The Defiant
DeFi and decentralized finance news and analysis
Western Union Reveals ‘Stable Card’ Amid On-Chain Push
Western Union announced a new “stable card” aimed at consumers in high‑inflation economies, extending its U.S. prepaid offering with a dollar‑denominated, Visa‑linked product. The card will leverage the company’s partnership with stablecoin‑payments firm Rain, allowing users to convert stablecoins into local cash at Western Union locations. The initiative is part of a broader on‑chain push that includes the upcoming USDPT Solana‑based stablecoin slated for 2026. CFO Matthew Cagwin highlighted the potential to move the firm’s $0.5 billion daily transaction volume more efficiently, reducing reliance on correspondent banks.
Galaxy Looks to Expand Institutional Staking Infra with Alluvial Acquisition
Galaxy Digital announced the acquisition of Alluvial, a provider of institutional‑grade staking infrastructure, to broaden its crypto staking services. The deal integrates Alluvial’s automated validator and reward platform with Galaxy’s existing Liquid Collective pool. Despite the acquisition, Liquid Collective will...
Crypto Rebound Accelerates After Vanguard Allows Crypto ETF Trading
Bitcoin surged 6% immediately after trading debuted on Tuesday.
Ostium Labs Reveals $20 Million Raise Co-Led by Jump Crypto
Ostium Labs announced a $24 million funding round, including a $20 million Series A co‑led by Jump Crypto and General Catalyst, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, and others. The decentralized exchange specializes in tokenized real‑world assets, recording over $30 billion in all‑time...
Ethereum Launches Fusaka Upgrade to Make Network More Scalable
Ethereum has rolled out the Fusaka upgrade, introducing the PeerDAS system to boost network capacity. PeerDAS enables the blockchain to handle a higher volume of transactions while maintaining low gas fees. The upgrade follows a series of scalability improvements, including...
Kamino Sparks Outcry After Blocking Loan Transfers to Jupiter Lend
Kamino, the second‑largest lending protocol on Solana, has manually blacklisted an address linked to rival platform Jupiter Lend, effectively blocking loan transfers between the two services. The move was executed without a community vote, signaling a direct competitive response. Kamino’s...
HYPE Jumps 8% After $888 Million DAT Gets Approved
HYPE's stock surged 8% after regulators approved an $888 million decentralized autonomous treasury (DAT) fund. The approval coincides with Sonnet BioTherapeutics merging with Rorschach LLC to create the first major HYPE treasury company. The new entity will manage the sizable DAT...
Chainlink’s LINK Jumps 13% as Grayscale ETF Goes Live
The Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK) gives equity investors another way to access LINK.
Crypto Markets Edge Higher as Bitcoin Breaks Back Over $90,000
ETH, SOL, and BNB post gains, while analysts say the market “appears less worried” now.
Kalshi, Polymarket Set New Volume Records in November
Kalshi and Polymarket posted unprecedented trading volumes in November, signaling accelerating demand for prediction markets. Polymarket briefly captured the No. 1 spot in the App Store’s sports category, highlighting mainstream consumer interest. Both platforms reported double‑digit growth in user participation and...
Monad Briefly Dips Below ICO Price
Monad, the parallelized EVM Layer 1 blockchain, saw its MON token surge to nearly double its ICO price before erasing gains and slipping below the $2.5 billion valuation that funded the sale. The token recovered modestly, trading just above the $0.025 ICO...
Europe’s Crypto Crusade Rages On
Europol has dismantled another cryptocurrency mixing service, seizing its servers across several EU member states. The takedown underscores a coordinated law‑enforcement push against tools that facilitate money‑laundering. In parallel, Coinbase disclosed a record number of law‑enforcement information requests, up 45%...
Tokenized Gold Gains Ground as Crypto Markets Wobble
Tokenized gold is rapidly gaining traction as crypto markets wobble, with issuance climbing roughly 45% year‑over‑year. A slowdown in DeFi activity and a 12% dip in Bitcoin’s price have pushed on‑chain investors toward more stable assets. Platforms such as Paxos...
Strategy Sets Up $1.44 Billion Dividend Reserve
MicroStrategy announced the creation of a $1.44 billion dividend reserve, designed to fund future payouts tied to its Bitcoin holdings. The move underscores the company's status as the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder and signals confidence in its long‑term crypto strategy....
SushiSwap’s Jared Grey Steps Down as Head Chef
The SUSHI token is down 12% on the day.
Bitcoin Consolidates at $91,000 as Stocks and Gold Rally
Altcoins trade mixed as the total crypto market capitalization dips 0.5% to $3.19 trillion.
Optimism CEO Teases New Enterprise Strategy
Optimism’s chief executive announced that the network is shifting its focus from public Ethereum Layer‑2 projects such as Base and Ink toward an enterprise‑centric strategy. The new direction emphasizes private rollups, compliance tooling, and partnerships with cloud providers to attract...
Hyperliquid-Based Kinetiq’s KNTQ Token Trades at $130 Million Valuation
Kinetiq, a liquid‑staking protocol on the Hyperliquid blockchain, introduced its governance token KNTQ on November 27. Within 24 hours the token rose 19% to $0.13, generating $27.7 million in volume and a market cap of $35.3 million, implying a fully‑diluted valuation of roughly...
RedStone Predicts Tokenized Assets Could Hit $60 Billion in 202
RedStone forecasts tokenized real‑world assets will reach $50‑60 billion by 2026, up from $35 billion today. Private credit remains the largest segment, accounting for roughly 45‑50% of the market, while tokenized equities are set to outpace all categories with 200‑300% growth once...
Bitcoin Hovers Above $91,000 With US Markets Closed for Thanksgiving
Bitcoin hovered just above $91,000 on Thursday, gaining roughly 1 % in the last 24 hours while U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving. The overall crypto market capitalization rose 0.7 % to about $3.2 trillion, indicating continued price discovery despite the holiday. Approximately 82,000...
Hyperliquid Catches Flak for Reassigning MON Ticker
Pixelmon paid nearly $500,000 to acquire the MON ticker on the Hyperliquid exchange earlier this year. Hyperliquid later reassigned the MON symbol to a different project, Monad, effectively overwriting Pixelmon's branding. The move sparked criticism from the crypto community, accusing...
SpaceComputer Raises $10 Million to Run Secure Blockchain Compute From Space
SpaceComputer announced a $10 million seed round to develop its SpaceTEE satellite network, which will execute secure blockchain and cryptographic tasks from low‑Earth orbit. The round was co‑led by Maven11 and Lattice, with participation from the Arbitrum Foundation, Offchain Labs, Hashkey...
Grayscale Files to Convert Zcash Trust Into Spot ZEC ETF
The move follows ZEC’s massive rally since late September.
Privacy, ZK Everything and Big Announcements: DevConnect 2025 Recap
DevConnect 2025 highlighted privacy as the next frontier for Ethereum and DeFi, with zero‑knowledge proofs and SNARKs positioned as core technologies to realize the Lean Ethereum roadmap. Speakers emphasized that security, censorship resistance, and user protection must be embedded across...
First US Spot DOGE ETF Sees $1.4M in Day-One Volumes
Grayscale’s spot Dogecoin ETF fell short of expectations on its launch day.
Ethereum DATs Heavily Underwater as ETH Price Drops Below $3,000
Digital asset treasury (DAT) firms collectively hold millions of dollars in Ethereum, but a sharp decline in ETH's price to below $3,000 has left many of those holdings deeply underwater. The firms, which purchased the cryptocurrency at significantly higher price...
SKALE Launches on Base in New Initiative for Onchain Agents
SKALE announced the launch of its "Expand" initiative on Base, Ethereum's second‑largest Layer 2 with over $4.3 billion TVL, enabling its SKALE Manager contracts to run on any EVM‑compatible chain. The platform offers gasless transactions, instant execution, and encrypted processing, allowing the...
Polymarket Receives CFTC Approval to Operate in the United States
The long-awaited Polymarket US has been cleared to launch.
Bitcoin Clears $88,000 After Trump-Xi Call
Bitcoin rose 1.5% to $88,600 on Monday after news of a phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, sparking a brief rally in the cryptocurrency market. While Bitcoin remains down 4.5% for the week, Ethereum gained...
Build on Bitcoin Token Rallies on Coinbase Listing
The newly issued Build on Bitcoin (BOB) token surged 25% to $0.0225 after being listed on Coinbase, marking one of the few gains in a broadly down crypto market. Launched on November 20 at $0.018 with a $45 million market cap,...
NFT Lending TVL Nears All-Time Lows
The NFT lending market has collapsed to roughly $8.3 million in total value locked (TVL), a 97% drop from its March 2024 peak of over $300 million, according to DefiLlama. Leading platforms have seen dramatic declines: Arcade’s TVL fell to about $300,000...
MegaETH Announces $250 Million Pre-Deposit Campaign
Ethereum Layer‑2 project MegaETH will launch a limited‑access pre‑deposit bridge on November 25 for users who registered for its ICO via Sonar, allowing unlimited USDC deposits that will be minted into the native stablecoin USDm in partnership with Ethena. The...
Dinari Integrates LayerZero to Offer Cross-Chain Access to Tokenized U.S. Equities
Dinari announced the integration of LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) protocol, allowing its tokenized U.S. equities—called dShares—to be traded and settled across multiple blockchains. The rollout initially spans four chains and 200 U.S. stocks, backed 1:1 by the underlying securities,...
Polymarket Seeks $12 Billion Valuation After Record-Breaking Month
Polymarket is pursuing a new funding round that would value the decentralized prediction‑market platform at $12 billion after posting record trading volumes of over $3 billion in October and an expected $3.5 billion in November, driven in part by the NYC mayoral election...
Bitcoin For America Act Would Allow Tax Payments in BTC
Rep. Warren Davidson (R‑Ohio) introduced the Bitcoin For America Act, which would let U.S. taxpayers settle federal taxes with Bitcoin at the market price at transfer, exempting them from capital‑gains tax. All Bitcoin collected would be deposited into a Strategic...
Crypto Market Holds Steady as Traders Digest Delayed US Jobs Report
Crypto markets remained largely flat on Tuesday, with Bitcoin hovering around $91,000—a 0.5% dip in 24 hours and an 11% decline for the week—while Ethereum slipped 1.4% to just above $3,000. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index stayed in extreme‑fear...
Securitize to Launch Institutional Assets on Plume’s Nest Protocol
Plume, a real‑world asset finance blockchain with $159 million TVL, announced that tokenization platform Securitize will deploy institutional‑grade assets on its Nest staking protocol. The rollout will begin with Hamilton Lane funds, targeting $100 million in capital and expanding to additional issuers...
S& P Ratings Gives Justin Sun-Linked TrueUSD Lowest Score
S&P Global Ratings assigned TrueUSD (TUSD) the lowest possible stability score of 5, indicating a weak ability to maintain its $1 peg. The rating reflects concerns that most of TUSD’s reserves are held by a single custodian, First Digital Trust,...
BlackRock Registers Staked Ethereum Trust
BlackRock has officially registered the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust in Delaware, four months after the SEC acknowledged its filing to allow staking in its ETHA Ethereum ETF. The new trust follows BlackRock's ETHA, the largest Ethereum ETF with over $13 billion...
Hyperliquid to Roll Out ‘Growth Mode’ to Supercharge New Markets
Hyperliquid announced a "growth mode" upgrade for its HIP‑3 perpetual futures system, slashing taker fees from the standard 0.045% to as low as 0.00144%‑0.009% for new permissionless markets. The fee reductions, which also apply to rebates and volume contributions, are...
0xbow Raises $3.5 Million to Expand Privacy Pools
0xbow closed a $3.5 million seed round led by Starbloom Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, BOOST VC and others, to scale its Privacy Pools technology that batches and mixes on‑chain transactions while preserving AML compliance. Launched on Ethereum in March 2025, the...
Ledger Draws Heat as Pre-2018 Zcash Holders Face Dropped Support
Long‑time Zcash holders with coins minted before the 2018 Sapling upgrade are unable to spend their assets using Ledger hardware wallets after the company removed support for the legacy "version 1" transaction format. The issue, highlighted by Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp,...
Nearly 20% of Americans Would Prefer Crypto Over Gift Cards This Holiday Season: PayPal
A PayPal‑partnered survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults finds that 17% would rather receive cryptocurrency than a gift card this holiday season, and 31% think crypto gifts are less likely to go unused. Among current crypto holders, roughly 65%...
Ethereum Unveils New Technical Details About Interop Layer
Ethereum announced new technical details for its Interop Layer (EIL), a protocol that lets users send tokens, mint NFTs and trade across EVM‑compatible rollups without using bridges or separate wallet integrations. The system works with any rollup that settles to...
BNY’s New Fund Pushes for Safer Stablecoin Reserves
BNY Mellon launched the BNY Dreyfus Stablecoin Reserves Fund (BSRXX) on Nov. 13 as a regulated money‑market vehicle for stablecoin issuers to park cash under the GENIUS Act, with Anchorage Digital providing the seed investment. The fund offers a safer, standardized...
Ethereum Sees First Sustained Validator Exit Since Proof-of-Stake Shift
Ethereum’s daily active validator count dropped about 10% since July, slipping below the 1 million mark for the first time since April 2024, marking the first sustained validator exit of this magnitude since the network’s September 2022 proof‑of‑stake transition. The exit‑queue wait time...
Threshold Network Upgrades tBTC Bridge to Link Institutional Bitcoin with DeFi
Threshold Network has upgraded its tBTC bridge to let institutions mint and redeem tokenized Bitcoin in a single transaction without moving the underlying asset out of regulated custodial storage. The new architecture links directly to custodians and supports multiple blockchains—including...
Monad Faces Community Backlash After Unveiling Tokenomics
Monad, a Layer‑1 blockchain, announced a public token sale on Coinbase’s new platform, offering 7.5% of the MON supply at a $2.5 billion valuation that could raise about $187 million. Its tokenomics disclose only a 3.3% airdrop and a 7.5% public sale,...
Trump Tokens Outperform After US President Teases ‘Tariff Dividends’
The crypto market rallied after President Trump hinted on Truth Social that tariff revenues could fund $2,000 stimulus checks, sending his namesake tokens soaring. Bitcoin rose just over 1%, while World Liberty Financial (WLFI) surged 24% and the TRUMP memecoin...
XPL Rallies After Plasma Reveals Collaboration with Daylight Energy
Plasma’s native token XPL jumped 10% to $0.325, lifting its market value to $607 million after the Layer 1 blockchain announced a partnership with Daylight Energy to launch GRID, a fully collateralized M0‑backed stablecoin, and sGRID, a yield‑bearing token tied to the...
