargoes at $33.17, according to Argus Media. The slide widened the gap to Dated Brent near $61 as U.S. sanctions introduced in October made trade more difficult and pushed deeper export discounts.

On Monday, White House official David Sacks said the United States is at a critical moment for crypto oversight and called Michael Selig and SEC Chair Paul Atkins a "dream team" to set clear rules. Selig was confirmed by the Senate last week in a 53 to 43 vote to lead the CFTC, with a market structure bill expected to see Senate markup in early January.

US-focused digital asset funds logged $952 million in weekly outflows, with most withdrawals concentrated in Ethereum and Bitcoin products as the CLARITY Act faced fresh delays. Solana and XRP funds bucked the trend with tens of millions of dollars in inflows, even as total crypto ETP assets under management fell compared to the same point in 2024. Lawmakers now expect the Senate markup for the CLARITY Act in January 2026, pushing back earlier hopes the bill would be signed by the end of 2025.

In 2025, the Indian rupee has turned into Asia's weakest-performing currency as it dropped from 85.64 to 89.6 against the U.S. dollar, with some forecasts pointing to 92 by the end of March. Heavy foreign portfolio outflows, high U.S.-bound tariffs and uncertainty over a trade agreement with Washington have pressured the currency, even as the central bank has reportedly intervened to slow the decline. Analysts argue the rupee looks undervalued and see potential benefits for exports, but warn that prolonged weakness, policy uncertainty and investor caution could keep it under strain.

XRP has dropped into Santiment's "fear zone," where strongly negative social sentiment has often appeared near local price bottoms. While trading around the $1.83–$1.87 support band, XRP is showing stabilizing price action and small higher lows on the 12-hour chart. On-chain and technical indicators such as CMF suggest selling pressure is easing and that capital may be starting to flow back into the market, increasing the odds of a near-term bounce.

XRP is trading near $1.92 after recovering the $1.80 support and holding above $1.90. Analysts cite either a double-bottom toward $2.3–$2.5 or a double-top risk that would put $1.77 and $0.8 back in play. The token's 24-hour volume is $2.24 billion, and it has declined over 1% daily and almost 4% weekly.

On December 22, 2025, JPMorgan Chase began evaluating institutional cryptocurrency trading, with potential spot and derivatives offerings under review. The bank is in an early exploratory phase, assessing compliance, operations, and risk, amid rising client demand and expanding competitor services.

According to on-chain data, Bitcoin wallets holding 10,000–100,000 BTC reduced balances by 36,500 BTC since the start of December. The coins moved or sold total roughly $3.37 billion as BTC traded in a choppy $85,000–$94,000 range. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was near $89,646.