Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, expanded its bitcoin holdings in the fourth quarter of 2025 with the acquisition of 8,888.8888888 BTC. As the calendar turns to 2026, the firm’s wallet ranks as the fifth-largest address holding bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s long-observed four-year market cycle is facing renewed skepticism after the asset closed 2025 lower than it opened, a first for a post-halving year.

Hyperliquid didn’t rely on hype cycles or marketing blitzes to break into the spotlight—it engineered its way into relevance, forcing the crypto industry to reassess how far onchain trading infrastructure had come.

Congressman Warren Davidson reflected on the origin of bitcoin and its true purpose. As part of his New Year’s message, Davidson remarked that bitcoin’s promise was not to be “an illiquid inflating asset” but a “permission-less, peer-to-peer payment system,” as envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Strategy Inc.’s massive bitcoin exposure keeps it central to institutional crypto debates, blending extreme leverage, deep liquidity and index inclusion while facing volatility, dilution pressure and looming index-rule risks that could reshape how investors access bitcoin through equities.

Ripple sees accelerating institutional crypto adoption fueled by regulatory clarity, tokenization growth, and surging demand for stablecoins, ETFs, and XRP-linked products, driving momentum heading into the new year.

Bitwise is moving to list 11 single-asset crypto strategy ETFs on NYSE Arca, expanding U.S. market exposure to major protocol tokens as regulatory filings signal a broader push into diversified digital-asset products.

Another Trump-linked crypto coin is crawling out of the shadows. On Wednesday, Trump Media said it plans to distribute a new digital token to DJT shareholders, outlining a program that emphasizes rewards and platform engagement rather than ownership or profit participation.

Every year has a handful of people who don’t just participate in crypto, they bend its trajectory.

In 2025, the roster of nation-states holding BTC quietly shifted, and what follows is a look at the top five countries sitting on large caches of the world’s leading crypto asset.

Bitcoin remains locked in a familiar range as year-end liquidity fades, with options dynamics and thin trading conditions driving short-term moves. Despite brief rallies, markets lack strong conviction in either direction.

The pilot will evaluate a solution linking a domestic QR payment platform to USDC on the Coinbase-incubated Base platform. BC Card stated that a medium to long-term partnership would follow this demonstration to build a compliant Korean won settlement process for merchants.

Global currency markets see significant shifts as the U.S. dollar experiences substantial decline, with euro gaining 13.5% and other major currencies making strong gains amid economic uncertainties.

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In 2025, the cryptocurrency market experienced extreme volatility, with bitcoin ( BTC) and major altcoins erasing their mid-year gains by December. Amid this downturn, privacy coins emerged as a resilient outlier, with the sector’s market cap surging 200% YoY to $19 billion by late November.