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👋 Welcome to the CoinStats Scoop, your weekly newsletter with the most groundbreaking Web3 innovations and market-moving headlines in the crypto space.
Stay in the loop with all the key market moves, emerging trends, and exciting developments 📈 in the crypto space from the past week.
Bitcoin closed the year in the red, continuing last week’s consolidation amid the lack of holiday liquidity as traders were preparing for New Year’s Eve.
Still, 2025 went down in history as a milestone year for cryptocurrency adoption, marked by the creation of the first federal Bitcoin reserve and the passage of the first stablecoin framework in the United States, the GENIUS Act.
Elsewhere, decentralized exchange (DEX) users rejoiced after Perp Dex Lighter distributed a staggering $675 million airdrop to its users after a nearly 1-year points farming period.
Lastly, emerging investment firms, such as Hong Kong-headquartered Trend Research 🐋, are quietly accumulating, with Trend reaching $1.8 billion in total Ether holdings and pledging more investments for the new year.
In this week’s CoinStats Scoop, you’ll find:
📊 Crypto Market Analysis And The Most Important News In Web3
🎁 Lighter TGE Distributes $675 Million Airdrop As Early Adopters Bank +$100K
📈 Bitwise Files For 11 Mixed “Strategy” Crypto ETFs, Paving The Way For Regulated Altcoin Exposure
💎 Trend Research Surpasses $1.8 Billion Ether Holdings, Bets On Bullish 2026
🏦 BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund Breaches $100 Million In Payouts In Breakout Year For Tokenized Finance
🔮 Analysis And Key Events That Will Shape The Crypto Market Next Week
Perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) Lighter ended the year with a long-awaited airdrop, distributing nearly $700 million for its early users.
On Dec. 30, Lighter DEX distributed a total of $675 million in Lighter Infrastructure tokens (LIT), rewarding the users of its Season 1 and Season 2 points farming program, which lasted throughout 2025.
The $675 million Lighter airdrop became the 10th largest airdrop in history 🏆, right after 1inch Network’s $671 million airdrop from 2020.
The LIT token’s value fell by 14% 📉 since launch, to trade at $2.72, with a market capitalization of $683 million and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $683 million, according to CoinStats data.
Some of the earliest Lighter users received over $100,000 💰 in airdrop value, showcasing the profitability of perp DEX farming, which is emerging as a new meta among traders and airdrop hunters.
In a bullish sign 📈 for the token’s price momentum, 75% of airdrop recipients haven’t sold their coins during the first day, while 7% bought additional LIT tokens, blockchain data shows.
Cryptocurrency asset manager Bitwise filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 🏛️ to launch 11 “strategy” crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as the company seeks to launch more altcoin-focused investment vehicles.
If approved ✅, the new ETFs would provide exposure to some of the leading altcoins, including Aave, Uniswap, Zcash, Bittensor, Sui, and the Near cryptocurrencies.
The new “strategy” ETFs present a new fund management philosophy, as they plan to invest up to 60% of the funds directly into the spot altcoins and another 40% of the funds into securities or ETPs that provide additional exposure to these tokens, including derivatives.
For the broader cryptocurrency space 🌐, the filings represent a new type of investment product, offering traditional investors a regulated fund for altcoin exposure, for coins that were previously accessible only through cryptocurrency exchanges.
Similar regulated ETFs can attract boomers and traditional investors to altcoins, a segment that is traditionally hesitant to open cryptocurrency exchange accounts or dabble with decentralized exchanges for exposure.
Trend Research continued quietly amassing Ethereum to reach $1.8 billion in total holdings, despite a growing chorus of bear calls in the crypto industry.
The Hong Kong-headquartered investment firm surpassed 607,828 in total ETH holdings, worth over $1.8 billion, with Ether trading at $2,900.
This makes Trend Research the 3rd largest Ether holder following Bitmine and Sharplink Gaming 🏆, which is a significant feat for a company that’s not listed on the stock exchange and can’t issue shares to raise capital.
Instead, Trend Research relies on more crypto-native funding methods, which include borrowing over $950 million in stablecoins from DeFi lending protocol Aave.
Trend Research founder Jack Yi said he will continue buying Ether and WLFI tokens 📈, predicting a bullish 2026 for cryptocurrency valuations, driven by improving liquidity and economic conditions. He wrote:
“First, we’re bullish on the 2026 bull market, especially the first quarter; it’s hard to concentrate large positions at the absolute lowest point, so we’re not worried about fluctuations of a few hundred dollars. Second, the industry’s shorts are overly exaggerated ⚠️; ETH futures open interest keeps hitting new highs and has become the dominant price factor, with some platforms’ futures open interest several times that of spot holdings.”
BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized money market fund reached $100 million in payouts, as the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector closes a breakout year of growth.
BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has paid out $100 million in cumulative dividends to investors since launch 📈, announced the fund’s issuer, Securitize.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, launched the fund in March 2024 on Ethereum to invest in US dollar-denominated assets, including US Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and cash equivalents.
Tokenized money market funds offer institutional investors a blockchain-based passive yield-generating engine, offering investors dividend distributions directly on-chain, from the income generated from the underlying dollar-denominated assets.
BlackRock has since expanded the fund to Solana, Aptos, Avalanche, and Optimism networks 🚀.
The $100 million milestone demonstrates the institutionalization of tokenized investment funds and the scale of yield that can be achieved through blockchain-based instruments that offer more accessibility and programmability compared to traditional finance instruments.
Bitcoin closed 2025 in the red, as cryptocurrency markets saw another week of consolidation as traders were away for the final week of the year.
Despite a milestone year for cryptocurrency regulations 🏛️ and significant growth in regulated crypto investment products, Bitcoin’s price fell 8.9% during 2025, according to CoinStats data.
While macro analysts are calling for more US dollar liquidity in 2026, some analysts foresee a slowing demand for Bitcoin, based on historical chart patterns 📊.
Bitcoin’s demand is entering negative territory as we end 2025 📉, a factor that is more definitive for market cycles than pure price action, predicted Julio Moreno, the head of research at CryptoQuant:
“Most are focusing on price performance to define a cycle, when it is demand that they should be looking to. Bitcoin demand is contracting monthly and slowing down significantly on an annual basis (and about to get into negative territory).”
Despite the predictions, some of the industry’s largest investors have been betting hundreds of millions on more crypto market upside.
The $11 billion Bitcoin whale 🐋, who made millions by predicting the $20 billion October market crash, has opened $750 million in leveraged long positions tied to Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana.
In August, this same whale rotated $5 billion Bitcoin into Ether 🔄, inspiring a wave of large investor addresses to follow suit.
“Thanks for nothing Santa 🎅,” said every crypto bull…
Analysts warn of a historic market capitulation signal ⚠️ for Bitcoin price.
Lighter DEX was among the most profitable protocols of the year 💸, with some making over $600,000 through creative value adds.
What could go wrong 😬 indeed?
Meanwhile, a rare Bitcoin short signal ⚡ emerges for the 4th time in history…
If you zoom out 🔍, we’re still early.
Thank you for reading the weekly CoinStats Scoop Newsletter.
CoinStats will continue to guide you through the world of crypto and DeFi. We'll see you next week for another edition of CoinStats Scoop! 😎
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