Solana's early DeFi protocol Lifinity has announced that it will gradually cease operations.

**December 19th — Per Onchain Lens data, the whale previously engaged in "buying the dip and hedging" has continued purchasing 2,249 ETH (worth ~$6.54 million) across the HyperLiquid and Lighter platforms. Concurrently, the whale boosted its ETH short positions with 20x leverage on both exchanges.** **In the past 24 hours alone, the whale has amassed 4,599 ETH total, with a combined value of roughly $13.2 million.**

**December 19 – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told an afternoon monetary policy press conference today that Japan’s economy is showing mild weakness but remains in a modest recovery. The BOJ will keep raising its policy rate if the economy and prices improve as expected.** **The latest hike pushes Japan’s benchmark interest rate from 0.50% to 0.75% — the highest level since 1995, ending the country’s 30-year era of ultra-low rates. Kuroda noted the 30-year short-term rate high has no special meaning, adding the BOJ will closely track the latest rate change’s impact.** **For future moves, Kuroda said the pace of monetary adjustment depends on economic, price and financial outlooks. There’s still a gap from the lower end of the neutral interest rate range, and the BOJ hasn’t seen the strong tightening effect seen in prior hikes. The central bank will decide on further hikes after evaluating how the 0.75% rate affects the economy and prices; a hike is possible if wage gains

December 19th, per HTX market data, BTC has surged above $88,000 and is currently trading at $88,017.

On December 19, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that if wage growth continues to feed through to prices, a rate hike could indeed be on the table. (FX Street)

Per official sources, Binance Alpha will delist the following assets on December 19: BUZZ, DARK, FROG, GORK, MIRAI, PERRY, RFC, SNAI, and TERMINUS.