Fed official Harmark stated that there is no need to continue adjusting interest rates in the near term. She is more concerned about high inflation, and future policies will depend on changes in inflation and the employment market. Her hawkish stance may impact liquidity in the crypto market and the valuation of risk assets.

The PENGU token of Pudgy Penguins is currently hovering around $0.0092, facing a technical downtrend. Despite whales recently increasing their holdings by over 272 million tokens, the selling pressure remains severe. If PENGU can break through $0.0104, there will be a chance for a rebound; otherwise, it may fall to $0.0084.

【Block Rhythm】Market news on December 21 is here. According to Alternative data, today's Crypto Assets fear and greed index remains at 20, the same as yesterday. This index is still fluctuating in the "extreme fear" range, indicating that market sentiment remains very bleak.
How is this index calculated? It takes into account a total of 6 dimensions — volatility accounts for 25% of the weight, market trading volume also 25%, social media discussion heat accounts for 15%, market survey accounts for 15%, Bitcoin's market share weight is 10%, and finally, it adds up to 10% from Google search trend analysis. Considering these factors, the index ranges from 0 to 100, with lower values indicating greater market panic.
Staying at the level of 20 for two consecutive days indicates that market participants' mentality is still quite cautious.

[Crypto World] A well-known Mining Pool founder recently expressed his views on a large USDT theft incident. Here’s what happened: he suspected that his Private Key might have been compromised, and to confirm whether the Wallet Address was indeed out of control, he conducted a bold test—he transferred 500 Bitcoins to that address. To his surprise, the Hacker over there "only" took 490, leaving him with 10 Bitcoins. In his words, while this amount of Bitcoin isn’t much, it’s enough for a person to maintain a basic livelihood. This situation sounds a bit heartbreaking, yet it reflects how important Private Key security is. Sometimes it’s not that your assets aren’t valuable, but a lapse in security awareness can allow tens of millions of USD to change hands in an instant.

Although Bitcoin accounts for 59.6% of the market share, it is widely believed in the industry that 2026 will be the rise of altcoins. Ethereum is expected to lead the market with the support of institutional funds, and the rise of alts is a market trend; the flow of funds is key to the next cycle.

[Coin World] Interestingly, the current stock market and 401(k) retirement accounts have indeed seen considerable rises. But a real change might be coming—what does it mean if Bitcoin and crypto assets are officially included in 401(k) pension plans? It would unlock a massive market worth over $12 trillion. This is not just a numbers game. The collision of traditional pension systems and Web3 assets could reshape the liquidity landscape of the entire crypto market. If institutional and retail investors' pensions really flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem, then this wave of growth has just begun.

[Bitu] Recently, the market has shown a significant downward trend. According to spot trading data, multiple coins are experiencing a considerable pullback.
Among them, MIRA performed the weakest, with a 24-hour drop of 22.02%, the largest decline. Other coins also struggled — ICP and AI both fell over 6%, reporting declines of 6.79% and 6.67% respectively; LSK dropped even deeper, sliding 11.61% in 24 hours; PORTAL also couldn't escape, hitting today's low with a decline of 6.33%.
Many coins have also shown the characteristics of "pullback". The three varieties WOO, REZ, and ACT have all exhibited this rhythm, with declines fluctuating between 6% and 8%, among which REZ's decline of 8.26% is relatively large.
Overall, this round of adjustment has a wide coverage, including both coins that have experienced significant declines and those that have seen mild pullbacks, with market risk appetite clearly decreasing.

[On-chain] According to on-chain tracking data, Address 0x455…A433E sold 44.05 WBTC 7 hours ago at an average price of $87989.88, with a total transaction amount of approximately $3.876 million.
This sell order exposes the holder's loss situation—two weeks ago, the opening cost was as high as 92474.41 USD per unit, and now it is exiting at 87989.88 USD per unit, resulting in a short-term decline that has led to an unrealized loss of nearly 197,000 USD.
From opening a position to exiting, this large holder experienced a typical process of being trapped after buying at a high. Such on-chain actions often reflect changes in market sentiment and serve as a warning to other holders.

In the past week, the NFT market has shown a clear recovery, with a total transaction volume of $68.98 million, an 11.31% increase week-on-week. The number of buyers and sellers has significantly grown, increasing by 50.28% and 45.03% respectively. Ethereum continues to lead the market, Polygon also performed strongly, while BNB Chain experienced a decline. The overall increase in activity suggests the arrival of a new cycle.

【Blockchain Rhythm】The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in New York recently announced a serious crypto scam case— a 23-year-old local resident was charged with stealing nearly $16 million from approximately 100 users of a major compliant platform through a carefully planned phishing scheme.
The guy's method isn't actually complicated: pretending to be a customer service representative to call or email users, fabricating various reasons (such as account anomalies or verification needs), then诱导 victims to transfer assets to his personal wallet address. After obtaining the funds, he immediately dumps the cryptocurrencies into a mixer to launder money, attempting to cover his tracks.
Fortunately, law enforcement acted quickly. To date, about $105,000 in cash and approximately $400,000 worth of crypto assets have been recovered. Although only a small portion has been retrieved, it at least shows that authorities are increasing their focus on such cases. The platform also didn't sit idle; the official statement will

Ethereum founder Vitalik recently sold various cryptocurrencies, including UNI and BNB, and then transferred approximately $560,000 USDC and 27 ETH through the RAILGUN privacy protocol. This large-scale asset movement has attracted market attention, and the specific intent remains unclear. It is worth monitoring his subsequent actions.

Ethereum Foundation researchers point out that the current development window for the crypto ecosystem is crucial, and the industry needs to seize opportunities within the policy environment to drive breakthroughs. Policy changes may hinder reforms, affecting market sentiment and investor confidence. Therefore, developers and entrepreneurs should capitalize on the current momentum and steadily advance their work.

【Crypto World】Just saw an interesting update—XRP Ledger Network (XRPL) is preparing an built-in lending system, targeting institutional players directly.
This system isn't some fancy gimmick. Unsecured loans with fixed terms and fixed interest rates, with loan periods ranging from 30 to 180 days, using a single asset pool for risk isolation, and staffed with dedicated fund pool managers to assess who can borrow and how risky they are—basically, it's taking traditional bank risk control logic and moving it onto the chain.
Who are the target users? Market makers, payment service providers, and those fintech lending institutions. What can they do with this funding? Arbitrage, merchant payments, daily operational funds—sounds very practical.
Developer Edward Hennis revealed that the related modification plan is expected to be submitted for validator voting in January 2026. If approved, XRP could truly become "live"

XRP Ledger (XRPL) collaborates with Common Prefix to launch the official specification for the payment engine, aiming to improve system predictability and auditability, enhance infrastructure reliability, and support the development of financial-grade applications. This formally verified specification lays the foundation for the long-term stability of Web3 payment infrastructure.

A court in an African country dismissed fraud charges against ophthalmologist Ghulamatu Nu, as the country does not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender. The doctor's legal team appealed, arguing that cryptocurrencies are property and should be protected by law. This case reflects the global legal regulatory dilemma surrounding crypto assets.

【BitPush】On-chain data has captured an interesting operation again. A top whale bought 581,000 HYPE tokens in batches from July to October this year, spending around $14.4 million. Subsequently, this whale transferred 323,000 HYPE tokens, worth $8 million, to the Hyperliquid platform through several related wallets.
Even more interesting is that in the past 14 days, it has made another move—buying an additional 490,000 HYPE tokens, spending another $12.1 million. This series of actions seems very deliberate. Large-scale batch accumulation, partial transfer of holdings to trading platforms, continuous replenishment... This combination clearly aims to lower its average cost basis.
Whale movements usually reflect institutional-level thinking—they don't go all-in blindly but instead use time and volume diversification to lock in better entry costs. The HYPE project has attracted such...