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Plus: SoFi enters the stablecoin chat

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GM. Crypto headlines arrived like a box of citrus - bright, varied, and a little demanding if you want the juice.

We'll roll them on the counter, slice cleanly, and get straight to the squeeze:

🍍 Market's stabilizing;

💸 SoFi launches SoFiUSD;

🍋 Trump's Fed chair pick, Senate crypto debate + more

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🍍 Market flavor today

Fear and Greed Index
Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

 Crypto Market Cap: $2.96T -0.48% (24H)
  Name   Price 24H 7D
Bitcoin Bitcoin BTC $88,268.25 0.14% -2.14%
Ethereum Ethereum ETH $2,979.86 1.10% -3.16%
BNB BNB BNB $848.48 0.32% -3.30%
XRP XRP XRP $1.89 -1.35% -5.29%
Prices as of 11:00 AM EST. Click here to see live data.

Crypto today feels like the morning after a big emotional conversation.

Nobody's yelling anymore. Everyone's just replaying what was said and deciding what they actually believe.

We already talked through the CPI story yesterday - the soft print, the failed push toward $90K, the leverage that jumped in late and got washed out for $500M+ in liquidations.

That part didn't change. What did change is how the market digested it once the adrenaline wore off.

Instead of continuing lower, Bitcoin stabilized - it spent most of today in the $87K - $88K range. That's the market saying, "Okay, lesson learned," not "Get me out at any price."

Post-liquidation behavior tells you a lot. If this were real fear, we'd still be sliding. We're not.

Bitcoin price chart from BitDegree, 12-19

Source: BitDegree

But the bigger switch today wasn't CPI - it was macro outside the US. Enter Japan.

The Bank of Japan raised rates to ~0.75%, the highest level in decades.

Now, Japan sits under a huge chunk of global liquidity trades, and when its rates move, it messes with carry trades, FX positioning, and overall risk appetite.

Translation: global markets got a reminder that central banks aren't all done tightening just because US inflation cooled.

Tweet about Japan rate hike

Source: @Barchart

Overall, yesterday was about disappointment - good news that didn't deliver immediate upside.

Today was about acceptance. The market seems to agree on one thing: CPI helps the medium-term story, not the short-term one.

It supports the idea that conditions can ease in 2025–2026, but it doesn't magically inject liquidity into December trading. Once that clicked, the emotional edge came off.

So what actually matters now?

👉 First, whether BTC keeps holding above $85K - $86K. Holding after a failed breakout is constructive;

👉 Second, watch global rates and currencies, not just US CPI. Japan reminded everyone that liquidity is a global game;

👉 And third, pay attention to how price behaves if we drift back toward $90K again. If the market moves with less hesitation next time, yesterday really was just a rehearsal.

Right now, crypto isn't euphoric. It's not scared either.

It's standing there, arms crossed, saying: "Show me."

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🗓️ Save the date

It's. About. To. Go. Down.

Season 9 is almost here. Save the date 👀

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🥝 Memecoin harvest

Even my grandma's cat is buying these today 😼

Data as of 09:35 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

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💸 SoFi launches SoFiUSD

Picture this: it's 11:47 PM, you're splitting a dinner bill, and your friend goes, "I'll just bank transfer you."

Cool. Except your bank is basically like: "Love the energy. See you on Monday."

Now imagine there's a version of a dollar that works more like sending a text: instant, always on, no 'business hours'.

That's the promise of stablecoins - and today, a big "wait… that's new" moment happened.

Shocked kid sipping a milkshake

SoFi (a fintech-ish bank app) launched its own US dollar stablecoin called SoFiUSD.

The important part: this isn't a random crypto startup doing it from a garage. It’s a major consumer finance brand with a real bank behind it releasing a stablecoin.

This is another step in stablecoins becoming less of a "crypto corner thing" and more like infrastructure - the plumbing behind payments, transfers, and settlement.

SoFi's tweet about SoFiUSD

Source: @SoFi

Now, here's the sneaky truth about money: most of it is already digital - it just moves on old highways.

When you send money with a bank transfer, there are layers:

👉 Your bank's systems;

👉 The recipient's bank systems;

👉 And a bunch of middle steps that exist because the financial world grew up in an era of offices, weekdays, and paperwork.

That's why some transfers feel instant (inside the same app) while others feel like you mailed a letter.

A stablecoin is basically an attempt to build a new highway:

👉 Same destination (dollars),

👉 Different road (blockchain),

👉 And ideally… fewer toll booths.

SoFi launching SoFiUSD matters because it's a mainstream finance company saying, "We don't just want to connect to the new highway. We want our own lane on it."

And that's a meaningful change. Because until recently, stablecoins mostly lived in crypto-native worlds: exchanges, trading, DeFi, all that stuff.

Useful, sure - but easy for normal people to ignore.

SoFi is giving a sign that stablecoins aren't just for trading. They're positioning this as something that could plug into payments, fintech apps, and maybe business money movement down the line.

If big finance keeps doing this, you may start seeing faster transfers, cheaper cross-border payments, and money that moves 24/7 - without you needing to be a crypto person at all.

For big institutions, the attraction is even simpler:

If you're moving large sums, across entities, across time zones, dealing with settlement delays and reconciliation… a system that can settle faster and more transparently starts looking like a competitive edge.

Overall, it's another sign that banks and fintechs aren't just "watching crypto" anymore; they're selectively absorbing the parts that actually work.

So let's go back to that late-night dinner bill.

The problem was never that dollars are broken. It's that the roads they travel on were built for a slower world.

SoFiUSD is one more proof that those roads are getting repaved.

Same dollar. New pavement. Fewer red lights.

And if that trend continues, the future of money won't feel revolutionary - it'll just feel… finally caught up.

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🍋 News drops you can't miss

🏦 Trump's hyping up Chris Waller for Fed chair, pointing to all the experience and teamwork they've already got. Looks like the final pick could drop any day now.

🏛️ David Sacks says the CLARITY Act, which aims to finally spell out some crypto rules, is going to the Senate in January 2026. Tim Scott and John Boozman confirmed they'll be debating and possibly tweaking it that month.

📈 Bitwise filed to launch an ETF with the SEC that'll track the spot price of SUI. If it gets approved, you can get into SUI through a legit, regulated fund.

🇪🇺 The ECB says the digital euro setup is done and dusted. Now they're just waiting on EU lawmakers to sign off before anything can actually go live.

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🍌 Juicy memes

Meme about eager anticipation for cryptocurrency profits and success.

Source: @CryptoTea_

Meme about contrasting financial success over time with personal struggles.

Source: @AltcoinGordon

Meme about the unproductive daily routine and ironic "living the dream" lifestyle.

Source: @BillyM2k

Gode S. Web3 Market Analyst
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches the most important industry events and interprets how they affect the wider Web3 space. Her formal education in media culture & digital rhetoric allows her to employ a methodical approach to evaluating critical Web3 news data, including large-scale events and the wider social sentiment within the ecosystem.
Gode is a mutilingual professional, having studied in multiple universities all across Europe. This allows her to have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to analyze Web3 social sentiments spanning different cultures and languages and, in turn, develop a much deeper understanding of how the Web3 space is growing within different communities. With the rest of her team, Gode works to identify crucial crypto news patterns and provide unbiased and data-driven information.
Gode’s passions include working and communicating with people, and when she’s not researching Web3 news, she spends her time traveling and watching true crime documentaries.

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