Bitcoin’s price continued to fall as 2025 neared its end, declining 4% in December.
Despite a slump in markets, Strategy capped off the year with massive Bitcoin buys. In December alone, the software company turned Bitcoin investment vehicle picked up over 22,000 Bitcoin (BTC).
In the US, prediction markets are inking deals with major media outlets and scoring approvals from major federal agencies. However, in 11 states, gambling and gaming regulators are taking legal action against platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. Watchdogs state that such markets constitute a form of gambling, a claim the companies themselves dispute.
As crypto grows more mainstream, hackers and scammers are increasingly targeting investors and protocols. In December, crypto exploits topped $22.5 million. Chainalysis also released its annual scam report, stating that crypto thefts hit $3.4 billion in 2025.
Here’s December by the numbers:
Strategy accumulates over 22,000 Bitcoin
Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin investment vehicle, Strategy, picked up another stack of Bitcoin in December. The publicly traded company bought 22,628 BTC this month, according to Strategy’s Bitcoin purchase disclosures.
This brings the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 672,497 BTC, or roughly 3.3% of the 19.9 million Bitcoin currently in circulation.
The purchases in December capped off a year of aggressive accumulation by Strategy. The company disclosed Bitcoin purchases in 41 separate weeks of 2025. That’s a marked increase from 18 weeks in 2024 and just eight in 2023.
Related: Strategy’s latest 2025 Bitcoin purchase caps active year of accumulation
Strategy’s success in offering debt to fund new Bitcoin purchases has inspired other companies to become “Bitcoin treasury firms” — i.e., companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets. According to BitcoinTreasuries.net, 192 public companies hold almost 1.1 million BTC in their treasuries.
Bitcoin price slumps 4%
Bitcoin’s price fell over 4% this month and is trading at $88,000 at publishing time. The asset is slated to end the year down below where it started, around $94,000, and well below its all-time high of $124,000 set in October.
Some traders say that Bitcoin is set for further losses, possibly down to $40,000; that is, if the traditionally understood four-year boom-and-bust cycle is still intact.
Not everyone is convinced, though. Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, previously told Cointelegraph that institutional demand through things like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasuries has softened the blow.
“While the bull market may face near-term consolidation amid macroeconomic pressures, we anticipate it will extend into 2026 with support from ongoing structural inflows and evolving market dynamics,” he said.
Betting markets face legal battles in 11 states
Betting markets are making headway in the US. On Dec. 4, CNBC signed a contract with Kalshi to integrate real-time forecasting data from the betting market on CNBC’s TV, digital and subscription platforms.
But state regulators are not pleased. That same week, Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection sent letters to Kalshi, Crypto.com and Robinhood, ordering them to cease operations in the state. There are now 11 states in which prediction markets are facing legal action from regulators.
Kalshi similarly received cease-and-desist letters in Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, Montana and New York. Regulators in those states cited that the market was offering unlicensed gambling, a claim that Kalshi rejects.
In Massachusetts, state prosecutors claim that Kalshi has disguised sports betting as “event contracts.” Kalshi said the state is “trying to block Kalshi’s innovations by relying on outdated laws and ideas.”
A spokesperson for the company previously told Cointelegraph, “It’s very different from what state-regulated sportsbooks and casinos offer their customers. We are confident in our legal arguments and have filed suit in federal court.”
Scammers stole $22.5 million in crypto in December
In December, hackers made away with $22.5 million across 10 incidents, according to data from DefiLlama, a drop in the bucket compared with other months this year.
In February, hackers stole $1.4 billion in assets from the crypto exchange Bybit. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said in its annual crypto hack report that this year’s crypto thefts totaled $3.4 billion. It added that personal wallet attacks have “grown substantially, increasing from just 7.3% of total stolen value in 2022 to 44% in 2024. In 2025, the share would have been 37% if it weren’t for the outsized impact of the Bybit attack.”
Sophisticated attacks from state-sponsored actors have been a particular problem for large, centralized organizations like crypto exchanges. Cybercriminals associated with the government of North Korea reportedly stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency this year.
RWAs overtook DEXs with $19 billion in distributed asset value
The total distributed asset value of real-world assets (RWAs) rose 3% in December, surpassing $19 billion. The largest section of these assets is tokenized US Treasurys at $8.7 billion, followed by commodities at $3.5 billion.
This places RWAs as the fifth-largest asset category in decentralized finance by total value locked, according to DefiLlama, overtaking decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
“At the start of this year, they weren’t even in the top 10 categories,” DeFiLlama noted.
A number of tokenized fund products like the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), Circle’s USYC, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI and Ondo’s OUSG are driving increased valuation with tokenized Treasurys.
Vincent Liu, chief investment officer of Kronos Research, previously told Cointelegraph that for further growth in RWAs, “the constraint is no longer tokenization itself, but liquidity and integration into TradFi.”
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