There is a divergence in the Chinese community regarding the short-term trend, with traders focusing on the selling pressure caused by liquidity depletion.

On December 23, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin addressed a community question: “Why does Ethereum still have a contract size limit?” He cited concerns over DoS risks as the core reason. Once Ethereum’s state structure upgrades to a unified binary tree (per EIP-7864), unlimited contract size is anticipated. However, gas costs and mechanism design for deploying extremely large contracts still need to be resolved. Currently, costs are calculated on a per-byte basis, leading to an actual contract size cap of around 82KB.

December 23 — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially released nearly 30,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. These include false, sensational allegations against former President Trump that were submitted to the FBI on the eve of the 2020 election. The DOJ has emphasized the allegations are baseless and entirely fabricated, noting that if they had any credibility, they would have been used to attack President Trump long ago. However, out of its commitment to the rule of law and transparency, the department will release the documents while protecting Epstein’s victims. Prior to this release, the DOJ began publishing Epstein case-related investigation documents on December 19, as required by the **Epstein Files Transparency Act**—legislation passed by Congress in November and signed into law by former President Trump. The act mandates the DOJ to publicly disclose all relevant unclassified records, including investigative, prosecutorial, and incarceration mat

December 23: Azuki has teamed up with Animoca Brands’ Web3 gaming platform GAMEE to launch **Azuki Alley Escape**, an endless skateboarding runner on Telegram. Players can dodge obstacles, collect rewards, and climb the leaderboard—all while the game showcases Azuki’s signature art style and storyline.

December 23 – Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) network Zama officially announced that OG NFT holders can participate in the ZAMA token community sale at the public auction’s floor price. The token has a Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) of $55 million, with up to 40,000 tokens allocated per holder. At the auction’s conclusion, any user holding a Zama OG NFT will receive a 5% bonus tied to the final price, with one OG NFT per wallet maximum. As previously announced, Zama will offer 10% of its total ZAMA token supply via a sealed-bid Dutch auction on Ethereum. The auction uses FHE to keep bid details private, runs from January 12 to 15, and token distribution is scheduled for January 20.

December 23rd — A Russian bank is developing a new cryptocurrency regulation plan that could allow previously ineligible investors to purchase crypto assets, according to Bloomberg. Earlier, on November 26th, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov noted that the country’s Finance Ministry and Central Bank are planning to ease strict current rules, which only permit “highly qualified” investors to participate in the cryptocurrency market. They propose a tiered access system to expand the pool of legitimate investors. Under current regulations, individual investors must hold at least 100 million rubles in bank deposits and securities, plus show annual income exceeding 50 million rubles over the past year, to obtain “highly qualified” certification.

**December 23 – Wintermute Daily Market Report** Wintermute has released its latest daily market update, noting that as the holidays draw near, market structure remains narrow and Bitcoin’s dominance has climbed again. Key takeaways from the firm’s internal fund flow data: - Buy-side pressure outpaces sell-side pressure across major cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin’s buy-side dominance has held steady for longer; Ethereum shows stronger end-of-year buying momentum - Institutional capital flows have been a consistent buying force since summer - Retail investors are rotating back to major cryptos from altcoins - This retail shift aligns with market consensus: BTC needs to lead the rally first, with altcoins then rotating into focus