What Actually Changed with the Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade

Ethereum is down $43.17 today or 1.36% to $3123.90

• Largest percentage decrease since Dec. 1, 2025, when it dropped 7.60%
• Snaps a two day winning streak
• Down 6.6% year-to-date
• Down 36.96% from its all-time intraday high of $4955.23 on Aug. 24, 2025
• Down 19.07% from 52 weeks ago (Dec. 5, 2024), when it traded at $3860.08
• Up 121.18% from its 52-week intraday low of $1387.85 on April 9, 2025
• Traded as low as $3069.60
• Down 3.08% at today's intraday low

Note: The Ethereum price is a 5 p.m. ET snapshot from Kraken

Data compiled by Dow Jones Market Data

By Joe Light

Bitcoin and other digital assets are staging a recovery. Some crypto industry companies tied to President Donald Trump and his family aren't keeping up.

In recent days, weak economic data has given traders increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week, an expectation that's supporting the prices of Bitcoin and other risky assets. Usually, such an environment would also benefit many Trump family-tied firms, including crypto treasury company ALT5 Sigma and Bitcoin miner American Bitcoin. But a series of idiosyncratic problems has made them miss out on the recovery so far.

Since hitting a low of about $80,500 on Nov. 21, Bitcoin has stormed back to $92,150 as of Thursday afternoon, a 14.5% increase. Since the close on Nov. 20, American Bitcoin is down about 47% to $2.42, while ALT5 Sigma is down 5.4% to $1.58.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which in addition to its crypto activities runs social-media platform Truth Social, is an exception, rising nearly 16% since its Nov. 21 low, though it's still down about 19% in the past month.

Since entering office, President Trump and his appointees have been advocates for crypto-tied investments. The Securities and Exchange Commission and enforcement agencies have dropped cases against crypto firms that during President Joe Biden's administration had been accused of violating securities laws. The Treasury Department has advocated for the advancement of so-called stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar, while Trump himself has said the U.S. would created a "strategic reserve" comprised of Bitcoin and other digital assets. At the same time, Trump's family in the past two years has helped launch several crypto firms and tokens.

American Bitcoin's stock crashed in the first hour of trading on Tuesday on little news. Eric Trump, who co-founded the company along with Donald Trump Jr., later on Tuesday said that premerger private placement shares had unlocked that day, letting those investors sell shares. But since the close on Tuesday, shares have hardly recovered, rising about 10.5%. American Bitcoin didn't respond to a request for comment.

ALT5 Sigma's issues have gone deeper. This summer, ALT5 struck a partnership with World Liberty Financial, a privately held company co-founded by Donald Trump, his sons, and White House advisor Steve Witkoff. ALT5 became a so-called digital asset treasury company, holding World Liberty's WLFI token. Zach Witkoff, the son of Steve Witkoff, became chairman of the company's board. Eric Trump was originally slated to join ALT5's board but instead became a board observer and strategic advisor.

Since the deal was struck, the company suspended its CEO, delayed the filing of its third-quarter earnings report, and then on the evening before Thanksgiving said it had dismissed the new acting CEO and its chief operating officer.

This week, ALT5 said it received two notices from the Nasdaq Stock Market notifying the company that it wasn't in compliance with the exchange's listing requirements.

The first notice related to ALT5's delay in filing its third-quarter earnings report. The company in a press release said it has until Jan. 20 to submit a plan to come back into compliance.

The company said it had received the second notice because the resignation of one of its board members caused the firm to no longer meet one of the exchange's rules around board audit committees. The company said that it has until the earlier of its next annual stockholder meeting or November 25, 2026 to regain compliance on that issue.

"Alt5 is actively addressing these issues to comply with Nasdaq rules. These notices in no way impact Alt5's ability to execute its growth strategy, which encompasses its $WLFI Treasury and Fintech & Payments business," said an ALT5 spokesperson. World Liberty didn't respond to a request for comment.

The Trump family's ties to ALT5 could eventually prove awkward for Nasdaq executives. Zach Witkoff, Eric and Don Jr. in August rang the Nasdaq opening bell to celebrate the deal with ALT5, and now the exchange's staff will have to make decisions around bringing the company back into compliance with its listing requirements or a potential delisting.

"Nasdaq is not relishing this decision," said Jeff Hauser, who is executive director of the Revolving Door Project and has been a frequent critic of the Trump family's crypto ties. "I have to imagine that if the tie goes to the baserunner in baseball, the tie is going to go to the Trump family with respect to their investments and Nasdaq."

A Nasdaq spokeswoman declined to comment.

The White House said: "The media's continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public's distrust in what they read. Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest. Through executive actions, supporting legislation like the GENIUS Act, and other common-sense policies, the administration is fulfilling the President's promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans."

Write to Joe Light at joe.light@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

Switzerland-based ETF issuer 21Shares has brought the first exchange-traded product tracking the price of Sui to the U.S. market, as the total number of crypto ETF launches continues to pile up.

The 21Shares 2x SUI ETF (ticker TXXS) was approved for trading on the Nasdaq exchange. This is a leveraged product designed to offer 200% the daily return of the Sui token.

"Widespread adoption of digital assets hinges on the market’s ability to offer consumers uncomplicated applications of the technology, and investors are eager to jump on products that seek to amplify those investment returns," said Russell Barlow, CEO of 21shares. "With this launch, 21shares is capitalizing on one of the winners rising to the occasion and ushering in the next era of blockchain technology – one dominated by simplicity."

Sui is a decentralized cryptocurrency built on the Ethereum blockchain. With its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, transactions are conducted peer-to-peer, increasing transparency and eliminating the need for intermediaries. Its native token is used for transaction fees, network governance, and staking.

Sui has surpassed $10 billion in 30-day DEX volume and processed over $180 billion in stablecoin transfer volume for the fourth consecutive month, according to Thursday's release.

21Shares filed a registration statement with the SEC for a spot Sui ETF back in May, when it also announced a "strategic partnership" with Sui to produce product collaborations, research reports, and other initiatives.

Leveraged ETFs are typically short-term plays for experienced traders because of the high risk involved through the use of derivatives. In fact, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently halted the potential launch of 3x and 5x ETFs that are in the pipeline.

"While 2x leverage had long been seen as the ceiling under Rule 18f-4, some issuers believed there was a possible loophole in how the derivatives rule was written," according to ETF.com. "By structuring portfolios in certain ways, they hoped they could justify using something other than the actual underlying asset as the reference portfolio for the VaR test. The SEC made it clear that this interpretation is not acceptable."

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that it's rare for the first crypto-based ETF to be a leveraged product. TXXS marks the 74th crypto ETF to launch this year and the 128th overall.

"We expect another 80 in the next 12 months," Balchunas said Thursday in a post on X.

Crypto trading firm FalconX acquired 21Shares for an undisclosed sum last month, around the same time the latter launched a leveraged Dogecoin ETF.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Nasdaq-listed TON token treasury firm AlphaTON Capital Corp (ticker ATON) has filed for $420.69 million shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an announcement on Thursday.

The funding — an amount reminiscent of FTX’s infamous “meme round” — will help finance AlphaTON’s “ambitious expansion” of AI and high-performance computing infrastructure to power Telegram's Cocoon AI network and the firm’s M&A strategy targeting “revenue-producing companies within the Telegram ecosystem.”

According to the announcement, AlphaTON was previously constrained by the SEC’s “baby shelf rules,” designed to limit how much smaller public companies can sell "off the shelf" using a Form S-3 shelf registration statement, a popular means of funding used by digital asset treasuries (DAT).

"Exiting the SEC’s ‘baby-shelf’ limitations on raising capital marks an important milestone in AlphaTON Capital's transformation into a leading infrastructure provider for the next generation of decentralized AI," CEO Brittany Kaiser said. "Once effective, this shelf registration statement gives us the financing flexibility to move quickly and decisively on transformational opportunities.”

AlphaTON noted it has already identified several “high-potential acquisition targets,” including startups focused on payments, content distribution, and blockchain-enabled services within The Open Network ecosystem. The capital will also go towards building AlphaTON’s treasury of TON tokens and “other associated digital assets.”

Other DATs are also looking to expand their operations via infrastructure services and acquisitions as the appetite for public crypto holders appears to be cooling down. In November, as the treasury firm’s mNAV compressed, AlphaTON said it shifted most of its balance sheet into Toncoin and staking positions while exploring additional expansion opportunities.

For instance, the company amended its deal to acquire 60% of mobile gaming platform GAMEE for $15 million, with plans to acquire up to $4 million GMEE and Watcoin tokens on the open market. It also plans to launch a co-branded TON Mastercard in December through a partnership with PagoPay and ALT5 Sigma.

Cocoon, or Telegram's Confidential Compute Open Network, is a decentralized AI compute platform developed by Telegram and built on the TON blockchain. The network, which officially launched just days ago, pays users in Toncoin for renting out their GPUs to process user queries. AlphaTON announced on Monday that it has deployed a fleet of Nvidia B200 GPUs to Cocoon, "adding a new revenue stream to its business."

Community support

The Open Network is one of several community-led projects to spring up after Telegram officially abandoned development of its bespoke Layer 1 amid SEC legal pressure over Telegram’s $1.7 billion initial coin offering. The high-performance blockchain is designed for easy integration with the popular Telegram Messenger app. 

TON has emerged as one of the most popular blockchains for actual users and venture capital investors. The chain has become particularly popular for its “mini app” games, like "Notcoin" and "Hamster Kombat,” which allegedly found an audience of millions of users. 

Earlier this year, The Open Network Foundation, or TON Foundation, said a group of VCs, including Benchmark, CoinFund, Draper Associates, Sequoia Capital, and Skybridge, among other notable names, invested over $400 million in the Toncoin cryptocurrency. Coinbase Ventures is also reportedly a stakeholder in TON. 

Many of these investors participated in an extended Series A led by Ribbit Capital for The Open Platform, developer of the chain, bringing its total funding to $70 million. 

AlphaTON kicked off its TON treasury program in September after closing a $36.2 million private placement and securing a $35 million loan facility from BitGo Prime. The firm said it aimed to purchase approximately $100 million worth of TON tokens and invest in the mini app ecosystem. 

BitGo, Animoca Brands, Kraken, and SkyBridge are all advisors to AlphaTON.

At the height of TON’s popularity, the token cracked into the top 10 token market cap rankings at an all-time high price of $8.25. However, the token has since fallen nearly 80%, and is currently trading at $1.80, placing it at the 40th-largest token by market cap, according to The Block's Toncoin price page.

ATON closed Thursday up over 7.5% and is currently trading hands at $1.71. 

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

After the rapid price resurgence witnessed in the last few days, Bitcoin has slowed down on its daily price surge but has retained its position on the upside.

While these positive movements have seen the Bitcoin ecosystem witness soaring optimism, whales have continued to scoop up the token amid rising demand from retail and institutional investors.

On Thursday, December 5, on-chain tracking platform Whale Alert identified massive Bitcoin withdrawals involving over 2,000 BTC, in suspected large buying activities from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.

According to data provided by the tracker, the Bitcoin transfers, which happened in two separate transactions in batches of 1,000 BTC each, were worth a combined total of $185,165,469.

The move, which has come at a time when Bitcoin has continued to see strong daily gains, has sparked interest across the market, signaling renewed optimism and shifting stances on Bitcoin’s long-term price outlook.

Are Bitcoin whales returning?

With the large Bitcoin withdrawals from Binance coinciding with the crypto market’s positive momentum, it appears that whale activities are growing, and it has contributed significantly to the asset’s price resurgence.

The transfers have caught the attention of the crypto community, as large Bitcoin withdrawals like this have been rarely spotted over the past weeks. With Bitcoin facing a prolonged price correction during the period, the tracker had only reported more transactions that appeared to be major sell attempts.

Although the mysterious nature of both transfers makes it difficult to confirm whether they were buy attempts or mere institutional redistribution, large amounts of cryptocurrencies being moved out of crypto exchanges like Binance are often traced to major purchases from high-profile holders or institutions.

Bitcoin slows down after reclaiming $94,000

Following the massive price declines witnessed throughout the last month, Bitcoin had plunged so hard, retesting its multi-month low of $80,659.

However, the leading cryptocurrency has seen a rapid shift in market sentiments, with its price showing massive daily gains of over 10% in the past days.

While the massive price resurgence has restored momentum to the Bitcoin ecosystem, the asset has slowed down on its uptrend, showing only a brief decline of 0.8% in the last 24 hours, trading at $91,978 as of press time, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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