Author: TechFlow TechFlow
Yesterday's Market Dynamics
Cicely LaMothe, Deputy Director of the SEC's Corporate Finance Division, has announced her retirement. She previously spearheaded several cryptocurrency policies.
According to The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Monday that Cicely LaMothe, Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Division, is retiring. LaMothe spearheaded 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 Division 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 District, completed her term at the end of December.
Democratic Representative Waters criticized SEC Chairman Atkins for halting cryptocurrency enforcement efforts and demanded a hearing.
According to CoinDesk, Maxine Waters, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote to the committee's Republican chairman, French Hill, on Monday, requesting 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 dropping these cases and how it plans to 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's 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 period will run from December 29th to January 3rd. The allocation quantity will be announced when applications reopen.
SlowMist: A new variant of the NPM supply chain attack, Shai-Hulud 3.0, has resurfaced.
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 reappeared, reminding all project teams 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 plan for the security vulnerability that occurred on December 27. Developed in consultation with bridging operators, exchanges, and infrastructure partners, the plan's key features are as follows:
No network rollback required: No network reorganization or requirement for partners to replay transactions will be performed.
Legitimate user activity will be preserved: Over 99.9% of accounts will be unaffected and will function normally after the reboot.
Precise fix: Temporary restrictions are only applied to accounts that received fraudulent tokens.
Transparent Processing: Fraudulent tokens are destroyed through transparent and auditable on-chain transactions, verified by an independent blockchain forensics company.
The recovery plan will be implemented in four phases:
The Cadence environment is back online; the EVM is temporarily read-only.
The Cadence environment has been restored (approximately 24-48 hours).
Repair and re-enable the EVM environment
The bridging/exchange service resumed operations after verifying network stability.
The 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 cybersecurity of the network is restored.
Trust Wallet CEO: The security incident has been confirmed to have affected 2,596 addresses; compensation verification is still underway.
Trust Wallet CEO Eowync.eth posted 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 affected, and the team has received approximately 5,000 claims. 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 efforts have become the company's top priority, and all team members are working diligently on this matter.
Standard Chartered Bank and Ant International launch a new blockchain-based tokenized deposit solution in Hong Kong.
Standard Chartered Bank (SCBHK) and Ant International have officially launched a blockchain-based tokenized deposit solution, enabling real-time, 24/7 fund transfers in Hong Kong dollars, offshore RMB, and US dollars. Through Ant International's proprietary Whale platform, the system provides global enterprises with timely liquidity management, overcoming the time constraints and settlement delays of traditional banks.
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 a large-scale liquidation or structural collapse, but rather will be driven by institutional investors.
Trend Research withdrew another 13,462 ETH, increasing its holdings by 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 5 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 added 1,229 bitcoins last week, bringing its total holdings to 672,497 bitcoins.
According to a tweet from Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of Strategy, the company has purchased 1,229 bitcoins for approximately $108.8 million, averaging about $88,568 per bitcoin. As of December 28, 2025, the company holds 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 so far in 2025 has reached 23.2%.
WLD Treasury company Eightco Holdings initiates a $125 million stock buyback program .
According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed WLD Treasury company Eightco Holdings announced that its board of directors has approved a share buyback program of up to $125 million. The company also stated that it will promote 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.
Market Dynamics
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