Arthur Hayes: Liquidity May Have Bottomed in November, It's Time to Start the Ascent

**December 31 –** The Dark Side of the Moon (Kimi) has closed its $500 million Series C funding round, led by IDG with a $1.5 billion investment. Existing shareholders including Alibaba, Tencent, and Wang Huiwen have subscribed to additional shares, pushing the company’s post-investment valuation to $4.3 billion. Wang Huiwen has already invested a total of $70 million in the firm, per reports. A source close to the company noted primary market enthusiasm for The Dark Side of the Moon exceeded expectations. On the same day, Yang Zhilin, founder and CEO of The Dark Side of the Moon, issued an internal memo revealing the company holds over 10 billion RMB in cash reserves—an amount comparable to the post-IPO cash holdings of Zhipu and MiniMax. - As of June 2025, Zhipu has $2.55 billion in cash on hand, with an expected IPO raise of ~$3.8 billion. - As of September 2025, MiniMax holds $7.35 billion in cash, targeting an IPO fundraising range of $3.4–$3.8 billion. Sources added,

On December 31, SlowMist published its **Q4 2025 Security Incident Analysis**, highlighting two critical threats: a new, more covert phishing tactic and a resurgence in computer malware attacks. ### Key Phishing Tactic Even when users manually type the **correct official domain name**, they may still be redirected to a phishing site. Some victims reported that despite entering the right address, their browsers auto-completed it to an attacker’s forged domain—*not due to user error*, but because attackers previously polluted browser history via ads, social media prompts, or false announcements. Once the phishing domain is stored in the browser’s autocomplete cache, typing the intended address triggers a redirect to a fake site nearly identical to the official one. ### Malware Resurgence Computer malware attacks are on the rise again. Attackers typically stealthily implant malicious programs on users’ devices via: - Phishing links - Social media DMs (direct messages) - So

On December 31, Erik Zhang—Neo co-founder and core developer—accused NEO founder Da Hongfei of failing to fulfill financial disclosure commitments. Zhang stated a recent phone call yielded a clear agreement: starting January 1, 2026, Da will focus solely on operating and developing NeoX and SpoonOS, and will no longer be involved in any Neo mainnet matters. He also called on Da to immediately publish a complete, verifiable financial report to the community, including a detailed list of all assets managed by the Neo Foundation (NF) and a breakdown of all expenses—addressing longstanding community concerns over transparency and governance. In response, Da Hongfei claimed Zhang controls the vast majority of Neo funds, influences consensus node voting, and is willing to hijack agreements at the expense of the community and token holders. Da added he has repeatedly urged Zhang to transfer NEO/GAS tokens from personal custody to the foundation’s multisig address (while Da retains key h

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