US Stock Futures Dive Further

On December 25, crypto analytics firm The Data Nerd reported that a whale address transferred 2,000 ETH (worth approximately $5.88 million) to Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub 3 hours ago. Over the past week, the same address has sent a total of 9,700 ETH (valued at roughly $28.85 million) to Bitkub. With an average entry cost of ~$2,327, the transfers have netted the whale around $6.28 million in profits.

Per an official announcement, Binance Wallet will distribute the Alpha airdrop today (December 25) at 21:00 UTC. Users with at least 240 Alpha points can claim the tokens on a first-come, first-served basis until the airdrop pool runs out or the event concludes. Additional details will be released shortly.

On December 25, on-chain whale trader Garrett Jin noted that last week’s sell-off in U.S. AI stocks stemmed primarily from two factors: sell-side analysts’ emotional misinterpretation of Broadcom’s CEO comments, and the narrative around the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography “Manhattan Project.” These two points, he added, are essentially noise over the next 6–12 months. This week, AI stocks rebounded broadly—including previously underperforming names like Oracle, which still faces debt headwinds. This typically signals the end of panic selling and the formation of a temporary bottom. The Nasdaq 100 has fully recouped losses spurred by those “bearish headlines.” Notably, Ethereum (ETH) has a distinct tech-stock beta (same directional movement, higher volatility), so its correlation with the Nasdaq 100 remains elevated.

December 25th — The Wall Street Journal reports that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is among the beneficiaries of an informal new presidential pardon path that has emerged during former President Donald Trump’s second term. People close to Trump say this practice is partly fueled by his own experience as a criminal defendant, spurring a “pardon brokerage” industry where the going rate for lobbying for a presidential pardon is $1 million. It has been revealed that individuals seeking pardons have offered success fees of up to $6 million to some of Trump’s close associates, with the fees contingent on securing the pardon.

December 25th – Per the Coinbob Popular Address Monitor, the so-called "Meme Coin Short Army Leader" has recently adjusted its short positions, shifting its focus from short-selling to risk defense. It has successively closed out short positions in multiple tokens including ASTER, UNI, and PUMP, then used freed-up margin to purchase HYPE spot and open additional short positions for hedging—with its hedge position now growing to roughly $7.8 million. Additionally, this address fully liquidated holdings in MON, ZEC, and TRUMP this week, and withdrew approximately $2 million within the past 24 hours. Its total holdings currently stand at around $23.08 million: excluding the HYPE hedge portfolio, the bulk consists of ETH shorts ($4.94 million), ASTER shorts ($3.78 million), and UNI shorts ($3.04 million). Moreover, the address has focused primarily on short-selling lately, having closed out 10 short positions since the start of this month and demonstrating proficiency in capitalizing

On December 25th, per Onchain Lens monitoring, a newly created crypto wallet withdrew 50,000 ZEC from Binance—valued at roughly $22.17 million.