OVERVIEW

Grandma Got Run Over By A Red Candle 😵

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Dat Gap 📈

I find $SOL ( ▲ 2.29% )’s weekly chart interesting. 🧠

First, there’s a good chunk of the altcoin market that looks like Solana’s weekly chart. From an Ichimoku perspective, if you’re a bear, this is the best Christmas present ever. For bulls that means you don’t even get a stocking for Christmas, Santa just took it down and threw into the fire. Not even a lump of coal.

While the current weekly Ichimoku chart for Solana looks bearish AF, it’s almost reminiscent of what the March 31, 2025 weekly Ichimoku chart looked like: a confirmed Ideal Bearish Ichimoku Breakout that failed to have any follow through.

For the bulls, there are some big signs that, in the short term at least, a massive flush doesn’t look very likely:

1. There are massive gaps between the candlestick bodies and the Tenkan-Sen. And those gaps have existed for over a month. That means every day that goes by Solana is likely to snap back into equilibrium - which means moving higher.

2. The Composite Index is still sitting in a historical support range after just coming off of the lowest weekly reading in its history.

Structurally, things still looks uber bearish. But there are some clear signs of hope. But hope, as a Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines once said: ‘Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.’

Hopefully Santa shows us some mercy. 🥺

NEWS
CFTC Withdraws 2020 Crypto Guidance - Bullish, Probably, Somehow 😐️

The CFTC just withdrew its 2020 interpretive guidance on "actual delivery" for retail crypto transactions. If you're asking "what does that actually mean for me?" - welcome to the club. 🤔 

Back in 2020, the Commission published rules clarifying when crypto changing hands counts as "actual delivery" versus a leveraged retail commodity transaction (which triggers a whole different regulatory framework). It was the agency's attempt to draw lines around what's spot trading and what's something else.

Now it's gone. Withdrawn as of December 10th.

The Official Reasoning

The CFTC says the guidance is "likely outdated" given how much spot and derivatives markets have evolved over five years. Fair. They also cite Trump's Executive Order 14178 and the President's Working Group report on digital assets, suggesting the old rules might conflict with whatever's coming next.

Acting Chairman Pham voted yes. No opposition. Clean sweep.

Wait, What?

Here's where it gets squirrelly: withdrawing guidance isn't the same as replacing it. The old rulebook is gone, but there's no new one yet. We're in regulatory purgatory - the CFTC essentially said "this doesn't work anymore" without telling us what does.

The 2020 guidance was written for a different market. But "we're withdrawing outdated rules to make room for better ones eventually" is the regulatory equivalent of "trust me, bro." 🥦 

CRYPTOTWITS
Crypto News Speedrun 🏃

Yup. That’s me. And this is the the fastest crypto news you’ll get. 🧠 

Watch, like, subscribe, and all that other stuffs. 👆️ 

NEWS
Circle Acquires Axelar's Original Dev Team - And That's Bullish 🎬️

Here's one that reads like a breakup announcement but is actually a flex. 💪

Circle just agreed to acquire Interop Labs - the team that originally built $AXL ( ▼ 7.92% ) - along with their proprietary IP.

Before you FUD sell or FOMO buy your AXL bags: the network, foundation, and token remain independent, open-source, and community-governed. Nothing changes there. It's a talent acquisition that validates what Axelar built.

Common Prefix - longtime Axelar contributors with work on XRP Ledger, Sui, Flashbots, and Babylon - steps into the lead developer role. And Interop Labs had already been diversifying anyway: Fullport (Hyperliquid bridging), mXRP (liquid staking for XRP), and AgentFlux (AI privacy trading).

The team was clearly ready to spread its wings. 💸 

For Axelar, this is the ultimate "our tech is so good, a $9B company bought the team" endorsement. The protocol stays decentralized while its original architects get absorbed into Circle's broader infrastructure ambitions.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to an open-source project is its founders getting poached. 🥚 

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Stonk Market News 📰 

My stonkmarket counter part, Kevin, writes The Daily RIP and has a summary of what’s going on in stonkmarket land.

Watch, like, subscribe, and all that other stuffs. 👆️ 

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️

🎄 Avalanche Is Powering Payments at NYC's Holiday Market

Urbanspace's Union Square market is letting shoppers pay vendors in USDC through their mobile app, with Avalanche processing transactions in seconds. Merchants get immediate access to earnings instead of waiting days for card payments to clear, and fees are a fraction of interchange costs. The same infrastructure runs settlement for Visa, J.P. Morgan, and Citi, so this isn't exactly experimental. Avalanche.

🧠 Flashback Labs Built AI Twins That Don't Harvest Your Data

The platform trains personalized AI companions on your memories, photos, and life stories - all encrypted, user-owned, and never touching corporate servers. They deployed on Akash's decentralized GPU marketplace at a fraction of AWS costs, which is how you make memory preservation technology accessible to families dealing with Alzheimer's - which costs a metric fook ton of money to care for. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are coming soon. Akash Network.

🤖 Brave's AI Browser Agent Is Live in Nightly, With Double Bug Bounties

The feature lets AI automate browsing tasks, but Brave knows agentic browsing is inherently dangerous - so it runs in an isolated profile, encrypts transactions before broadcast, and uses a second model to check the first model's work. AI browsing never has access to internal settings pages, non-HTTPS sites, or anything flagged by Safe Browsing. They're doubling bug bounty rewards for valid security issues because they're not pretending the risks are solved. Basic Attention Token.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙

🔒 Oasis Made Its First Investment & It's RWA Credit Infrastructure

Oasis is betting that compliance-friendly confidentiality is the foundation of institutional adoption. SemiLiquid's Programmable Credit Protocol activates credit on tokenized assets without removing them from custody - collateral locking, margin calls, and liquidations all handled confidentially on Oasis's stack. The pilot includes Franklin Templeton, Zodia Custody, and Avalanche using tokenized money market fund shares as collateral. Oasis Network.

🌐 SPACE ID Wants to Own Your TLD on Both the Internet and the Blockchain

The 2026 ICANN gTLD auction is the first chance in 15 years to secure perpetual ownership of top-level domains - and if someone else gets .yourname first, you lose it forever. SPACE ID is offering end-to-end services from Web3 domain launch to ICANN application, so your .brand works on-chain AND in every browser. They already have 6.7M+ domains registered and 330+ integrations. SpaceID.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending News 🏦

📱 Coinbase and OKX Users Can Now Buy REACT Without Leaving the App

U.S. customers can purchase REACT directly in exchange interfaces, but trades execute against on-chain liquidity pools on Base - not a centralized orderbook. Every transaction is verifiable on-chain and tokens are self-custodied. It's distribution without rehypothecation. Reactive Network.

🔗 VeChain's Institutional Validators Include Some Serious Names

Meria, Keyrock, Draper Dragon, and Fenbushi Capital are all running validators post-Hayabusa, bringing regulated staking infrastructure, global market-making, and long-horizon venture capital to the network's security layer. VET holders can now delegate stake and earn rewards from the same institutions building the ecosystem. VeChain.

🥞 PancakeSwap's First CAKE.PAD on Monad Is a 1001x Leverage Perps DEX

This is PancakeSwap's first launch on Monad's 10,000 TPS infrastructure. LeverUp offers LP-free perpetual trading with zero fees on losing positions at 500x+ leverage and returns 100% of protocol fees to stakeholders. The CAKE.PAD event runs December 17-18 with 10M tokens at $0.01 for a $10M FDV, no vesting. PancakeSwap.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Protocol News 🏦

🌉 Neo X and Neo N3 Can Finally Talk to Each Other

The Message Bridge is live on mainnet, enabling cross-chain communication between Neo's EVM layer and its original N3 chain. Developers can access N3's built-in oracles from Neo X, interact with NeoFS from EVM apps, and build custom token bridges on top of the messaging layer. TypeScript SDK and examples are ready for anyone who wants to start experimenting. Neo.

🔄 MANTRA's $OM Is Becoming $MANTRA With a 4x Coin Split

The ticker change and non-dilutive redenomination happens January 19th, 2026 - if you hold on MANTRA Chain or supporting exchanges, it's automatic. EVM holders need to migrate before January 15th or risk stranded tokens. Cosmos holders on Stargaze or Osmosis should IBC bridge now to get the 1:4 split. MANTRA.

⭐ Stellar Foundation Updated Its Mandate for 2025

The new structure prioritizes four areas: Development for operations, Growth for ecosystem expansion, Product and Innovation for building tools, and Assets and Liquidity for getting real-world assets on-chain with the liquidity to actually use them. As a non-profit with no shareholders, SDF can focus on long-term mission over short-term revenue. Quarterly reports and real-time XLM tracking continue. Stellar.

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🛢️ US Oil Crashes Below $55 For First Time Since 2021 As Supply Floods The Market

🤣 Michael Burry Says He Had 'No Idea What Was Coming' Or That 'Roaring Kitty' Existed Weeks Before The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze

🪙 Coinbase CEO Remains Bullish On Stablecoins Despite Growth Slowing Down

🥞 PancakeSwap Joins Growing Prediction Market Push Across Crypto With Probable Launch

😱 Crypto Whale Loses $20 Million On ‘Worst Investments Ever’ In AI Token Trade

Get In Touch 📬

Email me, Jonathan Morgan, feedback; I’d love to hear from you. 📧
Follow me on Stocktwits 🫂 And Sponsor this newsletter 😎 

Terms & Conditions 📝

Securities Disclaimer: STOCKTWITS IS NOT A TAX ADVISOR, BROKER, FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE TAX, LEGAL, FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND NOTHING ON THE SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS AN OFFER TO SELL, A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, OR A RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY SECURITY. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital, and not capital required for other purposes. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should also consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. The Content is to be used for informational and entertainment purposes only and the Service does not provide investment advice for any individual. Stocktwits, its affiliates and partners specifically disclaim any and all liability or loss arising out of any action taken in reliance on Content, including but not limited to market value or other loss on the sale or purchase of any company, property, product, service, security, instrument, or any other matter. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks, and that discussions of any security published on the Service will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which Content is published on the Service have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Read the full terms & conditions here. 🔍

Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in AVAX, ADA, PUDGY, WLC, IMX, XTZ, NEAR, HBAR, ALGO, INJ, LTC, LINK, ZEC, XLM, and FET. 📋