Ethereum

On December 30, Santiment reported crypto trading activity sliding to 2025 lows, with Bitcoin and major altcoins posting their quietest two-week stretch since December 2024. Weekly volumes for ETH and SOL are down more than 50% versus last year's holidays. Bitcoin trades near $88,000, with one trader eyeing $90,600 resistance and $70,000–$65,000 support.

Global family offices increased crypto allocations in 2025, with many making first-time entries. A BNY Mellon study in October reported 74% of ultra-high-net-worth family offices are investing in or exploring digital assets, while moves like VMS's $10 million backing of Re7 and Arthur Hayes's office targeting $250 million highlight activity. Financial News noted volatility is tempering 2026 expectations.

In a blog post titled 'Balance of Power' published Tuesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warns that scale and automation are eroding checks and balances. He advocates "mandatory diffusion" and "adversarial interoperability", and cites Lido, which holds roughly 24% of staked ETH, as a decentralized example within crypto governance.

According to Etherscan, the Ethereum mainnet recently processed 2.2 million transactions in a single day while average fees fell to about $0.17. Fees had previously peaked above $200 per transaction in May 2022 and have generally trended lower amid network upgrades, increased gas limits and rising on-chain activity including 8.7 million new smart contracts in the fourth quarter of 2025.

BlackRock transferred $214 million in BTC and ETH to Coinbase Prime in year-end moves, according to Arkham, amid outflows from its IBIT and ETHA since 18 December. On 29 December, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $19.3 million in withdrawals, while Strategy bought 1,229 BTC for $108.85 million, lifting its holdings to 672,497 BTC.

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.

Ethereum is trading just under the $3,000 technical pivot, a level that has historically separated expansion from consolidation. XRP is now sitting on a long-term weekly support slightly below $2, while Solana has pulled back to the $120 zone that has often acted as a launch area. Market behavior suggests controlled declines and weakening sell pressure, leaving room for potential reversals if these supports hold.

After the October 10 flash crash knocked crypto below the $3 trillion mark, Gemini AI mapped early‑2026 scenarios for XRP, Ethereum and BNB. It highlights support near $1.75 and resistance at $2.36 for XRP, $2,800 support and $3,370 resistance for ETH, and $800 support with a $1,000 hurdle for BNB. The model frames the first quarter of 2026 as a key decision period for whether the market breaks out of its current range.

On Tuesday, Bitcoin traded around $88,224, up 1.12%, while Ethereum hovered near $2,967 as major altcoin volumes slid to their lowest levels of 2025. Over the weekend, BitMine Immersion Technologies staked 342,560 ETH, worth about $1 billion, tightening Ethereum's validator entry queue. At the same time, a proposed 5% annual tax on net wealth above $1 billion in California, including unrealized crypto gains, has raised concerns about capital outflows from the state's digital asset sector.

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.