Yihua's Trend Research Increases ETH Holdings Again, Adding 5011 ETH for a Total of 612,609 ETH

On December 29, OnchainLens data shows a whale address deposited $1.3 million in USDC into HyperLiquid, then opened a 3x leveraged short position on LIT. The position is currently valued at over $600,000, with an entry price of $3.769. Additionally, the address has an open pending order to scale up the position, aiming to further increase its exposure.

Per data from AI Goddess Monitor, Trend Research just withdrew 13,462 ETH (valued at $39.31 million) from Binance 10 minutes ago. Its on-chain holdings now stand at 626,071 ETH, worth over $1.83 billion. The firm has an average holding cost of roughly $3,105.5 and an unrealized loss of $110 million.

**Dec. 29: Spot Gold Plunges >$180 Intraday, Breaks Below $4350/oz with 4% Drop** Spot gold accelerated its downward movement on December 29, falling below $4350 per ounce. It plummeted more than $180 during the trading session, registering a 4% decline, according to Oriental Fortune Network.

**December 29 Update** Per Coinglass data: - If Ethereum (ETH) breaks above $3,000, cumulative short liquidation intensity across major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will hit $627 million. - Conversely, if ETH drops below $2,800, cumulative long liquidation intensity across major CEXs will reach $702 million. **Note from BlockBeats**: Liquidation charts do not display the exact number of contracts to be liquidated or their precise value. The bars on these charts represent the **relative importance** of each liquidation cluster compared to neighboring clusters (i.e., "intensity"). As such, the chart indicates how strongly the target price will react when it hits a specific level. A taller "liquidation bar" signals a more intense price response due to a surge in liquidity at that price point.

Dec 29 — Kim Byung-ki, an in-house representative for South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, is facing calls to resign amid allegations of a serious conflict of interest. Multiple South Korean media outlets have reported that Kim’s son interned at competing crypto exchange Bithumb while the lawmaker pushed to criticize Upbit—South Korea’s largest crypto platform—in the National Assembly. A former aide to Kim claims that at his behest, the team was instructed to “target” Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, zeroing in on allegations of market monopolization. The instructions allegedly came in February of this year, when Kim sat on the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee—the panel overseeing domestic financial institutions and crypto exchanges. Investigative outlet NewsTapa previously reported that Kim’s son was “quickly placed” as an intern on Bithumb’s data analytics team shortly after Kim held a private meeting with Bithumb in November 2024. In the weeks that followe

December 29, 2025 — Prediction markets are hitting a pivotal inflection point. Weekly trading volume across top platforms including Polymarket, Kalshi, Limitless, and Myriad has topped $2 billion, shifting from a period of regulatory uncertainty to becoming a critical new infrastructure layer in crypto and financial markets. Going back to late 2024, the U.S. presidential election marked a turning point for the space. Polymarket correctly called Trump’s victory, driving record trading volume and influence — but also drawing regulatory scrutiny, including a French ban and an FBI investigation. Later, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reversed course, openly reevaluating its regulatory framework that had created a “legal uncertainty trap” and clearing hurdles for platforms like Kalshi. By early 2025, prediction markets had gone mainstream, with key milestones including: - Robinhood x Kalshi launch of an NCAA March Madness prediction market - Polymarket’s $112M