Data: Web3 social application Towns has over 400,000 total users, with over 200,000 token holders

On December 26, Evgeny Gaevoy—founder and CEO of Wintermute—stated that Wintermute will vote against an ARFC governance proposal focused on transferring control of AAVE’s brand assets to token holders. Gaevoy noted the proposal lacks specific details, highlighting critical uncertainties: how the entity managing AAVE’s frontend and brand will be governed, whether it operates as a for-profit entity, and its overall operational framework. Token value capture is a core challenge for AAVE, with a significant expectations gap between AAVE Labs and a large segment of token holders. Wintermute has invested in AAVE since 2022 and actively participates in its governance. Gaevoy expressed hope that AAVE Labs will meaningfully address the token value capture issue, which could serve as a model for other tokens.

December 26 (Cointelegraph) — Strategy CEO Phong Le said that despite Bitcoin’s year-end price dip and muted market sentiment, the cryptocurrency’s 2025 fundamentals remain strong, and investors shouldn’t fixate too much on short-term swings. Le noted the U.S. government and banking sector are fully backing Bitcoin, which is why he’s “extremely bullish” on the 2026 market. He also mentioned he’ll be meeting with traditional banks in the U.S. and UAE alongside Michael Saylor, as those firms look to figure out how to keep pace with crypto’s evolution.

December 26th – Market data shows spot silver prices broke above $74 an ounce for the first time, with intraday gains widening to 3%. Year-to-date gains have topped $45. Additionally, the Gold/Silver Ratio is currently down 1.2%, with a cumulative drop of over 32% this year, hitting a fresh low not seen since February 2014.

On Dec. 26, OnchainLens data shows the whale dubbed the "ZEC Largest Bear" transferred 4 million USDC to HyperLiquid, ramping up its short positions in ETH (15x leverage) and ZEC (5x leverage). The whale currently holds 8 positions with a total value of ~$1.488 billion, including a $130 million Ethereum short and $12 million ZEC short. Its total unrealized gains exceed $17 million, while the account’s overall profit tops $38 million.

Tokyo inflation cooled more than expected in December as easing pressure from food and energy costs took hold—but the slowdown won’t likely deter the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from continuing interest rate hikes. Data released Friday by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed Tokyo’s core CPI (excluding fresh food) rose 2.3% year-over-year in December, a sharp slowdown from the prior month’s 2.8%. That’s the first inflation deceleration since August, driven mainly by moderating food price gains and falling energy costs. Economists had forecast the gauge would slow to 2.5%. The overall CPI fell to 2.0% (from 2.7% in the year-ago period), while the core gauge excluding energy prices also slowed to 2.6%. Tokyo’s inflation data is widely viewed as a leading indicator of national inflation trends. Even with the clear slowdown, inflation remains above the BOJ’s 2% target—prompting the central bank to stick to its path of further policy tightening.

December 26 — Trust Wallet was hacked on Tuesday, affecting hundreds of users and resulting in losses of at least $6 million, per on-chain sleuth ZachXBT’s monitoring. Earlier that day, the wallet provider issued an official security alert confirming a security flaw in its browser extension (version 2.68). Users running version 2.68 should immediately disable the extension and upgrade to version 2.69, using the official Chrome Web Store link for the update.