Institution: Gold and Silver Prices See Steep Decline, Caution Advised Amid Low Liquidity

On December 30, CoinGecko data shows Upbit’s trading volume surged 104.2% over the past 24 hours, totaling $14.18 billion. The ZBT/KRW trading pair led the KRW market with an 11.11% share of the exchange’s volume, followed by BTC, XRP, ETH and USDT.

December 30th – As 2025 winds down, the cryptocurrency market has nearly wiped out all its year-to-date gains. While Bitcoin hit a fresh all-time high of $126,000 on October 6th, the market quickly reversed course, erasing roughly $1 trillion in total digital asset market cap over the past few months. The turning point came in mid-October when former President Trump announced a trade war escalation, triggering a record $19 billion in crypto market liquidations within 24 hours. Ethereum then plunged ~40% over the next month, and Eric Trump’s crypto firm saw its December market value drop sharply. Analysts note that despite the Trump administration’s overall "crypto-friendly" stance, the bigger market impact stemmed from the trade conflict, tightening macro conditions, and highly leveraged positions being liquidated. In November, Bitcoin briefly fell below $81,000 — its largest monthly drop since 2021. It’s currently trading around $90,000. Industry warnings flag a potential new

**South Korea’s Supreme Court on December 30 sentenced a cryptocurrency exchange employee to four years in prison and banned them from working in the financial industry for four years.** The court ruled the employee—who received Bitcoin from North Korea—helped orchestrate a plot to induce a South Korean military officer to sell military secrets. North Korean hackers paid the employee roughly $487,000 in Bitcoin to recruit active-duty South Korean officers, the court found. An Army captain involved in the scheme received about $33,500 in Bitcoin. The judge noted the defendant knew their actions involved a hostile country, posed a threat to national security, and were motivated by personal financial gain. The captain was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $35,000 for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act. The exchange employee was convicted under the National Security Act. The case revealed conspirators contacted the officer via a Telegram chat room,

On December 30, MLM Monitor reported that Lighter has withdrawn a total of 32.05 million USDC from its platform to a treasury address, with roughly $100,000 still remaining in the platform’s fee wallet. Of that $32.05 million, approximately $8.6 million has been re-deposited into Lighter since October 16—with around $7.5 million flowing to the LLP (a setup where generated fees are returned to holders, reflected in LLP earnings). This practice is unusual: it has never been publicly disclosed nor mentioned in official documents, and it accounts for roughly 25% of Lighter’s total revenue. The remaining ~$21.9 million USDC has been transferred to a Coinbase custody address. Lighter also disclosed that its treasury address is hard-coded in the contract as “account 0” (responsible for collecting platform fees) and can be modified via a contract mechanism.

As of December 30, Coinglass data indicates total liquidated value across the crypto market over the past 24 hours hit $299 million—with $160 million in long positions liquidated and $139 million in short positions. Globally, 96,590 traders were liquidated in the same period. The largest single liquidation occurred on the Hyperliquid platform for BTC-USD, totaling $5.2354 million.

On December 29, Cantor Fitzgerald noted in its latest year-end report that Bitcoin could be entering a prolonged multi-month downturn, potentially setting the stage for an early "crypto winter" in 2026. Analyst Brett Knoblauch pointed out Bitcoin has retraced roughly 85 days from its recent peak, with prices likely to remain under pressure—possibly even testing the moving average around $75,000. Unlike prior cycles, this downturn is less likely to coincide with widespread liquidations or a systemic collapse. Cantor noted the current market is dominated by institutions, not retail investors, and the "divergence" between token prices and on-chain fundamentals is widening—especially in DeFi, tokenized assets, and crypto infrastructure. Cantor concluded that while 2026 may not necessarily bring a new bull market, the crypto industry’s institutionalization, compliance pathways, and on-chain infrastructure are solidifying as prices cool.