Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
Yesterday's Market Dynamics
Spot Gold Broke Through $4,500 This Morning, Reaching a Record High
According to Jinshi Data, spot gold broke through the $4,500 per ounce mark for the first time this morning, accumulating a gain of over $1,870 this year and is currently trading at around $4,508 per ounce.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant Supports Reconsidering the Fed's 2% Inflation Target
U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant supports reconsidering the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation target. Besant stated that the discussion might revolve around adjusting the inflation target to a range of 1.5%-2.5% or 1%-3%.
Trump: Most Economists Misjudged Q3 GDP Data, "The Best is Yet to Come"
U.S. President Trump posted on social media: Third-quarter GDP growth reached 4.3%, far exceeding the expected 3.2%. 60 out of 61 Bloomberg economists predicted incorrectly, but "Trump" and a few other geniuses accurately predicted it. This success is attributed to good governance and tariff policies. Consumer spending is strong, net exports have risen sharply, imports and the trade deficit have significantly decreased, and there is no inflationary pressure! Thanks to my tax reform bill and tariff measures, investment is hitting record highs. The Trump economic golden age is advancing at full speed, and the best is yet to come!
Bloomberg: Russia Plans to Allow Retail Investors to Participate in Domestic Cryptocurrency Trading
According to Bloomberg, the Russian central bank has developed a framework to regulate the domestic cryptocurrency market, planning to allow retail investors to purchase cryptocurrencies under specific conditions.
Under this framework, non-qualified investors can purchase the most liquid cryptocurrencies after passing a knowledge test, but with an annual trading cap of 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,800) through a single intermediary. Qualified investors can purchase any cryptocurrency except anonymous tokens without limit after passing a risk awareness test.
Etherscan to Cease Indexing and Support for ZKsync Era from January 7, 2026
ZKsync officially announced that Etherscan will cease indexing and support for ZKsync Era from January 7, 2026. Subsequently, users will need to use the native ZKsync block explorer to view block, transaction, and contract data. Developers relying on the Etherscan API must complete migration before the deadline.
Gnosis Chain Has Executed a Hard Fork, Recovering $116 Million in Balancer Hacked Funds
According to Financefeeds, Gnosis Chain has executed a hard fork, successfully recovering funds related to the $116 million hack on Balancer in November.
Gnosis confirmed via platform X on Tuesday that the hard fork was completed and the stolen funds are now "out of the hacker's control." Previously, most validator nodes had implemented an emergency soft fork in November to control losses. Gnosis infrastructure lead Philippe Schommers stated that the recovered funds will be deposited into a DAO-controlled wallet, and the community will decide the subsequent distribution plan.
Previous news reported that Balancer disclosed an attack on its decentralized exchange and automated market maker on November 3, resulting in losses exceeding $116 million. White hat hackers and internal rescue operations successfully recovered approximately $28 million in assets.
a16z Partner: Privacy Will Become the Most Important Moat in the Cryptocurrency Space
According to a post by a16z General Partner Ali Yahya, privacy will become the most important moat in the cryptocurrency space. Ali stated that because secret information is difficult to migrate, privacy features are sufficient to differentiate new chains from others and create on-chain lock-in effects. When users are on a public blockchain, they can easily transact with users on other chains, but on a privacy chain, the chain a user chooses is more important because once they join a chain, they are less likely to risk exposing themselves by moving to another chain.
Ali believes this will create a winner-take-all situation. Since privacy is crucial for most real-world use cases, a few privacy chains will capture the majority of the market in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Wintermute: Bitcoin and Ethereum Dominate the Market by End of 2025, Altcoins Under Pressure
Wintermute released its market report today, stating that the crypto market experienced severe volatility last week, with BTC briefly falling below $85,000 and ETH below $3,000, triggering approximately $1.4 billion in liquidations. Market structure narrowed further, Bitcoin's dominance continued to rise, while altcoins performed poorly due to supply pressure.
Data shows that institutional funds have been consistently buying mainstream coins since the summer, and retail investors are also shifting from altcoins to BTC and ETH. Despite significant short-term volatility, the trend of traditional financial institutions steadily entering the crypto space is expected to provide mid-term price support.
Analysts predict that as the year-end holidays approach, market activity will calm down, prices will remain range-bound, and investors will continue to prefer highly liquid assets.
Hong Kong 1 Billion Yen Virtual Currency Exchange Robbery: Victim is Mainland Chinese, 15 Arrested, Some Suspects Have Triad Backgrounds
According to Hong Kong media HK01, a Japanese company operating in virtual currency and luxury handbags was robbed in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, losing 1 billion yen (approximately 50 million HKD). The incident occurred on the morning of December 18, where 4 knife-wielding robbers stole 4 suitcases containing cash in just 30 seconds.
Hong Kong police have arrested 15 people, some suspects have triad backgrounds, and 7 have been charged with "conspiracy to commit robbery." Police stated that all involved individuals have been apprehended, including the mastermind, but the whereabouts of the stolen money are still under investigation.
It is understood that the 39-year-old male victim is a mainland Chinese citizen who came to Hong Kong on a two-way permit. He was assisting a driver with transporting luggage at the time. The two are employees of a Japanese company dealing in virtual currency and luxury handbags. They originally planned to exchange business revenue brought from Japan into virtual currency and HKD through a Hong Kong exchange but were robbed en route to their destination.
SOL Treasury Company Upexi Files Application with SEC to Raise Up to $1 Billion
According to CoinDesk, U.S.-listed SOL treasury company Upexi (UPXI) has filed a shelf registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company plans to raise up to $1 billion by issuing common stock, preferred stock, debt instruments, warrants, or other securities.
Upexi currently holds approximately 2 million SOL tokens (worth about $248 million), making it the fourth-largest publicly traded company by Solana holdings. The company stated that the proceeds will be used for general purposes such as working capital, R&D, acquisitions, and debt repayment.
Notably, Upexi's stock fell about 7% to $1.85 on Tuesday and has fallen about 50% year-to-date, while SOL's price has fallen 34% over the same period. Besides cryptocurrency assets, the company also manages several consumer brands, including Cure Mushrooms medicinal products and Lucky Tail pet care products.
Former FTX US President's New Venture Architect Financial Technologies Raises $35 Million
According to The Information, former FTX US president Brett Harrison has raised $35 million for his newly founded Architect Financial Technologies, valuing the company at approximately $187 million. Its exchange, AX, focuses on traditional asset perpetual contracts (stocks and forex) rather than crypto perps. The platform is regulated in Bermuda and is only open to non-U.S. institutional investors because the U.S. has not yet approved perpetual futures products.
Market Dynamics
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This American Earns $250 Million a Year from Podcasting, Luo Yonghao is Learning from Him
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Gold Prices Have Soared Again and Again, Can Ordinary People Still Get On Board?
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