Market Stress Continues As Bitcoin STH SOPR Dips Below 1– When Will The Pain End?

Circle, issuer of the world's second-largest stablecoin, has acquired Interop Labs's team members and proprietary technology.

Interop Laps is the initial developer behind the Axelar Network. The company's CEO and co-founder, Sergey Gorbunov, will join Circle, according to a spokesperson.

"Interop Labs's engineering and product teams represent some of the brightest minds in the industry," a Circle spokesperson said. 

Circle said its goal is to make digital assets issued on Arc interoperable across various blockchains. The acquisition is expected to close early next year, the company added.

"Circle is committed to supporting interoperability with many onchain networks, just as we have with USDC, CCTP, and other blockchain infrastructure products from Circle," said Circle's Chief Product and Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok.

Ripple, another U.S.-based stablecoin issuer, also made a move Monday aimed at increasing interoperability by expanding to Layer 2 blockchains. Stablecoin usage in the U.S. is poised to explode after Congress passed a legislative framework for the crypto tokens pegged to U.S. dollars.

Circle was careful to clarify what exactly it had acquired and how Axelar would move forward without Interop.

"The IP we're acquiring is specific to Interop Labs's proprietary technology," they said. "It does not include the open source IP, which will be transitioned to Common Prefix."

Common Prefix will take over for Interop Labs. "Axelar continues as an open-source innovator, and we are working closely with the Common Prefix team to ensure continuity and long-term support," Gorbunov said.

Earlier this year, Axelar Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the Axelar Network's growth interoperability protocol, said it sold $30 million worth of AXL tokens.

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Shiba Inu burn rate surges 1,567% despite ongoing price weakness

The Shiba Inu burn rate has made a sudden reversal, surging 1,567% while other SHIB metrics remain in the red, triggering attention in the market.

• SHIB burns jump. Shiba Inu’s burn rate reversed sharply in 24 hours, jumping 1,567% after dropping 62.96% the previous day, when only 69,420 SHIB were burned.

Following days of drop, Shiba Inu's burn rate made a reversal in the past day, soaring 1,567%. As reported, the day before the last saw a 62.96% drop in the Shiba Inu burn rate when a meager 69,420 SHIB tokens were burned.

The drop coincided with the sell-off in the market as investors weighed macroeconomic concerns. At the time of writing, SHIB was down 1.47% in the last 24 hours to $0.00000825 and down 2% weekly. While Shiba Inu's price still trades in the red, it is surprising to see the burn rate make a sudden reversal, surging up to 1,567%.

• Activity spike. Despite the price remaining in the red, the sudden spike in burn activity suggests continued community engagement with supply-reduction efforts.

The reason for the SHIB burn surge remains unknown, but might indicate that the Shiba Inu community still remains committed to burns believed to have a potential impact on Shiba Inu's long term value despite the short-term bearish sentiment.

The crypto market remains in a weakened position after enduring a weeks-long sell-off that began in early October with a major liquidation event, which wiped out about $19 billion in leveraged bets.

Dogecoin chart issues downside warning

DOGE bulls are facing a hard reality as Dogecoin loses a key structure.

Dogecoin is slipping back toward price levels last seen in 2024, according to analyst Ali Martinez’s monthly chart.

In late 2025, Dogecoin , the most popular meme coin, finds itself in a zone where the chart is no longer showing polite warnings, but rather is starting to issue more serious alerts. As highlighted by analyst Ali Martinez on the monthly chart, DOGE is dipping back down to levels that were last visited in 2024.

It is really all about the selling pressure due to which Dogecoin could drop to $0.1 or even lower, to around $0.062, and that second level is the uncomfortable one, because it will mean Dogecoin adding a zero back to its price, totally changing expectations not only for the biggest meme coin, but the sector as a whole.

• Distribution. DOGE failed to hold the $0.16–$0.18 range, which previously acted as strong support.

The setup did not come out all of a sudden overnight. First, DOGE could not stay above the $0.16-$0.18 range, which had been a good spot before during stronger periods. Once the price dropped out of that zone, it became resistance, and every bounce since has stalled faster than the last. Classic distribution behavior, not accumulation.

XRP on-chain payments drop near zero

XRP's payment volume has plummeted substantially, but it could be the new norm for the asset and its network.

• XRP volume down, XRP’s on-chain payment volume has declined to near-zero levels, which looks alarming at first glance but does not point to a structural failure of the network.

At first glance, XRP's on-chain payment volume declining to almost zero levels appears concerning, but the background is more important than the headline. At the moment, timing market mechanics and the source of liquidity–or lack thereof–are more important than XRP's structural flaws.

After failing to recover important moving averages, XRP is still stuck in a wider declining channel on the price side. With the 200-day serving as far-off overhead resistance, the asset stays below its 50-day and 100-day averages. Instead of being impulsive, this keeps price action constrained and responsive.

• Institutional driver. The collapse in payments volume is largely explained by timing and liquidity dynamics, not a sudden stop in XRP usage.

Momentum indicators show this reluctance: the RSI is in the low 40s, not oversold, but obviously weak. The price is weak, but not broken, to put it briefly.

The XRP Ledger payments volume chart, which displays activity collapsing toward zero, is the more perplexing signal. This is the point at which many people make incorrect assumptions. The decline does not indicate that XRP use has abruptly stopped or that the network is dead. 

The weekend effect associated with institutional and ETF-related activity is the primary driver. The recent volume expansions of XRP have been significantly impacted by the U.S.-based engagement, especially via regulated platforms like Coinbase. It's important because in the U.S., the way that markets function varies throughout the week.

Bitcoin’s months-long slide hasn’t stopped corporate treasury companies from accumulating the digital asset, with the Eric Trump-backed American Bitcoin overtaking ProCap Financial, founded by entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, in total Bitcoin holdings.

American Bitcoin has added more than 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to its reserves since the start of December, lifting its total holdings to 5,044 BTC, valued at roughly $443 million, according to data from industry tracker BitcoinTreasuries.NET.

ProCap Financial, established to build a Bitcoin-focused financial platform and investment vehicle, has slipped to 22nd place among corporate holders, holding approximately 5,000 BTC. The company has also increased its Bitcoin balance in recent weeks, according to the data.

For more than a decade, Bitcoin’s largest holders have acted as the unseen forces behind many of the market’s biggest surges and deepest crashes.

These so-called whales have always held outsized influence, but their behavior throughout 2025 suggests that a major shift is underway that could fundamentally reshape how Bitcoin (BTC) behaves heading into 2026.

The turning point came on Oct. 10, a day many traders now view as the unofficial end of the most recent crypto bull market. While billions in retail positions were wiped out in minutes, one early Bitcoin whale walked away with roughly $200 million in profit.

At the same time, large, long-inactive wallets suddenly sprang back to life, moving thousands of BTC for the first time in years. The timing raised a familiar but uncomfortable question: How much power do whales really have over Bitcoin’s price, and what can their behavior tell us about the next phase of the market?

Cointelegraph's latest video delves into these questions, using onchain data and expert insights to examine both early “OG” whales and the newer class of institutional whales, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and publicly traded treasury companies.

We examine why OG whales have been selling heavily this year, how institutions absorbed that supply, and why institutional demand now appears to be slowing. We also explain why retail traders often misread whale activity and how these signals can lead to poor decisions.

To get the full analysis, watch the complete video on the Cointelegraph YouTube channel.

NEXUS CEO Henry Chang will join Blockmedia for a live AMA on 17 December 2025 at 05:00 UTC to discuss CROSS ecosystem progress and future plans, as outlined in the team’s announcement. Mechanically, an AMA does not change tokenomics or protocol parameters, but it can surface new information on partnerships, roadmap milestones, or upcoming launches. For traders in thinly traded assets like CROSS, fresh narrative and clearer guidance can drive renewed interest, influence perceived valuation, and increase short-term volume if the session hints at concrete catalysts such as exchange listings, mainnet upgrades, or incentive programs.

According to the STEPN team’s announcement, GMT earnings will be reduced by 50% on 1 January 2026, effectively halving new GMT reward emissions from the app. Mechanically, this cuts the flow of newly distributed tokens to players and earners, slowing circulating supply growth while keeping the existing supply unchanged. For traders, lower emissions can support price if user demand for GMT and related ecosystem tokens remains stable or grows, as sell pressure from farming rewards declines. However, yields for players fall immediately, which can weaken short-term activity and speculative demand around the STEPN ecosystem.