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Crypto markets are facing renewed volatility as a large batch of delayed US economic data is released this week, coinciding with key global monetary policy developments. Bitcoin slid in a familiar late-Sunday move, briefly falling below $88,000 before recovering slightly, reflecting investor caution ahead of inflation and labor market reports. The upcoming data dump follows disruptions caused by the government shutdown, while comments from US President Trump on tariff revenues and recent regulatory progress for crypto firms were not enough to offset broader market weakness.
Attention is focused on a packed economic calendar, including retail sales, jobs data, PMI surveys, CPI inflation, and the Fed’s preferred Core PCE index, all of which will shape expectations for inflation trends and future interest rate policy into 2026. At the same time, an anticipated rate cut by the Bank of Japan is adding to uncertainty, with debate over whether its impact is already priced in. Bitcoin remains under pressure at weekly lows, Ethereum has held above $3,000, and most altcoins are declining, setting the stage for continued price swings in the days ahead. Source
A coalition of crypto organizations has pushed back against Citadel Securities’ call for the SEC to apply traditional securities regulations to decentralized finance platforms offering tokenized US equities. Groups including Andreessen Horowitz, the Uniswap Foundation, the DeFi Education Fund, and The Digital Chamber argued that Citadel mischaracterized how DeFi systems operate and overstretched the interpretation of securities laws. They acknowledged shared goals around investor protection and market integrity but said those objectives do not always require DeFi platforms to register as conventional intermediaries, particularly when onchain markets are designed with different structures and safeguards.
The group contended that applying exchange or broker-dealer rules to decentralized protocols would be impractical and could unintentionally sweep in a wide range of onchain activity that does not function like traditional trading venues. They also rejected the idea that autonomous software could be treated as a financial intermediary, noting it lacks discretion or decision-making capacity. Citadel, meanwhile, has warned that exempting DeFi platforms could create uneven regulation for the same securities and reduce investor protections such as transparency and market oversight. The debate comes as the SEC seeks public input on tokenized stocks, with tokenization gaining momentum but still facing regulatory hurdles before deeper integration with DeFi can occur. Source
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted conditional approval for national trust banking charters to Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Paxos Trust Company, and Fidelity Digital Assets, marking a significant step for stablecoin issuers entering the federal banking system. Circle and Ripple received approval for newly formed national trust banks, while BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity were approved to convert existing state-chartered entities. Together, these firms are associated with major stablecoins such as USDC, RLUSD, USDS, and PYUSD, with Fidelity expected to launch its own offering after testing earlier this year.
The approvals come as the stablecoin market has expanded to $313 billion in 2025, fuelled in part by the GENIUS Act, which established a clearer regulatory framework for US issuers. While the OCC framed the move as beneficial for competition and innovation in banking, several major crypto firms including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Stripe’s Bridge, Nubank, and Sony’s Connectia still have applications under review. The milestone builds on earlier precedent set by Anchorage Digital Bank in 2021, though not all prior approvals have progressed smoothly, as Protego remains stalled after political scrutiny delayed its charter. Source
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has released an investor bulletin explaining the basics of crypto wallet use and asset custody, outlining best practices and risks tied to different storage options. The guide compares self-custody with third-party custody, urging investors to understand how custodians handle assets, including whether funds are rehypothecated or commingled rather than kept in segregated accounts. It also details wallet types, highlighting the trade-offs between hot wallets connected to the internet and offline cold storage solutions.
According to the SEC, hot wallets are more vulnerable to hacking and cybersecurity threats, while cold wallets carry risks such as permanent asset loss if devices fail, are stolen, or private keys are compromised. The release has been widely seen as signalling a shift in the SEC’s stance toward crypto, moving from enforcement-heavy actions under prior leadership to investor education and practical guidance. The bulletin followed comments from SEC Chair Paul Atkins about traditional finance moving onchain and coincided with regulatory approval for asset tokenization initiatives involving equities, ETFs, and government securities. Source
Tether is considering tokenizing its own shares as it looks to manage investor liquidity while pursuing a major fundraising round, according to reports. Executives are weighing tokenized stock representations and potential buybacks after taking steps to block investors from selling equity independently, amid concerns that discounted secondary sales could undermine its capital raise. The company is reportedly seeking to raise $20 billion at a $500 billion valuation, a level that would place it among the most valuable private companies globally.
The move follows interest from an unidentified shareholder who attempted to sell at least $1 billion worth of equity at a significantly lower valuation, prompting intervention from management. Tether emphasized that any equity transactions must follow formal processes led by approved investment banks. The company continues to generate substantial income from reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, which has expanded sharply in value, while potential investors reportedly include major global firms. Despite growing speculation around tokenization and fundraising, Tether has not indicated any timeline for a public listing. Source
Standard Chartered and Coinbase have expanded their partnership to develop a broad range of crypto services tailored to institutional clients, including trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending. The collaboration aims to combine Standard Chartered’s global banking, cross-border payments and custody capabilities with Coinbase’s institutional crypto platform to create an integrated and compliant environment for managing digital assets. The focus is on building secure, transparent and interoperable infrastructure that meets regulatory and security expectations for large financial institutions.
The expanded alliance builds on an existing relationship in Singapore, where Standard Chartered already provides banking connectivity that enables real-time Singapore dollar transfers for Coinbase users. The move comes amid broader efforts by major banks and crypto firms to deepen collaboration, alongside Coinbase preparing to unveil new products such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks. At the regulatory level, momentum is also building, with US authorities conditionally approving national trust bank charters for several crypto-linked firms, including BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, Circle and Ripple, signalling a clearer pathway for crypto-focused trust banking in the United States. Source
A solo Bitcoin miner successfully mined a block worth 3.13 BTC, valued at roughly $282,000, despite extremely low odds, by using the Solo CKPool mining service. The probability of winning the block was estimated at about 1 in 30,000, highlighting how rare such outcomes have become as Bitcoin’s network difficulty continues to rise. Solo CKPool allows individual miners to participate without operating a full-scale mining setup, charging a 2% fee only when a block is successfully mined, which in this case amounted to about 0.062 BTC.
The win marked the fourth successful solo block mined through Solo CKPool in the past three weeks, a notable increase compared to earlier periods when such wins were far less frequent. Overall, miners using the service have earned a combined total of 5,553 BTC, valued at approximately $511 million at current prices. Despite these occasional successes, solo mining remains highly challenging, as Bitcoin’s hashrate continues to climb year over year, now averaging above 1 zettahash per second, reinforcing the view that solo mining increasingly resembles a lottery. Source
Markethive positions itself as an inbound marketing and social collaboration platform designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses expand their digital presence through an integrated blogging and broadcasting system known as Blogcasting. The platform combines content creation, social media distribution, and community engagement into a single ecosystem, allowing users to publish articles, videos, and newsletters that are automatically broadcast across linked social accounts, WordPress sites, and subscriber networks. By removing the limitations of traditional email-based distribution, Blogcasting multiplies exposure and enables content to circulate widely through interconnected audiences, significantly increasing visibility, reach, and potential influence.
The system leverages subscriptions, content sharing, and syndication to create a ripple effect where each subscriber’s network further amplifies published content, driving traffic, engagement, and search engine visibility. Features such as Blog Subscribe, Blog Swipe, curated groups, and integrated WordPress publishing encourage collaboration, mentorship, and content reuse while maintaining user control over permissions and privacy. This approach transforms blogging into a collective process that supports brand building, authority development, and long-term relationship growth, making Markethive a comprehensive solution for scaling influence and fostering meaningful connections in the digital economy. Source
Phantom has integrated Kalshi’s prediction markets directly into its crypto wallet, giving more than 20 million users access to trading on topics spanning politics, crypto, sports, and culture without leaving the app. The integration allows users to buy tokenized positions tied to Kalshi’s regulated event markets using Solana tokens or Phantom’s CASH stablecoin, removing the need for separate accounts or deposits. Real-time pricing, odds, event updates, and settlement notifications are built into the wallet, with the experience designed to be as simple as swapping tokens.
The feature also introduces a social trading layer, with live community chats embedded in each market so users can share views and gauge sentiment as conditions change. This move reflects a broader shift toward embedding prediction markets directly into the platforms where users already manage assets and consume information, including crypto wallets, media outlets, and sports partnerships. Similar integrations by other wallets and collaborations between prediction market platforms, news organizations, and sports leagues highlight growing mainstream adoption of event-based trading. Source
HashKey aims to become Hong Kong’s first fully crypto-native company to go public by offering 240.57 million shares under the city’s new virtual asset regulatory framework, with trading scheduled to begin on December 17. The company operates a licensed platform that extends beyond a traditional exchange, combining spot trading, custody, institutional staking, asset management, and tokenization into a single regulated ecosystem. The IPO is positioned as a long-term bet on the growth of regulated digital asset markets, with most proceeds earmarked for infrastructure development, international expansion, and technological upgrades to support derivatives, yield products, and institutional services.
While revenue has grown rapidly from 129 million HKD in 2022 to 721 million HKD in 2024, HashKey continues to operate at a loss due to heavy investments in compliance, technology, and market expansion, with net losses reaching 1.19 billion HKD in 2024. The IPO will allow the company to scale its infrastructure, expand into new jurisdictions, and strengthen risk management and corporate operations, while testing investor appetite for a compliance-first crypto infrastructure. The outcome of this listing will provide insight into Hong Kong’s ambitions as a digital asset hub and signal whether heavily regulated crypto platforms can achieve sustainable growth and attract public market support. Source
The UK plans to introduce legislation to bring cryptocurrencies under the same regulatory framework as traditional finance by October 2027, with oversight by the Financial Conduct Authority. The bill, set to be introduced on Monday, aims to give crypto firms clear rules while providing consumer protections and restricting bad actors from operating in the UK market. Current requirements, such as FCA registration mainly for anti-money laundering supervision, would be expanded to subject crypto businesses—including exchanges, dealers, and agents—to broader finance laws similar to those governing stocks and other financial products.
The legislation aligns the UK with global developments, including US efforts to divide crypto oversight among multiple regulators, and follows collaboration between the two countries on short-to-medium term regulatory coordination. Officials emphasize that the rules will be proportionate, encourage investment, foster innovation, and support high-skilled job creation. The move comes alongside other regulatory initiatives, including FCA consultations on stablecoins, trading platforms, and decentralized finance, and Bank of England plans for stablecoin regulation, positioning the UK as a potential leader in regulated digital asset adoption. Source
XRP is set to become usable on major layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, and HyperEVM through a new wrapped token called wXRP, issued by custodian Hex Trust. Each wXRP is backed 1:1 by native XRP held in institutional-grade custody, ensuring compliance with KYC and AML standards. The initiative is designed to expand XRP’s utility in decentralized finance, enabling liquidity and cross-chain functionality beyond the XRP Ledger, with plans to integrate additional blockchains in the future.
The launch begins with $100 million in total value locked to provide initial liquidity, and over 50 million wXRP are already circulating on Ethereum. Solana support is coming soon, while Optimism and HyperEVM have live contracts with minimal current circulation. The move aims to meet growing institutional and DeFi demand for XRP, complementing Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, and enabling regulated access to DeFi positions across supported chains, further broadening XRP’s role in cross-chain trading and market-making. Source
Oil-linked investors from the Gulf, including sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and private banking networks, are increasingly influencing Bitcoin’s market structure by entering through regulated channels such as spot ETFs. This influx of capital is not only significant in size but is also deployed in ways that support deeper liquidity, narrower bid-ask spreads, and more stable market dynamics. Abu Dhabi has emerged as a central hub for these flows, offering a regulated framework through the Abu Dhabi Global Market and attracting asset managers and crypto intermediaries. The appeal for these investors includes diversification, long-term portfolio strategies, generational demand from private wealth, and the opportunity to develop infrastructure that supports institutional participation in digital assets.
This wave of liquidity differs from earlier cycles driven by highly leveraged retail trading, as it relies on structured investment vehicles and mature market infrastructure. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, prime brokerage services, and regulated custody solutions allow for smoother execution of large trades and stronger hedging activity across spot and derivatives markets. While these flows can enhance liquidity, market volatility remains, and large outflows can occur quickly, highlighting that institutional involvement reduces but does not eliminate risk. Regulatory frameworks, particularly in the UAE, play a critical role in enabling sustained liquidity while shaping the environment in which oil-linked capital can participate in Bitcoin. Source
Coinbase is preparing to launch a prediction market and tokenized equities on December 17, signaling a significant expansion of its product offerings. The exchange has teased a “new era” for the platform, with early leaks showing screenshots of a prediction market powered by Kalshi. The move comes amid a surge in adoption of prediction markets, which have seen $28 billion in trading volume year-to-date, and a growing interest in tokenized stock trading. Competitors such as Gemini and Crypto.com are also entering this space, reflecting broader institutional and retail enthusiasm for regulated trading in predictions and tokenized assets. Coinbase has yet to officially confirm the launches but is expected to reveal details during a livestreamed event on the launch date.
The sector is facing increasing regulatory scrutiny at both state and federal levels, particularly regarding election betting. Some states have issued bans, and lawmakers have introduced legislation to prohibit political wagering, citing concerns about corruption and the integrity of democratic processes. Federal oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission plays a critical role, as demonstrated by Polymarket’s temporary market exit and return under CFTC approval. In response to regulatory complexity, several crypto and fintech firms, including Coinbase, Kalshi, and Crypto.com, have formed the Coalition for Prediction Markets to advocate for federally supervised, transparent access and consistent rules across the U.S., aiming to protect consumers and ensure market integrity. Source
A bug in Ethereum’s Prysm client, introduced a month before the Fusaka upgrade, caused network participation to drop to 75% and led to validators losing roughly 382 ETH in attestation rewards. The issue arose when Prysm nodes experienced resource exhaustion processing attestations from out-of-sync nodes, forcing them to replay past epoch blocks and recompute state transitions, creating a massive computational burden. Although the bug had been present on testnets, it had not been triggered until the mainnet incident on December 4. Temporary fixes were deployed while developers released a patch for the Prysm client to resolve the problem.
The incident was mitigated by Ethereum’s client diversity, preventing a more severe network disruption. Prysm holds a 17.6% market share, while Lighthouse, the dominant client, has 52.6%, making it dangerously close to a threshold where a single client bug could affect finality. The episode underscores the importance of diversified clients to maintain network stability and reduce the risk of widespread outages, prompting Ethereum developers to continue advocating for broader client adoption to strengthen resilience. Source
A recently discovered vulnerability in the React JavaScript library has been exploited by hackers to inject crypto drainers into websites, enabling unauthorized wallet access and theft. The security flaw, CVE-2025-55182, allows unauthenticated remote code execution, letting attackers run malicious scripts on affected sites. Cybersecurity group Security Alliance (SEAL) reported a surge in attacks targeting legitimate crypto platforms, as well as general websites, emphasizing that users should exercise caution when signing any wallet transactions. Wallet drainers typically trick users into authorizing transactions through deceptive prompts or pop-ups.
Website operators are advised to immediately inspect front-end code for suspicious assets, obfuscated scripts, and unauthorized external hosts. The React team released a patch on December 3 for react-server-dom-webpack, react-server-dom-parcel, and react-server-dom-turbopack, urging users to upgrade to close the vulnerability. Applications not using a server or frameworks supporting React Server Components are not affected, but the incident highlights the broader risk to web applications and the importance of promptly applying security updates to prevent exploitation. Source
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
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