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.

Circle has minted $1 billion worth of its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Solana blockchain, CoinDesk reported. According to the report, when combined with recent Tether issuances, a total of $2 billion in stablecoins has been issued on Solana over the past 11 hours.

BitMine chairman Tom Lee said on Dec. 31 that year-end holiday trading often sees institutions step away, with quant programs, bots and tax-related stop-loss selling dominating, BlockBeats reports. On Dec. 29, CoinShares reported weekly outflows from digital asset products totaled $446 million, bringing the total since Oct. 10 to $3.2 billion and indicating sentiment has not fully recovered.

Address bc1qw withdrew 400 BTC worth $35.18M from Binance on Dec. 30, on-chain data show. The address accumulated 2,000 BTC valued at $177.23M over two days, BlockBeats reports.