24-Hour Hot Cryptocurrencies and News | North Korean-linked hackers to steal $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a record high; Hassett: Trump seeks data-dependent candidate among Fed Chair nominees (December 22)
- 核心观点：市场情绪恐慌，但未触底，风险与机遇并存。
- 关键要素：
- 朝鲜黑客2025年窃取超20亿美元加密货币。
- 分析师称市场恐慌不足，BTC或跌至7.5万美元。
- 巴西加密交易量年增43%，用户投资超千美元。
- 市场影响：加剧安全担忧，影响短期市场信心。
- 时效性标注：短期影响
1. Popular cryptocurrencies on CEXs
Top 10 CEX trading volumes and their 24-hour price changes:
- BTC: +0.83%
- ETH: +1.76%
- BNB: +0.96%
- SOL: +0.57%
- DOGE: +0.77%
- BAR: +3.28%
- TRX: +1.34%
- ZEC: -1.67%
- ASTER: -2.48%
- ATM: +4.25%
24-hour gainers list (data source: OKX):
- YGG: +17.19%
- MET: +11.13%
- AVNT: +10.67%
- LUNA: +8.77%
- NIGHT: +8.48%
- VELO: +6.95%
- PARTI: +6.14%
- SPK: +5.85%
- SKY: +5.21%
- ONE: +4.96%
24-hour cryptocurrency stock gainers list (data source: msx.com ):
- LUNR.M: +37.6%
- HYPD.M: +28%
- FLY.M: +26.56%
- CRWV.M: +23.61%
- RKLB.M: +22.41%
- ONDS.M: +17.95%
- APLD.M: +17.7%
- ASTS.M: +17.25%
- ABTC.M: +16.98%
- NBIS.M: +16.12%
2. Top 5 trending on-chain memes (data source: GMGN ):
- Beat
- GUA
- VELO
- XPIN
- LAB
Headlines
North Korean hackers stole a record $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025.
According to Chainalysis, North Korean hackers stole a record $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 51% increase from 2024, accounting for 76% of the total global cryptocurrency service thefts that year. While the number of attacks decreased significantly, the profitability of individual attacks increased dramatically, with the Bybit attack in February resulting in a loss of $1.5 billion. Since records began, North Korean entities have stolen a total of $6.75 billion.
Chainalysis's 2026 Cryptocrime Report preview indicates that North Korean hackers have shifted their targets from decentralized finance protocols to core infrastructure such as centralized exchanges. Their money laundering methods are characterized by high frequency and small transactions, with over 60% of funds split into smaller transactions under $500,000. Furthermore, hackers are using social engineering techniques, such as impersonating recruiters or strategic partners, to gain access to systems. Experts urge the industry to adopt behavioral pattern-based monitoring tools to combat increasingly sophisticated state-sponsored cybercrime.
Hassett: Trump seeks a data-dependent candidate among Fed chair nominees
White House National Economic Council Director Hassett stated that the current three-month average core inflation rate is 1.6%; Trump is seeking a data-dependent candidate among the Federal Reserve Chair nominees.
The Bank of Korea plans to restart testing its central bank digital currency.
The Bank of Korea recently sent a formal document to major banks regarding the second round of CBDC testing, which is considering distributing some government subsidies in the form of digital currency. The aim is to use CBDC to limit the use of subsidies and reduce the management and administrative costs associated with subsidy distribution. However, a Bank of Korea official stated that details, including specific methods and timelines, are still under discussion.
In response to the "50 million USDT phishing attack," the Ethereum Community Foundation issued a statement on the X platform, stating that the practice of truncating addresses with dots (such as 0xbaf4b1aF...B6495F8b5) should be stopped immediately. Address information needs to be displayed in its entirety; hiding the middle part of the address creates unnecessary risks. Furthermore, some UI options provided by certain wallets and block explorers currently have security vulnerabilities, which are all solvable. Reportedly, the phishing attackers generated an address with the first and last three digits identical. The victim, without carefully checking the copied address, transferred 50 million USDT to the similar address generated by the phishing attackers.
Opinion: The crypto market has not yet shown enough panic to confirm a bottom.
Santiment stated that social media sentiment indicates the crypto market hasn't yet shown enough panic to confirm a bottom. Santiment founder Maksim Balashevich pointed out that there's currently optimism online about a short-term reversal of the downtrend, and this retail-driven optimism typically doesn't appear at a true market bottom. According to Balashevich's observations, Bitcoin's price could potentially fall further to around $75,000, a drop of about 14.77% from its current price of around $88,000. Furthermore, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to 0.75% on Friday, a move that previously triggered a roughly 20% pullback in Bitcoin. Jurrien Timmer, Global Macro Research Director at Fidelity, believes Bitcoin could fall back to $65,000 by 2026. Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has been in the extreme fear zone since December 14th, with a score of 20 on Sunday.
Industry News
Victory Securities has notified its clients that, starting December 19th, it will implement a purchase restriction on virtual asset accounts identified by its system as originating from mainland China IP addresses. Sources indicate this move is in response to recent tightening of regulations on virtual asset trading in mainland China.
The cryptocurrency industry expressed regret over Senator Cynthia Lummis's announcement that she will not seek re-election in 2026. Lummis stated that while she is a devout legislator, she feels she lacks the energy to sustain another six-year term. Collin McCune, head of government affairs at a16z, commented that the crypto industry would not be where it is today without Lummis's efforts in Congress. David Sacks, White House director of AI and cryptocurrency, praised her as a great ally in the crypto space. Previously, Lummis had strongly promoted the Responsible Finance Innovation Act and the American Clarity Act, aiming to provide regulatory clarity for digital assets. Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin, stated that although Lummis has decided to leave office, policy-making is not yet complete, and legislation still needs to be passed in 2026.
An article in the Science and Technology Daily, titled "The Application of Digital Yuan Accelerates, Beware of These Scams," revealed that Liu Xiaochun, director of the Shanghai Financial Digitalization Research Center, disclosed that some criminals are using instant messaging tools and other channels to spread information about purchasing digital yuan wallets with the lure of high returns. They then use these acquired digital yuan wallets to commit telecommunications fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities. Other criminals are designing fake activity pages to steal personal information and funds. Dong Ximiao, deputy director of the Shanghai Financial and Development Laboratory, further pointed out that the key to preventing digital yuan fraud lies in recognizing its ordinary nature as legal tender, eliminating any greed for "quick money," and protecting wallet passwords and verification codes as carefully as physical cash.
A report released by cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin shows that cryptocurrency activity in Brazil saw significant growth in 2025, with total trading volume increasing by 43% year-on-year, and the average user investment exceeding $1,000. The report indicates that 18% of investors allocated their funds to multiple crypto assets, suggesting a shift towards diversified investment from single-asset investments. Stablecoins also became an important entry point for both new and existing investors, with trading volume approximately three times that of the previous year.
Project News
Market news: Polymarket plans to launch Ethereum L2 services and migrate from Polygon.
@polymarketbet posted on the X platform that Mustafa, a member of the Polymarket team, announced important information on the Discord community: Polymarket plans to migrate from Polygon and launch an Ethereum L2 service called POLY, which is the current top priority.
Mustafa stated that Polymarket plans to abandon all third-party vendors, including GoldSky and Alchemy, and will complete the migration as soon as possible. Furthermore, Polymarket will launch a 5-minute marketplace this week.
The GitHub project polymarket-copy-trading-bot was infected with malicious code. Upon startup, the program automatically reads the user's wallet private key from their .env file and transmits it to a hacker's server via a hidden malicious dependency package, excluder-mcp-package@1.0.4, resulting in the theft of assets.
Analyst Ai posted on the X platform that the price of LIGHT dropped 77.7% in five and a half hours. The token's 24-hour trading volume reached $2.13 billion, making it one of the top three tokens in Binance's 24-hour contract trading volume, second only to BTC and ETH. Coinglass data shows that a total of $4.84 million in long and short positions were liquidated. The value of LIGHT's open interest decreased from $53.32 million before the 4 AM drop to the current $18.79 million, but the contract open interest increased from 11.97 million LIGHT to 18.79 million, with a long/short ratio of 1.63.
Investment and Financing
Launchpad Cadenza, a special purpose acquisition company, announced the completion of its initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq, raising a total of $230 million. The funds have been deposited into a trust, with Cantor Fitzgerald acting as the sole bookrunner. The company stated that it will subsequently seek mergers, acquisitions, share swaps, asset acquisitions, share purchases, restructurings, or similar business consolidations with technology and software infrastructure companies in the blockchain, fintech, and digital asset ecosystems.
Regulatory Trends
The Hong Kong Insurance Authority has proposed new regulations aimed at guiding insurance funds into the crypto asset and infrastructure sectors. According to a presentation document dated December 4, the regulator plans to impose a 100% risk capital requirement on crypto assets, while the risk capital requirement for stablecoin investments will be determined based on the fiat currency pegged to the stablecoin under Hong Kong's regulatory framework.
The Hong Kong Insurance Authority stated that it initiated a review of the risk capital regime this year, with the primary objective of supporting the insurance industry and broader economic development. The proposal is expected to undergo public consultation from February to April next year, followed by legislation. Furthermore, the new regulations also address infrastructure investment incentives, proposing capital concessions for investments in infrastructure projects in Hong Kong, mainland China, or those linked to Hong Kong (such as new town developments in the Northern Metropolitan Area), to support the Hong Kong SAR government's local infrastructure development plans. As of 2024, the total premium income of the Hong Kong insurance industry is estimated at approximately HK$635 billion.
US lawmakers have proposed tax breaks for small stablecoin payments and staking rewards.
US lawmakers have introduced a draft bill for discussion that would alleviate the tax burden on ordinary cryptocurrency users by exempting small stablecoin transactions from capital gains tax, including a $200 tax exemption for stablecoin payments, and providing new deferral options for staking and mining rewards. According to the draft, if a stablecoin is issued by an issuer approved under the GENIUS Act, pegged to the US dollar, and trades within a narrow range of around $1, users would not need to recognize gains or losses on transactions not exceeding $200.
Character voices
Vitalik Buterin, in an article on the Farcaster platform, stated that prediction markets are the antidote to the irrational views expressed on emotionally charged issues. He believes that, in theory, the worst-case scenario for prediction markets is inducing harm for profit, but this is not the case for small-scale prediction markets targeting large-scale events. Traditional stock markets also suffer from similar drawbacks, where political actors can profit from disasters by shorting stocks.
Vitalik Buterin points out that prediction markets have advantages over social media and mainstream media. Social media lacks accountability, while prediction markets, through profit and loss mechanisms, ensure that the system tends to seek the truth over time, and the probabilities they display more accurately reflect the uncertainty of the world than other systems. Because prediction market prices are confined between 0 and 1, they are healthier than ordinary markets and less affected by reflexivity effects, the greater fool theory, or market manipulation.
In a YouTube podcast interview, Arthur Hayes stated that the altcoin season is always happening, and investors believe it hasn't arrived because they haven't held onto assets that have risen in value. Hayes pointed out that many traders still expect the altcoin season to repeat the patterns, coins, and narratives of previous years, and advised traders to adjust their mindset to focus on new market developments rather than relying on history. He cited Hyperliquid as the best example of this cycle so far, with its token HYPE rising from $2-3 to $60, and mentioned Solana's performance, rising from $7 to nearly $300. Hayes emphasized that the altcoin season has already begun; it's just that some investors haven't participated.
Tom Lee responded to the controversy surrounding his conflicting outlook on Bitcoin with Fundstrat analysts, clarifying that Fundstrat executives do not base their work on a single, unified forecast but rather on different investment objectives. Farrell's comments reflect a defensive positioning strategy focused on drawdown risk, capital flows, and cost basis, aiming to reduce the proportion of cryptocurrencies in model portfolios rather than a long-term bearish view. Mark Newton's perspective is entirely based on chart structures. Tom Lee stated that his role focuses more on macro liquidity cycles, market structural shifts, and the impact of institutional investors and ETFs on the Bitcoin cycle.
F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun responded to the "50 million USDT phishing attack" on the X platform, stating: "Last year, I suspected that my private key had been leaked. To confirm whether the address had really been stolen, I transferred 500 bitcoins to that address. To my surprise, the hacker 'generously' only took 490 bitcoins, leaving me with 10 bitcoins, enough for me to make a living."
In an interview, Etherealize co-founder Danny Ryan stated that while the Trump administration pushed for crypto legislation, the industry may face political backlash after Trump leaves office due to conflicts of interest with companies backed by his family. Ryan emphasized that the crypto industry must accelerate its development during the current policy window, demonstrating its fundamental value as a critical global infrastructure by attracting financial institutions, global capital, and access to capital markets.
Danny Ryan points out that if cryptography becomes deeply embedded in the financial system, future regulatory pressure will be more inclined to modify its usage rather than eradicate it completely. Furthermore, Etherealize observed during its participation in the CLARITY bill hearings that Democratic concerns about Trump's conflict of interest have hindered the legislative process to some extent. Ryan calls on the industry to reduce its politicization by demonstrating its instrumental nature and value.
According to CryptoQuant, Bitcoin demand growth has slowed significantly since October 2025, indicating that Bitcoin has entered a new bear market cycle. Analysts point out that the three waves of investment demand in this cycle (the approval of spot ETFs, the 2024 US election, and the corporate financial asset allocation bubble) have been largely released. ETF holdings decreased by approximately 24,000 BTC in the fourth quarter, and perpetual contract funding rates fell to their lowest level since December 2023. Furthermore, the price of Bitcoin has fallen below the 365-day moving average of approximately $98,172, a key dynamic support level for the asset. While some analysts anticipate a price rebound driven by interest rate cuts in 2026, market sentiment is currently fearful, with only 22.1% of investors expecting an interest rate cut at the January FOMC meeting.
