With Washington flipping the script on digital assets, crypto companies struck 
$8.6 billion in deals in 2025, notching the industry&#8217;s busiest mergers and 
acquisitions year to date. According to a Financial Times report citing 
PitchBook data, 267 deals were recorded…

Crypto deal volume hits record $8.6B in 2025 amid regulatory tailwinds

Gnosis Chain, which plays a key infrastructural role in Balancer’s ecosystem, 
has executed a hard fork to recover a portion of funds that were frozen during 
the $116 million early November exploit of the protocol. According to an 
official announcement,…

Gnosis Chain activates hard fork to recover $9.4M frozen during Balancer exploit

As the year comes to a close, Bitcoin (BTC) is approaching a pivotal moment 
that could lead to increased market volatility. This Friday, December 26, more 
than $23 billion worth of Bitcoin options are set to expire, marking the 
largest options expiration in the cryptocurrency&#8217;s history. How $23 Billion 
Roll-Off May Impact Bitcoin Prices Market expert NoLimit took to social media 
platform X (formerly Twitter) to elucidate the significance of this event. 
Understanding options expiration is crucial to grasping its potential impact 
on the market. In the expert&#8217;s words, options are leveraged bets on the future 
price of Bitcoin: call options anticipate an increase in price, while put 
options anticipate a decrease. When these options expire, one of two things 
happens: either they expire worthless, or they trigger hedging actions that 
necessitate buying or selling in the spot market. Related Reading: XRP Price 
Forecasts For 2026 Unveiled By AI Simulation: Should Investors Remain Bullish? 
With a massive $23.6 billion worth of Bitcoin options rolling off at once, a 
substantial amount of risk is being removed from dealer books in a single day. 
This clearing of positions is a primary driver of volatility. For perspective, 
previous year-end expiries have been significantly smaller: around $6 billion 
in 2021, $2.4 billion in 2022, $11 billion in 2023, and $19.8 billion in 2024. 
The sheer scale of this upcoming expiry highlights a shift in the market 
landscape, indicating that it is now largely shaped by institutional investors 
rather than retail traders. The specificity of this Friday is particularly 
noteworthy. Dealers have strategically hedged their positions around key 
Bitcoin price levels, and as the options expiry arrives, these hedges will be 
unwound. This process could lead to sharp price movements in either direction, 
especially given the current low-liquidity conditions in the market. The 
holiday season has resulted in diminished trading volume, which means that 
individual orders can impact prices more dramatically—potentially leading to 
violent price swings. Key Price Ranges Adding to the complexity, fellow market 
analyst MartyParty highlighted that significant gamma exposure is clustered in 
critical price ranges, particularly between $86,000 and $110,000. Estimates 
suggest that high gamma—around $238 million or more in notional 
sensitivity—will expire, amplifying volatility through delta-hedging flows as 
Friday approaches. The maximum pain point, where Bitcoin option sellers face 
the greatest loss, is pegged at $96,000. Related Reading: New Crypto Tax 
Proposal: Bipartisan House Duo Pushes For Stablecoin Safe Harbor Furthermore, 
analysts from CryptoQuant weighed in on the situation, noting that while 
downside positioning has eased with the open interest in $85,000 puts 
declining, there remains a notable presence of $100,000 Bitcoin calls. This 
suggests a cautious but persistent optimism for a potential “Santa rally,” 
according to the analysts. The risk reversals also indicate a softening of 
bearish sentiment as Bitcoin’s spot price stabilizes. At the time of writing, 
Bitcoin was trading at $87,292, having recorded a loss of 2.5% in the past 24 
hours and a 30% gap between the current trading price and the record high. 
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com

This Friday’s Bitcoin Options Expiry Could Shake Up The Market: What To Look Out For

The SEC moved swiftly against alleged crypto fraud, accusing multiple trading 
platforms and investment clubs of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar scheme 
that lured retail investors through social media, messaging apps and fake AI- 
driven trading promises. SEC Alleges Social Media Crypto Scam Targeted US 
Retail Investors The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Dec. 22 
announced […]

SEC Says No Trading Occurred as 3 Platforms and 4 Clubs Allegedly Locked Retail Withdrawals

Dogecoin may look quiet and unexciting right now, but history suggests that 
could be the point. Similar fractal setups in the past have shown that 
prolonged accumulation phases often precede explosive moves, rewarding 
patience rather than impulse. If the pattern holds, DOGE’s current calm could 
simply be the setup before the next major chase begins. A Familiar Fractal 
Emerges At A Critical Inflection Point According to a latest Dogecoin update 
by Cryptollica, the broader macro structure is beginning to mirror a familiar 
historical four-point fractal structure, with price action now sitting at 
Point 4. This phase closely resembles past pre-bull-run accumulation periods, 
where extended consolidation laid the groundwork for explosive upside moves. 
Related Reading: Dogecoin Holds The Floor, But Momentum Says Otherwise — A 
Critical Standoff Unfolds The first key element of the setup is the rounded 
bottom formation. Zones 1 and 2 represented long stretches of low volatility 
and market boredom, and where accumulation took place quietly. Notably, Zone 2 
acted as the launchpad for Dogecoin’s powerful 2021 rally. In the current Zone 
4, price behavior is once again stabilizing into a rounded base, suggesting a 
similar accumulation process is underway. Furthermore, the weekly RSI shows a 
recurring support zone around the 32 level, marked by a red baseline on the 
chart. Historically, each time RSI dropped to or hovered near the baseline of 
Points 1, 2, and 3, it marked a macro bottom. At present, RSI has returned to 
this same critical support area. This reset implies that selling pressure is 
fading while momentum conditions are aligning for a potential shift back in 
favor of buyers. Taken together, this setup points to a cyclical reset rather 
than random market noise. With a bullish rounding bottom in place and RSI 
sitting at a historical buy zone, the structure suggests Dogecoin may be 
entering a prime accumulation phase. If the fractal unfolds as it did in past 
cycles, the current calm could precede a strong impulsive move. $0.138: The 
Line That Separates Recovery From Stagnation In a more recent update, crypto 
analyst Kevin explained that a successful reclaim of the $0.138 level on the 
3-day to weekly timeframes would mark a major shift for Dogecoin. Such a move 
would place price back above the macro 0.382 Fibonacci level as well as the 
200-week simple moving average. Related Reading: Dogecoin Could Stage A 600% 
Rally In 2026 If This Multi-Year Support Holds This development would be a 
strong bullish signal, but it is unlikely to happen in isolation. The setup 
would most likely align with Bitcoin reclaiming the crucial $88,000–$91,000 
zone, a range that needs to be recovered to support broader market strength 
and risk-on momentum. Until those conditions are met, Dogecoin continues to 
chop within what is considered a long-term dollar-cost-averaging zone, 
suggesting consolidation persists while the market waits for a decisive macro 
trigger. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com

Cryptocurrency price in CZK