December 18, 2025 - Crypto News
📈 Bitcoin (BTC)
Current Price: ~$89,450.20 (+2.1% in 24h)
Top News: Bitcoin has staged a relief rally, bouncing firmly off the $86,000 support level tested earlier in the week. Bloomberg reports that the recovery is driven by renewed spot buying from institutional desks following dovish comments from a Federal Reserve official regarding the 2026 interest rate outlook. The "buy the dip" mentality has returned, pushing the asset back toward the $90k resistance.
📈 Ethereum (ETH)
Current Price: ~$3,085.10 (+2.8% in 24h)
Top News: Ethereum has successfully reclaimed the psychological $3,000 level. The Defiant notes that on-chain metrics show a significant decrease in exchange balances over the last 48 hours, suggesting that whales accumulated aggressively during the dip below $3,000 on Tuesday. Network activity is also ticking up due to a surge in volume on the Arbitrum layer-2 network.
📊 Altcoin Developments
Aptos Surges on AI Integration News Aptos (APT) is the standout performer of the day, rallying over 12%. CoinDesk reports that the Aptos Foundation announced a strategic collaboration with a major tech firm to integrate decentralized AI models directly onto the blockchain, reigniting the "AI x Crypto" narrative for high-throughput chains.
DeFi Regulation Clarity in Europe While the U.S. stalls, Europe is moving forward. Decrypt reports that the European Union has released final guidance on DeFi protocols under MiCA II regulations. This clarity has boosted sentiment for EU-compliant DeFi tokens like Aave (AAVE) and Morpho, which are seeing modest gains of 4-6% today.
Meme Coins Cool Off After a speculative run earlier in the month, liquidity is rotating back into utility projects. Popular meme coins like Bonk and Pepe are trading flat or slightly down as traders shift focus to the recovering Layer-1 and AI sectors.
