Coinbase Shares Rise as ‘Ambitious Expansion’ Wins Analyst Praise
Coinbase shares jumped up to 4.6% after unveiling a roadmap that adds U.S. equity trading, AI‑powered advisory tools, tokenization capabilities, and stablecoin infrastructure. Analysts from J.P. Morgan, Clear Street, and Citi praised the expansion, noting it broadens the addressable market and could boost both subscription and transaction revenues. The firm also highlighted its recent $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit to strengthen derivatives offerings. While most analysts upgraded their ratings, Barclays remained neutral, citing execution risk and regulatory uncertainty.
Most Influential: Dennis Porter
Dennis Porter, through the Satoshi Action Fund, has driven a surge of state bitcoin reserve laws, delivering legislative language and lobbying support that led to at least ten states adopting the model. While the federal crypto reserve proposal remains stalled,...
PayPal to Use PYUSD Stablecoin to Fund AI Infrastructure Through USD.AI
PayPal is extending its PYUSD stablecoin to fund AI infrastructure by partnering with USD.AI, which will issue on‑chain loans for GPUs and data centers denominated in PYUSD. Borrowers can receive loan proceeds directly into PayPal accounts, blending familiar payment workflows...
Most Influential: Javier Pérez-Tasso
Javier Pérez‑Tasso, CEO of Swift since 2019, has steered the banking‑utility giant into blockchain by launching a proprietary ledger with more than 30 financial institutions. The new network enables 24/7 cross‑border payments, promising faster settlement and greater efficiency. Building on...
Most Influential: Sam Altman
Sam Altman has been named the most influential figure in AI for 2025, highlighting his role in embedding artificial intelligence into work and play. The article explores how the soaring demand for compute is prompting the crypto community to propose...
Trump Media Stock Surges 25% on Merger Agreement with Nuclear Fusion Firm TAE Technologies
Trump Media & Technology Group announced an all‑stock merger with nuclear‑fusion firm TAE Technologies, valuing the deal at over $6 billion. The announcement sent DJT shares up 25% in early trading, despite a year‑to‑date decline. The transaction repositions Trump Media from...
North Korean Hackers Stole a Record $2 Billion of Crypto in 2025, Chainalysis Says
North Korean hackers stole a record $2 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, bringing the regime’s total haul to $6.75 billion. The surge stems from a strategic focus on massive breaches of centralized services, highlighted by a $1.4 billion hack of the Bybit exchange....
SoFi Unveils the First Bank-Issued Stablecoin for Enterprise Payments
SoFi Bank has become the first U.S. national bank to launch a stablecoin, SoFiUSD, which is fully backed 1:1 by cash at the Federal Reserve. The token is live on a public blockchain, offering near‑instant, low‑cost transfers and immediate redemption...
Uniswap Vote Could Soon Tie UNI Token Value to Its Multibillion-Dollar Trading Engine
Uniswap governance has opened voting on the “UNIfication” proposal, which would activate protocol fees on selected v2 and v3 pools and introduce a permanent UNI token burn mechanism. The plan includes an immediate burn of 100 million UNI, cutting circulating supply...
JPMorgan’s Tokenized Dollars Are Quietly Rewiring How Wall Street Moves Money
JPMorgan has introduced its tokenized deposit product, JPM Coin (JPMD), on Coinbase’s public Base blockchain, moving from a private‑chain model to a public‑layer‑2 solution. The token represents interest‑bearing claims on actual bank deposits and is transferable only among whitelisted institutional clients....
Bitcoin Is All over the Place Ahead of U.S. Inflation Data
Bitcoin traded erratically between $86,000 and $90,000 as markets awaited the November U.S. CPI report, expected to rise to 3.1% YoY. The data will be the first comprehensive inflation reading after a government shutdown canceled October’s report, putting the Federal...
VivoPower Eyes $300M Ripple Share Deal, Bagging Nearly $1B in XRP Exposure
Nasdaq‑listed VivoPower announced a joint venture to acquire up to $300 million of Ripple Labs preferred shares, granting investors indirect exposure to roughly 450 million XRP valued near $900 million. The investment vehicle, backed by South Korean asset manager Lean Ventures, targets institutional...
Bitcoin Drifts Lower as $81.3k Emerges as the Market’s Key Fault Line: Asia Morning Briefing
Bitcoin is hovering near $86,400, but Glassnode’s True Market Mean at $81.3k has become the market’s key fault line. Large‑cap crypto assets remain tightly correlated with Bitcoin, making the $81.3k level a critical barrier between a passive drawdown and broader...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Crypto Long & Short: What the DOJ’s Massive Crypto Seizures Mean for the Industry
Over the past six months the U.S. Department of Justice has executed a series of unprecedented cryptocurrency seizures, highlighted by an October seizure of roughly $15 billion in bitcoin—more than three times the assets recovered from the Bernie Madoff case. The newly...
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...
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: Carlos Domingo
CEO Carlos Domingo has steered Securitize from a niche token‑technology startup to a profitable, $3.6 billion tokenized‑asset platform poised to exceed $4 billion AUM by year‑end. The firm is preparing a SPAC merger with Cantor Fitzgerald for an early‑2026 public listing, backed...
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...
TradFi Giant EquiLend Backs Digital Prime to Link $40 Trillion Pool with Tokenized Markets
EquiLend, the $40 trillion securities‑finance utility, announced a strategic minority investment in Digital Prime Technologies. The deal centers on Tokenet, Digital Prime’s institutional lending network, which will connect EquiLend’s vast lendable pool to tokenized markets. Future phases will introduce regulated stablecoin...
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...
Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Supports Metaplanet Bitcoin Plan Ahead of EGM Vote
Norway’s sovereign‑wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, voted in favor of all five Metaplanet proposals ahead of the Dec. 22 extraordinary general meeting. The fund holds roughly 0.3% of the company, which is pursuing a bitcoin‑centric strategy. The approved measures include...
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...
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...
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...
Crypto Exchange HashKey's Shares Fall 5% on Trading Debut in Hong Kong
HashKey Holdings’ shares slipped about 5% in their Hong Kong debut, opening below the IPO price and settling near HK$6.34. The exchange dominates roughly three‑quarters of the city’s licensed crypto market and processed $81.8 billion in volume in 2024, yet its...
Exodus Joins Stablecoin Race with MoonPay-Backed Digital Dollar
Exodus (EXOD) is launching a fully reserved, USD‑backed stablecoin in partnership with fintech firm MoonPay, with the token slated to go live in January 2026. The stablecoin will be built on M0 infrastructure and will power the upcoming Exodus Pay product, enabling...
Zero-Knowledge Tech Is the Key to Quantum-Proofing Bitcoin
Quantum computing breakthroughs are accelerating, putting the $4 trillion Web3 asset base at risk as Shor's algorithm can break ECDSA signatures used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. Researchers argue that zero‑knowledge (ZK) cryptography, especially zk‑STARKs and lattice‑based proofs, can be built on...
Bitcoin's Massive Underperformance to Stocks in Q4 Bodes Well for January, Says K33's Lunde
Bitcoin hovered around $87,500 on Dec. 16, posting a modest 2% gain over 24 hours while underperforming the S&P 500 by roughly 26% in the fourth quarter. The lag mirrors earlier cycles where a weak quarter precedes a rebound as fund...
Marshall Islands Launches World’s First Blockchain-Based UBI on Stellar Blockchain
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has launched the world’s first blockchain‑based universal basic income using the USDM1 sovereign bond on the Stellar network. Developed with the Stellar Development Foundation and Crossmint, the program swaps quarterly cash deliveries for instant...
Polkadot Advances as Coinbase Unlocks Integration with USDC Stablecoin
Polkadot (DOT) rose 1.9% to $1.91 after Coinbase announced USDC integration, sparking a technical breakout. Trading volume jumped 17% above the monthly average, with institutional participation three times the norm. The price held above a $1.87‑$1.88 support zone, forming higher...
U.S. FDIC Proposes First U.S. Stablecoin Rule to Emerge From GENIUS Act
The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has issued its first rule proposal under the GENIUS Act, opening a 60‑day public comment period for a new application process that lets depository institutions launch stablecoin subsidiaries. The rule outlines a 120‑day review...
Tether Leads $8 Million Investment in Speed to Push USDT Further Into Everyday Payments
Tether led an $8 million strategic investment in Speed, a payments platform that merges Bitcoin’s Lightning Network with USDT settlement. Speed currently processes over $1.5 billion in annual payment volume and serves roughly 1.2 million users and merchants. The funding supports Tether’s push...
CoreWeave Collapse Sparks Fears of Cracks in AI Infrastructure Boom
CoreWeave’s stock has tumbled more than 60% since its June high as investors confront mounting doubts about the AI infrastructure surge. The company’s growth strategy hinges on high‑interest debt to buy NVIDIA GPUs and on a handful of marquee clients...
Brazil to Test Blockchain in State Real Estate Auction to Reduce Fraud, Disputes
Brazil’s Court of Auditors in São Paulo will conduct its first public auction entirely recorded on a blockchain, selling ten warehouses. Every document, from titles to bids, will be timestamped and cryptographically sealed on an undisclosed ledger. The pilot, run by...
Most Influential: Guy Young
Ethena Labs CEO Guy Young created a new class of digital assets called yieldcoins, merging DeFi infrastructure with traditional finance basis trades. Within two years, Ethena grew to a $15 billion protocol, deploying synthetic dollar USDe and yield‑bearing sUSDe across exchanges...
