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The upward momentum in Ethereum’s price met a pause at the $4K resistance, which has proven to be a key selling zone. This rejection led to a decline toward the lower boundary of the range at $3.5K. However, renewed buying activity at this support has triggered another strong push upward, targeting the $4K threshold.
The $4K resistance is pivotal, as it aligns with Ethereum’s prior swing highs and has repeatedly snubbed bullish attempts. Consequently, the short-term outlook suggests continued consolidation within the $3.5K–$4K range. A decisive breakout above the $4K level could pave the way for a broader bullish rally.
The 4-Hour Chart
In the 4-hour timeframe, ETH faced a sharp rejection at the $4K resistance, resulting in an impulsive decline below the middle boundary of the ascending channel at $3.8K. This move reflects the strong presence of sellers at the $4K level, making it a formidable barrier for buyers.
Despite this setback, Ethereum found support near the $3.5K level, where buying pressure intensified. The subsequent bullish momentum pushed the price back above the channel’s middle boundary, bringing it close to the $4K resistance once again.
While buyers remain eager to breach the $4K threshold, bearish divergence on the RSI indicator signals caution. A short-term consolidation below this resistance appears likely before another potential bullish breakout.
Ethereum’s price behavior, particularly its stability at the $3.5K support level, reflects the significant liquidity concentrated below this threshold, as highlighted by the Binance liquidation heatmap. Similarly, the $4K resistance level marks another critical zone of liquidity, primarily associated with short positions placed in anticipation of a price rejection.
These two levels represent the highest concentration of liquidity near the current price. If ETH successfully breaches the $4K resistance, it could trigger a short-liquidation cascade as short-sellers rush to cover their positions. This would likely result in an impulsive price surge as the unwinding of these positions fuels further upward momentum.
However, a breakout in either direction has the potential to ignite a liquidation cascade, intensifying the subsequent price movement. Given the prevailing market dynamics, a bullish breakout above $4K appears to be the more probable scenario.
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Robinhood Crypto celebrated a pivotal year in 2024, marked by significant milestones, including the launch of new features, geographic expansions, and the enhancement of its crypto offerings.
According to a recent announcement, the company ended the year with $38 billion in crypto assets under custody and $119 billion in notional crypto trading volume over the last twelve months as interest in Bitcoin (BTC) reached unprecedented levels.
Expanding reach
Robinhood achieved full coverage across all 50 US states and territories, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. In addition, the platform expanded its list of supported cryptocurrencies to 20, adding Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), XRP, and several others.
To cater to advanced traders, Robinhood launched a Crypto Trading API, enabling users to access market data, manage portfolios, and execute trades programmatically. Advanced order types, such as stop-loss and stop-limit, were also introduced across its mobile platforms.
Robinhood Crypto marked its first anniversary in Europe with localized app launches in Italy, Poland, and Lithuania. The platform expanded its crypto offerings in the region, reaching a total of 40 supported coins. A staking feature for Solana and Ethereum (ETH) debuted in the second quarter, with over two-thirds of SOL holdings in Europe actively staked.
Robinhood’s self-custody web3 wallet also experienced rapid adoption, with hundreds of thousands of downloads across iOS and Android in over 100 countries. The wallet introduced cross-chain and gasless token swaps, supporting networks like Solana and Ethereum, among others. Other enhancements included a revamped token discovery feature aimed at improving users’ asset management.
Johann Kerbrat, VP and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, highlighted 2024 as a defining year for the company and the broader crypto industry.
Kerbrat said:
“2024 marked a significant year for the cryptocurrency landscape, and recent developments suggest that 2025 is poised to be an even more transformative year.”
House Republicans have selected Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) to lead the influential Financial Services Committee, positioning a vocal crypto advocate at the helm of Wall Street’s congressional oversight body.
This also puts Hill in a position that would serve as a crucial starting point as legislative efforts for the crypto industry begin next year.
Hill secured the chairmanship Thursday after a second-round vote, beating out three other crypto-friendly contenders, including Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, according to an initial report from The Hill citing two sources familiar with the closed-door selection.
The Arkansas Republican currently chairs the committee’s digital asset panel and has championed several crypto bills, including legislation to regulate stablecoins and reform market structure.
« Legal businesses in this great country should have the freedom to bank and have financial services, » Hill said during a December 4 hearing, highlighting his focus on crypto firms’ banking access concerns.
The committee under Hill will also scrutinize what critics call « Operation Chokepoint 2.0« –alleged regulatory efforts to restrict crypto companies’ access to banking services.
The Republican has also joined efforts to overturn SEC guidance requiring banks to record customer crypto holdings as balance sheet liabilities, though President Biden ultimately vetoed the resolution.
His stroll into Congress follows President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments of David Sacks as AI and Crypto Czar and Paul Atkins to lead the SEC as its new Chairman.
In October, Hill said that outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler should leave over accusations of « fear-mongering » within the federal agency.
The selection surprised some House members, given Barr’s close ties to Majority Leader Steve Scalise, per the report. Hill’s previous alignment with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy had been viewed as a potential obstacle.
The Financial Committee’s jurisdiction spans the Federal Reserve, Wall Street regulations, and, increasingly, crypto oversight—a sector drawing intensified attention from U.S. regulators.
The Republican also brings technical expertise to the role, having co-authored multiple crypto bills and built relationships across the aisle. That collaborative approach could prove pivotal for passing legislation in Congress next year.
Hill is expected to assume the chairmanship when the new congressional session begins on January 3.
Nearly a year since United States-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were launched in January, the funds have experienced remarkable growth.
Inflows into the 12 funds have surpassed 500,000 BTC.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Attract Over 500K BTC
In an X post, Vetle Lunde, head of Research at the digital assets research firm K33, stated that spot bitcoin ETFs currently have 500,925 BTC in cumulative net inflows, worth over $50.5 billion at today’s price.
Notably, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) had achieved this milestone earlier. The fund became the fastest ETF in history to exceed $50 billion in asset under management (AUM), a feat it achieved in 228 days, beating the previous record of 1,329 days.
However, since Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust had mostly recorded negative flows, the cumulative net inflows into the 12 US spot bitcoin ETFs took longer to hit the 500,000 BTC milestone.
Lunde added, “U.S. ETFs have absorbed more than 2.5% of the circulating supply since their launch in January.” According to data from CoinMarketCap, bitcoin’s circulating supply currently stands at 19.7 million BTC, with a supply cap of 21 million BTC.
The funds have been on an inflow streak over the past two weeks, with Wednesday being the 10th consecutive day of inflows. Net inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday totaled $223 million, according to data from SoSo Value.
Fidelity’s FBTC led the inflows with $121.9 million in fresh investment. GBTC and ARKB recorded $52.27 and $20.13 inflows respectively. BlackRock’s IBIT, however, maintained neutral flows.
Per the data, total net inflows into the 12 US spot BTC ETFs amounted to $34.58 billion. Growing institutional interest in bitcoin has significantly contributed to the sustained inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs.
The latest inflows coincided with the recent BTC rally, which saw the top cryptocurrency trading above $100k. BTC is trading at $100,879 at press time.
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Ethereum (ETH) could soon break above $5,000 per coin due to increased institutional demand, according to a new report, which would mark a record price for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Not only that, but activity on the chain is buzzing, according to market intelligence firm CryptoQuant. The firm said in a Thursday note that inflows to the new ETH exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, had broken records.
Last week, investors pumped Ethereum funds worldwide with $1.2 billion in new cash—a record set just a few months after the spot ETH funds began trading in the U.S.
“Based on valuation metrics, ETH could be heading above $5,000 if current demand and supply dynamics continue,” the report said, adding that “renewed investor demand” was spurring the run.
CryptoQuant also noted that the blockchain was experiencing a lot of activity, with total daily transactions now at between 6.5 and 7.5 million for most of the year. Last year, the figure stood at about 5 million per day.
“Higher network activity on Ethereum signifies increased usage and demand for the network’s capabilities, reflecting growing adoption of decentralized applications,” it said.
Both meme coins and stablecoins are seeing considerable traction since the crypto market started growing in market cap again this year.
Ethereum is now trading for $3,884 per coin, according to CoinGecko. Over the past 30 days, it’s up nearly 19%, and recently topped the $4,000 mark for the first time since March.
Despite the approval and subsequent trading of ETFs giving investors exposure to the asset, the coin—unlike Bitcoin—has struggled to come close to setting a new all-time high. Its previous record of $4,878 was set in 2021.
Ethereum has emerged as the leading blockchain for Tether’s USDT supply, surpassing Tron in a monumental shift for stablecoin dominance.
Over the past month, Tether issued $20 billion in USDT on the network, possibly marking it as the go-to blockchain for activity involving the fiat-pegged cryptocurrency.
Strategic Expansion
Figures shared by the on-chain data platform Token Terminal show that Tether’s $20 billion issuance on the world’s largest blockchain by total value locked is nearly twice the active loans on protocols like Aave.
Additional information from another blockchain analysis platform, Lookonchain, indicates that the surge in USDT minting started on November 6. Since then, Tether has been issuing between $1 billion and $2 billion of stablecoins every few days across Ethereum and Tron, with the former accounting for the lion’s share.
The trend is more than just numbers. Some analysts imply it is a nod to the reputation of the platform co-founded by Vitalik Buterin as a “trusted” and socially reputable network—a critical factor for institutional adoption.
Furthermore, commentators like DCinvestor on X have suggested that the uptick is just the beginning. They predict that Ethereum’s stablecoin supply could go up exponentially, potentially reaching as high as $1 trillion by the end of 2025. If it became a reality, this growth would represent a massive boost to the network’s overall economy, even cementing its position as the backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi).
USDT’s Dominance
According to DefiLlama data, Tether has continued to expand its issuance, controlling more than 69% of the $201 billion stablecoin market. In Q4 2024, records revealed that about 109 million wallets held the asset, more than double those holding Bitcoin and less than 20 million behind those with Ethereum.
Additionally, the issuer registered more than 4.5 billion web hits in the first 9 months of the year, with emerging markets accounting for nearly half that number.
With a presence in over 80 blockchain networks, USDT currently has a market cap of $140 billion, up 12.55% in the last month. Its closest competitor, USD Coin (USDC), valued at $41.5 billion, recently entered into a strategic partnership with Binance, seeking to challenge the Tether’s dominance.
While details of the collaboration remain scant, it is intended to expand the global adoption of USDC. Binance will incorporate the stablecoin into its full suite of products and services, making it accessible to its 240 million-strong user base.
Attempts to reverse USDT’s hegemony aren’t limited to USDC. Not long ago, several crypto companies, including Robinhood, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Paxos, came together to support the development of the Global Dollar (USDG). Its proponents claim the asset will help speed up the adoption of such instruments around the world.
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Texas lawmakers have introduced a bill to establish a state-managed Bitcoin reserve, aiming to explore the potential role of crypto in public finance.
Filed on Dec. 13 by Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, the legislation would allow the state to collect taxes, fees, and donations in Bitcoin, with the assets held for at least five years.
Titled “An Act Relating to the Establishment of a Bitcoin Reserve Within the State Treasury of Texas and the Management of Cryptocurrencies by Governmental Entities,” the proposal does not include provisions for the state to make direct Bitcoin purchases.
Instead, it focuses on building a reserve through voluntary contributions and payments.
The proposal, announced during an X Spaces event, is designed to provide the state with an alternative financial tool while leveraging its existing Bitcoin infrastructure. It was developed with input from the Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on crypto policy.
According to Capriglione:
“Inflation remains a significant challenge to maintaining the value of long-term investments. This initiative offers an opportunity to explore Bitcoin as a potential safeguard for the state’s financial stability.”
Texas’ role in crypto
Texas, the second-largest economy in the United States, has the highest concentration of Bitcoin miners in the country, providing a unique opportunity to integrate crypto into state operations.
Supporters of the bill suggest that accepting Bitcoin payments from these entities could further enhance Texas’ role as a leader in digital innovation. Capriglione said the bill’s goal is to provide “flexibility while encouraging broader adoption.”
He added:
“The proposal is a starting point, with room for further development as it gains legislative support.”
The bill aligns with growing interest at the national level in incorporating Bitcoin into government policy. President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign included a proposal for a federal Bitcoin reserve, and Bitcoin prices have risen over 45% since the November election, reflecting increased market attention.
Bitcoin reserve conversations continue
Texas is one of several states exploring legislation related to Bitcoin reserves. Pennsylvania introduced a similar proposal in November, and discussions are already underway in other states and countries about adopting similar measures.
Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter noted that the Texas initiative reflects a broader shift across US states, with many “beginning to consider Bitcoin as a tool to address economic challenges.”
He pointed to legislative developments in states like Oklahoma and Louisiana that focus on protecting mining and self-custody rights, calling them a clear indicator of the growing movement.
Meanwhile, the concept of a federal Bitcoin reserve has also gained significant traction since it was first unveiled as a legitimate plan earlier this year.
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, President-elect Trump emphasized plans to incorporate Bitcoin into national strategy, while Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis unveiled her own proposal for a federal reserve.
Despite the growing interest and rumors of the plans being in advanced stages, market analysts remain cautious about the likelihood of federal action but acknowledge the growing interest in Bitcoin as a financial instrument.
Google unleashed Gemini 2.0 this week, packing its latest AI model with autonomous capabilities and multimodal features.
What’s immediately noticeable in this release is that Google sees AI chatbots as evolving into AI Agents—customized software that uses generative AI to interact with users and understand and execute tasks in real time.
« With new advances in multimodality—like native image and audio output—and native tool use, it will enable us to build new AI agents that bring us closer to our vision of a universal assistant,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.
The model builds upon Gemini 1.5’s multimodal foundations with new native image generation and text-to-speech abilities, alongside improved reasoning skills.
According to Google, the 2.0 Flash variant outperforms the previous 1.5 Pro model on key benchmarks while running at twice the speed.
This model is currently available for users who pay for Google Advanced—the paid subscription designed to compete against Claude and ChatGPT Plus.
Those willing to get their hands dirty can enjoy a more complete experience by accessing the model via Google AI Studio.
From there, users can upload up to 1 million tokens of context—nearly 10 times ChatGPT’s capacity—along with features like audiovisual input support, fact-checking with links, code execution, and adjustable settings such as « temperature » for response randomness and « Top P » for lexical variation, allowing control over the model’s creativity or factuality.
It is important to consider that this interface is more complex than the simple, straightforward, and user-friendly UI that Gemini provides.
Also, it is more powerful but way slower. In our tests, we asked it to analyze a 74K token-long document, and it took nearly 10 minutes to produce a response.
The output, however, was accurate enough, without hallucinations. Longer documents of around 200K tokens (nearly 150,000 words) will take considerably longer to be analyzed, but the model is capable of doing the job if you are patient enough.
Google also implemented a “Deep Research” feature, available now in Gemini Advanced, to leverage the model’s enhanced reasoning and long-context capabilities for exploring complex topics and compiling reports.
This lets users tackle different topics more in-depth than they would using a regular model designed to provide more straightforward answers. However, it’s based on Gemini 1.5, and there’s no timeline to follow until there’s a version that is based on Gemini 2.0.
This new feature puts Gemini in direct competition with services such as Perplexity’s Pro search, You.com’s Research Assistant, and even the lesser-known BeaGo, all offering a similar experience. However, Google’s service offers something different. Before providing information, the best approach to the task must be worked out.
It presents a plan to the user, who can edit it to include or exclude info, add more research materials, or extract bits of information. Once the methodology has been set up, they can instruct the chatbot to start its research. Until now, no AI service has offered researchers this level of control and customizability.
In our tests, a simple prompt like “Research the impact of AI in human relationships” triggered an investigation of over a dozen reliable scientific or official sites, with the model producing a 3 page-long document based on 8 properly cited sources. Not bad at all.
Project Astra: Gemini’s Multimodal AI Assistant
Google also shared a video showing off Project Astra, its experimental AI assistant powered by Gemini 2.0. Astra is Google’s response to Meta AI: An AI assistant that interacts with people in real time, using the smartphone’s camera and microphone as information inputs and providing responses in voice mode.
Google has given Project Astra expanded capabilities, including Multilingual conversations with improved accent recognition, integration with Google Search, Lens, and Maps, an extended memory that retains 10 minutes of conversation context, long-term memory, and low conversation latency through new streaming capabilities.
Despite a tepid reception on social media—Google’s video has only gotten 90K views since launch—the release of the new family of models seems to be getting decent traction among users, with a significant increase in web searches, especially considering it was announced during a major blackout of ChatGPT Plus.
Google’s announcement this week makes it clear that it’s trying to compete against OpenAI to be the generative AI industry leader.
Indeed, its announcement falls in the middle of OpenAI’s « 12 Days of Christmas » campaign, in which the company unveils a new product daily.
Thus far, OpenAI has unveiled a new reasoning model (o1), a video generation tool (Sora), and a $200 monthly « Pro » subscription.
Google also unveiled its new AI-powered Chrome extension, Project Mariner, which uses agents to navigate websites and complete tasks. In testing against the WebVoyager benchmark for real-world web tasks, Mariner achieved an 83.5% success rate working as a single agent, Google said.
« Over the last year, we have been investing in developing more agentic models, meaning they can understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead, and take action on your behalf, with your supervision, » Pichai wrote in the announcement.
The company plans to roll out Gemini 2.0 integration throughout its product lineup, starting with experimental access to the Gemini app today. A broader release will follow in January, including integration into Google Search’s AI features, which currently reach over 1 billion users.
But don’t forget Claude
Gemini 2’s release comes as Anthropic silently unveiled its latest update. Claude 3.5 Haiku is a faster version of its family of AI models that claims superior performance on coding tasks, scoring 40.6% on the SWE-bench Verified benchmark.
Anthropic is still training its most powerful model, Claude 3.5 Opus, which is set to be released later in 2025 after a series of delays.
Image: Anthropic
Both Google’s and Anthropic’s premium services are priced at $20 monthly, matching OpenAI’s basic ChatGPT Plus tier.
Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Haiku proved to be much faster, cheaper, and more potent than Claude 3 Sonnet (Anthropics medium size model from the previous generation), scoring 88.1% on HumanEval coding tasks and 85.6% on multilingual math problems.
The model shows particular strength in data processing, with companies like Replit and Apollo reporting significant improvements in code refinement and content generation.
The company claims users can achieve up to 90% cost savings through prompt caching and an additional 50% reduction using the Message Batches API, positioning the model as a cost-effective option for enterprises looking to scale their AI operations and a very interesting option to consider versus OpenAI o1-mini which costs $3.00 per million input tokens.
Vancouver’s city council has voted in favor of exploring the use of BTC in municipal finances, marking a significant step toward making the city “Bitcoin-friendly.”
Mayor Ken Sim introduced the motion, which passed on Wednesday with strong support from six councilors. Two voted against it, and three were absent.
Vancouver to Explore Bitcoin Integration
The mayor’s initiative aims to explore Bitcoin as a potential safeguard against inflation and currency devaluation. In a statement, Sim, who is an investor in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said that the city must adapt to global financial shifts, especially given its growing affordability crisis.
The city’s housing market saw a staggering 381% increase in value between 1995 and 2022, while traditional assets like gold and city securities failed to provide comparable returns. In contrast, Bitcoin has offered substantial returns over the past decade, and Sim believes it could play a crucial role in stabilizing the city’s finances amid inflation and the devaluation of traditional currency.
In an interview with the Canadian news outlet Global News right before the vote, Sim was quoted saying.
“Bitcoin is the number one performing asset on the planet over the last 16 years, so to not even look at including it as a part of a diversified portfolio is, I think, reckless.”
Sim’s motion calls for a report by the end of the first quarter of 2025 to assess the feasibility, risks, and benefits of Bitcoin adoption. Despite the support, the proposal faced opposition from Councilor Pete Fry, who raised concerns about Bitcoin’s potential for misuse in criminal activities and its environmental impact due to high energy consumption from mining.
To demonstrate his commitment, Sim has pledged a $10,000 donation in Bitcoin to the city, regardless of the outcome. He had said,
“Our family is going to donate $10,000 to the City of Vancouver in the form of bitcoin and this is going to be a gift to the city that we love. We totally believe in the benefits of this and we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
Hurdles Ahead
Although the motion has passed, challenges remain, particularly with legal restrictions that prevent municipalities from holding cryptocurrency as reserves. The provincial government has also clarified that local authorities are not authorized to use Bitcoin for transactions or investments under current law.
Following the development, the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs highlighted that existing provincial laws, including the Community Charter and Vancouver Charter, prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies for municipal payments or transactions.
Local governments are also restricted from holding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in reserves, as legislation dictates that public funds can only be invested in low-risk, approved options to ensure financial stability.
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