XRP Community Divided on Whether Solana Is Best

Bitcoin price looks stuck at first glance. Over the past 24 hours, the price has been nearly flat, down just 0.2%. Even on a weekly basis, Bitcoin has barely moved, up roughly 0.7%. The market feels quiet, and many traders are calling this range-bound action.

But under the surface, several signals suggest Bitcoin is not as weak as it looks. Momentum is shifting slowly, sellers are losing conviction, and large holders continue to position quietly. Together, these factors explain why bullish Bitcoin price predictions made by experts like Tom Lee have not disappeared, even without a breakout yet.

Momentum And Volume Signals Are Quietly Improving

On the daily chart, the Bitcoin price continues to respect the $90,100 level. This zone has acted as a firm base during recent volatility, preventing deeper pullbacks even as the price failed to trend higher.

One of the clearest early signals comes from On-Balance Volume (OBV). OBV tracks whether volume is flowing into or out of an asset, helping identify hidden buying or selling pressure.

Between December 9 and December 11, the Bitcoin price made a lower high, while OBV made a higher high. This divergence shows that even as prices struggled, buyers were more active beneath the surface.

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That signal strengthened between December 10 and December 12. During this period, the Bitcoin price made a lower low, while OBV formed a higher low. This tells the same story from another angle. Sellers pushed the price lower, but with weaker volume support.

These two OBV divergences work together, not against each other. Combined, they show selling pressure is fading, not accelerating. This does not confirm a breakout, but it often appears before one.

Holders And Whales Are Positioning Despite the Flat Price

Momentum signals alone are not enough. On-chain data adds confirmation. Holder Net Position Change tracks whether long-term holders are adding or reducing Bitcoin positions. Negative values mean selling. Fewer negative values mean selling pressure is easing.

On December 10, long-term holders were distributing roughly 155,999 BTC. By December 13, that number dropped to around 150,614 BTC. That is a reduction of about 3.4% in selling pressure.

The change is not dramatic, but it is meaningful. Bitcoin is not seeing panic selling despite trading in a range. Instead, holders are selling less as the price stabilizes. This behavior typically appears during consolidation phases, not during breakdowns.

The strongest signal comes from whales. The number of entities holding at least 1,000 BTC remains near its six-month high. This metric often reflects large, long-term investors.

Since late October, the Bitcoin price has corrected and moved sideways. During the same period, whale entities continued to add. This creates a clear divergence. Price weakened, but large holders kept accumulating. And they usually do not add without any valid reason.

This behavior helps explain why bullish Bitcoin price predictions from analysts like Tom Lee remain in play.

These forecasts are not based on short-term candles. They rely on reduced selling, improving volume structure, and steady whale accumulation. Still, the Bitcoin price must confirm the thesis.

Bitcoin Price Levels That Decide Whether Bulls Take Control

For Bitcoin to turn these signals into action, price confirmation is required.

The most important level remains $94,600. A daily close above this zone would mark roughly a 5% move from current levels and break above the upper boundary of the current compression structure. That would signal that buyers have regained short-term control.

If $94,600 breaks, the next resistance sits near $99,800. A sustained move above that level could open the path toward $107,500, if broader market conditions allow. That could be the first real catalyst to Tom Lee’s aggressive $180,000 outlook, as stated earlier.

On the downside, if the Bitcoin price loses $90,000, support lies near $89,200. Below that, $87,500 becomes the next key level. A break under these zones would invalidate the bullish setup, at least in the short term.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fresh guidance urging retail investors to understand the risks and options before storing digital assets, just as federal regulators advance a historic shift toward integrating crypto into the traditional banking system.

The advisory comes amid a broader regulatory realignment that has seen the agency drop enforcement cases, approve tokenization pilots, and clear crypto firms for national bank charters.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Assistance released an investor bulletin outlining the mechanics of crypto asset custody and the trade-offs between self-managed wallets and third-party custodians.

The guidance defines custody as the method through which investors store and access private keys, the passcodes that authorize transactions and prove ownership of digital assets.

It warns that losing a private key results in permanent loss of access, while compromised keys can lead to theft with no recourse.

Curious about crypto wallets and how to store and access crypto assets? Check out our Crypto Asset Custody Basics Investor Bulletin. — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) Hot Wallets, Cold Storage, and the Security Spectrum

The bulletin distinguishes between hot wallets, which remain connected to the internet for convenience, and cold wallets, which use physical devices like USB drives or paper backups to stay offline.

Hot wallets expose users to cyber threats but enable faster transactions, while cold wallets offer stronger protection against hacking at the cost of portability and ease of use.

The SEC notes that physical cold storage devices can be lost, damaged, or stolen, creating additional risks that may still result in permanent asset loss.

Investors choosing self-custody control their own private keys and bear full responsibility for security, backup procedures, and technical setup.

Those opting for third-party custodians must research how providers safeguard assets, whether they use hot or cold storage, and whether they engage in practices such as rehypothecation or asset commingling.

The bulletin urges investors to confirm whether custodians provide insurance, how they respond to bankruptcy or hacks, and what fees they charge for transactions and transfers.Regulatory Shift Accelerates as Crypto Enters the Banking System

The custody guidance arrives as the SEC pivots from enforcement-led oversight to policy development under Chair Paul Atkins, who told Fox News in August that the agency is “mobilizing” to make the US the global crypto capital.

Atkins said divisions across the SEC are now focused on building a regulatory framework that supports innovation while protecting investors, marking a sharp departure from the litigation-heavy approach that defined the previous administration.

That shift has already produced tangible results. The agency closed its multi-year investigation into Ondo Finance without charges this week, signaling greater tolerance for tokenized real-world assets.

🌎 The SEC is "mobilizing" to become the crypto capital of the globe, SEC Chair Paul Atkins told Fox News on Thursday. — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)

Days earlier, the SEC granted the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation a rare no-action letter allowing it to tokenize US Treasuries, ETFs, and Russell 1000 components starting in late 2026.

The DTCC said tokenized securities will carry the same ownership rights and investor protections as traditional instruments, bridging legacy infrastructure with blockchain-based settlement.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved five crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos, to launch or convert into national trust banks.

The charters allow digital-asset companies to custody assets and offer banking services under a single federal standard, eliminating the need to navigate state-by-state regulations.

Paxos received explicit permission to issue stablecoins under federal oversight, while Ripple’s charter excludes RLUSD issuance through the bank.

OCC head Jonathan Gould said the approvals ensure the federal banking system “keeps pace with the evolution of finance,” dismissing concerns from traditional banks that the agency lacks supervisory capacity for crypto-native firms.

He noted that the OCC has supervised a crypto-focused national trust bank for years and receives daily inquiries from existing banks about innovative product launches.

The regulatory momentum extends beyond custody and charters. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched a pilot program allowing Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC as collateral in derivatives markets, while the OCC found that nine major US banks imposed “inappropriate” restrictions on lawful crypto businesses between 2020 and 2023.

🚨Teachers’ union AFT calls on Congress to kill the crypto market-structure bill before it advances. warning that the bill threatens pensions and 401(k)s, — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)

Senate leaders are also racing to finalize the Responsible Financial Innovation Act before year-end, though unions and consumer groups warn the bill could expose pensions to unregulated assets.

Key takeaways

• HashKey is aiming to become Hong Kong’s first fully crypto-native IPO by listing 240.57 million shares under the city’s virtual asset regulatory regime.

• The business extends beyond a spot exchange by combining trading, custody, institutional staking, asset management and tokenization into a single regulated platform.

• Revenue is growing, but the company is still incurring losses as it invests heavily in technology, compliance and market expansion.

• Most IPO proceeds are expected to fund infrastructure and international growth, positioning the listing as a long-term bet on regulated digital asset markets.

HashKey wants to become the first crypto exchange that Hong Kong investors can buy on their local stock market. The company has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that could make it the city’s first publicly listed, fully crypto-native venue under the new virtual asset regime. It is offering 240.57 million shares, with a portion reserved for local retail investors.

Shares are being marketed in a range of 5.95-6.95 Hong Kong dollars, which could rise to 1.67 billion HKD, about $215 million, and imply a multibillion-dollar valuation if the offering is fully subscribed.

Trading is expected to begin on Dec. 17 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

HashKey already operates what it describes as Hong Kong’s “largest licensed platform,” a broader stack that includes custody, institutional staking and tokenization. In its latest filing, the group reported tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in staking assets and platform assets under management.

In the sections that follow, we will look at what the business does, how its financials compare, how it plans to use the IPO proceeds and why the outcome of this listing matters for understanding Hong Kong’s broader virtual asset ambitions.

Did you know? Some analysts view HashKey’s IPO as a real-time test of whether public markets are willing to back heavily regulated crypto infrastructure.

Why HashKey’s IPO could be a key step for Hong Kong

HashKey is among the first major attempts to put Hong Kong’s new virtual asset rulebook in front of public equity investors. The exchange plans to offer 240.57 million shares in total, with 24.06 million allocated to local investors and the remainder to international buyers, at a maximum offer price of 6.95 HKD per share.

Final pricing is due on Dec. 16, 2025, with trading scheduled to begin the next day under the proposed stock code 3887. If the offering is fully subscribed at the top of the range, it could rise to 1.67 billion HKD, about $215 million, potentially making HashKey one of the more prominent listed crypto-focused companies in Asia.

The listing is also a milestone in Hong Kong’s effort to rebuild its status as a digital asset hub after years of regulatory uncertainty. Over the past two years, the city has introduced a dedicated licensing regime for retail and institutional crypto platforms, allowed tightly controlled staking services and strengthened custody requirements and stablecoin oversight.

HashKey offers an early, detailed look at what a fully regulated, multi-line crypto business can look like under that framework.

The IPO could serve as a real-time test of investor appetite for compliance-first crypto infrastructure, especially as mainland China maintains strict limits on many digital asset activities. Beijing has already moved to halt some large tech-backed stablecoin projects in the city: Hong Kong’s experiment does have political limits.

How HashKey trades after its debut may be seen as an early indication of whether those constraints still leave enough room for a profitable, listed crypto exchange to succeed.

Did you know? HashKey Group has backing from established institutional investors, including entities linked to Wanxiang, which gives it a more traditional finance profile than many offshore exchanges.

What business is actually going public?

On paper, HashKey Holdings is an exchange IPO. In practice, investors are being offered a broader crypto infrastructure stack that has already been reviewed and licensed under Hong Kong’s regulatory framework.

At the core is HashKey Exchange, a Hong Kong-based trading venue licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under Type 1 and Type 7 licenses for dealing in and operating a virtual asset trading platform. It supports spot trading, over-the-counter services and fiat on- and off-ramps in HKD and USD. The company describes itself as Hong Kong’s largest licensed venue serving both retail and professional clients.

Around that sits a broader ecosystem. HashKey Cloud provides institutional staking and node services, and the company says it has received approval to support staking for Hong Kong’s spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In its filings, HashKey reported managing about 29 billion HKD in staked assets as of the end of the third quarter of 2025, positioning it as one of Asia’s largest staking providers and among the larger players globally.

The group also operates an asset management arm offering crypto funds and venture strategies. According to its filings, it had about 7.8 billion HKD in assets under management as of Sept. 30, 2025. It has also moved into tokenization through HashKey Chain, a network focused on real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins and institutional use cases. The company reported roughly 1.7 billion HKD in onchain RWAs on the network.

Finally, HashKey has been building out crypto-as-a-service tools and pursuing licenses across markets, including Singapore, Dubai, Japan, Bermuda and parts of Europe. This suggests the IPO is intended to support international expansion and a white-label infrastructure model, not just a single market Hong Kong exchange.

Did you know? According to HashKey’s disclosures, its RWA network has already tokenized more than 1 billion HKD worth of real-world assets onchain, including products such as structured notes and private credit.

Revenue, losses and the “compliance-first” bet

HashKey reflects a typical growth-stage pattern: Revenue has risen quickly, but the business remains cash-consuming as it invests in expansion, licensing and compliance. Total revenue increased from about 129 million HKD in 2022 to 721 million HKD in 2024, more than a 4.5x rise in two years, as its Hong Kong and Bermuda exchanges launched and trading activity grew.

That growth has not yet translated into profits. A review of the filing indicates net losses nearly doubled over the same period, from 585.2 million HKD in 2022 to 1.19 billion HKD in 2024, driven by higher spending on technology, headcount, compliance and marketing.

Trading volumes rose from 4.2 billion HKD in 2022 to 638.4 billion HKD in 2024, but a low-fee strategy and the costs of operating licensed venues across multiple jurisdictions kept the bottom line deeply negative.

More recent numbers suggest the trajectory may be improving. In the first six months of 2025, HashKey reported a net loss of 506.7 million HKD, narrower than the 772.6 million HKD loss in the same period a year earlier.

The company frames these losses as the cost of building a licensed, compliant and scalable digital asset platform ahead of the market cycle. It argues that the long, expensive build-out mirrors how earlier exchange leaders looked before they became profitable.

How HashKey plans to use the IPO proceeds

HashKey is explicit about how it plans to use the new capital.

• Roughly 40% of the net proceeds are earmarked for technology and infrastructure upgrades over the next three to five years. This includes scaling HashKey Chain and the exchange’s matching engine, as well as strengthening custody, security and back office systems. Company summaries also point to derivatives, yield products and improved institutional tools as specific build-out areas, which would move HashKey closer to the full suite product set offered by larger international venues.

• Another 40% is allocated to market expansion and ecosystem partnerships. In practice, this means pushing more aggressively into new jurisdictions and scaling crypto as a service arrangements where banks, brokers and fintechs connect to HashKey’s custody and trading stack via APIs rather than building the full infrastructure in-house. The company’s discussion of overseas licensing and institutional relationships suggests it aims to differentiate itself from exchanges that rely primarily on retail activity.

• The remaining 20% is split between operations and risk management (10%) and working capital and general corporate purposes (10%). This includes hiring, strengthening compliance and internal controls and maintaining balance sheet flexibility to navigate market cycles.

What’s next?

There are three things to watch as December unfolds:

• How the deal is priced and how the shares trade after listing

• Whether HashKey can turn its full stack, including exchange, custody, staking and tokenization, into steady, diversified revenue

• How firmly Hong Kong maintains its licensed but open approach to digital assets.

If HashKey executes well, it could give other exchanges, banks and tokenization projects a clearer pathway to go public in the city. If it struggles, the outcome may highlight where the practical limits of Hong Kong’s virtual asset experiment lie.

XRP’s recent pullback to $2 has not changed the broader technical picture, according to a new analysis shared on X by crypto analyst Egrag Crypto. Despite the lack of bullish price action in recent weeks, the technical analysis proposes that the market structure continues to favor an upside continuation rather than the trend ending. 

This outlook places the next three to six months in a constructive zone for XRP’s price action, where the probability of further upside is higher than the risk of a downward move.

XRP Currently In Consolidation, Not Distribution

The assessment of Egrag’s technical analysis is based on XRP’s price action currently ticking a list of boxes that points to the next move being up. The first of these boxes is what the analyst referred to as a regime shift, which occurred after the XRP price made a decisive breakout from a multi-year base around $0.5 last year.

This decisive breakout shifted the market from accumulation to expansion. Pullbacks in this phase are usually corrective, not trend-ending. In that context, the current price action can be viewed as part of a natural pause rather than a signal that the larger bullish move has failed.

Another central argument in the analysis is that the current price behavior represents consolidation rather than distribution. Egrag Crypto describes the market as being in a compression phase following an impulse, and this is a pause, not a top. Although XRP has spent about 13 months ranging within this structure, the analyst interpreted this as extended consolidation instead of a distribution process.

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.

Ali Martinez">

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.

No support for Dogecoin

The situation is tense because there is a lack of visible cushion below current levels. Looking at the chart, one can see that there has not been much activity between the current price and $0.1. If bulls hesitate there, the next structural area sits much closer to $0.062, where Dogecoin spent months consolidating in 2022-2023.

For short-term traders, the main thing to keep in mind is to be cautious of false rebounds. For people who have held on to their DOGE for the long haul, the risk is more existential. If $0.10 does not hold up, Dogecoin might stop being a cultural icon and start being a legacy altcoin looking for relevance.

At the moment, the chart is not asking for belief. It is asking for bids. And the next ones sit much lower.

With a discernible increase in open interest on Coinbase, XRP is subtly displaying a signal that usually matters more than transient price noise. Although that particular detail by itself does not ensure a rally, historically speaking, it is also not something to disregard, particularly considering Coinbase’s special place in the market.

XRP's market positioning

The context comes first. With lower highs and significant overhead resistance from important moving averages, the price of XRP is still grinding inside a wider declining structure. The price has not successfully recovered the mid-range levels lost during the October breakdown, momentum is weak, and the RSI is hovering in neutral-to-bearish territory. The chart does not shout immediate breakout when viewed alone. With sellers still relying on rallies, it appears more like consolidation following distribution. Chart by TradingView ">

On Coinbase, open interest is increasing while the price is either flat or slightly declining. This divergence typically indicates the opening of new positions as opposed to the closing of existing ones. This frequently comes before the expansion of volatility. Even though the market’s direction has not been determined yet, the spring is being loaded.

Bulls are not ready

Not everyone is bullish, though. Only when combined with spot demand or directional conviction can rising open interest spur upside. Liquidation cascades frequently result from leverage building without follow-through, particularly in assets like XRP that have a history of penalizing late longs. According to current liquidation data, longs are suffering more losses than shorts.

Another warning sign is that long/short ratios and funding rates do not yet indicate extreme optimism. Although that is beneficial for sustainability, it also indicates a lack of market commitment. Rather than a verified trend shift, this appears to be early positioning.

The increase in Coinbase open interest indicates that XRP is once again on the U.S. radar. However, it is still a setup rather than a breakout in the absence of a clear technical recovery and stronger spot inflows. Bears may be in serious danger if the price begins to move while open interest continues to rise. This turns into yet another leverage trap otherwise.