In 2025, meme coins and AI underperformed, with average YTD losses of -31.6% and -50.2%. DeFi fell -34.8% and DEX tokens declined -55.5%, while Layer 2s dropped -40.6%. In contrast, RWA gained +185.8% on average, driven by Keeta Network's 1,794.9% rally, and Layer 1s rose 80.3%.

On July 12, Pump.fun completed its PUMP token sale, raising $600 million and selling out in roughly 12 minutes. World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project backed by US President Donald Trump, has amassed around $550 million from its public sale. Other 2025 raises include Monad at $217 million and MegaETH at $78 million.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said the firm will vote against Aave's token alignment proposal, arguing that it lacks clear structure, governance, and value capture. The move adds to mounting resistance inside the AAVE DAO, where a Snapshot vote set to close on December 26 currently shows most participants rejecting or abstaining on the plan, which seeks to shift control of brand assets to tokenholders.

Trust Wallet confirmed a security breach in its browser extension version 2.68 after users reported rapid, unauthorized fund outflows. SlowMist linked the issue to a possible supply chain attack, while Changpeng "CZ" Zhao estimated losses at around $7 million and said Trust Wallet would reimburse affected users. The case highlights rising risks tied to browser-based wallets amid a broader surge in crypto thefts targeting personal wallets.

CryptoQuant reports Binance XRP futures open interest has dropped to about $453 million, the lowest since the end of 2024. OI previously topped $1 billion earlier and mid-2025 during speculative surges but has trended lower as leverage unwinds. XRP is near $1.87 after slipping below $2.00 and $1.90, with mixed on-chain signals.

Bitcoin failed to clear $90,000 this week and slipped below its 50-week SMA, a level analysts watch for trend shifts. Ali Martinez noted past breaches preceded average 54% declines, implying risk toward $40,000 if the level is not reclaimed. On-chain metrics signaled weak demand, and a brief Binance USD1-pair plunge to $24,111 was described as a liquidity event.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is calling for wallets to automatically block known poison addresses after a trader lost nearly $50 million in USDT in an address poisoning scam on December 20. He says wallet-level checks, shared blacklists and filtering spam micro‑transactions could eliminate this attack vector entirely.

Hyperliquid confirmed this week that a wallet tied to a former employee dismissed in Q1 2024 executed large short trades against HYPE. On December 17, the address deposited about $53,000 USDC and opened roughly $223,000 in leveraged shorts, including a $180,000 HYPE position. The exchange reiterated a zero‑tolerance policy on insider trading and defended the protocol's solvency.

Spot Solana ETFs in the United States have accumulated $750.10 million in net inflows by December 22, with outflows occurring on only three trading days since their October 28 launch. Over the same period, the Solana network has seen growing adoption of the Frankendancer validator client, wider use of the DoubleZero mesh network, and a sharp rise in stablecoin circulation from about $1.8 billion in early 2024 to roughly $12 billion by November 2025.