HELLO January 2026!
It's the 1st day of the month and that means it's HIVE Power Up Day again! 🎉🚀 Just like that, ALL TWELVE MONTHS of the year of 2025 has gone past us already! 😱⌛️
December was mostly a chill-to-down month for crypto prices, sentiment and trading activity. The month opened with a brutal sell-off as Bitcoin plunged towards $85K on December 1, wiping a huge chunk off the market cap in a single day and sending fear indexes into “Extreme Fear” territory. Total crypto market capitalization briefly dipped under roughly $3 trillion, a level not seen in months, and liquidations piled up across BTC, ETH and mid-cap alts.
Over the course of the month, many major tokens lingered in bearish to sideways territory:
Spot ETF dynamics were interesting: after weeks of outflows, BTC, ETH and even XRP ETFs saw renewed inflows late in December, signalling a bit of institutional appetite returning as traders looked to position ahead of 2026. So perhaps things might be looking up again? (i hope?) 😅
What about our very own HIVE? HIVE itself had a quiet but pressured December. Price action for the token stayed soft as broader crypto risk-off flows dominated: traders were selling or sitting on stablecoins rather than chasing smaller tokens, so HIVE struggled to find demand even when majors offered mild rebounds. There weren’t any major HIVE-specific catalysts in December (no headline upgrades or ecosystem booms), so most of the price movement was simply tethered to market mood — weak and sideways. Based purely on price data, HIVE underperformed or tracked below the larger market’s already-muted moves.
Regardless, I still remain bullish on the long term future of BTC and HIVE. Is this the last opportunity to accumulate more at current prices before it moons beyond no return? Who knows? I believe in the long term and will stick to my regular DCA regardless. 😜📈🚀
Another month in this year has gone by in a flash! I've joined HIVE since November 2021 and I'm still learning so many new things everyday! I first heard of Hive Power Up Day in January 2022 and all its other acronyms (PUD, PUM, PUH 😂 what a mouthful) and I've participated in HPUD every month since then!
Ever since I started with the HPUM initiative in 2022, I've tried my best to faithfully make one blog post everyday in an attempt to get the Hive Power Up Month badge. I've managed to make it successfully for 9 out of 12 months in 2022, and then improved on it in 2023 with 10 out of 12 months! 2024 saw a similar 10/12 but I managed to improve it to an almost perfect 11/12 in 2025! (Yikes! So near yet so far 😂) I will be attempting to get as many as I can again (perhaps a perfect score?) in 2026! 🥳💯
Another successful month of making at least ONE post a day with 100% to HIVE powered up (or powering up 1 HIVE). 🥳
This makes it 11 months (thus far) where I managed this achievement IN THIS PREVIOUS year of 2025.
Blogging regularly and having the HPUM to incentivize me has other tangible benefits too! I've seen my Hive Power grow quite a fair bit. This seems like a good practice which I intend to continue keeping up with!
In my VERY FIRST month before before I ever heard about Hive Power Up Day/Month, I was at just 47 HP 😭 (Before Jan 1st 2022).
This month, before I've even powered up anything at all, I'm already at 20,343.919 HP! 🎉🎉🎉
That's how consistent blogging on HIVE, with (mostly) 100% allocated to Hive Power, improved my HIVE account!
And NOW... AND its POWERUP time! ⚡️💪 (1st JANUARY 2026)
Once again, I only have enough HIVE set aside for a 10HP powerup, but I'm sure with my continued efforts to blog with 100% powered up to HIVE, I will be able to grow my Hive Power even more!
Using https://hivestats.io/, I was able to pull out a chart showing my daily account growth for the past month too. Great to see that orange graph head upwards continually 📈😄! If only my stocks portfolio and the price of HIVE looked like that too 😂🤑.
💰💰💰💸💸💸🤑🤑🤑📈📈📈
As always, I usually make just the minimum powerup of 10 HIVE. This is because there are so many projects that I'm now invested in. The HIVE ecosystem is so much bigger than what I had thought it was when I first joined. I believe my constant allocation of most of my daily posts being 100% powered up is sufficient to grow my Hive Power daily. The rest of any funds from HIVE will usually be kept for other projects that are of interest to me (on HIVE of course 😁).
As always, I'll like to explain that the reason why I do not powerup every single bit of HIVE/HBD I get every month from my blogging is because I like to keep some liquidity around to invest in HIVE projects that I feel have some potential.
It is no secret by now that quite a bit of my extra funds lying around HIVE has been channelled into the Wrestling Organization Online aka WOO project! 🤑
After months of talking about WOO during my HPUD posts, I am glad to say that WOO has FINALLY launched the game proper! All players can use their WOO assets, play the game, and earn $WOO tokens. The game has not yet exploded in terms of player numbers since it is so new, but there are already launch campaigns to give it the boost it needs!
December in WOO was a month built around contrast. On one hand, there were several quieter weekends where the Discord felt slower and less crowded. Those pauses were usually tied to bigger things happening behind the scenes, like events wrapping up, new ones being prepared, or the team focusing on longer-running activities. The calm periods did not feel empty. They felt intentional, giving players time to recover, plan, and settle into ongoing events without the pressure of constant announcements.
At the same time, December carried a strong sense of momentum. Christmas Clash became the clear centrepiece, drawing attention back to gameplay, preparation, and long-term strategy rather than short bursts of hype. There was also a noticeable tone of anticipation, with hints of upcoming updates and future plans floating around the community. Taken together, the posts from December painted WOO as active and alive, even when things were quiet. It was a month about pacing, balance, and setting the stage for what comes next rather than trying to be loud every single weekend.
I'll see you all again during the next Power Up Day next month with another update! Till then, See you and WAGMI! 💎🙌🏻🦍💪🏻
