PA Daily Report | Bitcoin ETF Sees Net Outflows for Third Consecutive Day; Spot Silver Breaks $70 Mark for the First Time

Today's top news highlights:

Spot silver breaks through the $70 mark for the first time

CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham steps down, Michael Selig sworn in as the 16th Chair.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $142 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of outflows.

An address pledged 1.17 million SOL tokens, worth approximately $174.36 million.

BitMine increased its holdings by 98,800 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to 4,066,000 ETH.

Global listed companies made net purchases of $26.35 million in BTC last week, while Strategy did not increase its holdings.

Macro

Hong Kong police: 15 arrested in 1 billion yen cryptocurrency exchange robbery case.

According to Hong Kong media outlet Hong Kong 01, last week two Japanese company employees involved in the cryptocurrency and luxury goods business went to a cryptocurrency exchange shop in Sheung Wan to exchange 1 billion yen (approximately HK$50 million) in four suitcases for cryptocurrency and Hong Kong dollars. However, they were robbed at knifepoint. Hong Kong police disclosed that 15 people have been arrested so far, and seven of them have been charged with conspiracy to rob. The police are currently investigating the whereabouts of the money, and the investigation is ongoing. More arrests are possible.

Spot silver breaks through the $70 mark for the first time

Spot silver has broken through the $70/ounce mark, with a year-to-date increase of 142%.

ByteDance plans to invest $23 billion in artificial intelligence.

According to the Financial Times, ByteDance plans to invest $23 billion in artificial intelligence.

CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham steps down, Michael Selig sworn in as the 16th Chair.

According to an announcement on the CFTC's official website, Acting Chair Caroline D. Pham has officially stepped down, and Michael Selig has been appointed as the 16th Chair. Selig previously served on the SEC's Crypto Assets Task Force, actively promoting legislation on the structure of the digital asset market and advocating for an "end of regulation equals enforcement" approach. He stated that he will lead the CFTC in developing "common sense" rules for a new era of financial innovation in the United States, helping the US become a global center for crypto capital.

Sources say Trump may appoint a new Federal Reserve chairman in the first week of January.

According to CNBC, sources familiar with the matter said that US President Trump may appoint a new Federal Reserve chairman in the first week of January.

QuestMobile report: AI investment and financing will increase by 20.8% year-on-year in the second half of 2025, with plugins accounting for 81.5% of 205 new AI applications.

According to QuestMobile's "AI Application Interaction Innovation and Ecosystem Implementation Report for the Second Half of 2025," the AI application field showed a trend of accelerated breakthroughs in multimodal technology and ecosystem development in the second half of the year. The report pointed out that the top three AI-native apps in terms of active users were Doubao (155 million), DeepSeek (81.56 million), and Yuanbao (20.84 million). Newcomers like Ant Financial and Lingguang performed well, ranking fourth and tenth respectively on the weekly active user list. The capital market was also active; from July to November, the AI industry completed 186 investment and financing events, totaling 33.67 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%. Multimodal interaction became the industry mainstream, accounting for 73.3%, while full-modal large-scale models, although accounting for only 1.9%, were considered a key future direction. At the application level, among the 205 new AI applications, plugins accounted for 81.5%, with strong demand in vertical tracks such as AI image processing and AI professional consulting. Leading companies are actively promoting ecosystem development. For example, Tencent has achieved full-scenario matrix coverage through "Yuanbao," and Ant Group's Lingguang App has seen a sevenfold increase in daily active users, demonstrating strong performance. Furthermore, mobile phone manufacturers are using "screen-viewing + screen-tapping" GUI intelligent agent technology to drive the transformation of interaction from "App-driven" to "intelligent agent-driven," further improving user experience and task completion efficiency. The report believes that multimodal and ecosystem development will become the core drivers of future growth in AI applications.

Project Updates

The Aster human vs. AI live betting match is nearing its end, with the human team currently down 26%, while Tippy is holding the lead despite the pressure.

The "Human vs. AI" futures trading competition hosted by Aster Exchange will officially conclude tomorrow at 7:59 AM (UTC+8). According to the latest results, the human team suffered an overall loss of $182,000 (ROI -26.1%), while the AI team lost only $12,000 (ROI -4.14%), a stark contrast in performance. Data shows that human participants performed poorly overall, with 29 accounts having balances below $10, 27 below $1, and 7 accounts almost wiped out, resulting in significant drawdowns. In contrast, the worst-performing AI model still maintains $5,180 in funds, with minimal overall losses and significantly stronger risk resistance. Despite the human team's disadvantage, one participant still has a chance to win. Trader Tippy (X: @tippy_crypto) currently ranks first with a profit of $17,500 and an account balance of $27,500, making him the only player with a chance to win for humanity. Polymarket predicts that Tippy's win rate has climbed to 86%. The strongest performing AI model is Claude Sonnet 4.5 Aggressive, currently ranked 11th with a total profit of $7.7K and an account balance of $17.7K, posing no immediate threat. According to the official rules, if an AI wins the championship, the $100,000 individual champion prize will be forfeited, and the human team will not be able to share any team prize money, facing a "total elimination." The current top 3 human results are: Tippy: Profit $17.5K / Account Balance $27.5K; Xiaoxia: Profit $12.6K / Account Balance $22.6K; Romanson: Profit $12.3K / Account Balance $22.3K. The final results will be announced after post-competition review.

ZKsync will discontinue Etherscan support on January 7th and fully transition to a native block explorer.

According to an announcement from the ZKsync development team, ZKsync Era will end its support for Etherscan (data indexing service) on January 7, 2026. In the future, it will focus on supporting its native browser to better serve the protocol features of interoperability trading, Gateway settlement, and EVM compilers such as Solx.

Binance will delist FDUSD margin trading pairs such as EIGEN/FDUSD and ARB/FDUSD on December 30th.

According to a Binance announcement, the platform will delist FDUSD-denominated cross and isolated margin trading pairs, including EIGEN/FDUSD, ARB/FDUSD, and TRUMPP/FDUSD, at 14:00 (UTC+8) on December 30, 2025. Lending and borrowing functions for these isolated margin trading pairs will be suspended starting December 24. Binance officially advises users to close their positions and transfer assets to their spot accounts before delisting to avoid potential losses.

The Espresso airdrop registration portal is now live, and the official application process will begin in early 2026.

According to an announcement from the Espresso Foundation, the ESP airdrop registration portal is now open, and users can connect their wallets to check their eligibility. The official announcement warns against trusting fake websites or phishing messages, and states that the official token distribution will begin in early 2026, during which time eligibility criteria may be added; users who are not yet eligible will still have a chance to participate.

Important data

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $142 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of outflows.

According to SoSoValue data, on December 22nd (Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $142 million, marking the third consecutive day of net outflows. Bitwise BITB experienced the largest outflow, reaching $34.9573 million; BlackRock IBIT bucked the trend, recording a net inflow of $5.9981 million. Currently, the total assets of Bitcoin spot ETFs are $114.992 billion, representing 6.52% of Bitcoin's market capitalization.

An address pledged 1.17 million SOL tokens, worth approximately $174.36 million.

According to Onchain Lens, a whale/institution has staked 1,173,615 SOL tokens through Helius, worth approximately $174.36 million.

Financing/Acquisition

Google's parent company, Alphabet, acquired clean energy company Intersect for $4.75 billion.

According to Bloomberg, Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced the acquisition of clean energy developer Intersect Power for $4.75 billion in cash and debt to expand its power resources for AI data centers. This marks the first time a major tech company has directly acquired a renewable energy developer, signifying Google's accelerated efforts to build its own clean energy self-sufficiency capabilities. Intersect will operate independently with its own brand and team, and will continue to be led by CEO Sheldon Kimber.

Thiel-backed digital bank Erebor has raised $350 million, doubling its valuation to $4.35 billion.

According to Axios, Erebor, a digital bank backed by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey, has raised $350 million in funding. The round was led by Lux Capital, with participation from existing investors Founders Fund, 8VC, and Haun Ventures. Its latest valuation is $4.35 billion. Erebor positions itself as a new type of bank serving crypto and technology clients. It recently received FDIC deposit insurance approval and obtained a preliminary banking license, and is expected to officially launch in 2026.

AI video generation platform HPVideo has raised $3 million in funding, led by Helios Prime Capital.

HPVideo, a wallet-based AI video generation platform, announced the completion of a $3 million strategic funding round led by Helios Prime Capital. Based on the BNB Chain, HPVideo supports wallet login and multi-model AI video generation, emphasizing a low-cost video creation solution that requires no email registration or personal information. The funds will be used for product development, infrastructure expansion, and ecosystem building.

Coinbase will acquire prediction market startup The Clearing Company, with the transaction expected to close in January.

According to The Block, Coinbase has reached an agreement to acquire prediction market startup The Clearing Company. Coinbase stated that the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in January. The Clearing Company was founded earlier this year by Toni Gemayel, who previously served as head of growth at Polymarket and Kalshi. The startup completed a $15 million seed funding round in August, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, and aims to build an on-chain, regulated prediction market platform.

Coinbax, a programmable trust layer for stablecoin payments, has raised $4.2 million in seed funding.

According to Globenewswire, Coinbax, a programmable trust layer for stablecoin payments, has completed a $4.2 million seed funding round aimed at bringing custody, strategy execution, and programmable settlement capabilities to digital assets. The round was led by BankTech Ventures, with participation from Connecticut Innovations, Paxos, SpringTime Ventures, and companies from the banking, payments, and digital asset infrastructure sectors.

Institutional holdings

Canadian company Matador plans to raise $58 million to increase its Bitcoin holdings.

According to official news from BitcoinTreasuries, Canadian publicly traded company Matador Technologies ($MATA) announced plans to raise $58 million to further increase its Bitcoin holdings. The company aims to hold 1,000 Bitcoins by the end of 2026. Previously, Matador amended the terms of its $100 million convertible bonds, with the initial $10.5 million earmarked solely for Bitcoin purchases.

BitMine increased its holdings by 98,800 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to 4,066,000 ETH.

According to PRNewswire, BitMine added 98,852 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to over 4 million ETH. As of December 21, BitMine's total cryptocurrency, cash, and "Moonshot" holdings totaled $13.2 billion. BitMine holds 4,066,062 ETH; 193 BTC; $38 million in shares of Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS); and $1 billion in uncollateralized cash.

Global listed companies made net purchases of $26.35 million in BTC last week, while Strategy did not increase its holdings.

According to SoSoValue data, as of December 22, 2025 (Eastern Time), the total net purchase of Bitcoin by global listed companies (excluding mining companies) last week was $26.35 million. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced on December 22 that it did not add any new Bitcoin holdings last week. Japanese listed company Metaplanet did not purchase any Bitcoin last week. In addition, two other companies purchased Bitcoin last week. Japanese fashion company ANAP invested $1.74 million on December 16, acquiring 18.6424 Bitcoins at a price of $93,138.2, bringing its total holdings to 1,218.8424 Bitcoins; digital health and sales development company CIMG invested $24.61 million on December 17, acquiring 230 Bitcoins at a price of $107,000, bringing its total holdings to 730 Bitcoins. Metador Technologies, a technology company specializing in Bitcoin financial products, signed a revised secured convertible note financing agreement with ATW Partners for up to $100 million, with the first tranche of $10.5 million to be used to purchase Bitcoin. Hyperscale Data, an AI data center company, announced a plan to launch an at-the-market (ATM) common stock offering of up to $50 million, with the majority of the proceeds used to purchase Bitcoin. As of press time, the total amount of Bitcoin held by publicly traded companies worldwide (excluding mining companies) is 916,750, with a current market value of approximately $82.77 billion, representing 4.59% of Bitcoin's circulating market capitalization.

Spanish listed company Vanadi Coffee increased its holdings by 32 bitcoins, bringing its total to 161.

BitcoinTreasuries.NET tweeted that the Spanish listed company Vanadi Coffee has purchased another 32 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 161 bitcoins.