Crypto Surges Today: What’s Fueling the December 17, 2025 Rally?
Crypto markets roar back to life—green across the board as digital assets notch significant gains. What's behind the sudden momentum shift?
Institutional On-Ramps Widen
Major traditional finance players are finally building direct bridges into crypto. Forget clunky, overpriced ETFs—new regulatory clarity lets asset managers hold tokens directly on behalf of clients. It's a flood of fresh capital, bypassing the old gatekeepers entirely.
The 'FSA Effect' Takes Hold
Market sentiment got a steroid shot from forward guidance. When a major financial authority signals a pragmatic, innovation-friendly stance, traders react. It's not about today's rules, but the promise that tomorrow's won't be designed to strangle the industry—a rare bit of optimism that Wall Street analysts would probably call 'irrational exuberance.'
Technical Breakouts Trigger Algorithms
Key resistance levels shattered overnight. Once major cryptocurrencies punched through those ceilings, a cascade of automated buy orders kicked in. The machines are trading, and they don't care about Fed meetings or earnings reports—just momentum and math.
Narrative Over Numbers (For Now)
Let's be cynical for a second: the fundamentals haven't changed in the last 24 hours. This is a classic liquidity-and-narrative drive. But in crypto, perception often creates reality. The rally builds its own case, attracting more capital and validating the initial surge. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that leaves traditional portfolio managers scratching their heads—and maybe, just maybe, rushing to catch up.
Crypto Winners & Losers
At the time of writing, four of the top 10 coins per market capitalization have seen their prices decrease and four increase over the past 24 hours (not taking the stablecoins into account).
However, it’s notable that most changes are so low that the prices are practically unchanged.
is up by just 0.1% since this time yesterday, currently trading at $86,388.
is down by just 0.1%, now changing hands at $2,924.
is the only coin with a change above 1%. It’s up 1.2%, now standing at $1.9.
It’s followed by0.6% rise to the price of $0.1298.
On the other side,saw the category’s highest fall of just 0.2%, currently trading at $0.2792.
Looking at the top 100 coins, 75 coins saw increases, even if minor.
The highest among these is4.5% to $0.05944, followed byrise 4.2% to $429.
On the other hand,decreased the most: 9.2% to $0.7421.
is next, having dropped 6.2% to $246.
Delayed job and retail reports released in the US on Tuesday increased uncertainty among investors across markets. The reports showed that the US labour market continues to weaken.
Meanwhile, the Marshall Islands has launched a nationwide universal basic income (UBI) program that allows citizens to receive payments via cryptocurrency.
Every resident citizen is entitled to quarterly payments of roughly $200, or about $800 annually. The first payments were distributed in late November.
HISTORIC NEWS
We’re helping tokenize a nation.
The Marshall Islands is launching blockchain-based UBI, giving citizens dollar-denominated tokens they can receive, store, and send peer-to-peer from their phones.
Powered by Crossmint Wallets pic.twitter.com/lvAWjTI6SW
Volatility Remains High Despite Stabilised Market
According to Glassnode, risk hedging ROSE during the market plunge several weeks ago. Bitcoin’s price entered the low-$80,000 range.
“This coincided with a rise in expected price dispersion, indicating higher uncertainty,” the analysts said.
However, they found that market conditions have stabilized. Moreover, expectations for extreme moves have moderated.
Yet, “implied volatility remains elevated relative to the exceptionally low-volatility regime observed over the prior six months, suggesting a shift toward a more active volatility environment.”
Levels & Events to Watch Next
At the time of writing on Wednesday morning, BTC stood at $86,388. The day started with a low of $86,248 and climbed to $87,918, before decreasing again to the intraday low level.
It’s down 6.7% in a week, moving in the $85,704–$93,042 range. It also decreased 31.4% to $126,080.
BTC could see its price decrease to $84,000, followed by $82,300. Longer downtrend could lead to a sub-$80,000 levels. Conversely, an upward trend could see the price MOVE towards $100,000.
Ethereum is currently changing hands at $2,924. The coin has seen quite a choppy trading day, moving from the intraday low of $2,902 to the intraday high of $2,971.
The price has moved significantly into the red territory over the past week, having dropped 12%. The highest point it’s seen in this timeframe is $3,390. It’s now down 40.7% from the ATH of $4,946.
If ETH continues falling, it could pull back to the $2,800 and eventually $2,680. Should it increase, however, it WOULD go back above $3,000, and potentially towards $3,300.
Meanwhile, the crypto market sentiment saw a slight increase within the fear territory on Wednesday morning.
The crypto fear and greed index stands at 25 today, compared to 22 yesterday. It’s still moving in a very tight range.
The uncertainty among marker participants has been noticeable for over a month now. This will not change without a significant catalyst.
ETFs Posted a Red Tuesday
On Tuesday, the US BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded another day of outflows with $227.09 million. The total net inflow pulled back to $57.27 billion.
Of the twelve BTC ETFs, five saw outflows and one saw inflows.was the only green one yesterday, adding $26.72 million.
On the red site,posted $26.72 million in inflows. It’s followed by$50.93 million.
Moreover, the US ETH ETFs also recorded negative flows on Tuesday, for a fourth day in a row, with $224.26 million in outflows on 16 December – similar levels to the day prior. The total net inflow now stands at $12.64 billion.
Of the nine funds, two recorded outflows, and none saw inflows.recorded the majority of this amount: $221.31 million.
is next with $2.94 million in outflows.
Meanwhile,started trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The company’s shares rose about 6% on the opening, but it pulled back soon, falling slightly below the IPO price of HK$6.68 later in the morning.
HashKey chief Xiao Feng said growing regulation and clearer compliance frameworks make him more confident in the long term prospects of digital assets despite market volatility.
HashKey Holdings Limited is officially listed on the Main Board of HKEX!
As Asia’s first publicly listed digital asset company via an IPO in Hong Kong, this milestone marks the company's entry into a new stage of development and establishes a stronger foundation for its… pic.twitter.com/v22cmEntUX
Quick FAQ
The crypto market saw an increase over the past 24 hours, and the US stock market closed its Tuesday session with a mixed picture. By the closing time on 16 December, thewas down by 0.24%, theincreased by 0.26%, and thefell by 0.62%. Delayed job and retail reports increased uncertainty among investors.
The day’s rise is hardly a concrete change, and the market can go either way from this point. It needs a significant catalyst to push it out of the sideway trading.
You may also like: (LIVE) Crypto News Today: Latest Updates for December 17, 2025 The crypto market is up today, but the change at the time of the writing is so low that the market is unchanged. The cryptocurrency market capitalisation increased by just 0.1%. It now stands at $3.03 trillion. Also, 75 of the top 100 coins have gone up over the past 24 hours. At the same time, the total crypto trading volume is at $108 billion. Crypto Winners & Losers At the time of writing, four of the top 10 coins per market capitalization have seen their prices decrease and four...