A smart-money address that earned $19M over the past month opened a 3x leveraged long position in ETH on Hyperliquid on Dec. 21, The Data Nerd reports. The position is valued at about $89M.

IOSG founding partner Jocy wrote on social media on Dec. 21 that 2025 will mark the darkest year for crypto markets yet also signal the dawn of the institutional era, citing data that show institutions now hold 24% of BTC while retail participation fell 66%, even as Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $126,080 before closing the year down 5.4%. Jocy argued current conditions reflect an institutional accumulation phase rather than a bull-market top, noting that ETFs attracted $25 billion in inflows despite BTC's 5% annual decline. He outlined a short-term trading range of $87,000–$95,000 over the next three to six months, a mid-term target of $120,000–$150,000 by the first half of 2026 driven by policy tailwinds and institutional demand, and expected heightened volatility in the second half of 2026 tied to U.S. midterm elections and policy continuity. Jocy added that key 2026 catalysts include progress on a market structure bill, potential expansion of strategic Bitcoin reserves, and post-election policy follow-through, stating that as market structure shifts fundamentally, old valuation frameworks no longer apply and new pricing dynamics are taking hold.

Strategy held 671,268 bitcoin as of Dec. 14, 2025, with a total cost of approximately $50.33 billion and an average cost of about $74,972 per coin, BlockBeats reports. Founder Michael Saylor shared the Bitcoin Tracker data on Dec. 21.

Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn said Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by the end of 2027, BlockBeats reports. He wrote on Dec. 21 that options market pricing shows roughly similar probabilities of BTC at $70,000 or $130,000 by end-June 2026, and at $50,000 or $250,000 by end-2026, reflecting high uncertainty over the near to mid term. Thorn noted the crypto market was in a bear phase and that BTC had not re-established clear bullish momentum, adding that downside risks persist until BTC firmly holds the $100,000–$105,000 range and citing macro uncertainties including the pace of AI capital spending, the monetary policy environment, and November U.S. midterm elections. He observed a structural decline in BTC's long-term volatility partly linked to larger covered-call and yield-generation strategies, said the volatility smile now prices puts richer than calls versus six months ago, and maintained a long-term bullish view, adding that institutional access is expanding and that Bitcoin is likely to be accepted like gold as a hedge against currency devaluation within two years.

Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp said on Dec. 21 that quantum computers will not break the Bitcoin network in the short term, BlockBeats reports. A thorough overhaul and unprecedented fund migration could take 5 to 10 years, he said.

A Bitcoin whale trimmed its short position by 20 BTC approximately 20 minutes ago, booking a $465,000 profit, on-chain analyst Ai's Aunt (@ai_9684xtpa) reported. The address still holds a short position of 550.7 BTC valued at $48.6 million, with an unrealized profit of $12.8 million and funding fee gains of $9.6 million. The whale has opened four consecutive BTC short positions since March 2025, bringing total profits to more than $55.51 million, BlockBeats reported on Dec. 21.

The Ethereum Community Foundation said on Dec. 21 that wallet and explorer interfaces should display full address strings instead of truncating them with ellipses, warning that hiding middle sections introduces unnecessary security risks, BlockBeats reports. The foundation stated that some UI options currently used by wallets and block explorers present solvable security issues. BlockBeats previously reported a phishing case in which an attacker stole 50,000,000 USDT by creating a look-alike address matching the first and last three characters of the victim's address, first sending 0.005 USDT to establish transaction history, after which the victim allegedly copied the similar address from recent transactions and sent 50,000,000 USDT to the phishing address. The attacker swapped the stolen USDT for DAI to avoid freezing, then purchased 16,624 ETH and moved the funds through Tornado.

CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index stood at 17 on Dec. 21, down from 78 on Sept. 20, with a 7-day average of 21, BlockBeats reports citing data. The index shows that over the past 90 days only about 17 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap have outperformed Bitcoin. CoinMarketCap describes the real-time metric as tracking whether the crypto market is in an altcoin-dominated phase, based on the relative performance of the top 100 altcoins against Bitcoin over a 90-day period.