Ethereum

Updated December 22, 2025, ETH saw sustained inflows to whale wallets, with 10K–100K-ETH addresses leading. According to Cryptoquant, these wallets collectively hold over 22M ETH, while the largest cohorts carry around 4.47M. Whales accumulated in 2025 at sub-$3,000 levels, offering support near $2,800 and signaling long-term confidence despite weak retail sentiment.

Since August, Ethereum open interest has fallen by about 50%, signaling a substantial deleveraging in the derivatives market and a broad reduction in leveraged risk. ETH is trading close to $3,040 while total liquidations hover around $48.5 million, with shorts contributing roughly $31.8 million and longs about $16.7 million. With leverage significantly reduced and volatility muted, Ethereum appears to be consolidating as traders wait to see how new leverage returns to the market.

According to ChatGPT, Ethereum is favored over Solana for 2026, with the AI model focusing on value capture, institutional alignment, and evolving layer-2 economics rather than raw activity. It highlights maturing rollups, rising blob-space demand, and constrained issuance for ETH, while noting year-to-date prices of $3,040 for ETH (down almost 9%) and $126 for SOL (down 33%) as of press time.

Bitcoin moved near $90,000 while Ethereum reclaimed $3,000 amid a broader uptick in majors. BNB stayed above $860; NIGHT jumped 13% to $0.10 and HYPE rose 4%, whereas AAVE slid 11% and CC fell 21%. The total crypto market cap added $30 billion to $3.120 trillion on CG.

The market is attempting to steady after sharp swings, with total capitalization around $3.01 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin is near $89,100 and up about 1.1% over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum trades close to $3,030. Sentiment remains guarded, with the Fear & Greed Index at 29 and altcoin participation muted.

Ethereum rebounded above $2,950 and now trades over the 100-hour Simple Moving Average. Resistance is noted near $3,020 and $3,050, with a stronger barrier at $3,080; a breakout could target $3,150 and then $3,220–$3,250. Failure to clear $3,050 would refocus supports at $2,950, $2,915, $2,880, and $2,840.

On December 22, 2025, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson warned that rushing post-quantum cryptography could slow blockchain networks and increase costs. He said the necessary tools exist but are inefficient today, urging developers to track benchmarks including NIST's 2024 standards and DARPA's 2033 decision point.

Ethereum's mainnet is currently handling between $90 billion and $100 billion in daily stablecoin transfers, with monthly volumes reaching as high as $2.82 trillion in October 2025. Over the past three months, Solana's on-chain SOL-USD activity has matched or exceeded the combined spot volumes of Binance and Bybit, as stablecoin markets on both chains grow and segment between USDT on Ethereum and USDC on Solana.

On December 21st, trader Captain Faibik, known for previously calling a major Bitcoin price drop, argued that the recent crypto correction has ended and a new bull phase is approaching, with BTC potentially reaching $120,000. Analysts are also tracking altcoin strength via the Total 3 market cap and highlighting Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, Ethena and Bitcoin Hyper as standout opportunities based on on-chain data, technical setups and institutional interest. Whale accumulation, ETF inflows and a $30 million Bitcoin Hyper presale are among the key metrics underpinning these bullish outlooks.

MoonPay president Keith Grossman says tokenization will remake finance faster than digitization reshaped media. He cites institution-led pilots and regulatory milestones, including an SEC/CFTC joint statement in September and SEC approval for DTCC in December. The RWA market cap is nearly $19 billion excluding stablecoins, and DTCC handled about $3.7 quadrillion in 2024.