Circle and Bybit Deepen USDC Partnership as Stablecoin Nears $80B
Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, announced a strategic partnership with crypto exchange Bybit to deepen USDC integration across spot, derivatives and payment channels. The collaboration aims to boost liquidity, improve fiat on‑ramps and off‑ramps, and expand cross‑chain support, especially in the EEA where Circle holds a MiCA licence. USDC’s market capitalisation has surged 77% this year, approaching $80 billion, outpacing rival Tether’s growth. Bybit emphasises that the deal does not create exclusivity but reinforces its transparent, regulatory‑compliant stance.
Binance Secures ADGM Licenses to Operate International Platform
Binance has secured three licences from Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority – covering its exchange, clearing‑house and broker‑dealer operations – under the ADGM framework. The licences grant regulatory clarity and allow Binance to launch regulated activities from 5 January 2026, marking...
The Future of Secure Messaging: Why Decentralization Matters More than Ever
Decentralized messengers like Session and SimpleX are gaining traction as industry leaders, including Vitalik Buterin, fund their development with a 128 ETH donation. Session combines end‑to‑end encryption with onion‑routed swarms, eliminating phone numbers and reducing metadata exposure. The app offers a...
Ethereum’s First ZK-Rollup, ZKsync Lite, to Be Retired in 2026
Ethereum’s first ZK‑rollup, ZKsync Lite, will be retired in 2026 after fulfilling its proof‑of‑concept role. Launched by Matter Labs in 2020, it enabled fast token transfers and NFT minting but lacked smart‑contract capability. Development ceased in early 2023 when the...
Philippines’ Fastest-Growing Digital Bank Rolls Out Crypto Services
Philippines‑based digital bank GoTyme, now serving 6.5 million customers, has launched crypto services through a partnership with US fintech Alpaca. The app lets users buy and store eleven digital assets—including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana—by automatically converting Philippine pesos to US dollars....
Robinhood Set to Enter Indonesia, Targeting 17M Crypto Traders
Robinhood announced agreements to acquire Indonesia’s brokerage Buana Capital and licensed digital‑asset trader PT Pedagang Aset Kripto, marking its entry into the country’s fast‑growing crypto market. Indonesia hosts over 17 million crypto investors and 19 million capital‑market participants, with crypto transaction volume...
Trump’s National Security Strategy Is Silent on Crypto, Blockchain
The Trump administration’s new national security strategy makes no mention of cryptocurrency or blockchain, even though recent policy moves have embraced the sector. The document instead highlights artificial intelligence, biotech and quantum computing as core technological priorities. Despite the omission,...
Vitalik Buterin Floats Gas Futures on Ethereum to Hedge Fee Spikes
Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin proposed an on‑chain futures market for gas fees, allowing users to lock in transaction costs for future periods. The concept aims to provide certainty amid the network’s historically volatile fee environment, where average fees have swung from...
Crypto’s Other Halving: Bittensor’s First 4-Year Cycle Seen as ‘Maturation’ Milestone
Bittensor is set to halve its daily TAO token issuance from 7,200 to 3,600 around Dec. 14, marking the network’s first four‑year supply cut since its 2021 launch. The reduction moves the ecosystem toward a 21 million hard‑cap, mirroring Bitcoin’s scarcity model,...
WisdomTree Brings Options Income Strategy Onchain with New Tokenized Fund
WisdomTree has launched the EPXC token, a digital‑asset fund that mirrors the Volos US Large Cap Target 2.5% PutWrite Index, bringing a traditional put‑writing options income strategy onto blockchain. The fund is available to both institutional and retail investors, offering...
VC Roundup: Big Money, Few Deals as Crypto Venture Funding Dries Up
Crypto venture capital funding in November hit a low with only 57 disclosed rounds, marking one of the weakest months of 2025. Despite the thin deal flow, a handful of mega‑raises—Revolut’s $1 billion and Kraken’s $800 million—kept total funding above $4 billion. The...
South Korea to Impose Bank-Level Liability on Crypto Exchanges After Upbit Hack: Report
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is drafting legislation to impose bank‑level, no‑fault liability on crypto exchanges, mirroring the protections afforded to banks under the Electronic Financial Transactions Act. The move follows the Upbit hack that siphoned roughly 44.5 billion won ($30 million)...
Bitcoin Buries the Tulip Myth After 17 Years of Proven Resilience Says ETF Expert
ETF specialist Eric Balchunas argues Bitcoin can no longer be likened to the 17th‑century tulip bubble, citing its 17‑year track record and resilience through multiple market cycles. He notes Bitcoin is up roughly 250 % over the past three years and 122 %...
Rising Bitcoin ‘Liveliness’ Indicator Suggests Bull Market May Continue: Analysts
Bitcoin's on‑chain liveliness metric has surged to a new all‑time high, indicating robust transaction activity despite the cryptocurrency trading near $89,500. The indicator, which sums lifetime spending versus holding and scales by coin age, traditionally climbs during bull markets as...
BitMine Buys $199M in Ether as Smart Money Traders Bet on ETH Decline
BitMine Immersion Technologies purchased $199 million of Ether over two days, bringing its total holdings to $11.3 billion—about 3.08% of the total supply and edging toward its 5% target. The acquisition occurs as overall corporate Ether buying has slumped 81% in the...
Bitcoin Profit Metric Eyes 2-Year Lows in 'Complete Reset:' BTC Analysis
New on‑chain research shows Bitcoin’s long‑term profit metric has fallen to its lowest point in two years, signaling a "complete reset" for the market. The metric, which tracks the realized profit ratio of coins held for over a year, dropped...
Why CFTC-Approved Spot Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading Is a 'Massively Huge Deal'
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved spot Bitcoin and Ether products on its registered futures exchanges, giving the two leading cryptocurrencies a regulated, commodity‑class status. The move mirrors the 1970s gold market transition, promising deeper liquidity, tighter price discovery...
Brokerage Behind Major Crypto Treasury Deals Eyes $10–12B Public Listing: FT
Clear Street, a New York brokerage that has become a leading underwriter of crypto‑treasury deals, is preparing a $10‑12 billion IPO, with Goldman Sachs expected to lead the transaction as early as next month. The firm has underwritten roughly $91 billion of...
2,000 Bitcoin on the Move: Rare Casascius Coins Awaken After 13 Years
Two long‑dormant Casascius physical coins, each representing 1,000 BTC, were redeemed after 13 years, unlocking more than $179 million in Bitcoin. The coins were minted in late 2011 and 2012 when Bitcoin traded under $12, yielding astronomical theoretical returns. Only a handful of...
Three Binance Bitcoin Charts Point to the Direction of BTC’s Next Big Move
Bitcoin’s short‑term trajectory is increasingly tied to activity on Binance, where whale deposits and inflows have surged to multi‑year highs. The Exchange Whale Ratio on Binance climbed to a 14‑day EMA of 0.427, the highest since April, while 30‑day BTC...
Bitcoin’s End-of-Year Run to $100K Heavily Depends on Fed Pivot Outcomes
Bitcoin’s path to $100,000 by year‑end hinges on the Federal Reserve’s policy pivot. The Fed stopped quantitative tightening on Dec 1 and markets now assign an 87 % probability to an imminent rate cut, creating excess liquidity. Simultaneously, soaring credit‑default‑swap costs on...
AI-Powered Studio Mugafi Partners with Avalanche to Tokenize Entertainment IP
Mugafi, an AI‑driven entertainment IP platform, has teamed up with Avalanche to tokenize films, anime, music and other media assets on‑chain. The partnership will initially finance more than $10 million of projects, with a long‑term ambition to exceed $1 billion in annual...
Is Bitcoin Shifting to a 2-Year Cycle?
Bitcoin’s traditional four‑year halving‑driven cycle is being questioned as analysts observe a possible shift toward a two‑year market rhythm. Jeff Park of ProCap BTC argues that institutional capital, changing liquidity patterns, and competing AI investments are reshaping Bitcoin’s price dynamics....
US Prosecutors Request 12 Years in Prison for Terraform’s Do Kwon
U.S. prosecutors have asked a New York judge to impose a 12‑year prison term on Terraform Labs co‑founder Do Kwon, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy. The filing emphasizes Kwon’s role in the Terra collapse, which sparked the...
What Texas’ Recent Bitcoin Purchase Signals to the Rest of the US in a Market Downturn
Texas became the first U.S. state to purchase and hold Bitcoin, allocating $5 million to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and another $5 million to directly self‑custodied BTC. The acquisition was made during a market pullback marked by ETF outflows and waning legislative...
EU May Consolidate Crypto Regulations, IMF Warns of Stablecoin Risk: Global Express
European regulators fined X €120 million for Digital Services Act breaches and are expanding oversight to crypto platforms, while ten major EU banks announced a euro‑stablecoin project slated for 2026. The European Commission’s proposal would shift crypto‑asset supervision to ESMA, aligning...
From DOGE to Bitcoin: How Fiat Accidentally ‘Orange-Pilled’ Elon Musk
Elon Musk, long‑time Dogecoin champion, sparked fresh debate by emphasizing Bitcoin’s intrinsic link to energy consumption and physical scarcity. In a series of viral posts, he contrasted Bitcoin’s proof‑of‑work model with fiat’s artificial creation, suggesting the cryptocurrency is a more...
Bitcoin Accumulation Trends Strengthen as Realized Losses Near $5.8B
Bitcoin whales and mid‑size holders are buying at a record pace, pushing the Accumulation Trend Score close to its maximum of 1. Simultaneously, realized losses across all holders surged to about $5.8 billion, the biggest capitulation since the 2022 FTX collapse....
Buy Every Dip? How Pro Hodlers Blend Surgical DCA with Rules-Based Crypto Buys
Professional crypto investors are moving away from impulsive "ape the dip" behavior, opting instead for pre‑defined allocation plans that automate purchases. They combine disciplined dollar‑cost averaging (DCA) with rules‑based triggers that execute trades at specific price or technical thresholds. This...
Solana WET Presale Hijacked by Sybil Wallets as HumidiFi Resets Launch
A Solana presale for the Wet (WET) token was instantly drained by a bot farm that used over 1,000 wallets, leaving genuine participants unable to buy. The attack was traced by analytics firm Bubblemaps, which linked the majority of wallets...
Turkish Crypto Exchange Paribu Buys Majority Stake in Competitor CoinMENA
Turkish crypto exchange Paribu has acquired a majority stake in Dubai‑ and Bahrain‑licensed CoinMENA, valuing the platform at up to $240 million. The transaction is touted as Turkey’s largest fintech deal and the country’s first cross‑border acquisition of a digital‑asset exchange....
AlphaTON Eyes Meme-Sized $420.69M Raise for TON, AI Expansion After Baby-Shelf Exit
AlphaTON Capital has exited the SEC’s baby‑shelf limits and filed a $420.69 million shelf registration, a figure that echoes crypto meme culture. The micro‑cap firm’s stock plunged 64% in a month, falling to $1.71, while its market value sits at $13 million...
Italy Sets Hard MiCA Deadline for Crypto Platforms to Comply
Italy’s securities regulator CONSOB announced a hard deadline of Dec. 30 for all domestic virtual‑asset service providers (VASPs) to submit applications for authorization as crypto‑asset service providers (CASPs) under the EU’s MiCA framework. Providers that file by the cut‑off may continue...
Ethereum Sees 25% Validation Drop Post-Fusaka as Prysm Bug Nears Finality Loss
A bug in the Prysm consensus client triggered a sharp decline in Ethereum validator participation shortly after the Fusaka upgrade, dropping voting participation to 74.7%, just above the two‑thirds threshold required for finality. The issue stemmed from version v7.0.0 generating...
US Investors Consider Crypto Less as Risk-Taking Drops: FINRA Study
FINRA’s latest study shows that while the share of U.S. adults holding cryptocurrency has remained steady at 27 percent from 2021 to 2024, the willingness to buy more or enter the market for the first time fell from 33 percent to 26 percent....
Bitcoin Unlikely to Replicate January’s Surge to New High: 21Shares Founder
Co‑founder Ophelia Snyder of 21Shares says Bitcoin is unlikely to repeat its January 2024 surge to new highs, citing lingering risk‑off sentiment across financial markets. While January traditionally draws fresh inflows into Bitcoin ETFs as investors rebalance, current market mood...
XRP Sentiment Plummets, Which Could Set Token up for Rally: Santiment
Santiment reports that XRP’s social sentiment has plunged into the “fear zone,” the lowest level since October, as the token fell 4.6% to below $2.10. The platform notes that a similar fear spike in November 2021 was followed by a...
Ex-Signature Bank Execs Launch Blockchain-Powered Bank N3XT
Ex‑Signature Bank founder Scott Shay has launched N3XT, a blockchain‑powered bank that promises instant 24‑hour payments using a private ledger. The venture targets corporate clients seeking faster settlement while maintaining a regulated banking charter. N3XT integrates fiat on‑ramps and API‑first...
SOL Price Capped at $140 as Altcoin ETF Rivals Reshape Crypto Demand
Solana's native token SOL slipped 6% to $140 after failing to break $147, reflecting heightened risk aversion amid weak US job data and tightening consumer credit. On‑chain metrics showed total value locked falling to $10.8 billion and DEX volume dropping 40%...
Former Binance.US CEO Launches Stablecoin Platform Ahead of L1 Network
Former Binance.US chief Brian Shroder’s venture 1Money has unveiled a stablecoin orchestration platform that eliminates traditional platform fees, opting for usage‑based transaction charges instead. The service, backed by $20 million in seed capital, also promises zero gas fees on its forthcoming...
Peter Schiff Fails to Authenticate Gold Bar During Onstage Test with CZ
During Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, gold advocate Peter Schiff was unable to confirm the authenticity of a gold bar presented by Binance co‑founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, sparking laughter from the crypto‑savvy audience. The onstage exchange highlighted the ongoing debate...
Bitcoin Rejects at Key $93.5K as Fed Rate-Cut Bets Meet 'Strong' Bear Case
Bitcoin slipped back toward $90,000, failing to break its $93.5K yearly open despite upbeat Fed rate‑cut speculation. Strong U.S. jobs data reinforced expectations of a December rate cut, yet the cryptocurrency market remained unmoved. Analysts highlight multiple resistance zones—$96K‑$98K and...
Exclusive Data From EigenPhi Reveals that Sandwich Attacks on Ethereum Have Waned
EigenPhi data shows sandwich attacks on Ethereum have sharply declined in 2025, with monthly extraction dropping from nearly $10 million in late 2024 to about $2.5 million by October. Despite the slowdown, attackers still cause roughly $60 million in annual trader losses, but...
Pepe Memecoin Website Exploited, Redirecting Users to Malware: Blockaid
The official website of the Pepe (PEPE) memecoin suffered a front‑end attack that redirects visitors to a malicious link using the Inferno Drainer toolkit. Blockaid, a cybersecurity firm, identified the intrusion and warned users to stay away until the site...
EU Plan Boosts ESMA Powers over Crypto and Capital Markets
The European Commission has unveiled a proposal to give ESMA direct supervisory authority over crypto‑asset service providers, trading venues and central counterparties. The plan aims to create a unified oversight model similar to the U.S. SEC and to close gaps...
Argentine State-Owned Energy Giant Weighs Crypto Payments for Fuel: Report
Argentina’s state‑owned oil firm YPF is evaluating the use of cryptocurrencies for fuel purchases at its nationwide stations. The move follows a recent pilot that enabled US‑dollar payments, reflecting YPF’s push to modernize its payment infrastructure. Crypto pilots would allow...
Portal to Bitcoin Raises $25M and Launches Atomic OTC Desk
Portal to Bitcoin announced a $25 million Series A round and simultaneously launched an atomic over‑the‑counter (OTC) desk built on hash‑time‑locked contracts (HTLC). The new desk enables trustless, cross‑chain settlement for large‑scale crypto trades, aiming to serve institutional investors seeking deep liquidity....
Are Seed-Phrase-Free Crypto Wallets the Key to Mass Self-Custody? Expert Weighs In
The crypto industry is confronting the long‑standing usability hurdle of seed phrases by exploring seed‑phrase‑free wallets built on smart‑account architecture. Ready’s new model replaces a single secret with programmable recovery options, allowing users to borrow against Bitcoin holdings and spend...
CoinDCX Report Shows Indian Users Moving to Broader Crypto Portfolios in 2025
CoinDCX’s 2025 annual report shows Indian crypto investors moving from a Bitcoin‑centric view to diversified portfolios, now averaging five tokens per user versus two‑three in 2022. Layer‑1 assets dominate at 43.3% of portfolio volume, while Bitcoin accounts for 26.5% and...
CZ’s YZi Ramps up Prediction Market Bet as Opinion Claims 40% Share
Opinion, the prediction market backed by YZi Labs and CZ, reported $1.5 billion in weekly trading volume just weeks after its launch. The platform now claims roughly 40% of the market share, overtaking established rivals such as Kalshi and Polymarket. This...