Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Brooklyn resident Ronald Spektor with stealing roughly $16 million in cryptocurrency from about 100 Coinbase users. He allegedly impersonated a Coinbase representative and used social engineering to pressure victims to transfer funds, with a judge setting bail at $500,000. Authorities reported asset seizures and said recovery efforts continue.

On December 19, 2025, Blockstream CEO Adam Back publicly challenged Nic Carter's warnings that quantum computing poses an imminent threat to Bitcoin. Back said developers are quietly preparing, while Carter cited Castle Island Ventures' investment in Project Eleven and an Oct. 20 Substack disclosure to argue the risk is real and underappreciated.

On Thursday, Real Vision founder Raoul Pal said Zcash's sharp advance resembles capital rotation rather than a lasting bull trend. ZEC is up about 699% since Jan. 1 to around $385, but has fallen roughly 37% over the past 30 days. Pal argued the asset needs to build a durable base before its rally can be deemed structural.

In a report released Wednesday, Bitwise said Bitcoin's price volatility in 2025 has fallen below Nvidia's, reflecting what it sees as a maturing market. The firm attributes the shift to the growth of spot ETFs and broader institutional adoption, and expects further institutional entry and a potential new all-time high for Bitcoin in 2026.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has reached a record capacity of more than 5,600 BTC, ending a year-long decline in liquidity on the layer-2 payments system. While large exchanges and institutional players are adding significant Bitcoin to existing channels, the number of nodes and channels remains below prior peaks, highlighting stronger capitalization rather than broad user growth.

Gemini has rolled out its Gemini Predictions platform across all 50 US states after its affiliate Gemini Titan received a designated contract market license from the CFTC. PancakeSwap has introduced Probable, a BNB Chain-based prediction market backed by YZi Labs that will initially charge no fees and use UMA's Optimistic Oracle for event resolution. Trading volumes on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket have reached billions of dollars per month since October, drawing interest from both crypto firms and traditional financial players.

The Marshall Islands introduced a nationwide UBI that pays roughly $200 per quarter (about $800 a year), with residents choosing bank transfers, checks, or a government-backed blockchain wallet. First disbursements occurred in late November, and officials say the program uses a US dollar–pegged stablecoin; early uptake of the digital wallet has been limited.

Sberbank is piloting DeFi tools and expanding regulated crypto-linked investments, with total issuance around 1.5 billion rubles. Executives outlined the approach at the "FI Day. AI & Blockchain" conference in Moscow, while the bank engages the Bank of Russia and Rosfinmonitoring on qualified investor access to digital assets.

Solana has been subjected to a distributed denial-of-service attack peaking at nearly 6 terabits per second, reportedly the fourth-largest incident ever recorded against a distributed system, yet its network continued processing transactions without disruption. While validators absorbed the week-long surge in traffic, on-chain indicators now point to shrinking liquidity and persistent realized losses, with analysts describing the current phase as a full liquidity reset that could precede the next market cycle.