TFIN DAO | Web3

Bitcoin briefly pushed above 93,000 dollars as crypto extended its New Year rally, helping add more than 200 billion dollars to the market since December 31 and lifting total capitalization into the low 3 trillion range, with about 260 million dollars in liquidations over 24 hours, mostly short positions including over 90 million dollars in BTC alone. Ether climbed back above 3,100 dollars and majors like XRP, Solana, dogecoin, cardano and BNB posted single digit gains, with XRP popping to just over 2.10 dollars as shorts were squeezed there too. The move comes alongside strength in Asian equities and record level gold and silver prices, while investors largely treat fast moving geopolitical tension in Venezuela as a background factor rather than a brake on risk appetite.

In 2025 DeFi shifted from hype to rebuilding, with Ethereum focusing on rollups, data availability, liquid staking and interoperability to better serve institutions, while Solana used a year of real demand to harden its high throughput infrastructure after past outages. Together they are positioning as twin anchors for a 2026 DeFi reboot, aiming at more scalable, resilient systems and real world finance use cases rather than another short lived speculative yield cycle.

In 2025 bitcoin’s market became noticeably calmer as institutions turned their BTC and spot ETF holdings into yield strategies built around options. Big holders spent the year selling covered calls to earn steady premiums and buying puts for downside protection, which flooded the market with call supply, pushed implied volatility lower and shifted options pricing toward a more traditional “long but hedged” profile. With a growing share of all bitcoin now sitting in ETFs and corporate treasuries that earn no native yield, this call overwriting and systematic hedging helped turn 2025 into one of the least volatile years in bitcoin’s history.

Silver has recently become more volatile than bitcoin, with its 30 day realized volatility rising into the mid 50 percent range while bitcoin’s has cooled into the mid 40s and slipped below its yearly average, as traders increasingly use metals instead of crypto to express macro views. The metal is up more than 150 percent this year on tight supply, strong industrial demand from solar and EVs, and new Chinese export licensing that has pushed prices in hubs like Shanghai and Dubai far above COMEX and driven the London curve into backwardation, while bitcoin is still down about 7 percent year to date and sits roughly 30 percent under its October peak, trading in a dull range as ETF flows and speculative appetite fade into year end.

Strategy bought another 1,229 BTC for about 108.8 million dollars at an average price of 88,568 dollars per coin, lifting its holdings to roughly 672,497 BTC accumulated at a total cost of about 50.44 billion dollars. The purchase was funded through its ongoing stock sale program and comes on top of nearly 2 billion dollars in bitcoin buys this month, reinforcing Strategy’s role as a long term, price dip buyer whose balance sheet is heavily tied to BTC even as its share price remains sensitive to market volatility.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have been drifting lower in tight ranges during the holidays, with thin liquidity and weak retail activity keeping price moves muted rather than explosive. Both coins are mostly following technical support levels and overall market sentiment, instead of leading new trends, and analysts say they are acting more like passengers in a slow, choppy market until a fresh catalyst or social media hype wave appears.