Chinese authorities now require chip manufacturers to prove that at least 50% of their production equipment is domestically made before approving new plant construction or expansion. According to people familiar with the process, this unwritten rule is enforced through procurement reviews and has accelerated since U.S. export controls tightened in 2023, pushing fabs toward local suppliers and boosting sales at firms such as Naura and AMEC.

On December 30, Russia's Ministry of Justice published draft amendments proposing criminal penalties for unregistered cryptocurrency mining. The plan includes fines up to 2.5 million rubles, forced labor, or prison terms up to five years, with thresholds at 3.5 million and 13.5 million rubles. Mining was legalized in November 2024, with registries and monthly reporting already in place.

In 2025, Solana generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue, outpacing Ethereum and Hyperliquid while still keeping median transaction fees under one cent. SOL recently traded near $123.89 with about $6.46 billion in 24-hour volume, as traders focused on resistance at $129 and key technical levels heading into 2026.

Real-world asset protocols have grown into DeFi's fifth-largest segment by total value locked, with TVL surpassing $17 billion and Ethereum hosting more than $12 billion of that. Gold-backed tokens such as Tether Gold and Paxos Gold lead the category, while tokenized equities have pushed their market cap beyond $1.2 billion to a new all-time high. RWA tokens have also delivered strong year-to-date gains, supported by standout performers like Keeta Network, Zebec, and Maple Finance.

Users of Perpetual trading platform Lighter report failed withdrawals showing the error "Too many L2 Withdrawals." On-chain explorer data points to a lag between the Prover and Sequencer, with the last committed block #137759880 finalized prior to the December 30, 2025 update. The team has not issued a formal statement, while LIT trades at $2.84.

In the week ending December 29, CoinShares data shows XRP investment products drew $70.2 million of new capital, making the token the most accumulated digital asset since US XRP ETFs launched in mid-October. Over the same period, Bitcoin and Ethereum products recorded outflows of about $443 million and $59.5 million respectively, contributing to cumulative withdrawals of roughly $2.8 billion from Bitcoin and $1.6 billion from Ethereum since those ETF launches. The divergence in flows highlights a rotation away from the largest crypto assets toward select alternatives like XRP amid ongoing market volatility.

On December 30, 2025, Lighter unveiled tokenomics for its Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT), assigning 50% of supply to ecosystem incentives and 50% to team and investors. The project says insider allocations include a one-year cliff and three years' linear vesting, and confirmed a 25% airdrop tied to two points seasons in 2025.

An on-chain wallet known as "BitcoinOG" or "1011short" has shifted from its previously reported $197 million Bitcoin short on Hyperliquid to building a leveraged long portfolio across Solana, Ethereum and Bitcoin. Hypurrscan data shows the address opened 850 SOL perpetual longs within one hour on Dec. 25 around $123, funded by a net USDC inflow of roughly $291.5 million in December. The position now hinges on how funding costs and cross-asset correlations evolve, with scenarios ranging from a risk-on continuation to a correlation-driven drawdown.