World Liberty Proposes Using 5% of Treasury to Boost Its Stablecoin
World Liberty Financial, a Trump‑linked firm, has proposed using 5 % of its WLFI token treasury—about $120 million—to increase the supply of its USD1 stablecoin. The move aims to boost adoption across high‑profile CeFi and DeFi partnerships and generate more value capture for WLFI holders. USD1 currently holds a $2.74 billion market cap, ranking seventh among USD‑pegged stablecoins, while competitors like PYUSD sit ahead by $1.1 billion. The governance vote is live, with early results showing slight opposition.
Ethereum Could Get Faster in January with Gas Limit Rise to 80M
Ethereum developers plan to raise the network’s gas limit from 60 million to 80 million after the Jan. 7 BPO hard fork, aiming to boost transaction throughput. The increase follows a series of prior hikes that have taken the limit from 30 million in...
CFTC's Acting Chief Pham Poised to Go to Crypto Firm MoonPay Once Mike Selig Lands
Caroline Pham, the acting chief of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will leave her regulator role once Mike Selig is confirmed as the new CFTC chair. She is set to become MoonPay’s chief legal and administrative officer, overseeing the...
Jito Foundation to Return to US Amid 'Clearer Rules' For Digital Assets
The Jito Foundation announced it will move its operations back to the United States, citing a clearer regulatory landscape for digital assets. The nonprofit, which builds maximal extractable value (MEV) infrastructure on Solana, had been forced offshore during the SEC’s...
Digital Wealth Partners Introduces Algorithmic XRP Trading for Qualified Retirement Accounts
Digital Wealth Partners, an RIA backed by Ascension Group, has introduced an algorithmic XRP trading solution for qualified retirement accounts such as IRAs. Developed with Arch Public, the strategy runs in a separately managed account structure, with assets held in...
Acting CFTC Chair to Join MoonPay After Leaving Agency
Caroline Pham, the acting chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced she will leave the regulator to become MoonPay’s chief legal and administrative officer. Pham, who took the acting role in January, oversaw a modest enforcement record of...
Ex-Alameda CEO Won’t Be Spending the Holidays in Federal Prison
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was moved from Danbury federal prison to a Residential Reentry Management office in New York City, marking her first housing change since November 2024. She is serving a two‑year sentence for her role in...
Brazilian Stock Exchange B3 to Launch Its Own Tokenization Platform and Stablecoin
Brazil's primary stock exchange B3 announced plans to launch a tokenization platform and a real‑pegged stablecoin in 2026. The platform will enable tokenized assets to trade alongside traditional securities, using a shared liquidity pool that masks the origin of the...
Legacy Yearn Vault Exploited in Second Attack on the Protocol This Month
Yearn Finance suffered a second exploit this month, this time targeting a legacy iEarn TUSD vault and resulting in a loss of roughly $300,000. The attacker used a flash‑loan attack to manipulate the share price and swapped the stolen assets...
Binance Mulls New US Strategy, CZ Potentially Reducing Stake: Report
Binance is weighing a strategic overhaul to re‑enter the United States, which may involve reducing co‑founder Changpeng Zhao’s controlling stake. The exchange is exploring partnerships with firms such as BlackRock and the decentralized platform WLFI to navigate regulatory hurdles. A...
Aptos Drops 5% to $1.50 as Volume Spikes Above Monthly Average
Aptos (APT) slipped 5% in the last 24 hours, settling around $1.50 after a brief rally to $1.64. Trading volume surged, reaching 23% above the 30‑day moving average and 258% above the 24‑hour average during the price rejection. The technical...
Silvergate Bank Lawsuit Calls for FTX, Alameda Clients to Weigh in on $10M Settlement
A California class‑action lawsuit seeks to distribute a $10 million settlement to Silvergate Bank claimants linked to FTX or Alameda Research. More than 46,000 investors who deposited fiat into FTX‑related accounts between 2019 and 2022 can file claims before the Jan 30...
BNB Drops Nearly 3% to as Bitcoin Whipsaw and Tech Selloff Hit Crypto Market
BNB slipped nearly 3% to about $844 after a sharp reversal in Bitcoin and a broader tech‑stock selloff. The token briefly rallied to $872 but lost momentum as sellers triggered stop‑losses, breaking the $855‑$857 consolidation zone. Bitcoin’s volatility surged past...
Russia’s Biggest Bank Sberbank Pilots ‘DeFi Tools’ for TradFi Convergence
Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has begun piloting a range of decentralized‑finance (DeFi) tools despite being under U.S. and EU sanctions. The bank’s deputy chairman, Anatoly Popov, said any meaningful integration will depend on a clear regulatory framework, especially around taxation,...
Crypto Stocks Pare Gains as Bitcoin Retreats From $90,000 Rally
Crypto‑linked equities retreated after Bitcoin slipped from a brief surge above $90,000 to around $86,500, a 3.9% drop in an hour. The decline pulled miners such as MARA Holdings and Core Scientific down 4.8% and 6% respectively, while other crypto...
Robinhood Looks Better Placed than Coinbase for Prediction-Market Upside, Mizuho Says
Robinhood is positioned to capture more revenue from prediction markets than Coinbase, according to a Mizuho survey. The study found Robinhood users intend to fund these trades with fresh capital, while Coinbase users are more likely to sell existing crypto...
Macquarie Sees U.S. Senate Near Crypto Deal as Market Structure, GENIUS Rules Advance
Macquarie predicts the U.S. Senate will near a crypto regulatory deal by early 2026, driven by bipartisan market‑structure negotiations and parallel GENIUS Act rulemaking. The Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft would expand CFTC authority, while the Banking Committee’s Responsible Financial Innovation...
Kyrgyzstan’s USDKG Shows How Real-Asset Stablecoins Are Evolving in Emerging Markets
Kyrgyzstan has introduced USDKG, a USD‑pegged stablecoin backed by physical gold rather than cash or Treasury securities. The token debuted on the Tron blockchain with an initial issuance of 50 million units and plans to expand to Ethereum. Its hybrid model...
Hut 8 and Coinbase Outperform as Crypto Stocks Jump on Bitcoin's Sudden Rally
Bitcoin surged past $90,000, igniting a broad rally across crypto‑linked equities. Hut 8 led the pack, jumping 14.4% after announcing a $7 billion, 15‑year lease with AI‑infrastructure firm Fluidstack, while CleanSpark and Riot also posted gains. Coinbase rose 2.27% as it prepared...
Most Influential: Vlad Tenev
Robinhood, under CEO Vlad Tenev, completed a $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, securing more than 50 global crypto licenses. The deal accelerates Robinhood’s push into institutional trading and tokenized assets. The platform also launched staking for ether and solana, added XRP,...
Most Influential: Jeremy Allaire
Jeremy Allaire spent 2025 turning his vision of dollar‑backed digital money into concrete policy and product milestones. He championed the GENIUS Act, which created the first federal licensing framework for stablecoins, and secured its passage into law. Circle applied for...
The Deepfake Reckoning: Why Crypto’s Next Security Battle Will Be Against Synthetic Humans
Generative AI has turned deepfakes into a mainstream fraud weapon, with synthetic media rising 550 % from 2019 to 2024. Crypto platforms, buoyed by regulatory clarity and growing adoption, still rely on static KYC checks that cannot stop AI‑generated video IDs...
Hut 8 Stock Surges 20% on Fluidstack AI Data Center Deal
Hut 8 shares surged 20% after announcing a 15‑year, $7 billion lease with Fluidstack for 245 MW of AI‑focused data‑center capacity at its River Bend campus in Louisiana. Google is providing a financial backstop, lowering counterparty risk, while the agreement grants Fluidstack a right...
Don't Call It QE — the Fed's $40 Billion of Bill Purchases May Not Shake Crypto Out of Its Slump
The Federal Reserve announced a $40 billion monthly purchase of short‑term Treasury bills, branding the program as Reserve Management Operations rather than quantitative easing. The move is designed to replenish bank reserves and stabilize money‑market rates ahead of the April tax‑payment...
Uniform Labs’ Multiliquid Targets Structural Gap in $35 Billion Tokenized Asset Market
Uniform Labs has launched Multiliquid, an institutional liquidity protocol that enables instant, 24/7 swaps between tokenized money‑market funds and major stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. The platform integrates with tokenized Treasury products from firms like Wellington Management, aiming to...
Former SEC Counsel Explains What It Takes to Make RWAs Compliant
Former SEC counsel Ashley Ebersole says the SEC’s evolving stance is unlocking compliant real‑world asset (RWA) tokenization, after years of enforcement‑first policy. He highlights a model where tokenized equities are backed by shares held by regulated clearing brokers, granting full...
Washington Has Started the Clock on Bank-Issued Crypto Dollars, and the Timeline Contains a 2026 Bitcoin Surprise
Washington’s FDIC has launched rulemaking under the GENIUS Act, setting a roadmap for bank‑issued stablecoins that could materialize by late 2026. At the same time, Vanguard reversed its crypto ban, granting roughly 50 million clients access to spot Bitcoin ETFs, while...
Binance Alleges Fake Listing Agents, Offers up to $5M Whistleblower Reward
Binance warned users that third‑party "listing agents" are fraudulent and outlined a direct token‑listing process. The exchange publicly identified seven fake agents and urged projects to apply through official forms. To combat the scheme, Binance announced a whistleblower bounty of...
Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 Lands $7B Google-Backed AI Data Center Lease
Hut 8, a Bitcoin mining firm, signed a 15‑year lease valued at $7 billion to deliver 245 MW of AI data‑center capacity at its River Bend campus in Louisiana. The agreement pairs infrastructure provider Fluidstack with Google, which will act as a financial backstop...
Wall Street Giant DTCC Picks Privacy Focused Blockchain Canton Network for Tokenization
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has selected Digital Asset’s privacy‑focused Canton Network to tokenize a subset of U.S. Treasury securities held at its DTC clearinghouse. The initiative follows a recent SEC No‑Action Letter that clears the path for...
Moon Pursuit Capital Launches $100 Million Market-Neutral Crypto Fund
Moon Pursuit Capital announced a $100 million market‑neutral crypto fund that uses algorithmic trading to generate risk‑adjusted returns across digital‑asset cycles. The strategy stays neutral on market direction, supplementing its core engine with bitcoin accumulation at perceived cycle lows and short‑term...
Securitize to Offer First Fully Onchain Trading for Real Public Stocks in Early 2026
Securitize announced it will launch the first fully compliant on‑chain trading platform for actual public stocks in early 2026. The system issues tokenized shares directly on the issuer’s cap table, granting holders legal ownership, dividends, and voting rights. Trades will...
Solana Tests Quantum-Resistant Transactions in New Project Eleven Pilot
Solana announced a partnership with post‑quantum security firm Project Eleven to pilot quantum‑resistant transactions on a dedicated testnet. The collaboration delivered a functional testnet employing post‑quantum digital signatures, demonstrating that end‑to‑end quantum‑resistant transactions can be both practical and scalable. The...
CAR’s Crypto Push Fueled ‘State Capture’ by Elites, Criminal Networks: Report
An investigative report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime says the Central African Republic’s cryptocurrency push deepened elite control and opened channels for foreign criminal networks. The country’s brief experiment with Bitcoin as legal tender was reversed after...
Ripple’s Asia Venture Looks to Make XRP a Yield-Bearing Asset
SBI Ripple Asia has signed a memorandum of understanding with Doppler Finance to develop XRP‑based yield products and tokenized real‑world assets on the XRP Ledger. The deal appoints Singapore‑regulated SBI Digital Markets as the institutional custodian, ensuring segregated custody for...
How China’s Strengthening Yuan Could Support Bitcoin Prices
The Chinese yuan rose to 7.043 per dollar, its strongest level since early October, marking a 1% gain this quarter and a 4% rise from its April low. Analysts argue that a firmer yuan could give Beijing room to roll...
Polymarket Shows Stronger Retention than Most DeFi, Wallets and Exchanges
Polymarket’s user‑retention metrics, analyzed by Dune and Keyrock, beat more than 85% of the 275 crypto projects surveyed, highlighting its outperformance in a sector where sustained engagement is rare. The study tracked monthly cohorts and found that Polymarket’s cohort retention...
Bitcoin Institutional Buys Flip New Supply for the First Time in 6 Weeks
Institutions are now buying more Bitcoin than miners are creating, flipping the daily supply balance for the first time since early November. Capriole Investments reports institutional demand is 13% higher than the newly mined BTC on a rolling daily basis....
KuCoin Taps Tomorrowland Festivals as MiCA-Era On-Ramp for European Fans
KuCoin has signed an exclusive multi‑year deal with Tomorrowland Winter and Tomorrowland Belgium to become the festivals’ sole crypto and payments partner from 2026 through 2028. The agreement follows KuCoin’s recent acquisition of a Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) service‑provider license...
Hyperliquid Governance Vote Aims to Permanently Sideline $1B Assistance Fund
The Hyper Foundation has put forward a validator vote to officially deem the HYPE tokens held in the Assistance Fund as permanently inaccessible, effectively treating them as burned. The fund, which automatically converts trading fees into HYPE, contains roughly $1 billion,...
SEC Lawsuit Puts Shima Capital’s Future in Question as Wind-Down Message Surfaces
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Shima Capital and its founder Yida Gao, accusing them of misleading investors while raising nearly $170 million. The complaint alleges Gao exaggerated fund performance, inflating a 2.8× return to a claimed 90×, and concealed...
Bitcoin Trades Near Key Price Safety Net that Strategy Already Breached
Bitcoin is trading just above its 100‑week simple moving average, a long‑term safety net that has held for three weeks and halted the slide from the $126,000 peak. The cryptocurrency sits near $86,800, a level that could trigger a bullish...
Bhutan Pledges 10K Bitcoin to Develop Its ‘Mindfulness City’
Bhutan announced it will allocate 10,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $875 million, to finance the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a new special administrative region. The city, covering about 10% of the country, is designed to curb youth out‑migration by creating high‑value jobs...
Saylor’s Bitcoin Stash Will Be Very Hard for Anyone to Match: Pomp
Anthony Pompliano warned that no public company is likely to match Michael Saylor’s Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation. Strategy now holds 671,268 BTC—about 3.2% of the total supply—valued at roughly $58.6 billion. The firm recently bought 10,645 BTC for $980.3 million, paying $92,098 per...
SAFE Crypto Act Will Have Scammers Shaking in Their Boots: Crypto Lawyer
U.S. Senators Elissa Slotkin and Jerry Moran introduced the Strengthening Agency Frameworks for Enforcement of Cryptocurrency (SAFE) Act, a bipartisan bill designed to unite the Treasury, FinCEN, the Secret Service and other law‑enforcement bodies with private‑sector forensic firms to combat...
DOGE Exits Range as Selling Pressure Builds at Key Levels
Dogecoin fell 5% after the Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points, breaking the $0.1310 technical support zone. Heavy trading volume of 769.4 million tokens confirmed a bearish distribution rather than a fleeting dip. The breach turns the recent range...
Aave Founder Outlines 2026 ‘Master Plan’ After End to SEC Probe
Aave founder Stani Kulechov unveiled a 2026 master plan centered on the V4 upgrade, the Horizon real‑world asset market, and a new mobile app after the SEC ended its four‑year probe. V4 will employ a hub‑and‑spoke architecture to unify cross‑chain...
Crypto ETPs to Enter ‘Cheesecake Factory’ Era in 2026: Bitwise
Bitwise researcher Ryan Rasmussen predicts more than 100 crypto exchange‑traded products will debut in 2026, following the SEC’s October release of generic listing standards that eliminate the lengthy 19(b) approval process. The new framework allows issuers to list spot, index,...
Bank of Canada Lays Out Criteria for ‘Good Money’ Stablecoins
The Bank of Canada announced that only fiat‑backed, high‑quality stablecoins will receive regulatory approval, targeting a 2026 rollout. Governor Tiff Macklem emphasized a 1:1 peg to central‑bank currencies and backing by liquid assets such as Treasury bills. The framework builds...
Crypto Coin Minute for December 17th, 2025 at 08:34 AM Pacific Time.
Bitcoin fell 1.84% to $86,222, while major altcoins also slipped. PayPal filed a request with regulators to obtain a banking charter, aiming to expand its financial services amid tighter lending rules. The FTC ordered the operator of the 2022 Nomad...