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 Dec. 17, Bitcoin jumped $3,000 in an hour to reclaim $90,000, wiping out $120 million in shorts, before falling to $86,000 as $200 million in longs were liquidated, swinging market cap by $140 billion in two hours. Glassnode's Dec. 17 analysis attributes the turmoil to thin liquidity, overhead supply between $93,000 and $120,000, and clustered December options expiries that are keeping price confined in an $81,000–$93,000 band rather than to excessive futures leverage.

On Dec. 16, Michael Saylor argued that quantum advances will harden Bitcoin rather than break it. The piece outlines standardized post‑quantum signatures and warns that exposed outputs, including roughly 1.7 million BTC in early P2PK, could be prime targets. It also highlights migration costs, potential fee pressure, and the need for broad coordination across the network.

In early January, Vanguard’s policy reversal and Bank of America’s new crypto guidance open spot Bitcoin ETF access to tens of millions of retail and wealth-management clients. At the same time, a Dec. 16 FDIC proposed rule under the GENIUS Act starts a 12–18 month path toward bank-issued payment stablecoins that may reach public chains by late 2026. This alignment of new distribution channels and a long-dated stablecoin framework could shape Bitcoin flows far differently in the first quarter than at the end of 2025.

Bitcoin slid under $85,000 overnight, triggering close to $600 million in long liquidations across the crypto market as traders positioned for a potential interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan this week. The move erased more than $218 million in Bitcoin longs and over $213 million in Ethereum longs while major altcoins, including Solana, XRP, BNB, Cardano, and Dogecoin, also posted notable 24-hour losses.

On Dec. 9, Bitcoin traded at $92,831.76, up 3% on the day, while total crypto market capitalization grew by $150 billion, a 2.2% increase. The session saw an intraday high near $94,600 and adoption news, including PNC launching spot BTC trading via Coinbase's Crypto-as-a-Service. Derivatives activity also intensified, with $304.3 million in short liquidations out of $418 million in total liquidations over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass.

On Dec. 7 at 05:29 UTC, a token named "year of yellow fruit" was deployed on-chain, and less than a minute later the official Binance Futures social media account promoted it, driving a 4,600% price surge and pushing its market capitalization to nearly $4 million within two hours, according to Binance. An internal audit later found that a Binance employee had used the corporate brand account for personal promotion, leading to the staffer’s suspension, a referral to legal authorities, and a $100,000 whistleblower bounty split among five reporters, while the token gained another 782% in one hour after a public announcement on Dec. 8. The incident is being discussed alongside suspicious TNSR price action around Coinbase’s Nov. 21 Vector acquisition news, underscoring wider concerns over information leakage and the abuse of exchange infrastructure.

Bitcoin recovered from $86,286 on December 2 to $93,324, gaining 8%, while American Bitcoin (ABTC) shares dropped as much as 50% intraday. The divergence reflects different catalysts: Bitcoin benefited from improved macroeconomic conditions and Vanguard's expanded crypto ETF access. ABTC suffered from a lock-up expiry that flooded the market with previously restricted shares.

Anthropic's Frontier Red Team demonstrated that AI agents autonomously reconstructed 19 real smart contract exploits from 34 incidents occurring after March 2025, extracting $4.6 million in simulated value. GPT-5 scanned 2,849 BNB Chain contracts at $1.22 per target, uncovering two zero-day vulnerabilities worth approximately $3,694 in simulated profit, according to research published December 1.