The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped to $2.93 trillion in late Thursday trading, its lowest level since April and erasing this year's gains. Analysts pointed to a roughly 33% decline from the early October peak near $4.4 trillion and almost 14% losses year-to-date, with several expecting more short-term downside despite a recent 2.3% rebound in Bitcoin. Sentiment data showed fear dominating retail traders, even as some market observers framed the pullback as a potential accumulation window for stronger projects.

On-chain firm Santiment said on X that Bitcoin and Ethereum funding rates have diverged amid recent volatility. BTC longs remain dominant as the price jumped to $90,300 before sliding to $85,300, while ETH turned short-heavy after a move to $3,000 and a pullback to about $2,790. Bitcoin later recovered to $87,100 on Wednesday.

At its December 18–19 meeting, the Bank of Japan signaled it may raise policy interest rates if economic activity and price developments track existing projections. This potential normalization of monetary policy could tighten yen liquidity and influence global markets, including cryptocurrencies, while Bitcoin trades above $87,000 with a market cap near $1.74 trillion as of December 19, 2025.

The U.S. SEC approved a universal listing standard for crypto ETPs, cutting launch timelines to 75 days as of September, according to Cryptoslate. Analysts expect more than 100 ETFs by 2026, while custody concentration at Coinbase raises single-point-of-failure concerns noted by James Seyffart. CoinMarketCap shows BTC at $86,176.20 with 59.44% dominance and a 25.41% 90-day decline.

On December 18, 2025, the US Senate confirmed Michael Selig as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a 53-43 vote. The move follows an October nomination by President Donald Trump after withdrawing Brian Quintenz and comes as Congress debates bills that could expand the CFTC's authority over cryptocurrency markets.

At a Thursday press conference, US President Donald Trump said his shortlist to replace Jerome Powell has been reduced to three or four candidates and praised Chris Waller. Polymarket currently assigns Waller 14% odds, behind Kevin Hassett at 53% and Kevin Warsh at 28%, with Michelle Bowman at 2%. Trump expects to announce his pick in the next couple of weeks.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted that XRP ETFs have posted inflows for 30 consecutive sessions, and Canary Capital's U.S. spot XRP ETF drew nearly $250 million on day one. Shiba Inu saw nearly 100 billion SHIB move off exchanges in 24 hours, while total crypto market cap fell to $2.95 trillion and Cardano liquidations reached $1.24 million with a 1,303% imbalance.

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of IOHK and the Cardano blockchain, criticized several of US President Donald Trump's crypto initiatives, including a meme coin and the World Liberty Financial project. He argued these moves risked turning previously bipartisan efforts on US digital asset regulation into a partisan issue and damaging the industry's image in Washington. Hoskinson also claimed many crypto founders stayed silent after being warned that speaking out could jeopardize their access to lawmakers and the legislative process.