Crypto Weekly Digest | Bitcoin Consolidates, Crypto M&A Accelerates

Entering Christmas week, the global market's decisive answer did not belong to the crypto market. Against the backdrop of a weakening dollar and falling U.S. Treasury yields, risk aversion sentiment heated up rapidly. Gold and silver took the lead, successively refreshing historical highs and becoming the hottest destination for capital. In contrast, the crypto market appeared lackluster; Bitcoin did not take flight with the macro tailwinds but instead continued to oscillate in the $88,000–$89,000 range, lacking the offensive posture expected before the holidays.

According to PANews, Spot Gold and Silver have repeatedly hit all-time highs recently. In sharp contrast, Bitcoin has retraced nearly 30% from its October peak of $126,000.

Market data indicates that capital currently favors traditional "hard assets" for hedging. Precious metals remain strong, supported by central bank buying and industrial demand. Conversely, Bitcoin has behaved more like a high-beta risk asset in 2025. Constrained by a lack of physical demand buffer and persistent ETF outflows, Bitcoin has underperformed precious metals in the current environment.

Against the backdrop of the U.S. government adopting a more open attitude toward digital assets, crypto industry M&A activity exploded in 2025, with the total value of concluded deals reaching a record $8.6 billion. Industry insiders expect this M&A wave to continue into 2026.

The continuous influx of global capital is largely attributed to the push from the Trump administration. This year, the administration established cryptocurrency as a national priority, supporting industry growth by appointing crypto-friendly regulators, dismissing multiple lawsuits against digital asset firms, and launching a national cryptocurrency reserve. Charles Kerrigan, a partner at law firm CMS, along with other industry insiders, expects that as new U.S. crypto regulations land, more traditional financial institutions will enter the space, while crypto companies will further consolidate their market positions through M&A.

Data shows that 11 crypto companies went public globally in 2025, raising a total of $14.6 billion; in comparison, only 4 crypto companies went public in 2024, raising $310 million.

Since the beginning of the year, the crypto industry has concluded 267 deals, an 18% increase over 2024. The total value of these transactions reached $8.6 billion, nearly four times that of 2024 ($2.17 billion). Notably, Coinbase completed the largest acquisition of 2025, buying derivatives trading platform Deribit for $2.9 billion, which is also the largest M&A deal in crypto history. Additionally, Kraken acquired U.S. retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, and payments company Ripple acquired crypto prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.

Western countries are celebrating Christmas, but this year's holiday season is shadowed by inflation, leading to non-traditional consumption patterns. Instead of traditional gifts like chocolates, cards, and small appliances, Americans are looking for more economical ways to give.

A report from Visa shows that U.S. consumers are increasingly looking forward to receiving cryptocurrency as a holiday gift. 28% of adults said they would be very happy to receive crypto, and among the younger Gen Z, this figure is as high as 45%.

Global crypto exchange Bitget views the discovery of crypto as a Christmas gift as a signal of the normalization of crypto culture, implying that under tight budgets, cryptocurrency serves as a leaner, more flexible form of gifting. This culture is particularly embraced by young people. Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, are typical representatives of "digital-first"; they prefer biometric authentication, enjoy shopping via social platforms and cross-border shopping, and even use cryptocurrency for consumption.

Another report suggests that for young Americans, cryptocurrency is seen both as a gift and as a first step into the investment world. This is a key reason why people remain willing to receive it as a gift despite the crypto market's overall sluggish performance—holding it is viewed as "buying the dip."

Last Friday saw the expiration of Bitcoin options worth approximately $23.6 billion, the largest option expiry in Bitcoin history. Analysts pointed out that the scale of this expiry was massive and generally skewed bullish. The "max pain" point (the price level where option buyers lose the most and sellers gain the most) was $96,000, implying a trend toward price increases. However, so far, Bitcoin has not seen a significant rise.

According to Coinbase Institutional, there is a "cautiously optimistic" attitude toward the 2026 crypto market. They believe that with regulatory frameworks becoming clearer, stablecoin adoption accelerating, and the macroeconomic environment improving, cryptocurrency is approaching an institutional inflection point. The report notes that digital assets have evolved from a fringe market to an emerging pillar of global market infrastructure. 2026 is expected to be a year of institutional consolidation and regulatory maturity, rather than a retail-driven boom-and-bust cycle. U.S. policy progress is a key driver, including the advancement of stablecoin legislation like the GENIUS Act and market structure bills, which will provide support for risk management, compliance standards, and institutional investment strategies.

The stablecoin market is projected to grow to $1.2 trillion by 2028, mainly applied in payments, settlements, and cross-border remittances. Bitcoin's volatility has dropped significantly, with 90-day historical volatility falling from over 60% in mid-2024 to 35%-40% by the end of 2025, converging with high-growth tech stocks. Although Bitcoin experienced significant volatility in 2025, the report believes it has firmly become an important component of the global financial dialogue. On the macro front, inflation risks and interest rate policies remain key variables affecting the market recovery in 2026.

Le emphasized that Bitcoin's market fundamentals this year "couldn't be better," and he is not overly concerned with short-term performance. Le noted that the U.S. government and banking system are fully supporting Bitcoin, making him "extremely bullish" for 2025 and 2026. He revealed that he and MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor are meeting with traditional banks in the U.S. and the UAE, as these institutions are trying to understand how to keep up with crypto development. Although the U.S. President signed an executive order in March to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, the formal strategic plan has not yet been finalized.

Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital) founder Yi Lihua posted on social media, stating, "I firmly believe now is the best ETH buy zone, and I am especially bullish on the 2026 big bull market; ETH's future target exceeds $10,000. Remembering the '312' experience (March 12 crash): before '312', when BTC was moving sideways at $7,000–$8,000, I experienced a true crypto bear market for the first time. I couldn't hold on and sold all my Bitcoin, successfully dodging the '312' crash, but then it skyrocketed to $69,000, and I never bought the BTC back. This was a massive failure case of missing out on tens of thousands of dollars to save a few thousand.

This time follows the same script. We successfully escaped the top and cleared positions before October 11, but this time we choose to continue adding to our positions because we don't want to miss out on thousands of dollars for the sake of a few hundred. Trend investing and patient waiting are the best strategies now. We know a big surge is coming eventually, we just don't know which day."

Earlier this month, MicroStrategy established a $1.4 billion reserve fund to pay future dividends and interest, aiming to alleviate market concerns that it might be forced to sell Bitcoin if token prices continue to fall. It is reported that the free cash flow generated by the company's software business is insufficient to cover dividends or interest. TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza noted that MicroStrategy has approximately $824 million in annual interest and dividend payments.

The Clearing Company was founded earlier this year by Toni Gemayel, who previously served as Head of Growth at Polymarket and Kalshi. The startup completed a $15 million seed round in August, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, aiming to build an on-chain, regulated prediction market platform.

PR Newswire reports that $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US) announced on the 22nd that its total "Crypto Holdings + Cash + Potential Investments" reached $13.2 billion. As of 3:00 PM EST on December 21, the company's crypto holdings included:

– 4,066,062 ETH

– 193 BTC

– $1 billion in cash.

Bitmine Chairman and Fundstrat's Thomas "Tom" Lee stated: "Bitmine continues to steadily increase its ETH position, adding 98,852 ETH last week, and has now broken the 4 million ETH mark. This is a huge milestone, achieved in just 5.5 months. We are moving rapidly toward '5% alchemy' and are already seeing the synergies brought by our massive ETH position. We are a key entity bridging Wall Street and the blockchain tokenization transformation. We have been working closely with key entities driving the frontier of the DeFi community."

Currently, the ETH held by Bitmine accounts for 3.37% of the total ETH supply (120.7 million ETH).