Crypto Fear & Greed Index Drops to 21, Market in 'Extreme Fear'

On-chain investigator ZachXBT announced in his personal channel on December 5 that British hacker Danny / Meech (also known as Danish Zulfiqar / Khan) was reportedly arrested by law enforcement, and his crypto assets were seized. Prior to this, ZachXBT had tracked and identified the individual, who is suspected of stealing $243 million in crypto from Genesis creditors in August 2024. Accomplices include Malone, Veer, Chen, and Jeandiel. Danny also participated in the August 2023 Kroll SIM swap attack, which exposed personal data of creditors for BlockFi, Genesis, and FTX. This sparked targeted social engineering scams that have cost victims over $300 million. Hours earlier, multiple addresses linked to Danny—tracked by ZachXBT—merged and transferred $18.58 million in crypto to an address beginning with 0xb37d, matching the pattern of past law enforcement asset seizures.

On December 5, Italy’s securities market regulator Consob issued a notice detailing requirements under the EU’s **Cryptocurrency Market Regulation (MiCAR)** for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) registered with the Italian Ordinary Authority of the Markets (OAM). ### Key Rules for VASPs: Current OAM-registered VASPs must submit applications by **December 30, 2025** to transition to a regulated **crypto asset service provider (CASP)**—a requirement to continue operating. Failure to comply will bar them from offering related services no later than **June 30, 2026**. ### Investor Guidance: Consob advised investors to: - Confirm if their current VASP plans to apply for a CASP license; - Verify if the provider is listed in the **European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)** or OAM registers; - Request the return of their assets if the provider is unauthorised. ### Urgent Reminder for Unregistered VASPs: The regulator repeated its call for VASPs without CASP a

On December 5, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) noted that a new crypto address withdrew 13,308 ETH (valued at $41.47 million) from FalconX 9 hours prior.

On December 5, data from Coinglass shows current funding rates across major centralized (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) signal bearish market sentiment. Funding rates for key cryptocurrencies are detailed in the attached image. **BlockBeats Note**: Funding rates are fees set by crypto trading platforms to keep perpetual contract prices aligned with the underlying asset’s value. They act as a capital exchange between long and short traders—platforms do not collect this fee. The mechanism adjusts the cost or profit of position holders to ensure contract prices track the underlying asset closely. Here’s what funding rates indicate: - 0.01% = baseline rate - Above 0.01% = generally bullish sentiment - Below 0.005% = generally bearish sentiment

On December 5th, data from Farside monitoring indicates the U.S. Solana spot ETF posted a net inflow of $4.2 million yesterday.

On December 5, Farside monitoring data shows the U.S. Ethereum spot ETF recorded a net outflow of $41.5 million yesterday.