South Korea plans to allow non-financial institutions to open cryptocurrency accounts starting from the second quarter

[Three Whales Deposit $9.98M USDC into Lighter to Purchase 3.44M LIT] According to Lookonchain monitoring, three whale addresses (0xd42…475e, 0xFb9…ccfA, 0xEcA…0Fb8) deposited $9.98 million USDC into Lighter to purchase LIT. So far, the three whales have spent $8.67 million USDC to buy 3.44 million LIT, with $1.35 million USDC remaining.

[Whale Deposits 4.03 Million USDC into Lighter and Acquires 1.63 Million LIT] According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale deposited 4.03 million USDC into Lighter and spent 3.8 million USDC to purchase 1.63 million LIT at a price of $2.33 per token. The wallet currently still holds 227,099 USDC.

[TRUMP Deployment Address Transfers $94 Million USDC to Coinbase in 3 Weeks] Over the past 3 weeks, the TRUMP deployment address (5e2qR...r5G7) transferred $94 million USDC to Coinbase. These USDC were obtained from the address selling TRUMP through single-sided liquidity provision on Meteora. The TRUMP and MELANIA tokens are primarily cashed out through single-sided liquidity sales, ultimately converted to USDC and transferred to Coinbase.

[Whale Reduces Position by 3,000 ETH, Potential Loss of $43,000] On-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa monitoring shows that a whale who bought 8,550 ETH at an average price of $2,991 one week ago deposited 3,000 ETH to Binance 10 hours ago, valued at approximately $8.93 million. If sold, it would result in a loss of $43,000. Currently, the remaining portion of the position established last week by this whale is 5,550 ETH, with an unrealized loss of $46,000. The total holdings in the whale's wallet amount to 22,981 ETH.

[Federal Reserve's 2026 Interest Rate Path Divergence Intensifies, Potentially Impacting Crypto Market Performance] The Federal Reserve implemented three rate cuts in 2025, with the latest occurring on December 10, lowering the federal funds rate range to 3.5%–3.75%. The latest policy outlook indicates that there may only be room for one rate cut throughout 2026, with significant internal disagreements within the Fed regarding the interest rate path, leaving the market lacking clear guidance. The current median forecast suggests that the interest rate will be around 3.6% by the end of 2025 and approximately 3.4% by the end of 2026. According to CME Group data, investors estimate about a 20% probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the Fed's January meeting, rising to approximately 45% for the March meeting. Analysts believe that the labor market, inflation trends, and economic growth remain key variables for policy decisions, while the uncertainty surrounding the end of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's term and the appointment of new leadership could also impact the crypto market.