「Triple Short ASTER」 Whale Liquidates 4.79 Million ASTER Short Position, ETH and XRP Longs See Nearly $10 Million in Unrealized Losses

On December 8th, Binance Alpha is set to launch Midnight (NIGHT) on December 9th. Eligible users can claim the airdrop via the Binance Alpha event page using their Binance Alpha points once trading goes live. More details will be announced soon.

December 8 — The U.S. dollar weakened Thursday (note: if the original doesn’t specify the weekday, use “December 8” directly) as markets await the Federal Reserve’s policy decision later this week. A rate cut is widely expected at the meeting. Deutsche Bank analysts said in a report the Fed may announce its third and final 25-basis-point rate cut of 2025 on Wednesday, with the decision likely not to have unanimous support. The analysts noted Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference and accompanying statement will be critical: “We expect Powell to stress that the bar for further rate cuts in early 2026 is high, signaling a temporary pause in cuts.” ### Notes on American English adjustments: 1. **Conciseness**: Replaced "it is widely expected that this meeting will once again result in a rate cut" with the tighter "A rate cut is widely expected at the meeting" (avoids redundant "once again" as context implies). 2. **Colloquial precision**: Swapped "threshold" for "bar" (a mor

On December 8, Coinglass data shows that centralized exchanges (CEXs) saw a net inflow of 137.12 BTC over the past 24 hours. The top three CEXs by inflow volume are: - OKX: 459.97 BTC net inflow - Bitfinex: 360.07 BTC net inflow - KuCoin: 147.52 BTC net inflow Additionally, Binance recorded the largest net outflow among CEXs, with 326.22 BTC leaving the platform.

On December 8, the ether.fi Foundation said in a post that it used 300,000 USDT last weekend to repurchase 367,674.76 ETHFI tokens. The protocol’s cumulative buyback total now stands at $11,771,993. At the time of the announcement, ETHFI was trading at $0.825—up 3.78% over the past 24 hours—with its market capitalization climbing to $640 million.

On December 8, Bloomberg reported that payments startup Airwallex has raised $330 million in its latest funding round, pushing its valuation to $8 billion. A Monday statement noted the valuation marks a roughly 30% jump from the fintech’s prior funding round six months ago. Addition led the round, with backers including Activant, Lingotto and TIAA Ventures joining in. Prior BlockBeats coverage noted that on July 7, Airwallex’s website showed the firm was building out a stablecoin platform team and hiring for two engineering roles to develop stablecoin infrastructure.

**Dec. 8 — South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Upbit delayed reporting a hack to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) by six hours, per South Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo.** Data from the FSS, obtained by National Assembly member Kang Min-kuk, shows: - Upbit detected abnormal transactions at 4:42 a.m. on Nov. 27 but notified the FSS only at 10:58 a.m. - Hackers stole over 104 billion Solana ecosystem tokens (valued at ~44.5 billion South Korean won) in 54 minutes during that window. - Upbit convened an emergency meeting 18 minutes post-detection, paused Solana deposits/withdrawals 27 minutes later, and fully suspended all crypto deposits/withdrawals at 8:55 a.m. Current laws lack direct penalty clauses for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in hack incidents, leaving the FSS unable to impose major sanctions. Upbit responded that it fully compensated user losses with its own funds and reported to authorities immediately upon confirming the intrusion.