Bank of China will begin paying interest on digital renminbi real-name wallet balances from 1 January 2026, according to an announcement on the calculation of interest for digital RMB released on 31 December by the bank and reported by BlockBeats. The balances in these digital RMB real-name wallets at Bank of China will accrue interest at the bank's posted demand deposit rate, with interest calculation and payment rules consistent with those applied to demand deposits.

Ethereum's mainnet processed a record 2.2 million transactions on December 31, with average fees around $0.17, Etherscan data show, compared with a peak above $200 per transaction in May 2022. The increase in Layer 1 activity suggests users are returning to the Ethereum base chain as a settlement layer, while Token Terminal data show 8.7 million new and deployed smart contracts on Ethereum in the fourth quarter. In 2025, Ethereum implemented two major upgrades: the Pectra upgrade in May focused on validator improvements and staking flexibility, and the Fusaka upgrade in early December raised the gas limit from 45 million to 60 million.

Centralized exchanges recorded a cumulative net inflow of 105,800 ETH over the past 24 hours on Dec. 31, Coinglass data show. Binance saw the largest inflow with 115,600 ETH, followed by Bitfinex with 6,153.71 ETH and Gate with 3,074.66 ETH. Bybit posted the largest outflow over the same period, with 7,858.23 ETH leaving the platform.

Binance Alpha will launch a token airdrop on Dec. 31 at 15:00 (UTC+8), the company announced. Users holding at least 240 Binance Alpha points are eligible to claim tokens on a first-come, first-served basis until the pool is depleted or the campaign ends.

Perpetual contracts platform Pacifica will halve trading fees across all markets for nine days from 17:00 Dec. 30 to 17:00 Jan. 8 Beijing time, lowering the base rate from 0.015% to 0.0075%, BlockBeats reports. Trader Ron (X: Ron521520) estimated the cost per point at approximately 0.3825 USD previously and around 0.19 USD under the reduced fees; assuming a 22-week points program and 25% airdrop ratio, each point may redeem 1.136 tokens, Ron said. Pacifica was founded in January 2025 by former FTX Chief Operating Officer and two co-founders, reaching 83 billion USD in cumulative trading volume within five months of launch with over 34,000 users. Some traders have used high-frequency strategies to accumulate platform points, and Coinbob launched Coinbob Pacifica (@CoinbobPAC_bot) to enable users to track and copy such strategies for potential airdrop opportunities.

Whale address 0x5d2f4, known as "Ultimate Short," now holds a short position of 59,208 LIT with 3x leverage at an average entry of $2.8, currently showing a slight profit, Hyperinsight data show. The same address maintains a 20x leveraged short on 499.9 BTC valued at approximately $44.2 million, with an unrealized profit of $11.53 million (413%), an average entry of $111,500 and a liquidation price of $102,380.

Whale address 0x6031d closed a $16.48M BTC long position with a realized profit of $63K about four hours ago, Hyperinsight data show. The address has executed seven trades this week, with only one position closed via stop-loss.

Federal Reserve officials are sharply divided on the 2026 rate path, with views nearly evenly split between zero, one or two cuts, the Dec. 31 dot plot showed, after three rate reductions in 2025 brought the target to 3.5%–3.75%, BlockBeats reports. CME data show market-implied probabilities of a January cut at 20% and 45% in March, with most forecasts pointing to only one reduction in 2026. Analysts said that if employment weakens and inflation remains contained, one to two cuts could support risk assets, while a rebound in inflation could pause rate cuts and pressure equities and crypto. Jerome Powell is set to step down in May, and a potentially more dovish successor is viewed as an additional variable for the 2026 crypto market, according to BlockBeats.

On December 31, major whale accounts on Hyperliquid were carrying large unrealized losses on long positions in Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana, according to Coinbob data cited by BlockBeats. The “BTC OG Insider Whale” showed about $39.4 million in losses, mainly from ETH longs, while the “CZ Counterparty” faced roughly $27.6 million in ETH and XRP losses. At the same time, accounts such as “The Ultimate Short” and “Altcoin Short Leader” opened new LIT short positions, signaling a tactical shift amid market pressure.