Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan named Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Chainlink as the four assets to own for this cycle, stating on the When Shift Happens podcast that Bitcoin remains the clear store-of-value winner. He assigned a 10-25% probability to U.S. sovereign Bitcoin purchases that he said could propel BTC toward $500K, while noting the market trades over 40% below its October 2025 peak.

In the week of the third 2025 Fed rate cut to a 3.50%-3.75% range, crypto markets stayed cautious even as Bitcoin briefly spiked and then reversed. U.S. authorities moved ahead with major steps such as conditional bank charters for firms like Ripple and Circle, a CFTC digital assets pilot, and New York's adoption of UCC rules for digital assets. Global macro shifts, including expected BOJ hikes toward 1% by 2026, and emerging use cases like YouTube's PYUSD payouts and Bhutan's gold-backed token on Solana, reshaped how investors are assessing risk.

On December 10, OKX sent a letter to Mantra contesting public comments from CEO JP Mullin and later issued a statement alleging coordinated OM trading that pushed the token's price up before a sharp crash. Mullin has repeatedly urged users to withdraw OM from OKX and insists ERC-20 OM cannot migrate before its deprecation on January 15, 2026, leaving holders facing conflicting timelines. OKX says it backs the migration, has involved regulators and law enforcement, and argues that blocking it could unfairly impact its users.