[Bitwise CEO: Iran's Currency Collapse Highlights Bitcoin's Value Preservation Role] As the Iranian rial's exchange rate against the US dollar fell to a historic low, large-scale protests erupted in Tehran, with citizens attributing the currency's devaluation to the central bank's fiscal and monetary policy failures. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley stated that Bitcoin provides people worldwide with a new way to protect their wealth in the context of fiat currency devaluation. Since the conflict with Israel began in June this year, the rial's purchasing power has shrunk by more than 40%, with the official exchange rate at approximately 1.4 million rials to 1 US dollar. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the Bitcoin Human Rights Foundation, mentioned that in the early 1980s, the official exchange rate was only 70 rials to 1 US dollar. The governor of Iran's central bank has resigned due to the protests, further increasing market uncertainty. VanEck's Head of Research, Matthew Sigel, pointed out that Iran has recently cracked down on unregistered Bitcoin mining activities and encouraged citizens to report their neighbors. Analysts note that discussions around Bitcoin as a decentralized store of value are on the rise.

[Wintermute OTC Head: Banks' Participation in Crypto Trading is a Brokerage Model] Wintermute OTC Head Jake stated that banks' participation in the crypto trading process is fundamentally different from proprietary trading. Banks typically purchase crypto assets from clients and immediately transfer them to liquidity providers, holding the assets only briefly on a technical level to facilitate transactions, without actually holding inventory or bearing price fluctuation risks. From an economic substance perspective, this constitutes a brokerage business. Banks can facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers but cannot hold positions or engage in proprietary trading.

[ZEC Largest Bear Closes ETH Short Position and Increases ZEC, MON Shorts] On December 30, Coinbob monitoring revealed that the whale labeled as 'ZEC Largest Bear' closed 1,008 ETH short positions last night, realizing a profit of approximately $3.08 million. Subsequently, in the early hours, the whale reopened positions, lowering the average price of ETH shorts to $3,246, with a total position size of approximately $132 million and an unrealized profit of $14.23 million. The whale also increased ZEC and MON short positions. The ZEC short position reached $20.29 million, with an average price of $419, resulting in an unrealized loss of $4.48 million. The MON short position reached $6.67 million, with an average price of $0.0304, yielding an unrealized profit of $2.95 million. As of the time of writing, the total short position of this address has increased to $163 million, making it the largest bear for ETH, ZEC, and MON on the platform.

Grayscale's latest research shows that despite the overall sluggish market performance, privacy tokens performed outstandingly in the fourth quarter of 2025, with ZEC leading the way. （Cointelegraph）

[Suspected Maven11 Capital-Related Wallet Deposits 10 Million ENA to Binance] According to monitoring by The Data Nerd, a wallet address suspected to be related to Maven11 Capital, 0xB81F…15dE, deposited 10 million ENA to Binance 20 minutes ago, valued at approximately $2.05 million. Last month, this address received 18.18 million ENA through token unlocking, valued at approximately $4.48 million, and deposited 3.68 million ENA to Binance, valued at approximately $1.06 million.