Summit National Bank will create a $400,000 settlement fund for customers impacted by a May 2024 email-account breach that exposed names, Social Security numbers, contact details and account numbers. Eligible class members can claim up to $5,000 for documented out-of-pocket losses, plus a pro rata cash payment around $175 and three years of credit and identity monitoring, with claims due February 17, 2026.

On Saturday, Dec. 20, XRP saw an hourly derivatives liquidation of $1,250,000 that fell entirely on short positions, with long traders avoiding any forced closures. Following a drop to $1.8 on Dec. 18, the token has rebounded to $1.95 as ETF-related inflows and a broader market recovery underpin renewed bullish momentum.

Chainlink held the $12 area after a large token unlock from a non-circulating supply wallet. Despite heavy exchange inflows, buyers stepped in and halted a breakdown, with price hovering near $12.5 on the daily chart. Short-term momentum improved as dip-buying lifted demand at key support.

XRP is trading near $1.94 after a sharp decline to its lowest level since April, with buyers defending the $1.85 area and eyeing resistance around $2.00 and above. The token, valued at roughly $118 bn with daily volume near $2.9 bn, remains inside a descending channel that defines key levels at $2.17 on the upside and $1.77 on the downside. A clear move above $2.00 could signal a shift toward higher targets, while failure there leaves the door open for another pullback to lower supports.

In 2025's volatile crypto market, ChatGPT was asked to design a $1,000 portfolio for 2026 that balances liquidity, infrastructure, and growth potential. The model allocated $250 to Bitcoin and $200 to Ethereum, with the remaining funds spread across Ondo Finance, Chainlink, Celestia, Render, Kaspa, and Arbitrum. The construction favors projects tied to tokenization, scalability, and compute-heavy use cases rather than purely narrative-driven assets.

In its newly released 2026 outlook, crypto analytics firm Presto Research projects Bitcoin could climb to $160,000 and expects tokenized assets and stablecoins to approach $490 billion in value. The report anticipates a maturing market shaped by institutional adoption, confidential DeFi reaching $10 billion, and growing focus on regulation-ready products and measurable cash flows.

After a year-long push to cut zkEVM proving latency, block proofs on Ethereum fell from around 16 minutes to 16 seconds with a 45-fold cost reduction, and most mainnet blocks now verify in under 10 seconds. On Dec. 18, the Ethereum Foundation announced that real-time proving goals have been met and unveiled a 2026 roadmap that prioritizes 128-bit provable security, explicit proof-size caps, and formal verification of recursion architectures. The new milestones require all zkEVM teams to adopt EF’s soundcalc tool, reach at least 100-bit provable security by May 2026, and hit full 128-bit security with sub-300 kilobyte proofs by the end of 2026.

On December 20, 2025, a crypto investor mistakenly sent $50 million in USDT to a poisoned address. Within 30 minutes, the funds were swapped to DAI and then 16,690 ETH, with 16,680 ETH routed through Tornado Cash; on-chain timestamps show a 0.005 USDT test and the large transfer minutes apart.