Market Update — December 30

Source: TechFlow (Shenchao)

Yesterday's Market Update

SEC Deputy Chief of Corporate Finance Cicely LaMothe Announces Retirement; Leads Several Cryptocurrency Policies

According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Monday that Cicely LaMothe, Deputy Chief of Corporate Finance, is retiring. LaMothe led several key cryptocurrency policies over the past year, including clarifying that memes are not securities and outlining the SEC's stance on staking. She joined the SEC's Corporate Finance Department in 2002, having previously worked in the private sector and holding a CPA license. LaMothe's retirement comes in the second year of the SEC's new, more crypto-friendly direction, during which the SEC approved listing standards for certain crypto ETFs, launched the "Crypto Project" to update digital asset rules, and dropped enforcement cases against several prominent crypto companies. The SEC also announced that Nekia Hackworth Jones, Deputy Director of Enforcement for the Southeast, completed her term at the end of December.

Democratic Representative Waters Criticizes SEC Chairman Atkins for Terminating Cryptocurrency Enforcement Actions, Demands Hearing

According to CoinDesk, Maxine Waters, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote to Committee Republican Chairman French Hill on Monday, demanding that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins attend a hearing regarding the termination of major enforcement actions against crypto companies such as Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun. Waters questioned the SEC's reasons for abandoning these cases and how it would prevent market fraud, noting that some companies announced terminations before the committee's formal vote. She also criticized Atkins for using the SEC agenda as a government tool, implementing policy changes informally through employee statements.

Brevis Launches Airdrop Registration and Eligibility Check Portal

ZK Smart Verifiable Computing Platform Brevis has launched an airdrop registration and eligibility check portal. Users must check their eligibility and complete all necessary steps before applying. The application portal will be open from December 29th to January 3rd. The allocation quantity will be announced when applications open again.

SlowMist: New Variant of NPM Supply Chain Attack, Shai-Hulud 3.0, Re-emerges

SlowMist's Chief Information Security Officer, 23pds, issued a security alert stating that a new variant of the NPM supply chain attack, Shai-Hulud 3.0, has re-emerged, reminding all projects and platforms to strengthen their defenses. The previous Trust Wallet API key leak may have been a result of the Shai-Hulud 2.0 attack.

Flow Foundation: Releases No-Rollback Recovery Solution; Over 99.9% of Accounts Unaffected

The Flow Foundation has released a new recovery solution for the security vulnerability that occurred on December 27th. The solution, developed in consultation with bridging operators, exchanges, and infrastructure partners, has the following key features:

1. No network rollback required: No network reorganization or requirement for partners to replay transactions.
2. Preservation of legitimate user activity: Over 99.9% of accounts are unaffected and will function fully normally after the restart.
3. Precise remediation: Temporary restrictions are only applied to accounts that received fraudulent tokens.
4. Transparent processing: Fraudulent tokens are destroyed through transparent and auditable on-chain transactions, verified by an independent blockchain forensics firm.

The recovery plan will be implemented in four phases:

1. Cadence environment restored online, EVM temporarily read-only.
2. Cadence environment fully restored (approximately 24-48 hours).
3. EVM environment restored and reactivated.
4. Bridges/exchanges resume operations after verifying network stability.

This attack resulted in the transfer of approximately $3.9 million in assets. The Flow Foundation is currently working closely with validators and the community to ensure the safe recovery of the network.

Trust Wallet CEO: Security Incident Confirmed to Affect 2,596 Addresses, Compensation Verification Still Underway

Trust Wallet CEO Eowync.eth released an update on December 29th, stating that the company is actively investigating the security incident involving browser extension v2.68. Currently, 2,596 wallet addresses have been confirmed to be affected, and the team has received approximately 5,000 claim applications. The company is carefully verifying each claim to distinguish between genuine victims and malicious actors, and promised to share more investigation details tomorrow. This incident and subsequent compensation work have become the company's top priority, and all team members are working diligently on this matter.

Standard Chartered Bank and Ant International Launch New Blockchain Tokenized Deposit Solution in Hong Kong

Standard Chartered Bank (SCBHK) and Ant International have officially launched a commercial blockchain-based tokenized deposit solution, enabling real-time, 24/7 fund transfers in Hong Kong Dollars, offshore RMB, and US Dollars. The system, through Ant International's proprietary Whale platform, provides global enterprises with timely liquidity management, overcoming traditional banking time constraints and settlement delays.

Investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald predicts a new "crypto winter" in 2026, but institutional adoption continues to grow.

According to CoinDesk, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brett Knoblauch predicted in a recent report that Bitcoin may be entering a long-term downtrend, reflecting its historical four-year cycle, with prices potentially even testing Strategy's average cost price of around $75,000. However, unlike in the past, this "crypto winter" will not see large-scale liquidations or structural collapses; instead, institutional investors will dominate the market.

Trend Research withdraws another 13,462 ETH, adding over 46,000 ETH in a single day.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), Trend Research withdrew another 13,462 ETH (worth approximately $39.31 million) from Binance five minutes ago.

The institution's on-chain ETH holdings have now been updated to 626,071 ETH, with a total value exceeding $1.83 billion and an average holding cost of approximately $3,105.5. Currently, the institution is experiencing a paper loss of approximately $110 million. Data shows that Trend Research increased its ETH holdings by 46,036.72 ETH in a single day.

Strategy increased its holdings by 1,229 Bitcoins last week, currently holding a total of 672,497 Bitcoins.

According to a tweet from Strategy founder and CEO Michael Saylor, Strategy purchased 1,229 Bitcoins for approximately $108.8 million, averaging approximately $88,568 per Bitcoin. As of December 28, 2025, the company held a total of 672,497 Bitcoins, with a total investment of approximately $50.44 billion and an average purchase price of $74,997 per Bitcoin. Strategy's Bitcoin return year-to-date in 2025 has reached 23.2%.

WLD Treasury Company Eightco Holdings Launches $125 Million Stock Buyback Program

According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed WLD Treasury Company Eightco Holdings announced that its board of directors has approved a stock buyback program of up to $125 million. The company also stated that it will drive the development of a universal digital identity and authentication framework through strategic investments and partnerships to address the evolving identity verification market challenges brought about by large-scale artificial intelligence applications.