Bitcoin Supply Stress Resurfaces As 25% Goes Underwater

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🟧 Bitcoin’s underwater supply climbs past 25 percent

• 🧩 Ethereum finalizes the Fusaka upgrade

• 📱 Polymarket begins rolling out its U.S. app

• 📡 Solana Mobile plans January launch of SKR token

• 🎧 Class actions pose rising risks for crypto in the latest DEX in the City episode

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25% of Bitcoin Supply Is Underwater: Glassnode

Onchain analytics firm Glassnode suggested that current bitcoin market structure bears uncharacteristic similarities to the Q1 2022 setup – a time that defined the early phase of a crypto winter.

Glassnode noted that over 25% of bitcoin’s supply is “underwater” or unprofitable, while demand is weakening across ETFs, spot, and futures.

“Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin has dropped toward and found support near a critical valuation anchor known as the True Market Mean — the cost basis of all non-dormant coins, excluding miners,” said Glassnode.

“This level often marks the dividing line between a mild bearish phase and a deep bear market.”

The timing of the research report coincided with bitcoin reclaiming the $93,400 mark, recovering from a large-scale selloff earlier in the week. 

But according to Glassnode, bitcoin holding within the $96,000 to $106,000 range will be critical for stabilizing market structure and reducing downside vulnerability into year-end.

📺️ We’ve got 3 shows for you today on Unchained On Air, hosted by Executive Editor Steve Ehrlich 📺️

📊 At 12pm ET: Steve gets into crypto stocks with Clear Street’s Owen Lau.

⚔️Then, it’s an MSTR bull-bear showdown between Benchmark’s Mark Palmer and Praxos Capital’s Vinny Lingham.

🤑 At 1:30pm ET, Steve dives into the HYPE digital asset treasury company with former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond and Atlas Merchant Capital’s David Schamis.

Tune in live! 👉️ YouTube, X, PumpFun, or Twitch

Fusaka Goes Live on Ethereum Mainnet

Ethereum's Fusaka upgrade, which was finalized on mainnet late Wednesday, marks the start of Ethereum’s new twice-a-year hard fork schedule.

Fusaka is designed to significantly enhance Ethereum's scalability and efficiency by introducing PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) and increasing blob capacity for layer 2 rollups.

It boosts the number of blobs per block gradually in two subsequent "Blob Parameter Only" (BPO) forks. The first BPO fork will take place around Dec. 17, increasing blobs from 6/9 to 10/15 per block. The second BPO fork on Jan. 7 will raise it further to 14/21 blobs per block.

“Sharding has been a dream for Ethereum since 2015, and data availability sampling since 2017…and now we have it,” said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on X.

Ethereum Core Developer Preston Van Loon joined Protocol Watch founder Christine D. Kim to unpack what Fusaka means for users and projects. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Polymarket Opens US App to Waitlisted Users

Prediction markets platform Polymarket launched its U.S.-specific iOS app on Wednesday, initially for waitlisted users following an approval order from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

“Against all odds. Polymarket’s U.S app is now being rolled out to those on the waitlist. We’re launching with sports — followed by markets on everything,” said the Polymarket team in a post on X.

It marks Polymarket’s regulated return after a 2022 ban for operating an unregistered derivatives exchange, which included a $1.4 million settlement.

The re-launch comes shortly after Polymarket-rival Kalshi announced an exclusive partnership with CNN and doubled its valuation after a $1 billion funding round.

The two platforms are closely matched in trading volume: Polymarket handled $18.5 billion over the past year, while Kalshi came in at $16.4 billion.

Meanwhile, the state of Connecticut ordered Robinhood, Kalshi, and Crypto.com to stop offering event-based contracts it considers unlicensed sports betting, sparking a jurisdiction fight as the platforms insist their prediction markets fall under federal—not state—oversight.

Solana Mobile Plans SKR Launch in January

Web3 smartphone developer Solana Mobile plans to launch a native utility token for the Seeker ecosystem early next year.

“SKR is coming in January 2026,” said Solana Mobile team in an X post, referring to the token’s launch.

Early on, SKR will enable staking to Guardians, decentralized entities that verify device integrity, enforce community standards, and maintain an audit trail on the Solana blockchain.

“As the ecosystem scales, SKR ensures its value flows back to the community that powers it,” said the Solana Mobile team.

The token features a 10 billion total supply with a linear inflation model to reward early adopters.

Tokenomics documentation states that 30% of SKR tokens will be unlocked at launch and distributed via airdrops.

DEX in the City: Class Actions in Crypto Are on the Rise. Are They More Dangerous Than SEC Enforcement?

The DEX in the City crew explores the rise of class action lawsuits against crypto companies, the crypto crackdown in China and the CME outage.

Class action lawsuits targeting crypto firms are on the rise. While observers often brush off the cases as opportunistic, they may be more of an existential threat than many think.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks of Ribbit Capital, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos of StarkWare, and Vy Le of Veda unpack what class action suits are and why they may be more of a threat to crypto than enforcement actions.

Katherine breaks down the derivative case against Coinbase while Jessi explains why Binance has “bad facts” in the Hamas case. Meanwhile, Vy explains why the tussle over prediction markets like Kalshi by state gambling regulators could make it to the Supreme Court.

Plus, China’s crypto crackdown and the CME’s outage.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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• 🌀 Citadel Securities urged U.S. regulators to treat decentralized finance tools the same as traditional trading venues, arguing that DeFi algorithms and wallet-based apps often function like exchanges or brokers, a stance that sparked backlash from crypto leaders who said Citadel’s push would wrongly regulate open-source software as if it were Wall Street infrastructure.

• ⚠️ The SEC warned nine issuers—including firms already running turbocharged crypto funds—that it would pause reviewing any ETF applications offering more than double leverage, saying these ultra-amplified products risk magnifying losses just as rapidly as gains at a moment when dozens of new crypto and tech ETFs are trying to capitalize on the huge inflows into spot bitcoin and ethereum funds.

• 🧒 Binance introduced Binance Junior, a parent-supervised crypto app for kids aged 6 to 17, requiring parents to be fully verified Binance users with two-factor security before opening a controlled sub-account.

• 🔗 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that several large U.S. banks are quietly testing stablecoin payments, crypto custody, and digital-asset trading with Coinbase, adding at the DealBook Summit that trillions already sitting in digital wallets could move far more efficiently if more traditional assets were tokenized.

• 🚓 Malaysian authorities intensified their crackdown on illegal Bitcoin miners who allegedly stole about $1 billion worth of electricity over five years, using drones, heat scans, and citizen tips to hunt down mobile mining setups hidden in empty shops and abandoned houses.

• 🧑‍⚖️🪙 The U.K. formally recognized crypto and NFTs as a new class of property after a landmark law received Royal Assent, giving users clearer ownership rights and stronger protections in cases of theft, fraud, or bankruptcy.

• 🌍 Ostium, a decentralized trading platform built on Arbitrum, raised $24 million to expand its perpetual markets for real-world assets like stocks and commodities, after processing $25 billion in volume and pitching itself as a transparent alternative to traditional brokers.

• 🚗 ETHZilla bought a 20% stake in AI-driven auto-lending firm Karus for $10 million in a deal aimed at turning U.S. car loans into blockchain-based investment products by early 2026, while gaining access to Karus’s massive network of 20,000 dealerships and lenders.

1. The So-Called “Debasement Trade” by Lyn Alden

2. Steakhouse Financial: DeFi Markets Update 2025-12-02

3. Bloomberg: The Youngsters Chasing Riches in the New Gaming Markets