PA Daily | Bank of Japan raises interest rates by 25 basis points; The "CLARITY Act" is expected to be submitted to the Senate for review in January

Today’s Headlines:

Terraform Labs bankruptcy trustee files $4 billion claim against Jump, accusing it of being responsible for Terraform’s collapse

Bank of Japan raises interest rates as expected by 25 basis points

Arthur Hayes: Maelstrom is aggressively accumulating high-quality altcoins

Han Mu Xia: Japan’s rate hike is fully priced in; Bitcoin at $111,250 is a strong resistance level

Solana ecosystem DEX Lifinity to gradually shut down, $43.4 million assets to be distributed to token holders

An independent miner successfully mined 928,351 blocks, earning a block reward of 3.15 BTC

Analysis: Approximately $23 billion worth of Bitcoin options will expire next Friday, potentially increasing existing high volatility

Macro

Bank of Japan Governor: Will decide on further rate hikes after assessing the impact of raising to 0.75% on the economy and prices

According to Jinshi, Bank of Japan Governor Ueda Kazuo stated: “We will decide on further rate hikes after evaluating the impact of raising to 0.75% on the economy and prices.”

Bank of Japan raises interest rates as scheduled by 25 basis points

According to Jinshi, the BOJ raised the benchmark interest rate from 0.5% to 0.75%, meeting market expectations. The rate level hit a 30-year high, marking the BOJ’s first rate hike in 11 months since January 2025.

U.S. Senate confirms Trump-nominated CFTC and FDIC leaders

According to CoinDesk, on Thursday, the U.S. Senate began confirming a large number of Trump nominees, including two officials who will hold key regulatory roles in the crypto sector. The Senate approved Mike Selig as Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Travis Hill to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Selig will play a leading role in crypto regulation, succeeding acting Chair Caroline Pham, who has been pushing an aggressive crypto policy agenda in the absence of a permanent Chair.

Crypto Market Structure Bill “CLARITY Act” expected to be submitted to Senate for review in January

According to Cointelegraph, White House AI and crypto affairs chief David Sacks said the Crypto Market Structure Bill “CLARITY Act” is closer to formal legislation, with Senate review expected in January. Sacks tweeted on Thursday that Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman confirmed that this bipartisan crypto bill will be finalized in the Senate next month. The “CLARITY Act” aims to clarify the definitions of crypto securities and commodities, and delineate the responsibilities of the SEC, CFTC, and other financial regulators. Supporters say the bill will establish clearer compliance pathways, reduce regulatory uncertainty for crypto firms, and encourage innovation while enhancing investor protection. The House passed the bill in July; the Senate will review, amend, and debate it before a full vote. Senator Scott needs to secure an absolute majority for passage to prevent indefinite delay. If the Senate passes an amended version, it will return to the House for final approval before going to President Trump.

Views

Arthur Hayes: Maelstrom is aggressively accumulating high-quality altcoins

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted on X that his family office Maelstrom is heavily accumulating high-quality altcoins. Previously, Hayes stated that Japan’s explicit policy of negative real interest rates makes Bitcoin likely to rise to a million dollars.

Whale Garrett Jin: Bitcoin and Ethereum are about to rally, with first targets of $106,000 and $4,500 respectively

Whale Garrett Jin, who sold over $4.23 billion worth of BTC in October to reallocate into ETH, posted on X that Bitcoin and Ethereum are about to rally. The first targets are: Bitcoin at $106,000 and Ethereum at $4,500. The logic of shorting the yen is increasingly untenable. The rate hike impact on the market is minimal, and the market has already priced in this factor.

Grayscale: Stablecoins to explode in 2025, reaching $300 billion in supply

Grayscale posted on X that stablecoins will see explosive growth in 2025, with supply reaching $300 billion and monthly trading volume hitting $1.1 trillion. With the passage of the GENIUS Act, increased adoption of stablecoins, and rising transaction flows on blockchains like ETH, TRX, BNB, and SOL, infrastructure projects such as Chainlink(LINK) and emerging networks like XPL will benefit.

Han Mu Xia: Japan’s rate hike is fully priced in; Bitcoin at $111,250 is a strong resistance

Crypto analyst Han Mu Xia released a video stating that Japan’s rate hike has been fully digested by the market, and future rate hike paths remain to be seen. Han Mu Xia emphasizes that the two key premises for bullish Bitcoin are: Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion and Bitcoin’s technical consolidation phase. Technical analysis suggests key resistance for Bitcoin at $98,600 to $107,000, with $111,250 as a strong resistance, though market conditions are complex.

Arthur Hayes: Japan’s explicit policy of negative real interest rates makes Bitcoin likely to rise to a million dollars

Arthur Hayes commented on Japan’s rate hike policy: “Don’t fight the BOJ: negative real interest rates are their explicit policy. The yen against the dollar will fall to 200, and Bitcoin will rise to a million dollars.”

Tom Lee: I don’t think this Bitcoin top is in; new all-time highs could be reached before the end of January

In a video shared by crypto influencer AB Kuai.Dong, Fundstrat co-founder and BitMine chairman Tom Lee said in an interview with CNBC: “I don’t think this wave of Bitcoin has topped out. Our previous optimism about reaching new highs in December is too optimistic, but I am confident Bitcoin can hit a new high before the end of January. So, not just Bitcoin, but Ethereum and the entire crypto market as well.”

CF Benchmarks views Bitcoin as a core asset in portfolios, predicts price reaching $1.4 million by 2035

According to CoinDesk, CF Benchmarks, a subsidiary of crypto exchange Kraken, stated on Thursday that institutional investors are increasingly analyzing Bitcoin from a portfolio construction perspective rather than focusing on short-term price cycles. The firm forecasts that by 2035, the baseline scenario price of Bitcoin will reach $1.4 million. Bitcoin can be evaluated using traditional capital market assumptions, including expected returns, volatility, and correlation. Based on different adoption paths, CF Benchmarks produced a series of long-term valuation scenarios. In the most conservative scenario, Bitcoin continues to expand its market share at historical rates, capturing about 16% to 33% of gold’s market cap, with a projected price of around $637,000 by 2035. The baseline scenario assumes broader institutional adoption and faster growth, with Bitcoin’s market cap reaching about one-third of gold’s, leading to a projected price of about $1.42 million. In a more optimistic bull case, Bitcoin becomes the dominant global store of value, surpassing gold’s market cap; this scenario estimates a valuation close to $2.95 million by 2035, driven by accelerated institutional and sovereign adoption. Besides price forecasts, CF Benchmarks notes that allocating about 2% to 5% of strategic portfolios to Bitcoin can significantly improve overall investment efficiency.

Project Updates

Binance Alpha to remove tokens BUZZ, DARK, and FROG

Binance announced that, due to non-compliance with Binance Alpha standards, the following tokens will be delisted from the recommendation list at 15:00 (Beijing time) on December 19, 2025: BUZZ, DARK, FROG, GORK, MIRAI, PERRY, RFC, SNAI, and TERMINUS. Binance reminds users to conduct thorough research (DYOR) before trading these tokens outside the Binance wallet to ensure fund safety.

Ontology completes mainnet upgrade; ONG token supply reduced from 1 billion to 800 million

Ontology’s mainnet has completed an upgrade, reducing the maximum and total supply of ONG tokens from 1 billion to 800 million. The proposal was approved by community vote and took effect on the mainnet. The voting occurred from October 28 to October 31, with Triones nodes voting unanimously with 117 million votes. The update involves a permanent burn of 200 million ONG, fixing the maximum and total supply at 800 million ONG, and implementing a new liquidity mechanism to lock assets worth 100 million ONG permanently. The release cycle of ONG has been extended to about 19 years, maintaining a steady release rate of 1 ONG per second. Previously, Binance announced support for the Ontology (ONT) network upgrade and hard fork, with community-approved adjustments reducing total supply to 800 million and permanently locking 100 million worth of assets.

Solana ecosystem DEX Lifinity to gradually shut down, $43.4 million assets to be distributed to token holders

According to SolanaFloor, Solana ecosystem DEX Lifinity has decided to gradually cease operations, with the proposal passing nearly unanimously, and the protocol entering the shutdown process. On December 10, facing increasing competition from prop AMMs, Lifinity proposed a governance plan for protocol continuation. Under the proposal, approximately $42 million of Lifinity DAO treasury assets will be consolidated into USDC and distributed proportionally to LFNTY token holders. Additionally, $1.4 million in remaining development funds will be allocated. Based on community estimates, token holders can expect to receive between $0.90 and $1.10 per token, based on treasury book value. It is recommended that LFNTY and veLFNTY holders convert their tokens to xLNFTY before redemption. The claim function for exchanging xLNFTY to USDC is expected to go live in about 9 days, pending security audit approval by Sec3. Since its launch in February 2022, Lifinity has processed over $149 billion in trading volume, ranking as the fifth-largest DEX in Solana history.

RateX releases RTX tokenomics: 44.18% allocated to ecosystem and community

PANews reports that Solana ecosystem yield aggregator RateX announced its RTX tokenomics on December 19. The total supply is 100 million tokens, with 44.18% allocated to ecosystem and community, 20% to the team, 20% to treasury, and 15.82% to investors. The 44.18% community share will see 6.66% of the total supply airdropped in the first quarter, with the remaining distributed in phases after TGE. Previously, in November, RateX completed a $7 million funding round with participation from Animoca Ventures and others.

Base has upgraded capacity; current Gas limit increased to 375 million Gas per block

Base Build posted on X that Base Chain has undergone capacity upgrades, with the block Gas limit now increased to 375 million Gas per block. This roughly 25% surge in capacity means an average throughput increase of about 4-5%. Additionally, Base has raised the minimum base fee from 0.0002 gwei to 0.0005 gwei to enhance chain functionality. At this minimum fee, typical transaction costs are less than one-tenth of a dollar.

Lido proposes a $60 million investment in 2026 to execute the GOOSE-3 plan

Lido DAO’s three ecosystem foundations (Lido Labs Foundation, Lido Ecosystem Foundation, Lido Alliance BORG) jointly submitted a 2026 ecosystem grant request (EGG) to execute the 2026 strategic plan GOOSE-3. The total requested grant is $60 million, with $43.8 million for core protocol maintenance and operations (including $26.9 million for protocol core upgrades and $16.9 million for growth initiatives), and a discretionary spending cap of $16.2 million for growth. The funds will support four strategic goals: expanding the staking ecosystem, ensuring protocol resilience (Lido core upgrades), developing new DAO revenue streams (Lido Earn), and exploring vertical expansion and real-world commercial applications. Previously, a new Lido proposal “GOOSE-3” suggested expanding into broader DeFi products and outlined four strategic goals for 2026.

Terraform Labs bankruptcy trustee files $4 billion claim against Jump, accusing it of being responsible for Terraform’s collapse

According to The Wall Street Journal, the bankruptcy trustee managing the remaining assets of Terraform Labs, which is liquidating Do Kwon’s assets, has filed a lawsuit against Jump Trading, accusing the high-frequency trading firm of illicit profits and contributing to the collapse of the “crypto empire.” The court-appointed plan administrator Todd Snyder is seeking $4 billion in claims from Jump, co-founder William DiSomma, and Kanav Kariya, who rose from intern to President of Jump’s crypto trading division.

Bitwise submits registration statement for Bitwise SUI ETF to SEC

According to The Block, crypto index fund manager Bitwise is seeking to launch an ETF tracking the SUI token. On Thursday, the firm submitted a registration statement for the Bitwise SUI ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing states: “The investment objective of this trust is to seek to reflect the value of the SUI assets held by the trust (net of trust operating expenses and other liabilities).” Coinbase Custody will serve as custodian. Stock ticker and sponsor fees are not yet listed.

Near Protocol’s NEAR token now cross-chain to Solana network

Near Protocol announced that its native token $NEAR is now officially live on the Solana network, enabled via NEAR Intents and Orb Markets for seamless cross-chain support. Users can now deposit and withdraw $NEAR directly on Solana without multi-wallet setup or switching gas fee networks.

Key Data

Ethena TVL has fallen over 55% from its October 3 peak, down to $6.63 billion

Data from unfolded. shows Ethena’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped over 55% from its peak of $14.98 billion on October 3, 2025, to $6.63 billion.

Bitcoin spot ETF saw net outflows of $161 million yesterday, only BlackRock’s IBIT had net inflow

According to SoSoValue, yesterday (December 18, Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced a net outflow of $161 million. The ETF with the largest net inflow was BlackRock’s IBIT, with $32.76 million. Its total net inflow to date is $62.665 billion. The ETF with the largest net outflow was Fidelity’s FBTC, with $170 million outflow yesterday. Its total net inflow to date is $12.193 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $111.041 billion, with a market share of 6.58% relative to Bitcoin’s total market cap. Total net inflows have reached $57.565 billion.

An independent miner successfully mined block 928,351, earning a reward of 3.15 BTC

According to Cointelegraph, an independent miner who rented less than $100 worth of hashpower on NiceHash successfully mined block 928,351, earning a reward of 3.152 BTC, worth approximately $271,000.

Two whale addresses accumulated 4,664 ETH during the early morning downtrend

On-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa tracked that two large whales accumulated ETH during the early morning downtrend. The new address 0x779…13703 withdrew 2,656 ETH from Binance, worth $7.55 million, at a price of $2,842.39. Additionally, address 0xbE3…9A42a withdrew 2,008 ETH (~$5.65 million) from Binance four hours ago; over the past four months, it has accumulated 6,411.4 ETH (~$24.83 million), with an average withdrawal price of $3,873, mostly staked via Everstake.

“Insider whale on October 11” with a $695 million long position has a floating loss of $77.22 million

On-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa observed that the “October 11 flash crash insider whale” with a $695 million long position is currently floating a loss of $77.22 million, including $65.88 million on ETH, $6.17 million on BTC, and $5.16 million on SOL.

A Bitcoin OG whale has deposited 5,152 BTC into Binance, worth about $445 million

Onchain Lens reports that a Bitcoin OG whale has deposited 5,152 BTC into Binance, valued at approximately $444.73 million.

Analysis: About $23 billion in Bitcoin options will expire next Friday, possibly intensifying high volatility

According to Bloomberg, the options market shows Bitcoin is under significant pressure entering the last weeks of 2025, with about $23 billion in contracts expiring next Friday, which could exacerbate the already high volatility. This amount accounts for over half of all open interest on Deribit. Nick Forster, founder of Derive.xyz, said: “Bitcoin positions remain clearly bearish. 30-day volatility has rebounded to around 45%, and skew remains around -5%. Longer-term skew is also anchored at about -5%, indicating traders are pricing in continued downside risk into Q1 and Q2, due to persistent selling pressure from inactive wallets depressing spot prices.” The positioning around the December 26 expiry reflects this divergence. Call options are concentrated at strike prices of $100,000 and $120,000, indicating market optimism for a year-end rebound. However, put options dominate recently, with large open interest at the $85,000 strike. Traders expect the market to reprice around two catalysts: one, hedging before the MSCI decision on January 15, which may remove crypto holdings exceeding 50% of assets from its indices; and two, renewed call overwriting flows.

( Investment & M&A

DePIN project DAWN completes $13 million Series B funding, led by Polychain

PANews reports that decentralized broadband project DAWN announced the completion of $13 million Series B funding led by Polychain Capital. The new funds will accelerate DAWN’s global expansion, infrastructure deployment, and ecosystem partnerships. DAWN is developed by the Andrena WiFi team, aiming to provide scalable decentralized internet access services using blockchain technology for a more democratic and efficient network connection worldwide.

Fuse Energy secures $70 million Series B funding, valuation reaches $5 billion

PANews reports that Solana-based DePIN project Fuse Energy announced the completion of $70 million Series B funding, valuing the company at $5 billion. The round was led by Lowercarbon Capital and Balderton Capital.

AI scientist Yann LeCun plans to raise €500 million for new AI startup, targeting a valuation of €3 billion

PANews reports that former Meta AI chief scientist and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun is planning to establish a new company, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs), with a target launch in January 2026. The company is currently in preliminary negotiations for €500 million in funding, aiming for a valuation of €3 billion. Nabla founder Alex LeBrun will serve as CEO and collaborate strategically with AMI. The firm will focus on building AI systems capable of understanding the physical world, applied to robotics, transportation, and other fields. Meta will establish a technical partnership but will not invest directly.

NYSE parent ICE in talks to invest in crypto payments firm MoonPay, valuation around $5 billion

Bloomberg reports that sources say Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent of NYSE, is negotiating to participate in a funding round for crypto payments company MoonPay Inc., which is nearing completion with a valuation of about $5 billion. ICE declined to comment, and MoonPay also refused to comment. Founded in 2019, MoonPay offers software that facilitates easier conversion between fiat and crypto. In late 2021, during the crypto bull market peak, its last funding valued it at $3.4 billion.