Hodler’s Digest, Dec. 21 – 27 – Cointelegraph Magazine

David Sacks calls CFTC, SEC picks a crypto regulation ‘dream team’

US President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, has signaled that the White House may have all the pieces in place for digital asset regulation following the confirmation of Michael Selig to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In a Monday X post, David Sacks said the US was at a “critical juncture” for crypto regulation, and that Selig and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins made up a “dream team to define clear regulatory guidelines.” Sacks’ comments were in response to Selig saying that the US Congress was preparing to complete work on a crypto market structure bill. 

“We are at a unique moment as a wide range of novel technologies, products, and platforms are emerging, retail participation in the commodity markets is at an all-time high, and Congress is poised to send digital asset market structure legislation that will cement the US as the Crypto Capital of the World to the president’s desk,” said Selig on X.

Coinbase CEO says reopening GENIUS Act is ‘red line,’ slams bank lobbying

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said any attempt to reopen the GENIUS Act would cross a “red line,” accusing banks of using political pressure to block competition from stablecoins and fintech platforms.

In a Sunday post on X, Armstrong said he was “impressed” banks could lobby Congress so openly without backlash, adding that Coinbase would continue pushing back on efforts to revise the law. “We won’t let anyone reopen GENIUS,” he wrote.

“My prediction is the banks will actually flip and be lobbying FOR the ability to pay interest and yield on stablecoins in a few years, once they realize how big the opportunity is for them. So it’s 100% wasted effort on their part (in addition to being unethical),” Armstrong added.

The GENIUS Act, passed after months of negotiations, bars stablecoin issuers from paying interest directly but allows platforms and third parties to offer rewards.

Bitcoin ‘never crossed’ $100K if adjusted for inflation, says Alex Thorn

Bitcoin came just shy of hitting a milestone six figures when inflation is factored in, despite the cryptocurrency hitting an all-time peak of above $126,000 in October, says Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn.

“If you adjust the price of Bitcoin for inflation using 2020 dollars, BTC never crossed $100,000,” Thorn said on Tuesday. “It actually topped at $99,848 in 2020 dollar terms, if you can believe it.”

Thorn said his adjusted price high for Bitcoin accounted for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) decline in purchasing power incrementally across every inflation print from 2020 to today.

CPI measures inflation via the prices of a basket of goods and services and is calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to track changes in spending habits.

Extended crypto ETF outflows shows institutions disengaging: Glassnode

Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds have seen a prolonged streak of outflows, indicating that institutional investors have disengaged with crypto, said the analytics platform Glassnode.

Since early November, the 30-day simple moving average of net flows into US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs has turned negative, Glassnode said on Tuesday.

“This persistence suggests a phase of muted participation and partial disengagement from institutional allocators, reinforcing the broader liquidity contraction across the crypto market,” it added.

Flows into crypto ETFs usually lag the spot markets for the tokens, which have been trending down since mid-October. 

The ETFs are also considered a bellwether for institutional sentiment, which has been a market driver for most of this year but seemingly turned bearish as the wider market has contracted.

Brazil’s live orchestra to turn Bitcoin price moves into music

An experimental orchestral project in Brazil aims to convert Bitcoin price data into live music, after receiving approval to raise funds through one of the country’s tax-incentive programs for cultural initiatives.

According to Brazil’s Federal Register, the authorization allows the project to seek up to 1.09 million reais ($197,000) from private companies and individual donors for an instrumental concert that uses financial data to generate music, drawing on concepts from art, mathematics, economics and physics.

The publication does not specify whether any blockchain or onchain infrastructure will be used in the performance. The performance will take place at the country’s federal capital, Brasília.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $87,458, Ether (ETH) at $2,922 and XRP at $1.84. The total market cap is at $2.96 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are MYX Finance (MYX) at 16.85%, ZCash (ZEC) at 15.00% and Dash (DASH) at 14.21%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Aave (AAVE) at 14.58%, Mantle (MNT) at 10.65% and Story (IP) at 10.06%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The fundamentals of the market this year for Bitcoin couldn’t be better.”

Phong Le, CEO of Strategy

“I want to see inflation come down to 2% without doing undue harm to the labor market. It’s a balancing act.”

John Williams, president and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank

“If Bitcoin truly is truly in a bear market, which is what it feels like, it would be kind of hard for Ethereum to go up there.”

Benjamin Cowen, crypto analyst

“We are at a unique moment as a wide range of novel technologies, products, and platforms are emerging, retail participation in the commodity markets is at an all-time high, and Congress is poised to send digital asset market structure legislation that will cement the US as the Crypto Capital of the World to the president’s desk.”

Michael Selig, incoming chair of the US CFTC

“Given where the volatility is right now, it would be very surprising that Bitcoin’s volatility has drastically compressed and yet still could get a 70% or 80% drawdown.”

Anthony Pompliano, Bitcoin entrepreneur

“I’ve seen many situations where someone calls on Grok expecting their crazy political belief to be confirmed and Grok comes along and rugs them.”

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum

Top Prediction of The Week

Bitcoin’s current setup looks like 2019, says Benjamin Cowen

As Bitcoin continues to underperform gold and major equity indices, investors are increasingly questioning whether this cycle is unfolding differently than expected. In a new interview with analyst Benjamin Cowen, we dig into why Bitcoin is lagging traditional markets, and why the current setup may feel strikingly similar to 2019.

Cowen points out that while stocks and gold are responding positively to expectations around future monetary easing, Bitcoin appears far more sensitive to actual liquidity conditions rather than optimism alone.

That distinction, he explains, helps clarify why BTC has struggled to gain momentum even as broader markets push higher. According to Cowen, Bitcoin often requires a clearer macroeconomic catalyst before it can outperform, and that catalyst may not yet be in place.

A key theme of the discussion is sentiment. Unlike previous cycle peaks characterized by widespread enthusiasm and retail speculation, this market has been marked by relative apathy.

Top FUD of The Week

Memecoins go from Christmas cheer to cold reality, sinking 65% in a year

Memecoins are trading near year-end lows, marking a sharp reversal from the speculative peak reached in Christmas 2024.

Memecoins fell 65% over the year to a market capitalization of $35 billion on Dec. 19, their lowest level of 2025, according to CoinMarketCap data. They retraced some losses on Friday, rising to about $36 billion.

Last year, memecoins thrived on Christmas Day, recording about $100 billion in valuation, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The memecoin sector’s trading volume fell alongside its value, dropping 72% over the year to $3.05 trillion, as crypto’s retail investing trends moved away from highly speculative assets.

JPMorgan freezes accounts of two stablecoin startups over sanctions concerns: Report

JPMorgan Chase has reportedly frozen bank accounts linked to two venture-backed stablecoin startups after identifying exposure to sanctioned and high-risk jurisdictions.

The accounts belonged to BlindPay and Kontigo, two stablecoin startups backed by Y Combinator that primarily operate across Latin America, according to a report by The Information. Both companies accessed JPMorgan’s banking services through Checkbook, a digital payments firm that partners with large financial institutions.

Per the report, the freezes occurred after JPMorgan flagged business activity tied to Venezuela and other locations subject to US sanctions.

Aave founder denies buying tokens to influence failed DAO vote

Stani Kulechov, the founder and CEO of Aave Labs, the main development company behind the Aave decentralized finance lending protocol, denied claims that he recently purchased $15 million of Aave tokens to influence a controversial community vote that failed to pass. 

“These tokens were not used to vote on the recent proposal, and that was never my intention. This is my life’s work, and I am putting my own capital behind my conviction,” Kulechov said.

He also said that Aave Labs has not clearly communicated the economic alignment between it and Aave token holders. “In the future, we’ll be more explicit about how products built by Aave Labs create value for the DAO and AAVE token holders,” he added.