Weekly: US Cryptocurrency Law Transfer, Caroline Ellison's Release, and Tighter Regulation
Date: 2025-12-22 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
The crypto market experienced heightened volatility and a busy news cycle last week. From December 15 to 21, 2025, Bitcoin traded within a wide range of $84,500–$90,000, regularly testing its limits. The release of US inflation data was one of the triggers for this movement: after the November CPI reading of 2.7%, the BTC price briefly exceeded $89,000, reflecting easing inflationary pressures.
Meanwhile, on-chain metrics indicate a decline in activity among major holders. According to CryptoQuant, transfer volumes of over 1 BTC on Binance have fallen to levels typical of 2018. Analysts also note pressure on short-term investors: since late October, Bitcoin has remained below the realized price of STH, creating a zone of persistent unrealized losses and contributing to the market's "clearing" of weak players. An additional signal was the decline in the Coinbase Premium Gap, indicating increased selling by American traders.
Market forecasts remain polarized. Bloomberg's Mike McGlone suggests a deep correction to $10,000, citing market overheating. Meanwhile, CF Benchmarks sees long-term potential for Bitcoin to rise to millions of dollars if its market capitalization approaches that of gold. Citigroup expects a move to $143,000 within a year if inflows into spot ETFs recover.
Ethereum came under pressure last week, falling below $3,000 and trading in the $2,700-$3,000 range. Against this backdrop, JPMorgan Chase launched MONY, a tokenized Ethereum-based money market fund aimed at institutional investors. Meanwhile, according to analysts, BitMine significantly increased its ETH holdings, while the supply of Ethereum on exchanges fell to its lowest since 2016, indicating an increase in long-term holdings.
The week was also marked by a series of security incidents. Yearn Finance suffered another hack, with investors losing tens of millions of dollars due to compromised multi-signature wallets and address spoofing attacks. A separate incident involving malware disguised as a game, which resulted in a user losing all their assets, caused particular controversy.
Regulation has received increased attention in the US. The Senate confirmed new heads of the CFTC and FDIC, and consideration of a key crypto market structure bill was postponed until 2026. Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint a Federal Reserve chair focused on significantly lowering rates, and the SEC, according to media reports, has reduced the number of cases against crypto companies by approximately 60%.
News from the AI sector generated additional interest: Amazon is discussing a possible investment in OpenAI, and Tether's CEO called a potential AI bubble one of the main threats to Bitcoin in 2026. The week ended with the news of Caroline Allison's transfer to pre-parole status, another reminder of the consequences of the FTX collapse.
