In the days following the Midnight (NIGHT) airdrop, Cardano’s decentralized exchanges have seen volumes rebound to their highest levels since December 2024, signaling renewed on-chain activity around the new token. Charles Hoskinson has described the Midnight rollout as the most successful launch in Cardano’s history, while NIGHT now records strong liquidity on major centralized exchanges and trades within a bullish chart pattern that traders are watching for potential upside.

Pippin [PIPPIN] jumped 32.3% in the last 24 hours while Bitcoin fell 3.96% and the total crypto market cap dropped 4.13%. Open interest rose from $178 million on 15 December to $208 million, a 16.85% increase, alongside a 61.8% rise in daily volume. Despite a negative funding rate, coordinated whale accumulation appears to be driving the rally.

On 16 December 2025, Solana started evaluating post‑quantum cryptography on a test network in collaboration with Project Eleven. The initiative focuses on migration paths and quantum‑resistant signature schemes rather than immediately replacing Ed25519, reflecting a wider effort to future‑proof blockchain security.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) said its USD1 stablecoin has expanded to the Canton Network, targeting a regulated, interoperable environment for institutions. Binance recently added USD1 spot pairs for BNB, ETH and SOL and outlined a 1:1 conversion of Binance-Peg BUSD collateral to USD1, while USD1 circulation stands at about $2.8 billion.

Across December, XRP has struggled near the $2.00 area as derivatives activity and spot participation weakened. Binance futures taker buy volume fell from above $5.8 billion in July to roughly $250 million, while the Estimated Leverage Ratio slipped to about 0.18. On Dec. 11, a long‑dormant wallet realized $721.5 million in profit.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted that U.S. spot XRP ETFs have posted 30 consecutive sessions of net inflows, with cumulative inflows crossing about $1 billion and total net assets reaching roughly $1.18 billion. This steady demand contrasts with sizable outflows from bitcoin and ether ETFs, while XRP's price trades lower over recent weeks, underscoring a notable gap between institutional flows and market performance.

Ripple said in a press release it will expand RLUSD to Ethereum in 2026, running a "trial" on Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain via Wormhole. The move brings an existing $1.3 billion supply deeper into Ethereum’s Layer 2s, while ETH recently slipped below $3,000 with key support eyed near $2,800 and risk toward $2,500.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its multi‑year investigation into the Aave Protocol without recommending enforcement, following a process Aave's founder said demanded substantial resources. The probe, which began around late 2021 or early 2022, had focused on DeFi lending and borrowing services, and its conclusion eases immediate regulatory pressure on Aave while its AAVE token recently traded between $184 and $194.