Stablecoins are being withdrawn from major exchanges at the fastest pace of the current cycle, even as their overall supply continues to climb and remains largely backed by U.S. Treasuries. With Bitcoin down about 36% from its early October peak and open interest sliding by more than 40%, traders are cutting leverage, shifting stablecoins across networks like TON, Ethereum, and Polygon, and staying on the sidelines until market conditions improve.

According to CoinShares, ETH-linked products saw $555 million in outflows last week, even as exchange balances fell to their lowest since 2016. Binance and CryptoQuant indicators show Ethereum trailing Bitcoin in liquidity and risk appetite, while TradingView signals point to rangebound action near 3,000 dollars with resistance around 3,300 dollars.

Tokenized stocks have surged 2,695% year to date in 2025, outpacing tokenized commodities (225%) and funds (148%), while stablecoins rose 49% in the same period. Ethereum remains the primary issuance venue, but Solana, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon have carved out notable market share. Issuers including Backed, Ondo Finance, Dinari, and Robinhood are driving adoption.

Spot XRP ETFs have accumulated over $1.2 billion in net assets, while wallets holding between 100 million and 1 billion XRP are increasing their holdings. Yet XRP’s price is trading around $1.90–$1.94 and remains below key EMAs, with indicators like RSI and MACD signaling weak momentum. This combination suggests control may be shifting to institutions and whales even as overall demand and price action stay muted.

In 2025, Ethereum has dropped roughly 12% YTD even as its Mainnet settles about $90–100 billion in stablecoin transfers per day. According to OnChainHQ’s Leon Waidmann, most flows are USDT and USDC for payments, treasury moves, and settlement. Charts shared on X indicate whales are adding near the realized price, signaling confidence despite weak price action.

Tokenized gold supply, including Paxos's PAXG, has climbed to about $1.5 billion, according to Token Terminal. Analysts debate whether Bitcoin's lag versus gold reflects a temporary safety rotation or a valuation gap, with the Bitcoin-to-gold ratio near levels seen at past market lows.

Euro-denominated stablecoins have exceeded $1 billion in combined value this year, with Circle's EURC leading and holders above 150,000. USDC's footprint widened as XDC supply crossed $200 million after a December jump, and quarterly CCTP transfers hit an all-time high in Q4 2025, pushing total volumes past $30 billion.

Bitcoin has been sliding as traders position ahead of the Bank of Japan's widely expected 25 basis point rate hike scheduled for 19 December. In previous BoJ tightening moves in March, July 2024 and January 2025, BTC corrected between about 23% and 31%, and current on-chain metrics suggest investors are already de-risking and unwinding leverage before the announcement. The next major driver could be how the yen reacts after the meeting rather than the rate decision itself, potentially setting up either extended pressure or a short-term relief move.

U.S. banking trade groups challenged the OCC's approval of national trust charters for crypto firms, while regulators and institutions advanced integration. Itaú Unibanco has recently advised clients to allocate up to 3% to Bitcoin, and TRM Labs reported that more than 38% of Venezuelan crypto traffic used a single P2P venue as stablecoins filled banking gaps.