Bitcoin hovered around $88,000 on Wednesday as year‑end trading in Asia thinned and investors kept risk light after October’s $19B liquidation wave. Holiday closures across Hong Kong and Australia, with Japan and South Korea shut for the session, coincided with subdued volumes that kept prices below $90,000 into late December.

Santiment said on Tuesday that Bitcoin is underperforming gold and the S&P 500 since early November, with gold up 9%, the S&P 500 up 1%, and BTC down 20%. Analysts noted BTC was around $88,000 as of Wednesday, and believe 2026 could present an opportunity for crypto to narrow the gap.

Ethereum has seen staking inflows turn positive for the first time in six months, with more than 745,000 ETH now queued for staking against about 360,000 ETH waiting to exit. Even as ETF flows stay negative and price trades sideways above short-term support, on-chain metrics such as falling exchange balances, record smart contract deployments and nearly $19B in RWA value suggest growing network confidence.

Bitcoin entered the final part of 2025 after setting a new all-time high in October but has since dropped enough that the year could end with a negative candle. Analyst CryptoBullet argues that a red yearly close would mark a transition into a bear market rather than signal a breakdown of Bitcoin's four-year cycle. He points to a potential doji yearly candle near the $126,080 peak and expects a brief dead cat bounce and short altcoin rotation in early 2026 before a deeper correction.

The IRS has introduced Form 1099-DA for U.S. digital asset tax reporting in the 2025 trading year, with filings due in 2026. Brokers must report gross proceeds from crypto sales, while cost basis reporting is optional in 2025 and mandatory in 2026. Industry professionals highlight complexity and urge early preparation and record-keeping.

In a December 30 filing, interim US Attorney Jay Clayton asked a New York federal judge to reject the DeFi Education Fund's amicus brief in the criminal case against Anton and James Peraire-Bueno over a $25 million Ethereum MEV exploit. Prosecutors argued the brief repeats legal arguments already decided and adds no new facts, while DEF warned the prosecution could chill DeFi development and a retrial window has been floated for late February or early March 2026. The case is being closely followed across the crypto sector because of its potential impact on MEV practices and developer risk.

In December, the Federal Reserve's dot plot showed disagreement on 2026 policy, while the Dec. 10 move lowered the target range to 3.5%–3.75%. According to CME Group, investors see a 20% chance of a 25 bp cut in January and 45% in mid-March, with analysts debating one to two cuts and potential impacts on crypto flows.

BMIC is running a crypto presale at a token price of $0.048881, emphasizing post-quantum security across wallets, staking and payments. The project says it avoids on-chain public-key exposure via ERC‑4337 smart accounts and PDA models. Its fixed supply totals 1.5 billion tokens with allocations for presale, staking rewards, liquidity, and team vesting.