Year-End Crypto Trading Shows How Flows And Leverage Can Override Narrative

By RT Staff Reporters · December 31, 2025 · 2 min read

Key Points

Bitcoin hovered around $88,600 into the final stretch of 2025 as thin holiday liquidity amplified every move.
U.S. spot ETF inflows returned on December 30, but a massive options expiry and derivatives dominance kept price action noisy.
Zcash drew rare attention after a listed company disclosed a $29 million purchase and a stated plan to keep accumulating.

On December 30, a widely followed estimate put total crypto market value around $2.96 trillion after a roughly 2.8% daily drop. By early December 31, Bitcoin had steadied near $88,600.

Major coins were mixed: Ether around $2,978, Solana near $126, XRP near $1.87, and Zcash near $526. The sharpest moves appeared in smaller perpetual contracts: TAKE fell about 64.6% and BEAT about 16.7%, while WCT rose about 20%, LYN about 36%, and RIVER about 44.5%.

Regulated demand helped. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reported net inflows of about $355.1 million on December 30, led by IBIT (+$143.7m), ARKB (+$109.6m), and FBTC (+$78.6m).

Year-End Crypto Trading Shows How Flows And Leverage Can Override Narrative. (Photo Internet reproduction)

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs added about $67.9 million, including ETHE (+$50.2m) and ETH (+$14.0m). The bigger backdrop stayed cautious after reporting that pointed to roughly $6 billion of net outflows over the fourth quarter.

Derivatives did much of the steering. More than $27 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options were flagged as expiring around year-end, with Bitcoin about $23.6 billion of that total.

Coverage cited CoinGlass estimates of 2025 crypto derivatives turnover near $85.7 trillion, about $264.5 billion per day.

Wintermute’s Jasper De Maere warned that light flow through New Year’s can produce exaggerated moves, and Tom Lee pointed to tax-loss selling pressure peaking from December 26 to December 30.

Zcash offered a concrete catalyst: Cypherpunk Technologies disclosed buying 56,418.09 ZEC for about $29 million at an average $514.02, lifting holdings to 290,062.67 ZEC—about 1.76% of circulating supply—and signaling an ambition to build toward 5%.

For readers abroad, the takeaway is straightforward: in crypto, positioning and market structure can matter more than any single headline.

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Crypto — Live Market Board

Digital assets
Jul 14, 2026 · 04:57

Bitcoin · benchmark

62,498
+0.42%

L 62,238day rangeH 62,784

-46.97% over 12 months

Market breadth · 17 names

76% advancing

13 ▲ advancing4 declining ▼

Currencies, rates & key inputs

Ethereum

1,779

+0.34%

Solana

74.93

+0.09%

Gold

4,030

+0.83%

USD / BRL

5.13

-0.12%

Full instrument board

Instrument	Last	Change	YoY	Prev.	High	Low	Volume
BTC	62,498	+0.42%	-46.97%	62,239	62,784	62,238	27,083,935,744
ETH	1,779	+0.34%	-40.95%	1,774	1,791	1,773	8,995,243,008
SOL	74.93	+0.09%	-53.83%	74.86	75.37	74.60	1,579,687,808
XRP	1.07	+0.16%	-63.87%	1.07	1.07	1.06	1,018,985,344
BNB	569.62	+0.53%	-17.38%	566.63	570.84	566.36	919,193,600
ADA	0.16	+0.87%	-78.40%	0.16	0.16	0.16	220,332,672
DOGE	0.07	+0.35%	-63.48%	0.07	0.07	0.07	422,806,912
AVAX	6.47	+0.40%	-69.60%	6.44	6.50	6.42	245,492,096
LINK	7.91	+0.49%	-49.83%	7.87	7.98	7.87	191,884,384
DOT	0.85	+1.13%	-78.61%	0.84	0.85	0.83	77,166,424
LTC	43.53	+0.09%	-54.45%	43.49	43.78	43.41	178,909,184
BCH	234.68	-0.66%	-53.52%	236.23	237.14	231.98	107,108,792
TRX	0.32	+0.15%	+7.27%	0.32	0.33	0.32	560,090,560
XLM	0.18	-1.02%	-61.46%	0.18	0.18	0.18	137,397,616
HBAR	0.07	-1.09%	-72.13%	0.07	0.07	0.07	44,641,272
NEAR	1.99	+3.82%	-22.80%	1.92	2.00	1.92	261,795,888
ATOM	1.53	-0.65%	-66.50%	1.54	1.54	1.52	18,333,832
AAVE	95.28	+0.97%	-69.74%	94.36	96.34	94.35	198,521,456