Gate Research Institute: Bitcoin to Face Largest Options Expiration Day | NVIDIA Acquires AI Chip Startup Groq

Cryptocurrency Asset Overview

###BTC (+0.23% | Current Price 87,719 USDT) Bitcoin’s short-term trend remains bearish, with prices continuously oscillating below key resistance zones, and overall volatility has contracted. The current significant support level is around $84,000, while resistance is concentrated near $93,400. On the 4-hour chart, as long as the price remains below the descending trendline, any upward attempts are more likely to be seen as technical rebounds rather than trend reversals. Only a sustained close above $90,000 can effectively disrupt the existing bearish structure and open space for a broader rebound. From the daily chart perspective, Bitcoin has gradually exited the medium- to long-term downtrend channel in December, with the downward slope clearly slowing, indicating diminishing selling pressure and a possible transition into a consolidation phase characterized mainly by range-bound oscillations. Currently, the market is operating between the resistance of the downtrend and strong support zones. To reverse market momentum and reshape bullish expectations, Bitcoin needs to close above the descending trendline, specifically above the $93,000 level.

###ETH (-0.56% | Current Price 2,948.56 USDT) Ethereum is still operating within a downtrend channel. In the short term, overall trading volume continues to shrink, Bollinger Bands are narrowing significantly, and MA5, MA10, and MA30 are showing clear convergence, indicating a lack of directional bias in the moving averages and a phase of converging volatility. From the 4-hour chart, ETH failed to hold the lower trendline and broke below the previous ascending channel, signaling a technical weakening. After a failed rebound near $3,100, the price further hit new lows for the phase, showing that bullish momentum is waning. Currently, the price hovers above the $2,800 support level, which provides short-term support but lacks signs of sustained buying or active capital entering. Meanwhile, RSI has started to decline, indicating ongoing weakening of intraday trading momentum. If the $2,800 support fails, the price may quickly drop toward the $2,600 range.

###GT (+0.58% | Current Price 10.25 USDT) GT has recently remained in a consolidation phase. After a short-term volume decline, the price rebounded with reduced volume around $10. MACD shifted from a death cross to a golden cross, and the price briefly broke above the upper Bollinger Band (around $10.3) before pulling back slightly. From the daily chart, GT is attempting to establish support near the $10 key level, but current buying strength remains weak, insufficient to confirm a trend reversal. Since late November, GT’s volatility has remained low, with significantly reduced trading volume. Until volume increases notably and the price stabilizes above key moving averages, it is more likely to continue oscillating within a low range in the short term.

Daily Gainers and Losers Tokens

In the past 24 hours, the Fear and Greed Index stands at 28, and the Altcoin Season Index is at 17, indicating that risk appetite remains low. The market shows clear differentiation: BTC has slight gains, ETH has slight declines, reflecting that mainstream capital remains cautious and defensive, with no clear directional choice. Major altcoins like SOL and XRP have also declined slightly, with a slightly higher proportion of red in the market, indicating continued caution and no significant capital flow into high-volatility assets. The market remains predominantly in a consolidation phase. Despite overall pressure, a few tokens are defying the trend and strengthening, highlighting specific sectors of interest. These will be analyzed individually below. ###ZBT ZEROBASE (+35.50%, Market Cap $22,532,400) According to Gate data, ZBT is currently priced at $0.10476, up 35.50% in 24 hours. ZEROBASE is a decentralized infrastructure network for crypto, utilizing zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) and trusted execution environments (TEE) to enable verifiable off-chain computations. It supports products like zkStaking, zkLogin, and ProofYield, connecting institutional DeFi, user privacy, and real-world asset strategies. ZEROBASE offers programmable, compliant staking and transparent cryptographic security without leaking sensitive data.

The recent rebound of ZBT mainly reflects strategic technological upgrades by ZEROBASE. On December 8, ZEROBASE deployed geographically distributed hub nodes in Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, and Virginia, increasing network throughput to over 7,000 TPS, supporting high-concurrency applications like ZK Staking and verifiable on-chain vaults. This upgrade alleviates scalability bottlenecks and significantly enhances ZEROBASE’s competitiveness in privacy-focused DeFi. Meanwhile, the team actively participated in the Blockchain Week and Abu Dhabi BNB Chain Hackathon from December 3–6, continuously strengthening ecosystem exposure and developer engagement, signaling strong long-term development intentions.

###BEEFI Beefy.Finance (+31.72%, Market Cap $12,072,800) According to Gate data, BEEFI is currently priced at $152.18, up 31.72% in 24 hours. Beefy is a “custodial-like” liquidity mining platform that supports efficient backend operation without affecting users’ daily activities. It provides yield strategies for users with limited time and effort, allowing continuous digital token circulation with simple operations.

BEEFI’s rise is mainly driven by technical momentum. The price successfully broke above the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA, around $156.9), with trading volume increasing to about three times the previous level, indicating a clear bullish shift. RSI (7) rose to 80.39, and MACD histogram formed a bullish crossover (+3.11), showing strong short-term momentum. However, it also suggests the asset is entering overbought territory, so caution is advised for potential pullbacks.

###BANANA Banana Gun (+29.46%, Market Cap $31,256,500) According to Gate data, BANANA is currently trading at $7.79, up 29.46% in 24 hours. Banana Gun is a Telegram trading bot that allows users to buy and sniper new tokens on networks like Ethereum. It features rapid deployment, a simple and intuitive user interface, and an incentive fee mechanism to help users seize opportunities and prioritize transactions during new token launches.

On December 18, Banana Gun announced that Banana Pro now officially supports the Base chain, marking a significant expansion from Solana ecosystem into the EVM-compatible system. This upgrade includes core features like Swap, limit orders, DCA, and wallet tracking on the Base chain, as well as a unified trading interface and asset view for Solana and Base. This significantly improves cross-chain trading efficiency and user experience. The announcement signals Banana Gun’s accelerated EVM ecosystem expansion and potential user and trading scene growth, serving as a key catalyst for recent BANANA token appreciation.

Hot Topics

###Bitcoin will face the largest options expiry in history this Friday, potentially pushing prices higher On December 26 (this Friday), options with a notional value of about $23.4 billion will expire, setting a record for the largest options expiry in Bitcoin history. Market analysis suggests that the overall expiry structure is tilted bullishly, with the maximum pain point near $95,000, which could exert upward pressure on the price in the short term.

When open interest is highly concentrated at specific strike prices, market makers often hedge delta risk by trading spot or perpetual contracts, which can temporarily influence the spot price. The maximum pain point, as the price where option sellers maximize profits, is often considered an important reference point, and markets sometimes tend to converge toward this level. However, caution should be exercised to avoid over-simplifying this correlation as causation; expiry is more about liquidity release and risk rebalancing rather than a primary driver of medium- to long-term trends. The medium- and long-term direction of Bitcoin still depends mainly on macroeconomic factors, monetary policy expectations, institutional capital flows, Bitcoin’s adoption cycle, and on-chain fundamentals.

###NVIDIA is acquiring AI chip startup Groq for approximately $20 billion in cash, its largest acquisition On December 25, Disruptive CEO Davis, who led Groq’s latest funding round, disclosed that NVIDIA has agreed to acquire Groq for $20 billion in cash. If finalized, this will be NVIDIA’s largest acquisition ever, surpassing its 2019 purchase of Israeli chipmaker Mellanox for nearly $7 billion.

Technically, Groq’s core advantage lies in its high-performance AI inference acceleration architecture, which demonstrates extremely low latency and high throughput in large language model inference scenarios, highly complementary to NVIDIA’s current AI training-focused GPU business. This acquisition is expected to enable NVIDIA to integrate the full technical chain from model training to inference deployment, further consolidating its leadership in AI infrastructure. Industry-wise, demand for AI inference chips is rapidly growing, especially with the deployment of edge computing, real-time AI, and enterprise inference applications. Groq’s architecture could help NVIDIA capture new growth markets. This deal not only strengthens NVIDIA’s technological moat amid the AI boom but also signals a shift in industry focus from “training” to “inference,” likely intensifying competition. ###Maple Finance has issued its largest single loan ever, with outstanding loans reaching a new high On December 25, Relayer Capital founder Austin Barack announced that Maple Finance completed its largest single loan to date, totaling $500 million, with the platform’s outstanding borrowings also hitting a record high, marking a significant milestone for institutional growth in DeFi. Relayer Capital regards Maple’s native token SYRUP as its most confident core holding.

This milestone reflects the maturity of the institutional DeFi lending market in terms of scale and risk management, and also indicates that the narrative of real-world assets (RWA) is moving from concept to practical implementation. Since 2025, several major exchanges have listed SYRUP, further demonstrating mainstream recognition of Maple’s business model and long-term value. Relayer Capital’s heavy allocation confirms its confidence in Maple’s sustainable growth from a professional investor perspective. From an industry cycle standpoint, this progress shows DeFi is accelerating its shift from retail-driven to institution-driven, evolving from a highly volatile speculative tool into a foundational infrastructure with real financial functions.

References:

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• CoinGecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/cryptocurrency-heatmap
• Deribit, https://www.deribit.com/statistics/BTC/metrics/options
• X, https://x.com/AustinBarack/status/2003902632973275405?s=20
• CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html

Gate Research is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform providing in-depth content including technical analysis, market insights, industry research, trend forecasting, and macroeconomic policy analysis.

Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the assets and products involved before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages resulting from such decisions.