Weekly Review: Ethereum Fusaka, BNB Chain Prediction Markets, and Strategy Warning Signs
Date: 2025-12-08 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
The past week in the crypto market was marked by high volatility and important technological developments. Bitcoin closed in November down nearly 18%, a rare event for the month. In early December, the price attempted to recover and rose above $93,000, but failed to hold these levels and fell back below $90,000. QCP Capital analysts attribute the market pressure to unfavorable signals from Asia, including expectations of a Japanese rate hike. A Bloomberg analyst's prediction of a possible BTC correction to $50,000 amid stock market instability added to the uncertainty.
Strategy also made headlines by setting aside $1.44 billion to cover dividends and debt servicing. According to CryptoQuant, this signals preparations for a protracted bear market. At the same time, investors were actively withdrawing funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs—outflows exceeded $3.48 billion in November, one of the worst performances in the history of such instruments.
Ethereum also ended November in the red, losing around 19%. In early December, the asset briefly exceeded $3,200 but then corrected again. Meanwhile, network developers successfully activated the Fusaka upgrade on the mainnet. A key element was the implementation of PeerDAS, which increases rollup throughput eightfold. Additionally, the user experience was improved, and the technical foundation for a future gas limit increase was laid. Despite the overall market decline, Deribit saw record interest in Ethereum options with a strike price of $6,500.
In the project sector, the launch of the Predict.fun prediction market on BNB Chain, announced by CZ, attracted attention. Almost simultaneously, MetaMask introduced a similar service in partnership with Polymarket, integrating it directly into its mobile app. Binance announced the appointment of Yi He as co-CEO alongside Richard Teng, and Pavel Durov announced the launch of the decentralized AI network Cocoon based on TON. Solana Mobile announced the issuance of the SKR token in January 2026.
On the regulatory level, the week was marked by political conflict in Poland: the president vetoed a cryptocurrency market law, citing risks to citizens' freedoms. In the UK, a law officially recognizing crypto assets as property came into force. Donald Trump confirmed that he will name a new Federal Reserve chairman in early 2026. In the US, work on the GENIUS stablecoin law is also ongoing.
In the AI field, Kyivstar and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation have chosen Google Gemma as the basis for a national language model, while Anthropic has demonstrated that its models are capable of identifying vulnerabilities in smart contracts worth millions of dollars.
The week's crime news was no less intense: losses from crypto hacks in November reached $194 million, Europol uncovered a €700 million money laundering scheme, and in Malaysia, losses from illegal mining exceeded $1.1 billion over five years. These events once again reminded the market of the high cost of mistakes and the need for stronger security.
