On December 17, the FDIC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking for payment stablecoins, opening a public comment process. The plan outlines how insured banks could apply to issue stablecoins through subsidiaries and aligns with the federal GENIUS Act. Acting Chairman Travis Hill highlighted security and robustness as priorities.

According to CoinGlass, SOL’s seven‑day liquidation heatmap shows short‑side risk dominating, with nearly double the potential liquidations versus longs. A push toward $147 this week could unleash up to $1 billion in short covers, while a drop below $120 threatens roughly $500 million in long liquidations. Fund flows and key chart levels now frame the next move.

XRP slipped below $2 as liquidity and demand across altcoins weakened. On Binance, futures taker buy volume fell from above $5.8 billion in July to roughly $250 million, a 95.7% drop, highlighting fading conviction. Derivatives signals and price action under key moving averages point to elevated downside risk.

SPX6900 fell more than 10% in the last 24 hours while the broader memecoin market declined 6.8%. Price is nearing the $0.44 area that marked its October 10 low, with MACD momentum fading and open interest rising from $8 million to $11.47 million. Holding $0.44 could open a move toward $0.75, though sector-wide softness remains a risk.

On 16 December, Pepenode (PEPENODE) was highlighted as a leading altcoin candidate amid a broadly negative crypto market. The mining-focused meme token has raised $2.35 million in its presale, which is scheduled to end in 23 days before an exchange listing, and offers virtual mining nodes, staking with a 553% APY and a maximum supply of 210 billion tokens. Its final presale price is $0.0011968, with buyers able to participate using ETH, USDT, BNB or fiat through the project's official website.

On 16 December, the article highlights XRP, Midnight and Sui while Bitcoin trades below 90,000. Over the past 24 hours, BTC fell 2.6% and is around 87,158. XRP recently retraced to about 1.92 after a seven-year high, while Sui touts high throughput and Midnight focuses on privacy on Cardano.

XRP's ETF has logged more than 30 consecutive inflow days, with today's $10.89 million pushing total assets to $1.12 billion even as the token's price weakens. XRP trades near $1.92, over 40% below its yearly peak, and momentum signs suggest the selloff could be losing steam.

Alibaba's Qwen3-MAX AI issued dual-scenario forecasts for XRP, PEPE and DOGE into year-end 2025. The model outlines bearish targets near $0.15 for XRP, ~$0.000001 for PEPE and ~$0.04 for DOGE, and bullish targets up to $3.50 for XRP, 1,100% for PEPE and ~$1.20 for DOGE.