Weekly Crypto Update: Crypto’s Chilly December Start

The first week of December 2025 opened with sharp volatility. The crypto market shed more than 1 trillion dollars in value, dropping below the 3 trillion dollar mark for the first time since mid October. Bitcoin fell from around 91,000 dollars to 84,000 dollars while Ethereum traded mostly below the 3,000 dollar level. Even in a tough week, two major upgrades stood out. Ethereum activated the Fusaka hard fork and VeChain completed the Hayabusa transition. Both upgrades signal long term strength even as market sentiment froze. The week cleared leverage and reset the market for whatever comes next. Now let us dive into top gainers, losers and events of this weekly crypto update.

Weekly Crypto Update : Top Gainers 📈

GAIX plus 270 percent — Revamp and airdrop
DHN plus 165 percent — Technical breakout
LUNC plus 115 percent — Do Kwon verdict
KEEP plus 99 percent — Volatility driven upside
IXS plus 62 percent — RWA TVL hit 88 million dollars

Weekly Crypto Update : Top Losers 📉

H minus 54 percent — Broke key support at 0.08 dollars
LGCT minus 44 percent — No updates or catalysts
SN minus 36 percent — Profit taking after last week’s 2X
MERL minus 23 percent — Lower sector liquidity
FOLKS minus 21 percent — Post TGE profit taking

The Market’s Rough Start

December began with aggressive deleveraging. On December 1, Bitcoin dropped nearly 8 percent to 83,824 dollars. The fall aligned with surging Japanese bond yields and a 76 percent chance of a Bank of Japan rate hike. The yen carry trade unwind forced global risk reduction and pulled liquidity out of crypto.

More than 1 billion dollars in leveraged positions were liquidated in one day. Ethereum dropped 10 percent to 2,719 dollars. Altcoins followed the slide. The Fear and Greed Index touched 23 which signals extreme fear.

Even MicroStrategy came under pressure. The company revised its 2025 Bitcoin target from 150,000 dollars to a range between 85,000 and 110,000 dollars. Shares dropped and the company announced a 1.44 billion dollar cash reserve to stabilize operations.

Macro Signals

The Federal Reserve ended Quantitative Tightening on December 1 which paused the 25 billion dollar monthly liquidity drain. Jerome Powell noted cooling inflation and market expectations show an 87 percent chance of a December rate cut.

This relief was short lived. Tariff concerns under the incoming Trump administration and continued yen strength pressured global liquidity. The total crypto market cap fell from 4.3 trillion dollars in October to below 3 trillion dollars by week’s end.

Price Movements

Bitcoin opened the week close to 90,000 dollars. It dropped to 84,000 dollars, then attempted a recovery toward 93,000 dollars before settling near 89,500 dollars by December 7. The weekly result was a 2 percent decline. BTC dominance stayed near 58.6 percent which shows investors favouring safety during uncertainty.

Ethereum traded between 2,800 and 3,050 dollars. It closed at 3,046 dollars with a small weekly gain. Institutional buyers added support. BitMine Immersion purchased 435 million dollars worth of ETH which helped steady the market.

XRP ETFs saw 15 straight days of inflows which total nearly 1 billion dollars. VeChain gained slightly as the Hayabusa upgrade went live.

Spotlights: Fusaka and Hayabusa

Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade went live on December 3. It introduced PeerDAS which allows validators to sample only parts of data instead of full blocks. This reduces node costs by close to 50 percent and unlocks a path to more than 100,000 transactions per second through Layer 2 networks.

VeChain’s Hayabusa upgrade launched on December 2. It transitions the network fully to Delegated Proof of Stake and ties rewards to staked VET which reduces inflation. It also adds NFT based staking and MiCA aligned features. Both upgrades strengthen long term fundamentals.

Weekly Crypto Update : Market Highlights

• Total crypto market cap fell below 3 trillion dollars
• Bitcoin tested 84,000 dollars and recovered near 89,000 dollars
• Ethereum held above 3,000 dollars
• One billion dollars in leverage liquidated on December 1
• Fear and Greed Index fell to 23
• Yen carry trade unwind hurt liquidity
• MicroStrategy revised targets lower
• Fusaka and Hayabusa upgrades completed successfully

Outlook

The week was painful but it cleaned up excess leverage. Historically, early December dips often lead to mid December reversals. Bitcoin’s average December performance is 9.7 percent.

The Federal Reserve meeting on December 10 is the main catalyst. A 25 basis point rate cut could push Bitcoin back toward the 95,000 to 100,000 dollar zone. A hawkish tone may retest the 84,000 dollar support.

Solana Breakpoint and the TAO halving will also influence sector rotations.

Conclusion
December started cold but did not break the trend of builders delivering upgrades. Fusaka and Hayabusa are real progress while fear clears out weak hands. If the Fed turns supportive the market could still finish the year with strength. Upcember remains possible.