Weekly Editor's Picks (1213-1219)

marsbitPublished on 2025-12-20Last updated on 2025-12-20

Abstract

Weekly Editor's Picks (Dec 13-19) by Odaily Planet Daily highlights key developments and insights in crypto. Institutional investors are becoming major crypto buyers, while real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoins gain traction as key asset classes. Layer-2 networks are consolidating, and AI is evolving from hype to infrastructure. The industry is moving from "fat apps" to "fat distribution," emphasizing integration and user access. In policy, S&P and Tether clash over risk frameworks, with Tether shifting toward a "shadow central bank" model using gold, BTC, and treasuries. Prediction markets face structural challenges for leverage due to binary outcomes. Bitcoin miners are transitioning to data centers due to rising costs. Solana ecosystem shows progress with 49 updates from Breakpoint. Hyperliquid introduces portfolio margin for better capital efficiency. Web3's entry point is shifting toward wallets, not social apps, driven by asset management needs. Security highlights include $2B in crypto lost annually due to lack of inheritance plans, with a proposed three-step solution. Weekly updates cover SEC guidance, Hong Kong listings, Trump’s pro-crypto impact, and major hacks, including 0G Foundation losing 520k tokens.

"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a functional column of Odaily Planet Daily. While Planet Daily covers a large number of instant news every week, it also publishes many high-quality in-depth analysis articles, but they may be hidden in the information flow and hot news, passing you by.

Therefore, our editorial department will select some high-quality articles worth spending time reading and collecting from the content published in the past 7 days every Saturday. From the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and opinion output, we aim to bring new inspiration to you in the crypto world.

Now, let's read together:

Investment and Entrepreneurship

Crypto Coming of Age: 2025, The Restructuring of Institutions, Assets, and Regulation

Institutions become the marginal buyers of crypto assets.

Real World Assets (RWAs) evolve from a narrative concept to an asset class.

Stablecoins become both a "killer app" and a systemic vulnerability.

Layer 2 networks (L2) consolidate into a "winner-takes-all" landscape.

Prediction markets evolve from toy applications to financial infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence & Crypto (AI × Crypto) shifts from hype narrative to actual infrastructure.

Launchpads industrialize, becoming internet capital markets.

Tokens with high Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) and low circulating supply prove to be structurally uninvestable.

Information Finance (InfoFi) experiences boom, inflation, and then collapse.

Consumer crypto returns to the mainstream, but through Neobanks rather than Web3 applications.

Regulation gradually normalizes globally.

"Fat Apps" Are Dead, Welcome to the Era of "Fat Distribution"

Previously, the crypto industry invested excessive resources in infrastructure and technological optimization.

By 2025, the industry has officially entered a new stage: cryptocurrency applications themselves have become replaceable, standardized products.

Integration and cooperation will ultimately win out, distribution channels will ultimately win out, front-end interfaces will ultimately win out; while crypto applications will merely become simple traffic pipes.

Tiger Research: Is Now the Time to Buy?

Buy in batches, set strict stop-losses.

Five Meme Coins Soar Against the Market Trend, Who is the Next Potential Coin?

PIPPIN, FOLKS, BEAT, AIA, RAVE.

Also Recommended:

From Hype to Pull, A Sharp Commentary on 21 Mainstream Crypto Narratives in 2025

Grayscale Decrypts 2026: Ten Trends Reshaping the Industry Ecosystem

Starting with a16z's Asian Retreat: The Twilight of the VC Empire and the New Kings

The Year of M&A Devouring: 2025 Web3 Giants' Ecosystem Restructuring and Power Reshuffle

Crypto Money Printer Wants to Acquire Juventus: The Offensive and Defensive Battle Between Europe's Old and New Money

Policy and Stablecoins

USDT Rating Controversy: S&P's "Ruler of Stability", Tether's "Market Debate", and the Transformation into a "Shadow Central Bank"

The essence of the divergence between S&P and Tether: Traditional finance's risk perception prioritizes "solvency", focusing on "reserve liquidation capacity under extreme runs"; while Tether focuses on "market liquidity priority" and long-term value preservation and risk resistance (especially inflation risk). The two measure risk from completely different dimensions.

The strategic intent behind Tether's reserve transformation: Tether's reserve model is shifting from "1:1" cash-equivalent reserves to a hybrid model of "hard assets (gold) + digital assets (BTC) + low-risk assets (US Treasuries)". Essentially, this is a transformation from a "stablecoin issuer" to a "global liquidity provider + digital asset reserve institution". The core drivers include inflation hedging demand, pro-cyclical yield enhancement (e.g., the predicted 2025 BTC/gold bull market), and de-dollarization布局. In fact, Tether is becoming more like a "shadow central bank" than a simple stablecoin issuer.

USDT's short-term risks and long-term trends: USDT's peg stability is still supported by on-chain liquidity. However, in the short term, the 24% of high-volatility assets (BTC/gold/loans) in the reserves may expose risks during the 2026 interest rate cut cycle and a potential crypto bear market (In 2025, Tether's book showed huge floating profits due to holding gold and Bitcoin reserves; however, the situation may change in 2026). In the long term, the "central bankization" trend of stablecoins (inflation-resistant assets + global network + energy) will push the industry towards "transparency + standardization".

Prediction Markets

After Researching How to Apply Leverage to Prediction Markets, I Found This Problem Almost Unsolvable

Prediction markets have three characteristics completely different from spot trading or perpetual contracts: a clear upper limit, a lower limit of 0, and binary outcomes that are confirmed instantly.

The key premise for leverage to work on conventional assets is that the price change of the asset is continuous. Prediction markets, however, experience price jumps.

Airdrop Opportunities and Interaction Guides

Overview of Recent Developments in Popular Perp DEXs, Find the Best Way for You to Participate

Popular Interaction Collection | Cascade Early Access Application; OpenMind Adds Badge Tasks (December 17)

Step-by-Step Guide to Participating in predict.fun, Supported by CZ

Interaction Tutorial | Total Prize Pool of $1 Million, Jupiter Launches Trading Card Collection Activity

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Miners Are Abandoning "Mining" for "Cloud"

Bitcoin mining revenue is unstable, while costs continue to rise, making the core business model unsustainable.

Mining companies are beginning to use their existing sites and infrastructure to rent out data center space to large tech companies.

This transformation alleviates恶性竞争 and helps improve the health and stability of the entire industry.

Multi-Ecosystem and Cross-Chain

Complete Recap of Abu Dhabi Breakpoint: 49 Key Developments in the Solana Ecosystem

Complete Recap of Solana Hackathon Grand Prize Projects: The Industry's Handpicked Seeds

CeFi & DeFi

Hyperliquid "Portfolio Margin" Launches: Targeting Traditional Finance's $7 Trillion Incremental Script

Hyperliquid launching Portfolio Margin is revolutionizing the account system of on-chain derivatives, significantly improving capital efficiency, and meeting the demand of large-scale institutional funds.

Web3 & AI

$180 Million in Experience and Lessons: The Current Entry Point to Web3 is Not Social, But Wallets

The core of Web3 is value interaction rather than information transmission. The primary need for users entering the ecosystem is to manage digital assets and complete on-chain activities. Giants are competing fiercely in the wallet赛道.

The Web3 entry point has shifted from CEX (early stage) to wallets (after the DeFi explosion) and now to the combination of AI and wallets.

Security

Death is the Largest "Buyer" of Cryptocurrency

Conservative estimates suggest that about $2 billion in crypto assets exit circulation annually due to lack of inheritance.

The article introduces a simple three-step inheritance method (thought up like a detective fan), which is easy to remember, difficult to crack, accessible anytime and anywhere, and guarantees 100% non-custodial (i.e., no reliance on intermediaries):

Build a dedicated single-page website → Encrypt and convert the seed phrase into a digital string → Upload the digital string to the dedicated website.

Weekly Hotspot Recap

In the past week, the U.S. SEC issued a "Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Crypto Asset Securities", released crypto asset custody guidelines, systematically梳理 wallet types and main risks; HashKey listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (first-day observations); Ripple, Circle, BitGo, and five other crypto companies approved to become trust banks (interpretation);

Additionally, in terms of policy and macro markets, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins warned that cryptocurrency could become a financial surveillance tool; U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant: Expects macroeconomic提振 in Q1 2026;

In terms of views and statements, Bitfinex Alpha report: 2026 Will Be the Year of Liquidity, Crypto ETP AUM May Exceed $400 Billion; Bitwise Releases Top 10 Predictions for the 2026 Crypto Market: The Bull Market Will Continue, Bitcoin Will Set New Highs; 10x Research: Everyone is Bullish on 2026, But the Data Doesn't Support This View; Twenty One Capital CEO: Shorting the USD and Longing BTC is Part of the Company's Business; Delphi Digital: Cryptocurrency is No Longer the Only Investment Choice, Crypto Concept Stocks are Creating a吸血 Effect on Altcoins; Trump's "Embrace of Crypto" Reshapes U.S. Stock Structure, But High Volatility Risks are Spreading to Traditional Stock Markets; a16z Crypto Calls on U.S. CFTC to Quickly Clarify Blockchain Protocol and Application Rules; Moonrock Founder: Bullish on the Application Layer, Bearish on Infrastructure; CBB: Altseason is Approaching, Governance Tokens are the Future; U.S. SEC Has Ended Its Investigation into the Aave Protocol; Aave Founder: Next Year's Three Strategic Pillars are Aave V4, Horizon, and the Aave App; Multicoin联创: Ethereum Was My Crypto Guide, Source of First Pot of Gold, and the Fastest Asset in History to Reach a $100 Billion Market Cap, But I Abandoned It in 2017; Uniswap Founder: Uniswap Unification Proposal Submitted for Final Governance Vote, 100 Million UNI to Be Burned if Passed; Circle's Acquisition of Axelar Sparks Controversy;

In terms of institutions, large companies, and leading projects, Nasdaq Plans to Extend Stock and ETP Trading Hours to 23 Hours; Securitize to Launch "Real" Not "Synthetic" Stocks On-Chain, with Full Shareholder Rights; JPMorgan to Launch First Tokenized Money Market Fund on Ethereum, Injecting $100 Million as Startup Capital; Visa Announces Launch of Stablecoin Advisory Services; Strategy Security Passes Nasdaq 100 Index Adjustment, But Still Faces MSCI Exclusion Risk; Binance Releases Project Listing Path Framework and Application Guide; Stablecoin U Launches: Lands on BNB Chain and Ethereum, Integrates with Mainstream DeFi Protocols like PancakeSwap, ListaDAO, Listed on Centralized Exchange HTX; Binance Wallet Launches Web3 Lending Function, Integrates Venus Protocol; Binance Introduces Pay and Regular Withdrawal Send Function; Tether Launches Peer-to-Peer Password Manager PearPass; MetaMask Supports Fiat Purchases of Bitcoin; Kalshi CEO: Kalshi Officially Opens Combos Function, Daily Trading Volume Reaches $340 Million, Setting a Historical Record; WLFI Releases Governance Proposal: Proposes Using Part of Unlocked Treasury Funds to Incentivize USD1 Adoption; RateX Reveals Token Economic Model, First Season Airdrop 6.66%; Canaan Technology Announces $30 Million Stock Repurchase Plan;

Data-wise, Ethereum and L2 network lending revenue accounts for about 90% of total crypto market revenue; North Korean Hackers Stole $2.02 Billion in Cryptocurrency in 2025, Setting a New Record; Juventus Stock Rises Nearly 14% After Rejecting Tether's Acquisition Offer, Juventus Fan Token JUV Plummets Over 13%;

Security-wise, 0G Foundation: Contract Attacked, Resulting in 520,000 0G Stolen......Well, another rollercoaster week.

Attached is the portal to the "Weekly Editor's Picks" series.

See you next issue~

Related Questions

QWhat are the key trends in the crypto industry for 2025 according to the 'Crypto Coming of Age' section?

AKey trends for 2025 include institutions becoming marginal buyers of crypto assets, Real World Assets (RWAs) evolving into an asset class, stablecoins being both a 'killer app' and a systemic vulnerability, L2 networks consolidating into a 'winner-takes-all' landscape, prediction markets maturing into financial infrastructure, AI x Crypto transitioning from hype to practical infrastructure, launchpads industrializing into internet capital markets, high-FDV/low-float tokens proving structurally uninvestable, InfoFi booming and then collapsing, consumer crypto returning via neobanks, and global regulation normalizing.

QWhat is the core strategic shift in Tether's reserve model as discussed in the 'Policy & Stablecoins' section?

ATether is shifting its reserve model from '1:1' cash-equivalent reserves to a hybrid model of 'hard assets (gold) + digital assets (BTC) + low-risk assets (US Treasuries)'. This represents a strategic transformation from a stablecoin issuer to a 'global liquidity provider + digital asset reserve institution', driven by inflation hedging needs, pro-cyclical yield enhancement, and de-dollarization布局.

QWhy is applying leverage particularly challenging in prediction markets, as explained in the article?

ALeverage is challenging in prediction markets because they have three distinct features: a clear upper price limit, a lower limit of zero, and binary outcomes that are confirmed instantly. The key prerequisite for leverage in conventional assets—continuous price changes—does not apply, as prediction market prices move in jumps.

QWhat major trend is identified regarding Bitcoin miners in the 'Bitcoin' section?

ABitcoin miners are transitioning 'from mining to cloud' services. Due to unstable mining income and persistently high costs, their core business model is becoming unsustainable. Miners are now leveraging their existing facilities and infrastructure to rent out data center space to large tech companies, a shift that alleviates恶性竞争 and improves the industry's overall health and stability.

QAccording to the 'Web3 & AI' section, what is the current primary entry point for users into the Web3 ecosystem?

AThe current primary entry point for users into the Web3 ecosystem is the wallet, not social applications. This is because the core of Web3 is value interaction rather than information transfer, and the user's primary need is to manage digital assets and conduct on-chain activities. Major companies are competing in the wallet sector, and the entry point is evolving from CEXs to wallets, and now towards a combination of AI and wallets.

Related Reads

Single-Day Plunge of 30%, Arthur Hayes Suddenly Liquidates: Why Did ZEC Get Exploded by Security Issues?

On June 5th, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox disclosed a critical soundness vulnerability in the project's latest Orchard privacy pool. This flaw, found in the elliptic curve multiplication constraints, could allow an attacker to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC within the shielded pool, with transactions appearing valid. The vulnerability was discovered in late May by security researcher Taylor Hornby, who utilized Anthropic's new Opus 4.8 AI model for a targeted audit. The Zcash ecosystem had already performed an emergency network upgrade to patch the issue. However, the detailed disclosure triggered severe market panic, causing ZEC's price to plummet over 30% in a single day. Notably, prominent investor Arthur Hayes announced he had sold his entire ZEC position following the news. The incident starkly challenges the "technological trust" narrative central to privacy coins. Despite years of top-tier cryptographic audits, the bug persisted until uncovered with advanced AI-assisted research. This highlights the growing gap between theoretical perfection and practical implementation in privacy technology. The event serves as a industry-wide warning: in an AI-driven security landscape, the assumption that "undiscovered equals safe" is obsolete. It underscores the urgent need for continuous, proactive security practices combining AI audits, formal verification, and rapid response mechanisms.

foresightnews_api47m ago

Single-Day Plunge of 30%, Arthur Hayes Suddenly Liquidates: Why Did ZEC Get Exploded by Security Issues?

foresightnews_api47m ago

Breaking the Curse of DeFi Cascading Liquidations, Vitalik Proposes a New Solution

**Vitalik Buterin Proposes New DeFi Design to Eliminate Forced Liquidations** Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a proposal for a new decentralized finance (DeFi) architecture aimed at removing the automatic liquidation mechanisms prevalent in current lending protocols. The core idea involves creating synthetic assets using options as building blocks, fundamentally avoiding the抵押借贷结构 that triggers forced sell-offs. The proposal responds to a recurring flaw in DeFi: during sharp market downturns, mass自动清算 of under-collateralized positions can exacerbate price declines, creating systemic selling pressure and market instability, as evidenced by recent crypto market volatility. Buterin's model would split an asset like 1 ETH into two option-like derivatives, P and N, pegged to a price index with a set strike price and expiration. At expiry, an oracle determines the settlement price to allocate the underlying ETH between P and N holders. This design eliminates the "cliff" of instant liquidation. Instead, a position's value would gradually drift from its target peg if not actively rebalanced by the user, transferring the rebalancing decision from the protocol to the user or automated tools. A key advantage is the reduced reliance on high-frequency, real-time oracle price feeds, which are vulnerable to manipulation and errors in current systems. The delayed settlement in the options model allows for more robust, fault-tolerant oracle designs. However, significant challenges remain for practical adoption. High transaction costs (slippage) from frequent rebalancing on automated market makers (AMMs) could erode user funds. The model may not be suitable for stablecoins requiring a strict 1:1 dollar peg, as it inherently allows for value drift. Success would depend on developing new liquidity provisioning models and deep markets for these synthetic assets. The proposal represents a fundamental rethinking of DeFi risk management, challenging the industry to explore alternatives to被动集中平仓 rather than merely optimizing existing liquidation processes. It remains a theoretical framework awaiting implementation and testing by development teams.

foresightnews_api50m ago

Breaking the Curse of DeFi Cascading Liquidations, Vitalik Proposes a New Solution

foresightnews_api50m ago

Bitcoin's Decline Marks the Transformation of Crypto

Title: The Decline of Bitcoin Marks the Transformation of Crypto While Bitcoin's price recently fell below $70,000, down approximately 45% from its peak, the broader crypto industry is not following it into decline. Instead, crypto is maturing and evolving beyond its dependence on Bitcoin's price movements. Two of Bitcoin's core functions are being usurped. First, AI has captured its role as the primary speculative asset. AI, with its tangible revenue, explosive demand, and massive capital inflows ($700-830 billion in 2024), is siphoning off the speculative "hot money" that once drove Bitcoin. It also contributes to a sustained high-interest-rate environment, further tightening liquidity for assets like Bitcoin. Second, dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC and USDT have replaced Bitcoin as the crypto market's foundational currency and primary on/off-ramp. Most trading pairs and on-chain transactions are now settled in stablecoins, severing the historical link where all capital inflows had to pass through Bitcoin first. This decoupling allows projects to thrive based on their own fundamentals rather than Bitcoin's price. Examples include Hyperliquid, an on-chain derivatives exchange with annual revenues of $8-13 billion, and prediction market platform Polymarket, valued at $200 billion with $3.65 billion in annual fees. These projects are evaluated on traditional metrics like revenue and user growth. New opportunities are emerging, particularly around privacy. Privacy coins like Zcash (ZEC) are seeing surging demand, while infrastructure like NEAR enables private, cross-chain asset transfers without requiring users to hold a specific token—privacy becomes a universal service layer. In this new paradigm, stablecoins are the universal cash, various project tokens represent equity, and privacy-enabled cross-chain coordination layers (like NEAR) act as the critical infrastructure connecting a fragmented, multi-chain ecosystem. Bitcoin is now just one asset among many. The era where the entire crypto market moved in lockstep with Bitcoin is over. The industry's health should now be judged by project fundamentals—real revenue, active users, and tokenomics that capture value—and the development of the underlying infrastructure enabling a mature, dollar-denominated crypto economy.

foresightnews_api53m ago

Bitcoin's Decline Marks the Transformation of Crypto

foresightnews_api53m ago

Lightspark CEO: In Ten Years, Bitcoin Will Be as Invisible as TCP/IP, Yet Power Trillions in Daily Transactions

A decade from now, Bitcoin will function like TCP/IP — invisible yet foundational, supporting trillions in daily transactions globally, according to Lightspark CEO David Marcus. In this future, a coffee shop in Lagos receives instant payment, a manufacturer in São Paulo settles an invoice with a supplier in Ho Chi Minh City, and a freelancer in Bangalore gets paid weekly from an Austin startup — all via Bitcoin's settlement layer, with none of the parties consciously interacting with it. This vision parallels the adoption of open protocols: first driven by necessity where existing systems fail, then scaling rapidly as tools mature and economic benefits become clear. The structural shift begins with wallets. Modern non-custodial wallets, like Spark, allow users to hold dollars, local currency, and Bitcoin in a single address, seamlessly switching between them. This eliminates friction and revolutionizes global custody, moving significant deposits to user-controlled keys not by ideology, but by superior utility. As a result, Bitcoin becomes the default savings layer for billions, as its fixed supply and appreciating value make it a rational choice for savers holding it alongside stablecoins in their everyday wallets. Businesses follow a similar path, from small companies in emerging markets to multinational corporations, holding Bitcoin alongside operational stablecoins. The latest trend is direct Bitcoin transactions for commerce. When both parties hold Bitcoin, transacting in it becomes the simplest option — no conversions, no intermediary currency. This starts in niche areas like high-value B2B settlements but grows as infrastructure makes sending Bitcoin as easy as stablecoins. An accelerating force is AI agents. By 2036, AI agents conducting commerce on behalf of individuals and firms will increasingly choose Bitcoin for settlement. Optimizing for speed, finality, and minimal counterparty risk across jurisdictions, they find Bitcoin's global, neutral, and programmable network ideal for netting and settling obligations. Thus, Bitcoin is becoming the native currency for machine commerce, just as it has become a native savings asset for humans. The global monetary system is being rebuilt from the protocol layer: open infrastructure, default self-custody, Bitcoin settling everything underneath, with stablecoins as the interface. Most users won't think about Bitcoin when they transact — and they won't need to.

foresightnews_api57m ago

Lightspark CEO: In Ten Years, Bitcoin Will Be as Invisible as TCP/IP, Yet Power Trillions in Daily Transactions

foresightnews_api57m ago

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