CME Goes All In: Precious Metals See Sharp Decline

On December 31, the dYdX Foundation announced that since the proposal to allocate 75% of protocol revenue to DYDX token buybacks was passed on November 13, it has repurchased approximately 7.5 million DYDX tokens, totaling around $1.35 million in value. The next buyback will involve 1.78 million DYDX tokens.

On December 31, Upbit announced it will add support for CRO as a staking digital asset, with the feature scheduled to launch on January 6.

As of December 31, cryptocurrency industry leaders held high hopes for 2025—but Michael Saylor, Tom Lee, and Arthur Hayes all missed their Bitcoin price targets for the year’s end. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes earlier this year predicted Bitcoin would hit $200,000 or more by 2025’s close. In a November blog post, he doubled down: “I’ll stick to my forecast—if I’m wrong, that’s fine.” By December, Hayes conceded his prior calls were “pretty terrible.” Tom Lee—chair of BitMine, Ethereum’s first treasury firm—was bullish at year’s start. In a January CNBC appearance, he forecast Bitcoin would surge to $250,000 by 2025’s end. By late November, Lee had walked back his prediction to “over $100,000.” MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor also leaned into overly bullish forecasts early this year, arguing institutional inflows would drive steady Bitcoin gains. By October 29, he revised his take: “Our current expectation is Bitcoin will be around $150,000 by year’s end.” *Note: C

On December 31, Binance Alpha will launch the second round of Quack AI (Q) airdrop claims. Users with at least 240 Alpha points can claim 2,500 Q tokens on a first-come, first-served basis. If the reward pool isn’t fully distributed, the points threshold will automatically drop by 5 points every 5 minutes. Note: Claiming the airdrop will deduct 15 Alpha points.

**BANK OF CHINA TO PAY INTEREST ON DIGITAL YUAN WALLETS STARTING 2026** On December 31 (today), the Bank of China (BOC) issued an announcement confirming it will begin paying interest on digital yuan (e-CNY) real-name wallet balances held by its users starting January 1, 2026. Key details from the announcement: - Interest will be calculated using BOC’s current applicable deposit rate. - Interest calculation and settlement rules will mirror those for the bank’s demand deposits (standard checking/savings accounts). - The policy applies only to digital yuan wallets opened directly with BOC. No further terms or exceptions were disclosed in the initial notice.