As 2025 approached its conclusion, Bitcoin’s value continued to decline, falling by 4% in December.
In spite of this market downturn, Strategy wrapped up the year with significant Bitcoin acquisitions. The software company, which serves as a Bitcoin investment vehicle, acquired more than 22,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in December alone.
In the United States, prediction markets are forming partnerships with major media organizations and gaining approvals from key federal agencies. However, 11 states have seen gambling and gaming regulators take legal actions against platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, with watchdogs arguing that these markets represent a form of gambling—an assertion the companies contest.
As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, hackers and scammers are increasingly targeting both investors and protocols. In December, crypto-related exploits totaled over $22.5 million. Chainalysis also published its annual scam report, indicating that crypto thefts reached $3.4 billion in 2025.
Here are the figures for December:
Strategy acquires over 22,000 Bitcoin
Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin investment firm, Strategy, amassed additional Bitcoin in December. The publicly traded entity purchased 22,628 BTC this month, according to disclosures from Strategy regarding their Bitcoin acquisitions.
This brings the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 672,497 BTC, roughly amounting to 3.3% of the total 19.9 million Bitcoin in circulation.
The December purchases capped off a year characterized by aggressive accumulation by Strategy, which disclosed Bitcoin purchases over 41 different weeks in 2025. This represents a notable rise from 18 weeks in 2024 and just eight weeks in 2023.
Related: Strategy’s latest 2025 Bitcoin purchase marks an active year of accumulation
Strategy’s effective use of debt to finance new Bitcoin acquisitions has motivated other firms to adopt the model of “Bitcoin treasury firms”—companies that retain Bitcoin in their financial portfolios. As reported by BitcoinTreasuries.net, 192 public companies hold nearly 1.1 million BTC collectively.
Bitcoin price declines by 4%
This month, Bitcoin’s price dropped by over 4%, trading at $88,000 at the time of publication. The asset is projected to end the year lower than its starting point of around $94,000 and significantly below its peak of $124,000 reached in October.
Some traders anticipate that Bitcoin may face further declines, potentially dropping to $40,000, should the traditional four-year boom-and-bust cycle remain valid.
However, not everyone agrees. Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, previously expressed to Cointelegraph that institutional demand, through vehicles like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and corporate treasuries, has mitigated some of the downturn.
“While the bull market may experience near-term consolidation amidst macroeconomic challenges, we expect it will continue into 2026 due to ongoing structural inflows and changing market dynamics,” he noted.
Prediction markets confront legal challenges in 11 states
Prediction markets are making progress in the US. On December 4, CNBC entered into an agreement with Kalshi to incorporate real-time forecasting data from the betting market into CNBC’s TV, digital, and subscription platforms.
Yet, state regulators are not satisfied. During the same week, Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection sent out notices to Kalshi, Crypto.com, and Robinhood, instructing them to halt operations within the state. Legal actions against prediction markets are currently taking place in 11 states.
Kalshi has also received cease-and-desist orders in Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, Montana, and New York. Regulators in these states claimed that the market was facilitating unlicensed gambling, a contention that Kalshi disputes.
In Massachusetts, state prosecutors allege that Kalshi has misrepresented sports betting as “event contracts.” Kalshi maintains that state efforts are “aimed at obstructing our innovations by employing antiquated laws and concepts.”
A company spokesperson had previously informed Cointelegraph, “What we offer is entirely different from traditional state-regulated sportsbooks and casinos. Our confidence in our legal stance remains strong, and we have initiated a lawsuit in federal court.”
Scammers took $22.5 million in crypto during December
Hackers extracted $22.5 million through 10 incidents in December, per data from DefiLlama, which is a minimal sum relative to previous months this year.
In February, $1.4 billion was stolen from the crypto exchange Bybit. The blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis remarked in its annual crypto hack report that total crypto-related thefts this year reached $3.4 billion. It noted that personal wallet breaches have “increased significantly, rising from just 7.3% of total stolen value in 2022 to 44% in 2024. In 2025, this percentage would have been 37% if not for the tremendous impact of the Bybit incident.”
Advanced attacks attributed to state-sponsored entities have posed significant challenges for centralized organizations such as crypto exchanges. Reportedly, cybercriminals linked to the North Korean government stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency this year.
RWAs surpass DEXs with $19 billion in distributed asset value
The total distributed asset value of real-world assets (RWAs) increased by 3% in December, exceeding $19 billion. Tokenized US Treasuries constitute the largest segment at $8.7 billion, followed by commodities at $3.5 billion.
This positions RWAs as the fifth-largest asset category in decentralized finance based on total value locked, as per DefiLlama, surpassing decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
“At the beginning of this year, RWAs were not even in the top 10 categories,” noted DeFiLlama.
Various tokenized financial products, such as the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), Circle’s USYC, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, and Ondo’s OUSG, are contributing to the growing valuation of tokenized Treasuries.
Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, previously remarked to Cointelegraph that for RWAs to achieve further growth, “the limitation is no longer in the tokenization itself, but in liquidity and its integration into traditional finance.”
Magazine: Big questions: Will Bitcoin withstand a decade-long power outage?
