The Zcash protocol remains unaffected despite the governance clash and restructuring with Bootstrap.
The reiteration of the payment company‘s plans not to pursue a public offering followed a $500 million fundraise in November, leading to a $40 billion valuation for Ripple.
Ripple Labs president Monica Long has ruled out an IPO for the company, saying it was in a “really healthy position” without going public.
In a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, Long addressed rumors that Ripple was planning to go public after the company reached a $40 billion valuation in November. The Ripple president said the company was focused on growth following the $500 million fundraise headed by Citadel Securities and Fortress Investment Group that led to its valuation.
“Currently, we still plan to remain private,” said Long, expanding on her comments in November after the fundraise. “Often the strategy driving an IPO is to get the access to the investors and the liquidity of the public markets […] We’re in a really healthy position to continue to fund and invest in our company’s growth without going public.”
The comments from Long going into 2026 came months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would wind down its enforcement actions against Ripple, fueling speculation about an IPO. Long has repeatedly denied reports that Ripple was pursuing a public offering.
Related: SEC now fully Republican, set for pro-crypto rulemaking in 2026
At the time of writing, the price of XRP (XRP) was $2.20, having dropped by about 6% in the previous 24 hours. The token is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
OCC grants US bank trust approval for Ripple and others
In December, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally approved applications from Circle and Ripple for national trust bank charters. BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos also received conditional approval to convert their existing state-level trust companies into federally chartered national trust banks.
Ripple’s application said its charter would “not be a stablecoin issuer” for its US dollar-pegged coin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), while the other companies will provide a variety of digital asset custody services to users. Of the applicants, BitGo has announced plans to go public, and Circle launched an IPO in May.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
After a year of steady decline, the “memecoin dominance” ratio, a key metric tracking the sector’s share of the total altcoin market, has abruptly reversed course from historic lows.
This came as the total capitalization of meme assets reclaimed the $50 billion mark and tokens such as PEPE, BONK, and FLOKI posted outsized double-digit gains to start the year.
The surge is forcing institutional managers and retail traders alike to confront a critical question: Is this a fleeting spasm of post-holiday speculation, or the early bellwether for a broader market rotation?
Data from market intelligence firm CryptoQuant highlights the severity of the shift. Following the “memecoin mania” that peaked in November 2024, the sector’s dominance within the altcoin market began a long slide.
At its height, meme tokens accounted for 11% of the total altcoin market capitalization, a ratio of 0.11. By December 2025, that figure had collapsed to just 3.2% (0.032), a historical floor.
However, analysts note that the last time the ratio touched these levels, it preceded a massive expansion in speculative liquidity that eventually dragged the broader altcoin complex higher.
Speculative investors are now viewing the current bounce from that bottom as a potential leading indicator.
If the trend sustains, it suggests that the market’s appetite for risk is returning faster than anticipated, potentially setting the stage for a new altcoin season that could influence blockchain activity and listing standards throughout 2026.
A signal from the noise
According to data from analytics platform Santiment, the collective market capitalization of meme coins jumped more than 20.8% in the first week of the year, pushing the sector’s total value above $45.3 billion.
CoinGecko data puts the figure even higher, estimating the total value of the “joke economy,” spanning dog and frog themes and political satire, at roughly $51.6 billion.
The rally has been led by familiar names that dominated previous cycles. In the past seven days alone, PEPE and the self-deprecatingly named USELESS token have each surged 54%. MOG climbed 38%, while the Solana-based heavyweight BONK added 34%.
Even legacy assets like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have joined the fray, with Shiba Inu jumping 13% on Sunday amid renewed trading frenzy.
Santiment analysts attributed the timing of the bounce to a classic contrarian signal. The rally began shortly after Christmas, precisely when “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about speculative assets reached its peak among retail traders.
As sentiment hit rock bottom and casual traders wrote off the sector, smart money appeared to step in, capitalizing on the capitulation to accumulate positions at discounted valuations.
For fund managers who spent 2025 shifting allocations toward “quality”, the resurgence of the meme sector presents a dilemma.
The move tests how far the industry is willing to lean back into leverage. Ignoring the rally risks missing the first leg of a risk-on phase, while chasing it requires re-entering the most volatile assets in the digital ecosystem.
The ETF multiplier
Unlike previous meme cycles driven almost entirely by offshore exchanges and decentralized swaps, the 2026 rebound has a regulated dimension.
The approval and launch of complex crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US have created new transmission channels for speculative mania to reach traditional brokerage accounts.
Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that some of the best-performing products to start the year were leveraged memecoin ETFs.
Specifically, the 21Shares 2x Long Dogecoin ETF (TXXD) has logged standout performance, indicating that demand for meme exposure is not limited to crypto-native “degens” using on-chain wallets.
This institutionalization of the “joke economy” changes the stakes for the broader market. When billions of dollars flow into meme-themed assets, the impact ripples outward.
It influences listing decisions at major centralized exchanges, which rely on trading fees from high-volume tokens to subsidize other operations. It also exerts pressure on asset managers to broaden their product pipelines.
If a $50 billion asset class begins to set the cycle’s tempo, the industry’s infrastructure is forced to adapt to the liquidity demands of assets once dismissed as ephemeral gags.
Meanwhile, the sector is also diversifying internally. CoinGecko data breaks down the $51.6 billion meme economy into distinct sub-sectors, revealing a complex hierarchy.
“The Boy’s Club” (Matt Furie-inspired characters like PEPE) and “Frog-Themed” tokens now command 10.9% and 10.7% of the meme market, respectively, challenging the historical dominance of “Dog-Themed” coins, which sit at roughly 6.1%.
Newer categories like “PolitiFi” (political finance tokens) and “AI Memes” have carved out multi-billion dollar niches, suggesting the sector is evolving its own internal rotation dynamics.
Top AI Agents Crypto Assets by Market Cap
Infrastructure wars reignite
The resurgence of memecoins is also acting as a stress test and a growth driver for the underlying blockchain networks, particularly Solana and Coinbase’s layer-2 network, Base.
On Solana, the “memecoin launchpad” ecosystem has hit a three-month high in activity. Metrics for daily volume, tokens launched, and “daily token graduations,” coins that gain enough traction to move from launchpads to decentralized exchanges, are all spiking.
This activity revives the “fee war” narrative, where competing chains battle to become the preferred venue for high-frequency speculative trading.
Last year, platforms like Pump.fun and LetsBonk drove massive revenue for the Solana network; the early 2026 data suggests this trend is re-accelerating.
This dynamic has drawn commentary from industry leaders who view the phenomenon as more than just gambling.
Jesse Pollak, lead developer for Coinbase’s Base network, argued that these assets serve a functional purpose in the crypto economy. Pollak described memes as “coordination points for community” that bring people together and create a context for collective creation.
“We need more memecoins because we need more creativity, community, and collective action,” Pollak said, framing the assets as a top-of-funnel mechanism that onboards users who eventually migrate to other on-chain applications.
For the blockchain networks themselves, the stakes are tangible. A sustained meme rally drives demand for the network’s native token (used to pay gas fees), tests network throughput, and attracts liquidity providers.
The centralization paradox
Despite the narratives of community and decentralized fun, available data reveal significant risks regarding concentration.
While the price action suggests a broad-based frenzy, ownership of the top assets remains heavily centralized.
Santiment data on Shiba Inu, one of the sector’s stalwarts, shows that the 10 largest wallets control nearly 63% of the total supply. The single largest wallet holds approximately 41% of the supply, a position currently valued at roughly $3.3 billion.
This level of concentration is not unique to Shiba Inu, as many high-flying tokens in the “Solana Meme” and “Frog-Themed” categories exhibit similar distributions.
This creates a perilous environment for late-arriving retail investors. With liquidity concentrated in the hands of a few “whales,” the risk of a coordinated sell-off remains high.
CryptoQuant analysts cautioned that while the setup mirrors previous pre-bull run signals, “it is still very early to say for sure” if the trend will hold.
For speculative investors, the current moment represents a high-risk, high-reward signal. The bounce from historical lows in dominance suggests the market is waking up, but the market’s structure, which is heavily concentrated and driven by leverage, remains fragile.
Mentioned in this article
Fedi will release its full software stack as open source on Jan. 3, completing a pledge made at launch in 2024.
The company said all Fedi software has now transitioned to the Affero General Public License (AGPL), following an interim period under a business source license.
The change makes Fedi’s codebase publicly available under a copyleft license that requires derivative works to remain open, according to a spokesperson from Fedi.
The date carries weight in Bitcoin history. Jan. 3 marks the anniversary of the Bitcoin genesis block, mined in 2009. Fedi said the timing reflects its focus on community ownership and grassroots financial infrastructure.
When Fedi launched, it said it aimed to become a “freedom technology” by giving control back to users and communities. The move to open source fulfills that commitment, the company said, and removes the risk of vendor lock-in for groups that rely on the software.
Fedi is used by communities to build local financial and social systems. Its app combines encrypted messaging, bitcoin payments, and additional services through Mini App extensions. Wallet infrastructure is powered by the Fedimint protocol, which allows groups to operate shared bitcoin custody using federated trust models.
The AGPL license is designed to ensure that improvements remain public, even when the software is used in hosted or networked services. Supporters say this aligns development incentives with user interests.
Fedi executives have highlighted the licensing shift in recent public appearances, including a BitcoinMENA pre-show segment featuring CEO Obi Nwosu.
With the transition complete, Fedi joins a growing group of Bitcoin-native projects returning to fully open development as adoption spreads beyond early adopters and into community-scale use cases.
Fedi: From Chaumian e-cash to federated bitcoin mints
Fedimint is built on ideas first proposed by cryptographer David Chaum in the early 1980s. Chaumian e-cash allows users to transact without revealing identity or transaction history to the issuer. Earlier versions of digital cash failed to gain adoption due to centralization, since a single mint controlled issuance and redemption. That structure created trust and censorship risks.
Bitcoin solved the double-spend problem by decentralizing transaction validation across a global network of nodes. It removed the need for a trusted mint but introduced tradeoffs. Transactions are public, and throughput remains limited.
Fedimint attempts to bridge those models. It uses Bitcoin as the reserve asset while distributing custody across a federation of independent operators, known as guardians. No single party controls funds or transaction data. This structure reduces censorship risk while preserving user privacy.
Fedi’s goal is to let communities deploy shared financial infrastructure without reliance on banks or centralized platforms.
Joerg Hiller
Jan 02, 2026 19:03
Bitfarms has announced the sale of its Paso Pe site in Paraguay for up to $30 million, marking its complete exit from Latin America to focus on HPC/AI infrastructure in North America.
Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ/TSX: BITF), a prominent North American energy and digital infrastructure company, has announced its strategic decision to exit the Latin American market by selling its 70 MW Paso Pe site in Paraguay. This move is part of Bitfarms’ broader strategy to focus its efforts and resources on expanding its high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in North America, according to GlobeNewswire.
Strategic Sale and Reinvestment
The sale agreement, which involves the Sympatheia Power Fund (SPF), a Singapore-based crypto infrastructure fund managed by Hawksburn Capital, values the Paso Pe site at up to $30 million. Bitfarms is set to receive $9 million in cash at the closing of the transaction, expected in the first quarter of 2026, alongside up to $21 million over the following 10 months, contingent on certain milestones.
Bitfarms CEO Ben Gagnon expressed satisfaction with the sale, highlighting its role in rebalancing the company’s energy portfolio to be 100% North American. “This transaction accelerates our plans to reinvest capital into our North American HPC/AI energy infrastructure in 2026, where we anticipate stronger returns,” Gagnon stated.
Impact on Bitfarms’ Operations
With this sale, Bitfarms aims to enhance its liquidity profile and expedite the monetization of its operations, which will now be concentrated entirely in North America. The company’s updated energy portfolio will include a 341 MW energized capacity, 430 MW under active development, and a 2.1 GW multi-year pipeline, predominantly based in the United States.
The transition is expected to enable Bitfarms to focus more on its core capabilities in digital infrastructure for HPC/AI, a sector where the company expects to see significant growth and profitability.
About Bitfarms and Sympatheia Power Fund
Founded in 2017, Bitfarms has established itself as a leader in digital infrastructure, operating state-of-the-art data centers and energy infrastructure for high-performance computing and Bitcoin mining across the Americas. The company is headquartered in New York, NY, and Toronto, ON, and is publicly traded on the Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange.
Sympatheia Power Fund, the buyer of the Paso Pe site, is focused on expanding its regional presence in Latin America. SPF representative Josh Murchie emphasized the importance of a seamless transition, ensuring operational continuity at the site as SPF embarks on its next phase of growth.
Image source: Shutterstock
The whole world is saying goodbye to 2025 and welcoming another year with hopes of starting a new chapter. As the CEO of 101 Blockchains, I, Aviv Lichtigstein, extend my best wishes to you for the New Year.
Our primary goal here at 101 Blockchains has always been to create the best blockchain and web3 training and make it accessible to everyone. I would like to begin this year’s 101 Blockchains CEO Message with a note of gratitude to you, our beloved community. You have showered us with love and put your trust in our learning resources; that has made us one of the top online academies for technical skill development and pushed us forward.
We are delighted that the whole world started to recognize the true potential of Bitcoin as it became the first cryptocurrency to gain large-scale momentum in mainstream applications. This year, Bitcoin adoption in the US reached new heights, following the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and regulatory developments. In 2025, almost 65 million people in the US own cryptocurrencies, which is a stark indicator of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption (Source). Regulatory authorities such as the CFTC and the OCC have enabled the use of Bitcoin as institutional collateral and permitted national banks in the US to buy and sell Bitcoin (Source).
We believe that Bitcoin adoption in the US will continue to grow and foster new opportunities for blockchain and Crypto training in 2026. Our team stepped up in 2025 to address the growing demand for professional blockchain and crypto education. I also take this opportunity to thank my 101 Blockchains team and our affiliate partners for pushing the boundaries and delivering excellence at every step. Our new accredited crypto and Bitcoin certifications, along with new training courses, helped learners and strengthened our reputation in 2025. Let me share some of our most prominent achievements in 2025 with you.
Glimpses of Our Accomplishments in 2025
Before stepping into the New Year in 2026, we want to reflect on some of our biggest achievements in 2025 that made the year great for us. Among the list of notable 101 Blockchains achievements in 2025, we would like to point out that the biggest one has been the trust of our learners. We thank all our learners for believing in us and selecting our courses and certification programs for their career growth.
Your feedback and suggestions have boosted our motivation to become a leading destination for technical skill development. As we strive to introduce the best learning resources on new technologies, your words of encouragement drive us to become better at what we do. The following highlights of our accomplishments in 2025 remind us of our exciting journey and give us the confidence to achieve new wonders.
A New Benchmark in Global Partnership
We are pleased to share that 101 Blockchains has set a new benchmark in its efforts to grow our affiliate marketing partners. I am extremely grateful to more than 1000 of our affiliate partners who have made us stronger this year. Your efforts in helping us reach new markets through innovative ways have strengthened our foundations. Our extensive affiliate partner network serves as one of our biggest strengths in making technical skill development accessible to everyone.
Trusted by Users, Recognized by G2
We have been successful in maintaining an average rating of 4.9 on G2, based on reviews by our registered learners. The recognition by G2 proves that we have stood up to the expectations of our learners who have enrolled in our certifications and training courses. We are grateful to the G2 platform for showing us a genuine image of how we have performed in 2025. We have achieved stupendous results in all the G2 reports released in 2025, which show that we are not just standing in place, but strive to improve and become the best.
In the G2 Winter Reports 2026, we earned 31 badges in the “Online Course Providers” and “Technical Skill Development” categories. The most noticeable achievement for us in the winter report was the position of a ‘Leader’ among online course providers for small businesses.
We were also recognized as a ‘Leader’ in the G2 Fall 2025 reports with 30 badges to our credit. Our achievements included the ‘High Performer’ badges in different categories. We are also proud to earn other badges that prove our capability and commitment to supporting our learners and making their learning experience a lot easier.
The G2 Summer 2025 Reports also set another milestone in our journey as we achieved a record-breaking 34 badges. The summer report by G2 in 2025 highlighted our excellent performance in different markets. On top of it, we also earned recognition for delivering the best ROI to our customers.
The list of 101 Blockchains achievements in 2025 also includes the G2 Spring 2025 Reports, in which we achieved 32 badges. One of the striking achievements for us in all the G2 Reports in 2025 was the ‘Users Love Us’ badge. It showed that we are still the top favorites of our learners, and they trust us for their professional development.
Check Now: 101 Blockchains Reviews at G2
“Community Spotlights” – A New Featured Section
We have added a new “Community Spotlights” section to our website in 2025. The primary aim of the new section revolves around bringing the success stories of our learners to the forefront. This section allows learners to share their experiences and how our courses and certification programs helped them in their careers. It is a novel attempt to showcase our role in the journey of professional growth of various individuals. The success stories shared in our “Community Spotlights” section also reached our LinkedIn community, which has more than 50,000 users.
A New Milestone – The Blockchain Career Accelerator Program
Our team is dedicated to your professional growth, so we decided to create the most comprehensive and extensive career boosting program yet! We introduced the career accelerator program in 2025 to provide an all-in-one solution for professional development to our learners. It is the perfect resource for anyone who wants a clear direction for their career in blockchain.
The new ‘Blockchain Career Accelerator’ program provides you with a custom roadmap for learning job-ready skills. You can complete the relevant certification programs and prove your skills with accredited credentials that offer worldwide recognition.
Learners will get the opportunity to learn from mentors and discover how to grow their careers with the support of real-world professionals. We offer career guidance, prepare your CV, find you the best jobs, and help you prepare for interviews in the blockchain career accelerator program.
Bringing You Three New Accredited Certifications
We have added three new certifications, all of which are accredited by the UK CPD Certification Service. The Certified Blockchain Product Manager (CBPM)™ certification course is a promising tool for those pursuing a career in blockchain product management. Once you have completed the certification, you can confidently take charge of blockchain and web3 projects from conceptualization stages to final implementation.
We have also introduced the Certified Cryptocurrency Professional (CCP)™ and Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP)™ certification programs in 2025. The best thing about these certifications is that they are the first accredited crypto and Bitcoin certifications in the world. You can learn about the crypto market from an expert’s perspective and dive deeper into the technology behind Bitcoin. The certification courses will also help you learn about relevant crypto laws, use cases, and best practices for security.
Start exploring our Accredited Certification Programs and take your ideal picks now!
Addition of More Courses to Our Training Library
We could not have completed 2025 without adding new courses on emerging technologies to our training library. The new courses focus on the most relevant areas in technical skill development that have been gaining momentum recently. The “Stablecoins Mastery Course” is tailored to help you learn more about the transformative impact of stablecoins. It is definitely one of the top resources now as stablecoins achieve recognition as mainstream financial assets.
We have also introduced a “Web3 Development with Foundry Course” to empower aspiring Web3 developers with hands-on skills. The other new courses we introduced in our training library in 2025 focus on generative AI and machine learning. The “Mastering Generative AI with LLMs Course” offers an exclusive training resource to achieve specialization in using generative AI tools. Learners can also take the “Machine Learning Fundamentals Course” to introduce themselves to machine learning and its basic concepts.
Expansion of The Team Plan for a Broader Audience
Another notable highlight in our 101 Blockchains CEO Message for 2026 is the addition of 3 new subcategories in our ‘Business’ page. We aim to cater to a broader set of audiences in these new subcategories. The primary focus of our team learning plan will be on universities, tech companies, and consulting firms.
Universities can use our resources and services to prepare their students for new roles in the technology labour market. Tech companies can leverage our learning materials and certifications to upskill their workforce with practical training in emerging technologies. Our team learning plans will also help consultancy firms empower their teams to adapt to new client demands.
From 2025 Achievements to 2026 Vision
We at 101 Blockchains are excited to welcome another year and look forward to new developments and achievements in 2026. The year 2025 has been phenomenal for us with the introduction of new certification programs and courses in trending technologies. Our efforts have delivered the results we were looking for, as we got valuable recognition in G2 reports in 2025. With our new “Community Spotlights” section, we can now share stories of learners who used our resources to achieve professional success. We also launched the new ‘Blockchain Career Accelerator’ program, which offers a comprehensive solution to build your career in blockchain and web3.
Let us prepare for the New Year with a new set of benchmarks for our careers and lives, and achieve excellence.
South Korea’s long-awaited Digital Asset Basic Act (DABA), a sweeping framework meant to govern crypto trading and issuance in one of Asia’s most active digital asset markets, has been delayed amid disagreements among regulators over stablecoin issuance.
The most significant disagreement centers on who should have the legal authority to issue KRW-pegged stablecoins, according to a Korea Tech Desk article. The Bank of Korea (BOK) argued that only banks with majority (51%) ownership should be permitted to issue stablecoins. It said financial institutions are already subject to stringent solvency and anti-money-laundering requirements and therefore the only ones in position to ensure stability and protect the financial system.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC), which oversees financial policy-making, is more flexible. It acknowledged the need for stability, but warned that a strict “51% rule” could stifle competition and innovation, blocking fintech firms with the technical expertise to build scalable blockchain infrastructure from participating, according to the report.
The FSC cited the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, in which most licensed stablecoin issuers are digital asset firms rather than banks. It also pointed to Japan’s fintech-led yen stablecoin projects as an example of regulated innovation.
The deadlock highlights a broader global debate over whether banks or fintech firms should control fiat-backed stablecoins, a decision that could shape competition, innovation and monetary oversight.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also opposes the BOK’s 51% rule, a Korea Times article reported last week.
“A majority of participating experts voiced concerns about the BOK’s proposal, with many questioning whether such a framework could deliver innovation or generate strong network effects,” DPK lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said. “It is also hard to find global legislative precedents in which institutions from a specific sector are required to hold a 51%.”
He said the BOK’s stability concerns could be mitigated through regulatory and technological measures, a view the lawmaker added, “is broadly shared among policy advisors”.
Foreign-issued stablecoins are also another key sticking point. According to an earlier draft of the government proposal prepared by the FSC, foreign-issued stablecoins would be allowed in South Korea if they are licensed and have a branch or subsidiary in the country. That would require issuers such as Circle, which issues USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin, to establish a local presence for the token to be legally used in the country.
The regulatory deadlock is expected to delay the bill’s passage until at least January, with full implementation now unlikely before 2026, according to AInvest. South Korea’s digital assets act marks a significant shift in a country that for nine years banned crypto, a stance that its financial watchdog began to soften earlier this year.
A proposed 5% tax on billionaires’ wealth in California has drawn a strong response from crypto executives, who argue it would trigger an exodus of entrepreneurs and capital flight, and would be wasted anyway.
The ballot initiative, known as the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, proposes a 5% tax on net wealth above $1 billion to help fund the health care system and state assistance programs, according to the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West union.
As the proposed wealth tax is partly assessed against unrealized gains, some billionaires may need to sell stock or parts of their businesses to raise funds to pay the tax, which would either be payable in one installment, or over five years with interest payments.
Senior figures in the crypto industry, including Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, argue that the measure would only result in billionaires leaving the state, with a negative overall effect.
“I promise you this will be the final straw. Billionaires will take with them all of their spending, hobbies, philanthropy and jobs. Solve the waste/fraud issue,” Powell said in an X post on Sunday.
Related: Most crypto treasuries ‘will disappear’ amid bleak 2026 outlook: Execs
One of the key defenders of the proposals is US Representative Ro Khanna, a crypto-friendly Democrat from California’s 17th Congressional District. He has made the case for the tax in a series of X posts, arguing that it will fund better childcare, housing, and education, which, in turn, will be good for American innovation.
Tax measure could result in capital flight
Castle Island Ventures founding partner Nic Carter and ProCap BTC chief investment officer Jeff Park also speculated that the tax would prompt billionaires to move all their capital out of the state.
“I generally like Ro and have interacted with some of staff who have always been fantastic, but I do wonder — have they done an analysis of capital mobility in response to wealth taxes?” Carter said on Sunday.
“It seems to me that capital is more mobile than ever, and one time wealth taxes are a signal to capital — like a sovereign default — that more can be expected in the future,” he added.
Wealth taxes don’t always work
Fredrik Haga, the co-founder and CEO of on-chain data platform Dune, argued that Norway had tried a similar tax and that it resulted in a mass exodus of the wealthy from the Nordic country, and raised less money than expected.
“Friendly reminder to California: Taxes on unrealized capital gains have led to more than half of the wealth held by Norway’s top 400 taxpayers moving abroad,” Haga said.
“Norway has become more equal and made everybody poorer and worse off, just as expected from strong socialist ideas.”
Money might not reach intended targets
Austin Campbell, a New York University professor and founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting, and Bitwise founder Horsley both pointed to a December audit from the California State Auditor, which highlighted issues with how taxpayer funds have been spent, including unaccounted-for or poorly justified expenditures.
“But what Ro has a plan for is not pulling the fire alarm and fixing this. Rather what he’s been spending time on is a new private citizen asset confiscation to have more money for the government. Politicians have long forgotten their role is to be a servant,” Horsley said.
Magazine: Get Bitcoin or die tryin’: Why hip hop stars love crypto
Forced liquidations in the crypto derivatives market reached about $150 billion in 2025, according to CoinGlass data.
On its face, the figure looks like a year of persistent crisis. For many retail traders, watching price feeds turn red became shorthand for chaos. In practice, it captured something more mundane and structural: the notional value of futures and perpetual positions that exchanges forcibly closed when margin fell short.
Most of the time, that flow was more of a maintenance function than a crash. In a market where derivatives rather than spot markets set the marginal price, liquidations operated like a recurring levy on leverage.
Taken in isolation, the number looked alarming. However, set against the backdrop of 2025’s derivatives machine, it did not.
The aggregate crypto derivatives turnover reached roughly $85.7 trillion for the year, or about $264.5 billion a day.
In that context, the liquidation tally represented the byproduct of a market in which perpetual swaps and basis trades were the dominant instruments, and where price discovery was tightly coupled to margin engines and liquidation algorithms.
So, as crypto derivatives volumes climbed, the market’s open interest steadily rebuilt from the depressed levels that followed the 2022–2023 deleveraging cycle.
By Oct. 7, notional open interest across major venues had reached about $235.9 billion. Bitcoin had traded as high as roughly $126,000 earlier in the year.
The spread between spot and futures prices supported a thick layer of basis trades and carry structures that relied on stable funding and orderly market behavior.
Essentially, the stress that mattered was not evenly spread. It was driven by a combination of record open interest, crowded positioning, and the growing share of leverage in mid-cap and long-tail markets.
The structure worked until a macro shock hit, when margin thresholds were tightly clustered, and risk was pointing in the same direction.
The macro shock that broke the pattern
The breakpoint for the crypto derivatives market did not come from within the emerging industry. Instead, the catalyst was driven by the policies of the world’s largest countries.
On Oct. 10, President Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on imports from China and signaled additional export controls on critical software.
The statement pushed global risk assets into a sharp risk-off move. In equities and credit, the adjustment showed up as widening spreads and lower prices. In crypto, it collided with a market that was long, levered, and sitting on record derivatives exposure.
The first move was straightforward: spot prices fell as traders marked down risk.
However, in a market where perpetual futures and leveraged swaps dictate the marginal tick, that spot move was enough to push a large block of long positions across their maintenance margin lines.
So, exchanges began liquidating under-margined accounts into order books that were already thinning as liquidity providers pulled back.
As a result, the forced liquidations across the market totaled more than $19 billion between Oct. 10 and 11.
The majority were on the long side, with estimates suggesting 85% to 90% of the wiped-out positions were bullish bets. The skew confirmed what positioning data had been flagging for weeks: a one-sided market leaning on the same direction of trade and the same set of instruments.
The liquidation wave followed the standard path at first. Accounts that breached margin thresholds were tagged for closure. Positions were sold at or near market prices, draining bids and pushing prices into the next stop layer.
Open interest fell by more than $70 billion in a matter of days, dropping from the early-October peak toward roughly $145.1 billion by year-end.
Even after the crash, that end-of-year figure remained above the 2025 starting point, underscoring the leverage that had accumulated before the event.
What made October different from the daily churn was not the existence of liquidations, but their concentration and the way product features interacted with depleted liquidity. Funding conditions tightened, volatility spiked, and hedging assumptions that had held for most of the year broke down in a matter of hours.
When safeguards turn into amplifiers
The most important shift in that window occurred in mechanisms that are usually invisible: the backstop exchanges deploy when standard liquidation logic runs out of road.
Under normal conditions, liquidations are handled by selling down positions at a bankruptcy price and using insurance funds to absorb any residual losses.
Auto-deleveraging (ADL) serves as a contingency behind that process. When losses threaten to exceed what insurance funds and fees can cover, ADL reduces exposure on profitable opposing accounts to protect the venue’s balance sheet.
From Oct. 10 to 11, that safeguard moved to center stage.
As order books in some contracts thinned and insurance buffers came under stress, ADL began to trigger more frequently, especially in less liquid markets. Profitable shorts and market makers saw their positions cut according to pre-set priority queues, often at prices that diverged from where they would have chosen to trade.
For firms running market-neutral or inventory-hedging strategies, the impact was acute. A short futures leg intended to offset spot or altcoin exposure was partially or fully closed by the venue, turning an intended hedge into realized P&L and leaving residual risk unprotected.
In some cases, accounts were forced to reduce winning positions in Bitcoin futures while remaining long in thin altcoin perps that continued to slide.
Market Cap $1.74T
24h Volume $43.03B
All-Time High $126,173.18
The heaviest distortions showed up in those long-tail markets. While Bitcoin and Ethereum drew down by 10% to 15% during the window, many smaller tokens saw their perpetual contracts fall by 50% to 80% from recent levels.
Market Cap $353.28B
24h Volume $19.08B
All-Time High $4,946.23
In markets with limited depth, forced selling and ADL hit order books that were not built to absorb such a large flow. Prices gapped lower as bids disappeared, and the mark prices that feed into margin calculations adjusted accordingly, pulling more accounts into liquidation.
The result was a loop. Liquidations pushed prices lower, which widened the gap between index prices and the levels at which ADL events were executed. Market makers that might have stepped in at narrower spreads now faced uncertain hedge execution and the prospect of involuntary reductions.
Due to this, many cut back on quoting size or moved wider, further reducing visible liquidity and leaving liquidation engines to work with thinner books.
The episode highlighted a critical point for a market where derivatives define the tape: safeguards that contain risk in ordinary conditions can amplify it when too much leverage is stacked in the same direction and in the same venues.
The crash was not simply “too much speculation.” It was the interaction of product design, margin logic, and infrastructure limits under stress.
Concentrated venues, narrow corridors
Venue concentration shaped the market outcome as much as leverage and product mechanics.
This year, crypto derivatives liquidity has clustered around a small group of large platforms.
For context, Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, processed about $25.09 trillion in notional volume for the year, capturing close to 30% of the market.
Three others, including OKX, Bybit, and Bitget, followed with $10.76 trillion, $9.43 trillion, and $8.17 trillion in turnover, respectively.
Together, the top four accounted for roughly 62% of global derivatives trading.
On most days, that concentration simplified execution. It put depth in a handful of order books and allowed large traders to move risk with predictable slippage. In a tail event, it meant that a relatively small number of venues and risk engines were responsible for the bulk of liquidations.
During the October break, those venues de-risked in sync. Similar books of client positions, similar margin triggers, and similar liquidation logic produced simultaneous waves of forced selling.
The infrastructure that connects these platforms—on-chain bridges, internal transfer systems, fiat rails—came under strain as traders tried to move collateral and rebalance positions.
As a result, withdrawals and inter-exchange transfers slowed, narrowing the corridors firms rely on to arbitrage price gaps and maintain hedges.
When capital cannot move quickly across venues, cross-exchange strategies fail mechanically. A trader short on one exchange and long on another may see one leg forcibly reduced by ADL while being unable to top up margin or shift collateral in time to protect the other side. Spreads widen as arbitrage capital retreats.
Lessons for the crypto derivatives market
The October episode condensed all of these dynamics into a two-day stress test. Roughly $150 billion in liquidations over the full year now reads less as a measure of chaos and more as a record of how a derivatives-dominated market clears risk.
Most of the time, that clearance was orderly and absorbed by insurance funds and routine liquidations.
In the October window, it exposed the limits of a structure that depends heavily on a few large venues, high leverage in mid-cap and long-tail assets, and backstops that can reverse roles under pressure.
Unlike prior crises that centered on credit failures and institutional insolvencies, the 2025 event did not trigger a visible chain of defaults. The system reduced open interest, repriced risk, and continued operating.
The cost was borne in concentrated P&L hits, sharp dispersion between large-cap and long-tail assets, and a clearer view of how much of the market’s behavior is dictated by plumbing rather than narrative.
For traders, exchanges, and regulators, the lesson was direct. In a market where derivatives set the price, the “liquidation tax” is not just an occasional penalty on over-leverage. It is a structural feature, and under hostile macro conditions, it can shift from routine cleanup to the engine of a crash.
Mentioned in this article
Timothy Morano
Dec 25, 2025 14:46
Enjoy 13 new game additions on GeForce NOW this holiday season, offering enhanced graphics and seamless gameplay across devices, according to NVIDIA’s latest update.
This holiday season, gamers can look forward to an enhanced gaming experience with GeForce NOW, as NVIDIA introduces 13 new games to the platform. With holiday lights aglow and hot cocoa in hand, players can enjoy seamless gaming from anywhere, whether at home or on a winter getaway, according to NVIDIA’s blog.
The Best Games to Unwrap This Season
GeForce NOW offers a diverse lineup of games, ranging from blockbuster hits to indie favorites. Players can experience stunning fidelity and smooth frame rates, thanks to the NVIDIA Blackwell RTX technology. This includes titles such as Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Hogwarts Legacy, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Ultimate members can stream these graphically demanding games at GeForce RTX 5080 power without needing the latest hardware.
For those seeking a cozy gaming session, titles like ARC Raiders and Hollow Knight: Silksong provide thrilling and introspective experiences. Additionally, indie gems such as Spiritfarer, R.E.P.O, and Peak offer unique storytelling and challenges. Seasonal events in games like Stardew Valley and Fortnite add to the festive atmosphere, with automatic updates ensuring players can dive into the latest content without delay.
Sleighing New Games
A notable addition to the lineup is Shape of Dreams, an action-roguelite from Neowiz that combines multiplayer online battle arena-style combat with surreal dream logic. Players can explore a dynamic dream realm, crafting unique builds and experiencing endlessly replayable runs.
GeForce NOW continues to expand its offerings, making it easier for gamers to enjoy their favorite titles with high-quality graphics and performance. With the latest updates, players can look forward to a diverse and engaging holiday gaming experience.
Image source: Shutterstock
