Berachain Airdrops, DeFi Relief, XRP Squeeze

---

1. Infrared Finance IR Airdrop & TGE Go Live on Berachain

Infrared Finance, a core DeFi protocol on Berachain, is live today with its IR token airdrop claim and Token Generation Event. According to a detailed guide from BingX Learn, the claim portal opens around 8:00 UTC (16:00 UTC+8) on Dec 17, 2025, with the claim window running through Jan 12, 2026.

This is one of the first major airdrop/TGE events in the Berachain DeFi stack and a key test of risk appetite for the chain’s Proof‑of‑Liquidity (PoL) design.

Who’s eligible? Infrared structured distribution to favor real users over mercenary farming. Cohorts include:

• Early mainnet users who staked iBGT/iBERA or provided liquidity in designated pools and vaults.
• Participants in the now‑concluded Infrared Points program, where on‑chain activity earned points.
• Boyco pre‑deposit users and select CEX pre‑deposit participants (Bitget, Gate, KuCoin) who locked allocations ahead of TGE.
• Verified community contributors via Discord, surveys, events, and testnet engagement.

Eligible wallets can claim through the official portal or receive allocations directly on centralized exchanges that ran pre‑deposit campaigns. KuCoin, for example, has launched an Infrared listing campaign with a 210,000 IR reward pool and spot trading going live at 12:00 UTC on Dec 17.

What does IR actually do?

• Staking & governance: IR can be staked into sIR for protocol governance and to direct emissions.
• Fee value capture: Protocol fees drive buybacks and rewards that accrue to IR stakers and long‑term holders.
• Berachain PoL alignment: IR incentives are designed to steer liquidity into iBGT, iBERA, and key Berachain pools at the heart of the chain’s PoL design.

---

2. Space Prediction Market: Fully Unlocked $SPACE Sale

Solana‑based leveraged prediction market Space confirmed that its $SPACE public token sale kicks off today, Dec 17, 2025, at 18:00 UTC (02:00 Beijing time on Dec 18). The launch details were outlined in a recent write‑up on ChainCatcher.

The sale uses a fair price discovery auction where all participants pay the same clearing price, and 100% of tokens purchased are unlocked at TGE—no vesting, no cliffs.

Key sale specs

• Raise target: $2.5M.
• FDV band: $50–99M.
• Mechanics: Uniform clearing price auction; tokens fully liquid at TGE.

Space is positioning itself as a 10x leveraged prediction market on Solana, built on a central‑limit‑order‑book architecture rather than AMMs. Markets will span crypto, macro, politics, and sports. The protocol plans to route 50% of platform revenue into buyback‑and‑burn for $SPACE, tying token demand directly to trading activity.

---

---

3. XRP Leverage Flush: Derivatives Activity Collapses

XRP is going through a sharp regime change in derivatives. Data from Binance shows the Estimated Leverage Ratio dropping to 0.18 on Dec 17, 2025—the lowest since the start of XRP’s previous major rally. Price has slipped below the $2 handle, trading near $1.90–$1.95 and well off the July peak around $3.40, as highlighted in a recent analysis from FX Leaders and other market data providers.

Binance XRP futures volume has fallen by more than 90% from local highs. Open interest and perp funding have compressed, pointing to an environment where levered traders have largely de‑risked or been flushed out.

What this regime shift means

• Leverage reset: A leverage ratio near 0.18 suggests a market dominated by spot holders and low‑geared participants. The big liquidation cascades in either direction become less likely in the near term.
• Flow‑driven price action: Without heavy perp positioning, price action is more sensitive to incremental spot flows and news rather than forced derivatives flows.
• Path risk: If new spot demand fails to appear, XRP can still grind lower as liquidity thins and marginal sellers dominate. But with shorts already cleaned up, downside may be more of a slow bleed than a crash.

---

4. SEC Closes Aave Probe: Big Win for DeFi

A major regulatory cloud just lifted from DeFi. Aave announced that the U.S. SEC has formally ended its four‑year investigation into the protocol without pursuing any enforcement action. The update was detailed in a report from Coinpaper.

The inquiry reportedly focused on how Aave’s decentralized lending markets and governance token fit within existing securities frameworks. After years of document requests and engagement, SEC staff informed Aave that the investigation is closed and no charges are being brought.

Why this matters

• Tail‑risk removal for AAVE: The market had to price in the possibility of aggressive enforcement—registration demands, penalties, or worse. With that scenario now off the table, AAVE’s regulatory risk premium should compress.
• Signal for DeFi blue chips: Aave is one of the largest, most visible DeFi protocols. A no‑action outcome after a deep dive suggests that highly decentralized, governance‑token‑driven systems can withstand scrutiny, especially in a more crypto‑friendly political climate.
• Comfort for CEXs and institutions: Centralized venues listing AAVE now have more regulatory comfort, which could translate into more aggressive market‑making and higher willingness to support similar DeFi assets.

---

5. Flows, Funding & Infra: RedotPay, BTC ETFs, Mining x AI

Beyond today’s headline tokens, three structural stories are quietly shaping the next phase of the cycle: stablecoin payments rails, ETF flows, and the convergence of Bitcoin mining with AI compute.

RedotPay validates the stablecoin card thesis

• RedotPay has raised $107M in Series B funding, led by Goodwater, Pantera, Blockchain Capital, and Circle Ventures, on top of a prior $47M round.
• The company reports >6M users and $10B+ in annualized transaction volume, centered on cards and payments powered by stablecoins.
• For investors, this is strong validation of the “crypto as payments infra” thesis—even if the value accrues first to private equity and not yet to a liquid token.

Bitcoin ETFs: outflows but price resilience

• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs are logging renewed net outflows, with products run by ARK and VanEck among those seeing redemptions.
• Despite that, BTC is holding in the $86K–$88K band, signaling that non‑ETF demand (offshore desks, corporates, and on‑chain participants) is offsetting some of the selling.

Mining x AI: dual‑use data centers in emerging markets

• Early Bitcoin investor Nick Rose is pushing to expand dual‑use Bitcoin mining and AI data centers across developing markets.
• The thesis: cheap or stranded energy can power both BTC hash rate and AI compute, with flexible load balancing between the two depending on which economics are more attractive.

---

Outlook

Crypto is in a nuanced spot. Headline prices look stable, but under the hood leverage is resetting (XRP), regulatory risk is easing for some DeFi blue chips (Aave), and new on‑chain experiments are launching into a more selective liquidity environment (Infrared, Space).

Over the next few weeks, watch three things:

• Berachain & Solana risk appetite: IR and $SPACE will give clean signals on how much speculative capital is willing to chase new narratives at current valuations.
• Regulation vs. decentralization: If Aave’s outcome is a template rather than an exception, DeFi blue chips with strong decentralization could see a structural re‑rating.
• Real‑world infra demand: Stablecoin payments growth and mining‑for‑AI initiatives hint that the next leg of adoption may be infra‑driven rather than meme‑driven.

For now, the regime favors disciplined position sizing, close attention to flow data (ETFs, CEX campaigns, on‑chain liquidity), and selective exposure to projects where token mechanics are clearly tied to real usage and cash flows.

---