Monday, December 22 Market data shows Japanese and South Korean stock markets finished higher across the board. The Nikkei 225 Index rose 895.18 points (1.81%) to close at 50,402.39. South Korea’s KOSPI Index gained 85.38 points (2.12%) to end at 4,105.93.

Binance Wallet announced on December 22 that its Bitway (BTW) Booster Plan is now live. Participants can earn a share of 300 million total BTW airdropped by completing multi-stage tasks. The first phase will distribute 50 million BTW in rewards, and users holding 165 Binance Alpha Points are eligible to join. Important Note: Tokens received via the Booster Program are subject to a lock-up period set by the project team. Please review and understand associated risks before participating.

On December 22, F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun said he shares Adam Back’s view—Back had accused Nic Carter of overstating the threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin—and believes quantum computing is a bubble that won’t crack the secp256k1 limit in the short term.

On December 22, a HyperLiquid team member issued a clarification on Discord regarding the community’s discovery of HYPE shorting linked to a former HyperLiquid team address. The team stated: “This address belongs to a former employee dismissed in Q1 2024, who currently has no affiliation with HyperLiquid Labs. Their actions do not reflect our team’s standards or values.”

On December 22, Techinasia reported that Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) has released a list of 29 licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, greenlighting their legal operation in the country. The move aims to strengthen consumer protection and regulate digital financial assets, per OJK. Only listed firms are legally authorized to offer crypto trading and related services in Indonesia. The regulator also disclosed 4 licensed digital asset market infrastructure providers, covering exchanges, clearing, and custody services. OJK urged the public to verify crypto providers’ legal status and steer clear of unrealistic profit claims. Licensed platforms include Indodax, Tokocrypto, Pintu, Luno, Upbit, and Pluang, among others. Under Indonesia’s 2023 Law No. 4, crypto regulatory authority shifted from the Commodity Futures Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) to OJK. Unlicensed operation carries penalties of 5–10 years in prison and fines ranging from 10 billion to 1 trillion Indonesi

December 22 — On-chain analyst Yu Jin noted that large-scale selling was the main driver behind AAVE’s price drop this morning. The second-largest AAVE-holding whale address sold 230,000 AAVE tokens (worth ~$38 million) between 5:40 and 7:05 AM today, converting all proceeds into 227.8 WBTC and 5,869.4 stETH. These AAVE tokens were purchased from late last year to early this year at an average cost of ~$223.4. The sell-off at an average price of ~$165 is expected to incur a $13.45 million loss. HyperInsight monitoring data shows that due to AAVE’s short-term price drop this morning, the top bullish whale (address 0x074) on Hyperliquid saw its unrealized loss expand to 176% today. The whale holds a long position opened on November 16 with an average entry price of $189 and a position size of ~$1.2 million. Earlier today, the Aave community announced it will open voting on the “Brand Asset Control Transfer to Holders” ARFC proposal via Snapshot tomorrow at 10:40 AM. Voting runs