SnapShot 239

Hello SnapShotters,

As Bitcoin celebrates “Genesis Day,” marking the first ever BTC block mined on January 3, 2009, it made a temporary climb to US$90,000 to start the week. It quickly fell back into a narrow $87,000 to $89,000 range, as it recorded the first time that it closed a post-halving year in the red. Ether hovered around $2,900, reflecting a technically oversold, fundamentally uncertain mood.

U.S. spot BTC ETFs spilled $940 million from Christmas week up until early this week. ETH spot ETFs witnessed outflows of $178 million over the same period. In spite of cooling ETF demand, digital asset treasury (DAT) giants Strategy and BitMine were seen making their final accumulations for 2025: 1,229 BTC and 44,000 ETH, respectively.

Altcoins displayed uneven performance; persisting interest in privacy tokens gave Zcash a push of more than 20% from the past week, and Toncoin rebounded modestly on ecosystem developments involving a TON Foundation partnership and Telegram Mini App gaming tokens.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) gained about 5% over the past week amid anticipation of its commodities-focused real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

The Fear & Greed Index remains entrenched in “extreme fear” territory, while trading volumes stay anemic — signs of an unmoving market awaiting the next nitrous booster. With Q1 rate decisions, earnings season, and geopolitical uncertainty on the horizon, whether BTC can sustain above the $90,000 threshold and set a new tone for the new year remains an open question.

Here are the other top stories as crypto enters the first week of 2026.

News Snaps

🔮 Ethereum’s 2026 Roadmap Comes Into Focus
Ethereum developers are lining up major upgrades for 2026, led by the Glamsterdam fork, which targets parallel transaction processing, higher gas limits, and deeper integration of zero-knowledge proofs. A second upgrade later in the year, Heze-Bogota, is expected to prioritize censorship resistance, as Ethereum pushes L1 scaling while laying the groundwork for faster, more interoperable L2s.

💼 BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund Passes $100 Million in Payouts
BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL paid out $100 million in cumulative dividends, with yields distributed directly on-chain to investors. The payouts highlight how operational tokenized funds are distributing Treasury-backed on-chain income at scale.

🪙 Crypto ETFs’ Breakout Year
Crypto ETFs moved beyond a Bitcoin-only story in 2025, as regulatory shifts unblocked spot products for Ether, XRP, Solana, and multi-asset indices. While BTC and ETH still dominate flows, strong inflows into newer ETFs are showing early signs of investor demand widening beyond the first two assets.

🌏 Asia Pushes Beyond Dollar-Only Stablecoins
Japan and South Korea led Asia’s non-USD stablecoin push in 2025, rolling out yen- and won-backed pilots backed by banks, fintechs, and regulators. These tokens remain focused on payments and settlement rather than trading, as dollar-backed stablecoins still dominate the market.

What’s Ahead

🗓️ January 3: Bitcoin’s “Genesis Day”
Today marks Genesis Day, the anniversary of the first Bitcoin block mined in 2009, embedding the network’s launch into history.

Number of the Week

Source: CoinTelegraph

Chart of the Week

Crypto Mentions Swell in SEC Filings

References to blockchain-related terms in U.S. SEC filings rose sharply in 2025, averaging around 5,600 mentions per month, up from 3,480 per month in 2024. Mentions peaked in August, exceeding 8,000, marking the highest monthly count of the year.

These mentions capture how often companies referenced crypto-related terms — such as Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and decentralized finance — across formal disclosures, including annual reports, risk filings, and registration statements.

Bitcoin accounted for the largest share of mentions (36%), followed by “blockchain” (20%) and “cryptocurrency” (12%).

As of December 28, 2025

Source: The Block, Crypto.com Research

Research & Insights

2025 in Review, 2026 in Focus

2025 saw crypto pushing boundaries like never before. Besides BTC printing an all-time high, spot ETFs expanded beyond BTC and ETH to encompass XRP, Solana, and index products. 

Stablecoins crossed new transaction highs and became a core payment rail. Tokenization left the lab, with money market funds, treasuries, and prediction markets going live on-chain.

The 2026 outlook builds on that base:

• Hybrid finance
• Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade
• Stablecoins and RWAs to move into compliant financial infrastructure
• AI x Web3 as a trust layer for autonomous agents and machine-to-machine commerce
• Prediction markets mature into real-time information and risk-pricing systems

🔎 Read the full 2025 Year Review and 2026 Year Ahead report for a deep dive into the data, charts, and narratives.

Crypto Trivia

Which of these crypto continued to thrive even after the blockchain it was originally issued on fell out of use?

A) Chainlink (LINK)

B) Tether (USDT) 

C) Dogecoin (DOGE)

Find the correct answer at the end of this newsletter. 👇

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Security Tips

Pakistan Uncovers $60 Million Fake Crypto Investment Scam
Authorities in Pakistan say they’ve taken down an international cartel linked to a $60 million investment scam. The raid, which recovered 37 computers, 40 mobile phones, over 10,000 international SIM cards, and six illegal gateway exchange devices, shows how large-scale fake crypto investment schemes continue to lure victims with promises of easy profits.

Investigators say the operation ran fraudulent online investment platforms, convincing users to deposit funds with claims of guaranteed returns. Victims were shown fabricated dashboards and reassured by constant communication from scammers posing as professional advisers. In reality, the money was siphoned off, leaving investors with nothing once contact was cut.

How to Safeguard Funds:

1. Test withdrawals early and verify on-chain activity.
2. Be wary of crypto investments that promise guaranteed or risk-free returns.
3. Verify registrations and reviews — if an adviser pressures to invest or moves chats private, walk away.

Crypto Trivia Answer

B) Tether (USDT) ✅

Tether originally issued USDT on the Omni Layer, a Bitcoin-based protocol that later declined in usage.

USDT survived by migrating to newer blockchains like Ethereum and Tron, outliving its original chain and becoming the world’s largest stablecoin.

That's it for this week's SnapShot. Want more? Find out what’s trending in the crypto world.