The Grinch Stole Altcoins

Altseason unlikely as ‘blue-chip survivors’ win out

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Max Gonzalez, Litquidity Capital & Gannon Breslin
December 24, 2025

Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Arizona introduces bill exempting crypto from property taxes, Bitcoin heads for its worst Q4 since 2018, Bybit restricts access for Japanese users, Crypto.com hiring quant for sports event prediction market, and so much more

Happy New Years Eve - Let’s dive in.

Also as a heads up, this will be the last newsletter of this week, see ya’ll next week bright and early Monday!

Market Snapshot

Click here to learn more about the Gannon’s portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.* Since inception (7/7/25), Gannon’s Crypto Portfolio is up +20.79%

  • Crypto markets slide as tax-loss selling and options expiry drive volatility

    • BTC slipped back below $88K, derailing Santa-rally hopes as $28B Boxing Day options expiry looms

    • Tax-loss selling weighed on crypto stocks and majors, pushing total market cap down -2.4% to $3.04T

    • ETF signals mixed: ETH ETFs snapped an outflow streak, while XRP products hit multi-week inflow highs

    • Despite volatility, BTC dominance held firm and perp open interest rose

  • On-chain and mining data flash early bullish signals, even as bitcoin trails gold and copper amid macro caution

Prediction Markets

  • Bettors on Polymarket are predicting Fed decision in January?

  • Track and trade live odds on any event, only on Polymarket

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • VanEck says Bitcoin will be 'top performer' in 2026 (CD)

  • Bitcoin heads for its worst Q4 since 2018 (CD)

  • JPMorgan’s institutional crypto push could boost rivals (CD)

  • Altseason unlikely as ‘blue-chip survivors’ win out (CT)

  • Ethena’s USDe loses $8.3B since October crash (CT)

  • ZOOZ's Bitcoin treasury play faces Nasdaq delisting (CT)

  • Bybit restricts access for Japanese users (CD)

  • OKX reports trading increase after expansion (CT)

  • Tensions over El Salvador's bitcoin holdings ease (CD)

  • Justin Sun's locked World Liberty tokens down $60M (TB)

  • Crypto.com hiring quant for sports event prediction market (TB)

  • XRP holders can earn yield without selling their tokens (CD)

  • Solstice and Cor Prime execute first stablecoin-for-stablecoin repo (CD)

  • Polymarket volumes surge on Layer 2 speculation (TD)

  • Bitcoin treasury Matador’s $58M share-sale approved (CT)

  • Aave faces identity crisis (CD)

  • Token launches with low FDVs outperform hyped debuts (TD)

  • Brazil's live orchestra turns Bitcoin price moves into music (CT)

Venture Capital

  • Trade Republic, a mobile brokerage and savings fintech, raises $1.4B equity round led by Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Accel and TCV with participation from others (SI)

  • Upexi, a crypto treasury firm focused on SOL, files $1B shelf registration to raise capital through various securities offerings (CD)

  • Billions Network, a privacy-preserving ID-verification startup, raises $35M seed round from Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Liberty City Ventures, with a strategic investment from Polygon (X)

  • Architect Financial Technologies, a startup derivatives venture, closes $35M funding round led by Miax, Tioga Capital, ARK Investment, Galaxy and VanEck (CT)

  • Stablecoin-payments startup Coinbax raises $4.2M seed round led by BankTech Ventures with participation from Connecticut Innovations, Paxos, and SpringTime Ventures (CB)

  • Neuron Innovations, a secure edge-infrastructure and decentralized aviation-surveillance startup, wins $100k in NATO 2026 Challenge funding, with a further $300k possible (PM)

  • Crypto travel startup Nomadz closes an undisclosed investment round from Solana Foundation, Kumeka team, Circle, Metaplex, Solana Labs, Mad Lads, and other Solana-ecosystem backers (IC)

  • Trading-automation startup BlackBots initiated an undisclosed-size seed round with investors undisclosed (BE)

Access the complete VC deal flow on Fundable.

M&A Announcements

  • Cipher Mining acquires a 200-megawatt power site in Ohio called “Ulysses,” its first expansion outside of Texas (CT)

Launches

  • South Korean card giant completes stablecoin payments pilot (CT)

  • Amplify ETFs targeting stablecoin and tokenization sectors open (CD)

  • THORChain launches cross-chain swap interface (CD)

  • Power Protocol expands its Web3 distribution layer (CD)

Regulation

  • Russia’s central bank unveils new crypto rules (CD)

  • Arizona introduces bill exempting crypto from property taxes (BM)

  • ECB gains backing from council for caps on digital euro (CD)

Cybersecurity

  • Gnosis announces hard fork to recover funds from Balancer exploit (CT)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

Global crypto ETPs have attracted $87B in net inflows since launch

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks including the risk of the loss of principal. Performance doesn’t include fees. See more here.