Crypto Rollercoaster: Bitcoin Blues, Stablecoin Surge, and Regulatory Rays

Digital Assets Decoded: Your Daily Crypto Guide podcast.Hey folks, Crypto Willy here with your **Digital Assets Decoded: Your Daily Crypto Guide** for the week leading up to December 13, 2025. Buckle up, because it's been a wild ride in crypto land—markets tumbling, devs duking it out, and regulators throwing olive branches!First off, Bitcoin's having a rough December reckoning, per Euronews reports. BTC dipped to $84,000 on Monday before clawing back to $87,000, still way off its $125,000 October peak. Ethereum's hurting too, sliding 7% to $2,800 from $3,000 last week, and a far cry from August's $4,800 highs. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is screaming 'Extreme Fear' at 23/100, blending volatility spikes, weak volume, sour social vibes, and fading Google buzz. Even die-hards are rattled—Strategy Inc, led by Michael Saylor, just parked $1.44 billion in USD reserves from stock sales to weather the storm and cover dividends. Saylor's dialing back his bold call, now eyeing BTC at $85,000 to $110,000 by year-end, down from $150,000.Galaxy Research nails the Bitcoin dev drama: After heated debates, Bitcoin Core devs merged the OP_RETURN tweak into v30, nixing data size limits—31 Core contributors signed off in a rare letter. Momentum's surging for the next soft fork with OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV from BIP-119) and OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS from BIP-348), backed by 66 big-name devs and 20% of hashrate. CTV could supercharge layer-2 bridges, custody, and scaling, they've been saying since 2021.Regulatory sunshine from the U.S. SEC: Chair Paul Atkins dropped a bombshell speech at a DeFi roundtable, embracing "self-executing software code" for true DeFi protocols. He's pushing "further guidance" that might greenlight registrant interactions now, boosting self-custody, tokenization, and even an "innovation exemption" for unregistered firms to launch on-chain goodies fast. A total pivot from Gary Gensler days, say Galaxy's Alex Thorn and Marc Hochstein.Stablecoin frenzy! Plasma, the upcoming blockchain built for them, sucked in $1 billion in deposits—$500 million in five minutes on June 9, then another $500 million in 30 minutes two days later. Zack Pokorny at Galaxy notes it'll mint XPL tokens (aiming for $50 million raise at $500 million FDV) and let folks withdraw as USDT post-40-day lockup. It's gunning for USDT utility amid rivals like Bitcoin L2s, Noble, Tron, and Sky's DAI push.Quick hits: Stripe's snapping up crypto wallet Privy; Paul Tudor Jones says ditch the dollar slump with BTC in every portfolio; Coinbase drops a Bitcoin rewards Amex card and U.S. perps trading; Bullish files confidentially for IPO via FT; Franklin Templeton's Benji platform pays intraday yields on tokenized assets; Aave hits Sony's Soneium L2; but watch out—Inca Digital finds nearly a third of Bitcoin ATMs in drug trafficking hotspots. ETH staking's rebounding too, hitting $96.6 billion on the Beacon Chain.Whew, what a week—volatility's melting down per CoinDesk's Omkar Godbole, but innovation's firing on all cylinders!Thanks for tuning in, pals—catch you next week for more. This has been a Quiet Please production, and for me, check out Quiet Please Dot A I. Stay decentralized!Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOtaThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

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