Federal Reserve Governor: Potential Inflation Approaching Target, Fed Policy Stance Too Tight

On December 16, the SEC officially announced that a roundtable discussion on financial monitoring and privacy — hosted by its cryptocurrency working group — took place today at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 a.m. Beijing Time).

As of December 16, per Hyperinsight monitoring, Bitcoin has dropped to $85,618 and Ethereum to $2,936. The “BTC OG Insider Whale” is now facing an overall loss of over $52 million, with its positions detailed below: - ETH Long (5x leverage): 190,935 ETH, worth ~$561 million; loss of $43.04 million (-38.3%) - BTC Long (5x leverage): 1,000 BTC, valued at $85.64 million; loss of $5.86 million (-34.25%) - SOL Long (20x leverage): 250,000 SOL, worth $31.2 million; loss of $3.17 million (-203%)

Dec. 16 (BlockBeats) — Per Coinglass data, Bitcoin’s cumulative long liquidation intensity across major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will hit $531 million if the token drops below $84,000. Conversely, cumulative short liquidation intensity will reach $559 million if Bitcoin climbs above $87,500. Note: Coinglass’ liquidation chart does not show the exact number or value of contracts at risk of liquidation. Instead, its bars reflect the relative importance of each liquidation cluster compared to neighboring clusters (i.e., "intensity"). A taller bar indicates a more severe liquidity cascade reaction when the underlying asset’s price hits that level.

On December 16, per HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $86,000 and is currently trading at $85,909.

On December 16, Circle—issuer of the USDC stablecoin—announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property (IP). The acquisition is expected to close in early 2026. Circle aims to advance interoperability in the blockchain space, aligning with its vision of an open, interconnected, and scalable chain-based economy. Interop Labs has been a key contributor to Axelar, a leading cross-chain communication and token transfer framework, collaborating with the open-source community to drive Axelar’s core development. Integrating Interop Labs’ talent and technology into Circle will accelerate two core initiatives: - **Arc**: Circle’s enterprise-focused layer designed to become an economic operating system for the blockchain internet; - Cross-chain transfer protocols. Notably, the transaction only covers Interop Labs’ team and proprietary IP. The Axelar network, foundation, and AXL token will continue operating independently

On December 16th, per Coinglass data, total cryptocurrency network liquidations hit $330 million over the past four hours—with $307 million in long positions and $23.2 million in short positions liquidated. Notably, when Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $86,025.37, a $11.5819 million long position was liquidated on Binance, marking the largest single liquidation in the past 24 hours.