Bitcoin's four-year cycle appears to be broken. Here's what's actually driving prices now -- and how to play it in 2026. If technical analysis were an exact science, Bitcoin would be soaring right now. However, the charts forgot to check the news. More importantly, they forgot that the structure of the whole crypto market fundamentally changed in 2024 and 2025. The four-year cycle isn't broken. It's either retired or on vacation. Read the full article in The Motley Fool.

Japanese company Metaplanet recently purchased 4,279 bitcoins, with a total value of approximately $370 million. Currently, the total value of its bitcoin holdings has exceeded $3 billion. (The Bitcoin Historian)

Why bother with crypto when you have a credit card? It usually comes down to freedom and fees. Banks charge a premium for cross-border transactions; crypto doesn't. In 2025, the adoption curve has steepened because shoppers are tired of declined transactions and 3% foreign exchange fees. Many users are now learning how to pay with btc to bypass these traditional banking hurdles.

On today's episode of CNBC Crypto World, Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, and Sebastian Bea, CIO of ReserveOne, discuss bitcoin's recent performance and whether a wave of adoption in 2025 has broken the cryptocurrency's normal four-year cycle.

AI and Crypto Become Mainstream This Year This holiday season marks a turning point in how Americans shop and gift. Consumers are increasingly weaving technologies like AI and digital currencies into their holiday traditions. Nearly half of US shoppers (47 percent) surveyed have used an AI tool for at least one shopping task, with “finding gift ideas” ranking as the top AI-assisted use.

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, is considering launching crypto-backed loans that would provide ruble lending secured by digital assets. Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov said the bank is ready to work with regulators to build the necessary infrastructure and hopes to formally discuss such transactions in the near future. Read the full release here.

As the European regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies has matured and the demand for virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies is growing across the Nordics, Nordea has decided to allow customers to trade in a crypto-linked product on its platforms. The market for crypto-related investment products, especially exchange-traded products (ETPs) with a cryptocurrency as the underlying asset, has grown rapidly in Europe as institutional and retail investors seek to gain exposure to digital assets within established financial markets.

The future of money can’t be printed.

The most valuable things in an economy are often the hardest to price. In the 1990s, the business world misjudged the Internet. That wasn’t due to a lack of imagination. It was a lack of the right framework. Analysts tried to value the Internet by tallying up companies like AOL, Yahoo, and Netscape, without realizing the deeper significance of the open public infrastructure beneath them.

By Nury Vittachi MOVE OVER, SILICON VALLEY: a Chinese city just issued the world’s biggest next-generation digitized bond. It’s all part of an internet revolution which will dramatically shift power away from the old-school power brokers, a forum heard on Friday. The new system, called Web 3.0, is already being developed, with most new innovators NOT confined to Silicon Valley but spread worldwide.

In a landscape obsessed with quarterly earnings and transaction fees, blockchain analyst and investor William Mougayar is challenging the status quo. His latest research report, "The Internet’s Blueprint for Ethereum," argues that the market is fundamentally mispricing the network by treating it like a tech company rather than a global public good infrastructure.  Read the full article here.

FLASHBACK: Hal Finney in 2011 explaining how Bitcoin is created and transferred. This has aged incredibly well. /via @simplybitcoin

Steak ‘n Shake is offering employees the option to receive Bitcoin payments starting December 17, 2025, following widespread acceptance of Bitcoin in its restaurants since May. This bold move aligns with its strategic Bitcoin Reserve, boosting its role in crypto integration and capturing notable transaction volume. On December 17, 2025, Steak ‘n Shake announced a new option allowing employees to receive part of their pay in Bitcoin.

🇹🇼 The Ministry of Justice has just revealed that Taiwan now holds 210.45 Bitcoin in seized assets. /via Bitcoin Magazine

Bhutan has announced a landmark Bitcoin Development Pledge, committing up to 10,000 BTC (≈ USD 1B) to support the long-term development of Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC). Guided by the vision of His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the pledge reflects a values-led, responsible approach to using digital assets for national resilience, jobs, and youth opportunity. Read more:

Today @jpmorgan, the world's largest bank by market cap per @WSJ, announced they're launching their first ever tokenized money market fund—MONY—on Ethereum. The firm is seeding the fund with $100M of its own capital before opening to outside investors on Tuesday.

Strategy has acquired 10,645 BTC for ~$980.3 million at ~$92,098 per bitcoin and has achieved BTC Yield of 24.9% YTD 2025. As of 12/14/2025, the company holds 671,268 $BTC acquired for ~$50.33 billion at ~$74,972 per bitcoin. Read the full press release.

🗞️  Two days out of the year, Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena, an imposing stadium located next to a small sand-colored mosque and surrounded by skyscrapers that look like something out of a sci-fi movie, becomes the place where some people’s dreams come true. This space hosts Binance Blockchain Week, an annual event organized by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, which this year attracted more than 5,200 people, including entrepreneurs, crypto fans, and representatives of traditional finance. Read the full article here.

⚡️ NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang explains Bitcoin in a few sentences. "Essentially, what Bitcoin is doing is taking excess energy and storing into a new form. It's called currency".

In a McDonald's by a lake surrounded by mountains, in the centre of the Swiss city of Lugano, a customer orders coffee. "Can I pay with bitcoin?" he asks, and the person behind the counter holds out what looks like a credit card payment terminal. It is in fact a machine for paying by crypto currency. The equipment has been distributed free to local retail businesses by the city council.

In this video, I visit an unknown Bitcoin hotspot in Central Portugal while training for my IRONMAN race, cycling 160km from Lisbon to Caldas da Rainha. We see how local merchants are adopting Bitcoin for payments, and I attempt to onboard a few who haven't heard of it yet.

The second annual Bitcoin MENA, held December 8–9, 2025 at Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC Centre, marked a turning point for Bitcoin adoption across the Middle East and North Africa. With reported attendance surpassing 12,000 people from more than 100 countries, the conference doubled in size from its inaugural year and showcased the region’s accelerating shift toward Bitcoin-driven financial infrastructure and institutional-grade innovation.

🚨 #Bitcoin Price Outlook for Jan 2026 CCN asked #ChatGPT to model 5 possible scenarios shaping #Bitcoin’s next major move. Supply tightening, #ETF flows, and global liquidity now sit at the center of the debate. Full analysis 👇🧵: