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Twenty One Capital shares fall 20% on first trading day
Shares of Twenty One Capital (XXI) — the newest crypto-focused company to go public in the US — slid nearly 20% in their market debut after completing a merger with the SPAC Cantor Equity Partners.
XXI opened at $10.74 on Tuesday, well below the $14.27 closing price of Cantor’s SPAC shares the day before the merger. By Wednesday’s close, the stock had dropped 19.97% to $11.42, though it later saw a modest 2.2% after-hours rebound to $11.67, giving the company a market cap of roughly $4 billion.
The listing was among the most anticipated crypto debuts of the year, backed by major players including Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank Japan. Jack Mallers — the founder and CEO of Bitcoin payments firm Strike — now also serves as CEO of Twenty One. The company holds over 43,500 BTC valued at more than $4 billion, ranking as the third-largest public Bitcoin holder behind MARA Holdings, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
Despite its sizable Bitcoin treasury, Mallers insists Twenty One “is not a treasury company.” He told CNBC the firm is building a real operating business and plans to roll out Bitcoin-related products across brokerage, exchange, credit, and lending — aiming to generate cash flow. Mallers declined to provide specifics, saying more details will come “sooner rather than later.”
The US has seen a wave of “crypto treasury” companies this year, following a model centered on buying, holding, and raising capital to accumulate more crypto. These firms drew strong investor interest during Bitcoin’s surge in October, but the recent market downturn has weighed heavily on their share prices.
Mallers, however, believes the company’s leadership and conviction in Bitcoin will help carry Twenty One through. “We see Bitcoin as the forest through the trees,” he said. “The story of this equity is to focus solely on Bitcoin and deliver value to shareholders primarily through Bitcoin.”
Shares of Twenty One Capital (XXI) — the newest crypto-focused company to go public in the US — slid nearly 20% in their market debut after completing a merger with the SPAC Cantor Equity Partners.
XXI opened at $10.74 on Tuesday, well below the $14.27 closing price of Cantor’s SPAC shares the day before the merger. By Wednesday’s close, the stock had dropped 19.97% to $11.42, though it later saw a modest 2.2% after-hours rebound to $11.67, giving the company a market cap of roughly $4 billion.
The listing was among the most anticipated crypto debuts of the year, backed by major players including Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank Japan. Jack Mallers — the founder and CEO of Bitcoin payments firm Strike — now also serves as CEO of Twenty One. The company holds over 43,500 BTC valued at more than $4 billion, ranking as the third-largest public Bitcoin holder behind MARA Holdings, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
Despite its sizable Bitcoin treasury, Mallers insists Twenty One “is not a treasury company.” He told CNBC the firm is building a real operating business and plans to roll out Bitcoin-related products across brokerage, exchange, credit, and lending — aiming to generate cash flow. Mallers declined to provide specifics, saying more details will come “sooner rather than later.”
The US has seen a wave of “crypto treasury” companies this year, following a model centered on buying, holding, and raising capital to accumulate more crypto. These firms drew strong investor interest during Bitcoin’s surge in October, but the recent market downturn has weighed heavily on their share prices.
Mallers, however, believes the company’s leadership and conviction in Bitcoin will help carry Twenty One through. “We see Bitcoin as the forest through the trees,” he said. “The story of this equity is to focus solely on Bitcoin and deliver value to shareholders primarily through Bitcoin.”
KindlyMD secures 210M USDT loan from Kraken to repay Antalpha debt
KindlyMD has closed a new 210 million USDT loan facility with Kraken, according to an 8-K filing submitted to the SEC. The one-year loan, carrying an 8% annual fee, is fully secured by at least $323.4 million worth of bitcoin.
The company said the proceeds will be used to fully repay its outstanding loan with Antalpha, ending their financing relationship and shifting its borrowing to Kraken. The bitcoin collateral is held by Kraken-affiliated Payward Financial under a three-party account control agreement.
Formerly a healthcare firm, KindlyMD merged with Nakamoto Holdings in August to focus on operating a bitcoin treasury vehicle. As of mid-November, the company held 5,389 BTC after deploying part of its stack for investments. NAKA shares closed up 3.5% at $0.47 on Tuesday on Nasdaq.
KindlyMD has closed a new 210 million USDT loan facility with Kraken, according to an 8-K filing submitted to the SEC. The one-year loan, carrying an 8% annual fee, is fully secured by at least $323.4 million worth of bitcoin.
The company said the proceeds will be used to fully repay its outstanding loan with Antalpha, ending their financing relationship and shifting its borrowing to Kraken. The bitcoin collateral is held by Kraken-affiliated Payward Financial under a three-party account control agreement.
Formerly a healthcare firm, KindlyMD merged with Nakamoto Holdings in August to focus on operating a bitcoin treasury vehicle. As of mid-November, the company held 5,389 BTC after deploying part of its stack for investments. NAKA shares closed up 3.5% at $0.47 on Tuesday on Nasdaq.
Binance confirmed that the WeChat account of co-founder and co-CEO Yi He was compromised, with the hacker using it to promote a memecoin scam. The incident quickly stirred concern across the Chinese crypto community.
On-chain data shows the attacker used the hacked account to endorse the meme token $Mubarakah, triggering a 99% price spike to $0.001 within hours on DEXes like PancakeSwap. Before posting the pump message, the hacker used two newly created wallets (0x6739… and 0xD0B8…) to buy a total of 21.16 million $Mubarakah with 19,479 USDT.
As the price surged, the attacker sold 11.95 million tokens for 43,520 USDT, pocketing more than $55,000 in profit, while still holding 9.21 million tokens worth around $31,000.
CZ posted a warning on X confirming the hack, emphasizing that Web2 platforms like WeChat remain vulnerable and are often exploited for social-engineering scams. He urged users not to trust unexpected posts and to stay wary of pump-and-dump schemes driven by hijacked identities.
On-chain data shows the attacker used the hacked account to endorse the meme token $Mubarakah, triggering a 99% price spike to $0.001 within hours on DEXes like PancakeSwap. Before posting the pump message, the hacker used two newly created wallets (0x6739… and 0xD0B8…) to buy a total of 21.16 million $Mubarakah with 19,479 USDT.
As the price surged, the attacker sold 11.95 million tokens for 43,520 USDT, pocketing more than $55,000 in profit, while still holding 9.21 million tokens worth around $31,000.
CZ posted a warning on X confirming the hack, emphasizing that Web2 platforms like WeChat remain vulnerable and are often exploited for social-engineering scams. He urged users not to trust unexpected posts and to stay wary of pump-and-dump schemes driven by hijacked identities.
The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), a $1.25 billion fund tracking the 10 largest digital assets, has received SEC approval to begin trading as an exchange-traded product (ETP) on NYSE Arca. This marks the second U.S. multi-asset crypto index to obtain full ETP status after Grayscale’s approval in July.
BITW offers diversified exposure to leading cryptocurrencies—such as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP—and is rebalanced monthly. Bitwise executives called the approval a “watershed moment,” noting it aligns crypto index products with traditional commodity-style ETPs and may accelerate institutional adoption.
BITW offers diversified exposure to leading cryptocurrencies—such as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP—and is rebalanced monthly. Bitwise executives called the approval a “watershed moment,” noting it aligns crypto index products with traditional commodity-style ETPs and may accelerate institutional adoption.
JPMorgan says Bitcoin and the broader crypto market remain fundamentally strong despite the recent downturn. The bank sees no signs of an impending “crypto winter,” even though Bitcoin has fallen 9% year-to-date and overall trading volumes have weakened. Stablecoins continue to show resilience, marking their 17th consecutive month of growth. JPMorgan also notes that Bitcoin’s traditional four-year market cycles are becoming less relevant. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has cut its 2025 Bitcoin forecast to $100,000 but maintains the view that “crypto winters” are now a thing of the past.
AFT urges Senate to drop crypto bill over pension-risk concerns
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has sent a letter urging Senate leaders to abandon the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, warning that the bill would weaken investor protections and expose workers’ pension funds to significant risks.
AFT said the proposal could dismantle long-standing safeguards that apply to traditional securities, allowing tokenized stocks to trade without registration or reporting under current regulations. In the letter, President Randi Weingarten stressed that the bill “strips away the few remaining protections” governing digital assets and places working families at unnecessary economic risk.
The warning comes as negotiations over the Senate’s crypto market-structure bill grow increasingly contentious, with industry groups split and lawmakers signaling that the draft’s prospects are fading. Several Democratic lawmakers — including Cory Booker — said the bill’s chances have dimmed further amid the possibility that the Supreme Court could allow President Trump to fire SEC and CFTC commissioners at will, undermining the bill’s regulatory foundation.
As lawmakers continue to negotiate, industry groups are also fracturing over how to regulate DeFi, the extent of government visibility into peer-to-peer transactions, and what compromises are acceptable to advance legislation. Some groups have even declared they would rather see no bill at all than accept provisions they consider untenable.
The Responsible Financial Innovation Act is currently the Senate’s primary proposal for defining regulatory boundaries between the SEC and CFTC, while establishing a federal framework for exchanges, brokers, custodians, and token issuers. However, shifting political dynamics and legal uncertainty have left the bill’s path forward unclear.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has sent a letter urging Senate leaders to abandon the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, warning that the bill would weaken investor protections and expose workers’ pension funds to significant risks.
AFT said the proposal could dismantle long-standing safeguards that apply to traditional securities, allowing tokenized stocks to trade without registration or reporting under current regulations. In the letter, President Randi Weingarten stressed that the bill “strips away the few remaining protections” governing digital assets and places working families at unnecessary economic risk.
The warning comes as negotiations over the Senate’s crypto market-structure bill grow increasingly contentious, with industry groups split and lawmakers signaling that the draft’s prospects are fading. Several Democratic lawmakers — including Cory Booker — said the bill’s chances have dimmed further amid the possibility that the Supreme Court could allow President Trump to fire SEC and CFTC commissioners at will, undermining the bill’s regulatory foundation.
As lawmakers continue to negotiate, industry groups are also fracturing over how to regulate DeFi, the extent of government visibility into peer-to-peer transactions, and what compromises are acceptable to advance legislation. Some groups have even declared they would rather see no bill at all than accept provisions they consider untenable.
The Responsible Financial Innovation Act is currently the Senate’s primary proposal for defining regulatory boundaries between the SEC and CFTC, while establishing a federal framework for exchanges, brokers, custodians, and token issuers. However, shifting political dynamics and legal uncertainty have left the bill’s path forward unclear.
A hacker stole over $440,000 in USDC after tricking a wallet owner into signing a malicious “permit” signature. The incident comes amid a surge in phishing-related losses, which reached $7.77 million across more than 6,000 victims in November. Permit scams rely on deceiving users into authorizing transactions that quietly grant attackers permission to spend their ERC-20 tokens.
While major wallet providers like MetaMask have introduced new security warnings and clearer transaction prompts, attackers continue to evolve their methods. Experts emphasize that users must carefully review what they are signing, as stolen funds are almost never recoverable.
While major wallet providers like MetaMask have introduced new security warnings and clearer transaction prompts, attackers continue to evolve their methods. Experts emphasize that users must carefully review what they are signing, as stolen funds are almost never recoverable.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins says many types of crypto ICOs are outside the agency’s purview
SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated on Tuesday that many types of ICOs (initial coin offerings) should be considered non-securities transactions and therefore fall outside the jurisdiction of the Wall Street regulator.
“That’s what we want to encourage,” Atkins said at the Blockchain Association’s annual policy summit, responding to a question from CoinPhoton. “Those kinds of activities would not, as we define it, fall under the definition of a security.”
Atkins referred specifically to a token taxonomy he introduced last month, which divides the crypto industry into four general token categories. Of these, he argued that three—network tokens, digital collectibles, and digital tools—should not be considered securities on their own.
On Tuesday, he emphasized that ICOs involving these three token categories should also be regarded as non-security transactions, meaning they would not be regulated by the SEC.
The only type of token that Atkins believes the SEC should regulate in the context of ICOs is tokenized securities—representations of already regulated securities that are traded on-chain.
“ICOs cross all four categories,” Atkins said. “Three of those fall under the CFTC’s jurisdiction, so we’ll let them handle that, while we focus on tokenized securities.”
High-leveraged crypto ETF applications on hold after SEC warnings
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued warnings to issuers of high-leveraged exchange-traded funds, including proposed crypto ETFs, citing potential risks. In letters sent Tuesday, the regulator paused reviews of these funds until the issuers addressed the concerns. SEC reviews ETF applications before they begin trading on stock exchanges and warned a total of nine issuers, including ProShares, which already offers leveraged ETFs.
This development could create a significant opportunity for companies looking to raise funds by issuing tokens and selling them to investors and the public.
ICOs were extremely popular during the 2017 crypto boom until the SEC, under President Donald Trump, cracked down on the fundraising method by suing multiple ICO issuers for selling unregistered securities.
Atkins’ comments on Tuesday suggest that the trend could make a comeback, with or without a crypto market structure bill. Under the SEC chair’s proposed taxonomy, most crypto tokens would likely not be regulated by the SEC but instead fall under the CFTC, which takes a more hands-off approach—similar to many ICOs with comparable structures, according to Atkins.
Tokens Atkins considers non-securities include those linked to decentralized blockchain networks; those referencing internet memes, characters, current events, or trends; and tokens providing a practical function like tickets or memberships.
As such, these tokens could soon be considered eligible for ICOs. In July, Atkins said the SEC’s “Project Crypto” initiative could also pave the way for ICOs through agency exemptions and safe harbors.
Although the pending Senate crypto market structure bill would formalize the ICO process, industry leaders appear to be moving ahead with related projects, regardless of legislation.
Last month, Coinbase launched a platform for ICOs after acquiring the crypto fundraising and token launch platform Echo for $375 million in October. Tokens issued through this platform are now available to U.S. retail investors.
“That’s what we want to encourage,” Atkins said at the Blockchain Association’s annual policy summit, responding to a question from CoinPhoton. “Those kinds of activities would not, as we define it, fall under the definition of a security.”
Atkins referred specifically to a token taxonomy he introduced last month, which divides the crypto industry into four general token categories. Of these, he argued that three—network tokens, digital collectibles, and digital tools—should not be considered securities on their own.
On Tuesday, he emphasized that ICOs involving these three token categories should also be regarded as non-security transactions, meaning they would not be regulated by the SEC.
The only type of token that Atkins believes the SEC should regulate in the context of ICOs is tokenized securities—representations of already regulated securities that are traded on-chain.
“ICOs cross all four categories,” Atkins said. “Three of those fall under the CFTC’s jurisdiction, so we’ll let them handle that, while we focus on tokenized securities.”
High-leveraged crypto ETF applications on hold after SEC warnings
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued warnings to issuers of high-leveraged exchange-traded funds, including proposed crypto ETFs, citing potential risks. In letters sent Tuesday, the regulator paused reviews of these funds until the issuers addressed the concerns. SEC reviews ETF applications before they begin trading on stock exchanges and warned a total of nine issuers, including ProShares, which already offers leveraged ETFs.
This development could create a significant opportunity for companies looking to raise funds by issuing tokens and selling them to investors and the public.
ICOs were extremely popular during the 2017 crypto boom until the SEC, under President Donald Trump, cracked down on the fundraising method by suing multiple ICO issuers for selling unregistered securities.
Atkins’ comments on Tuesday suggest that the trend could make a comeback, with or without a crypto market structure bill. Under the SEC chair’s proposed taxonomy, most crypto tokens would likely not be regulated by the SEC but instead fall under the CFTC, which takes a more hands-off approach—similar to many ICOs with comparable structures, according to Atkins.
Tokens Atkins considers non-securities include those linked to decentralized blockchain networks; those referencing internet memes, characters, current events, or trends; and tokens providing a practical function like tickets or memberships.
As such, these tokens could soon be considered eligible for ICOs. In July, Atkins said the SEC’s “Project Crypto” initiative could also pave the way for ICOs through agency exemptions and safe harbors.
Although the pending Senate crypto market structure bill would formalize the ICO process, industry leaders appear to be moving ahead with related projects, regardless of legislation.
Last month, Coinbase launched a platform for ICOs after acquiring the crypto fundraising and token launch platform Echo for $375 million in October. Tokens issued through this platform are now available to U.S. retail investors.
Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox has joined Zcash treasury firm Cypherpunk Technologies as a strategic advisor, driving the company’s stock up nearly 40% on Tuesday.
Wilcox will guide Cypherpunk in developing self-sovereign digital systems focused on privacy and freedom. The firm holds 233,644 ZEC, valued at around $100 million, emphasizing user-controlled privacy as a fundamental societal building block.
Zcash has rebounded over the past three months, rising from about $50 per coin in early September to a peak above $700 in November, then dipping to nearly $300 in early December, and recently trading around $430.
Wilcox will guide Cypherpunk in developing self-sovereign digital systems focused on privacy and freedom. The firm holds 233,644 ZEC, valued at around $100 million, emphasizing user-controlled privacy as a fundamental societal building block.
Zcash has rebounded over the past three months, rising from about $50 per coin in early September to a peak above $700 in November, then dipping to nearly $300 in early December, and recently trading around $430.
Octra, a privacy-focused blockchain project, will hold a $20 million public token sale on Sonar starting December 18, 2025, at a $200 million valuation. The ICO will sell 10% of OCT tokens at a fixed-price, pro-rata format, with any unsold tokens burned.
Octra has developed fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology from scratch, allowing computations on encrypted data, competing with other FHE projects like Zama. Its network functions as a standalone Layer 1 and a decentralized co-processor for Ethereum and Solana, providing on-demand privacy for DeFi, AI, and sensitive data use cases.
Octra’s testnet processed over 100 million transactions across 1.5 million accounts with peak throughput of 17,000 TPS. Mainnet will launch before the ICO, with developer tools and Ethereum/Solana integrations planned for Q1 2026.
Octra Labs is based in Zug, Switzerland, with a 17-member team including former VK/Telegram developers. All tokens distributed via Sonar will remain encrypted unless buyers choose to decrypt, ensuring maximum privacy through FHE.
Octra has developed fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology from scratch, allowing computations on encrypted data, competing with other FHE projects like Zama. Its network functions as a standalone Layer 1 and a decentralized co-processor for Ethereum and Solana, providing on-demand privacy for DeFi, AI, and sensitive data use cases.
Octra’s testnet processed over 100 million transactions across 1.5 million accounts with peak throughput of 17,000 TPS. Mainnet will launch before the ICO, with developer tools and Ethereum/Solana integrations planned for Q1 2026.
Octra Labs is based in Zug, Switzerland, with a 17-member team including former VK/Telegram developers. All tokens distributed via Sonar will remain encrypted unless buyers choose to decrypt, ensuring maximum privacy through FHE.
Coinbase announced that spot trading for Hyperlane (HYPER) will go live on December 10, 2025, with the HYPER-USD pair opening after 9 AM PT if liquidity conditions are met. Hyperlane provides developers with cross-chain messaging via on-chain APIs, enabling data transfer across different blockchains.
Earlier, Coinbase launched spot trading for Humidifi (WET) on December 9, 2025, with the WET-USD pair opening once liquidity conditions are satisfied. Humidifi is a Solana-based AMM DEX.
Earlier, Coinbase launched spot trading for Humidifi (WET) on December 9, 2025, with the WET-USD pair opening once liquidity conditions are satisfied. Humidifi is a Solana-based AMM DEX.
Major U.S. tech companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Block have launched the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation to create open standards for agentic AI.
The foundation’s core projects include Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), OpenAI’s AGENTS.md, and Block’s Goose framework. Platinum members—Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft—highlight broad industry alignment on neutral governance.
Anthropic contributed MCP, enabling AI to use tools creatively beyond API calls. OpenAI provided AGENTS.md, used in 60,000 repositories, while Block added the local-first Goose framework.
The foundation emerges as China accelerates open-source AI adoption, pushing U.S. tech giants to collaborate to stay competitive.
Other members include Cisco, Datadog, Docker, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Snowflake, Twilio (Gold), and Hugging Face, Uber, SUSE (Silver).
Linux Foundation emphasizes the initiative’s flexible, vendor-neutral governance, helping U.S. companies avoid reliance on Chinese open-source models while fostering a global open-source AI ecosystem.
The foundation’s core projects include Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), OpenAI’s AGENTS.md, and Block’s Goose framework. Platinum members—Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft—highlight broad industry alignment on neutral governance.
Anthropic contributed MCP, enabling AI to use tools creatively beyond API calls. OpenAI provided AGENTS.md, used in 60,000 repositories, while Block added the local-first Goose framework.
The foundation emerges as China accelerates open-source AI adoption, pushing U.S. tech giants to collaborate to stay competitive.
Other members include Cisco, Datadog, Docker, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Snowflake, Twilio (Gold), and Hugging Face, Uber, SUSE (Silver).
Linux Foundation emphasizes the initiative’s flexible, vendor-neutral governance, helping U.S. companies avoid reliance on Chinese open-source models while fostering a global open-source AI ecosystem.
Vitalik Buterin highlights major progress in Ethereum’s P2P networking
Vitalik Buterin said he had long criticized the Ethereum Foundation for lacking strong expertise in P2P networking — a model in which nodes connect and exchange data directly with each other without relying on a central server. In blockchain systems, the P2P layer is what ensures that transactions and blocks propagate quickly and consistently across the network, maintaining decentralization and resilience even when some nodes fail.
According to Buterin, Ethereum spent years over-emphasizing cryptoeconomics, BFT consensus and block-layer engineering while underestimating the importance of the P2P layer — the foundation that keeps the entire system running smoothly. But he said this has now changed.
He pointed to the strong performance of PeerDAS as evidence, praising @raulvk and Ethereum Foundation contributors for their “heroic” efforts in getting the system operational. Buterin added that Ethereum’s updated roadmap prioritizes faster data propagation, stronger network resilience, and parallel improvements to network-layer privacy.
Vitalik Buterin said he had long criticized the Ethereum Foundation for lacking strong expertise in P2P networking — a model in which nodes connect and exchange data directly with each other without relying on a central server. In blockchain systems, the P2P layer is what ensures that transactions and blocks propagate quickly and consistently across the network, maintaining decentralization and resilience even when some nodes fail.
According to Buterin, Ethereum spent years over-emphasizing cryptoeconomics, BFT consensus and block-layer engineering while underestimating the importance of the P2P layer — the foundation that keeps the entire system running smoothly. But he said this has now changed.
He pointed to the strong performance of PeerDAS as evidence, praising @raulvk and Ethereum Foundation contributors for their “heroic” efforts in getting the system operational. Buterin added that Ethereum’s updated roadmap prioritizes faster data propagation, stronger network resilience, and parallel improvements to network-layer privacy.
Bitcoin’s price appears stable ahead of the Federal Reserve’s final policy meeting of the year, but on-chain data reveals significant underlying stress. Investors are realizing nearly $500 million in daily losses, leverage in futures markets has sharply declined, and about 6.5 million BTC are currently at an unrealized loss. These conditions resemble the late stages of past market contractions.
The timing coincides with a major shift in U.S. monetary policy. The Fed formally ended Quantitative Tightening on December 1, after reducing its balance sheet by $2.4 trillion. Bank reserves are now near historically tight levels, and the market expects guidance on the transition to Reserve Management Purchases (RMP)—a program that could start as early as January 2026 and inject around $35 billion per month, equivalent to more than $400 billion in annual reserve expansion.
If Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirms the start of reserve rebuilding, Bitcoin could quickly respond to improving liquidity conditions. A breakout above $92,000–$93,500 would signal positioning for expansion. Without clarity on RMP, Bitcoin may remain or retreat toward the $75,000–$82,000 support zone.
Internally, Bitcoin shows signs of capitulation: short-term holders are selling into weakness, mining margins are shrinking, and difficulty has seen its sharpest drop since 2025. Yet large wallets have accumulated 45,000 BTC in one week, exchange balances continue to fall, and stablecoin inflows suggest capital is preparing to re-enter. Bitwise data shows the market reaching a near-equilibrium between profits and losses, a pattern typical near durable market floors.
Technically, Bitcoin is trapped between two key ranges: a breakout above $93,500 could trigger momentum toward $100,000+, while a cautious Fed could push the asset back toward the lower consolidation band. Cross-asset behavior—especially Bitcoin’s inverse trading with gold—highlights how sensitive markets are to liquidity expectations rather than risk sentiment.
The timing coincides with a major shift in U.S. monetary policy. The Fed formally ended Quantitative Tightening on December 1, after reducing its balance sheet by $2.4 trillion. Bank reserves are now near historically tight levels, and the market expects guidance on the transition to Reserve Management Purchases (RMP)—a program that could start as early as January 2026 and inject around $35 billion per month, equivalent to more than $400 billion in annual reserve expansion.
If Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirms the start of reserve rebuilding, Bitcoin could quickly respond to improving liquidity conditions. A breakout above $92,000–$93,500 would signal positioning for expansion. Without clarity on RMP, Bitcoin may remain or retreat toward the $75,000–$82,000 support zone.
Internally, Bitcoin shows signs of capitulation: short-term holders are selling into weakness, mining margins are shrinking, and difficulty has seen its sharpest drop since 2025. Yet large wallets have accumulated 45,000 BTC in one week, exchange balances continue to fall, and stablecoin inflows suggest capital is preparing to re-enter. Bitwise data shows the market reaching a near-equilibrium between profits and losses, a pattern typical near durable market floors.
Technically, Bitcoin is trapped between two key ranges: a breakout above $93,500 could trigger momentum toward $100,000+, while a cautious Fed could push the asset back toward the lower consolidation band. Cross-asset behavior—especially Bitcoin’s inverse trading with gold—highlights how sensitive markets are to liquidity expectations rather than risk sentiment.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that 22-year-old Evan Tangeman has pleaded guilty to laundering over $3.5 million for a social engineering syndicate that stole 4,100 BTC worth $263 million. The group — consisting of hackers, target identifiers, callers, and residential burglars — used stolen databases to locate high-value victims, gained access to their accounts, and spent the stolen crypto on luxury goods and services. Tangeman helped convert the stolen crypto into cash and used fake identities to secure rental properties. He is scheduled for sentencing on April 24, 2026. The court also unsealed a new superseding indictment charging three additional suspects.
Polymarket volumes may be overstated due to a data bug, Paradigm researcher says
Trading activity and volume reported for prediction market Polymarket may be significantly overstated due to a “data bug,” according to Paradigm researcher Storm.
Storm said that most major dashboards have been double-counting Polymarket’s on-chain volume, as each trade emits redundant “OrderFilled” events — one for makers and another for takers. These represent the same trade, but many dashboards have aggregated them as separate events.
The bug inflates both notional and cashflow volume metrics. This discovery could undermine Polymarket’s perceived growth, especially as ICE recently valued the platform at $9 billion based on $25 billion in trading volume, a figure that may now be questioned.
Storm noted that dashboards such as DefiLlama, Allium, Blockworks and many Dune dashboards have been double-counting Polymarket’s volume.
Trading activity and volume reported for prediction market Polymarket may be significantly overstated due to a “data bug,” according to Paradigm researcher Storm.
Storm said that most major dashboards have been double-counting Polymarket’s on-chain volume, as each trade emits redundant “OrderFilled” events — one for makers and another for takers. These represent the same trade, but many dashboards have aggregated them as separate events.
The bug inflates both notional and cashflow volume metrics. This discovery could undermine Polymarket’s perceived growth, especially as ICE recently valued the platform at $9 billion based on $25 billion in trading volume, a figure that may now be questioned.
Storm noted that dashboards such as DefiLlama, Allium, Blockworks and many Dune dashboards have been double-counting Polymarket’s volume.
A San Jose widow, Margaret Loke, lost nearly $1 million in a sophisticated “pig-butchering” scam that blended online romance manipulation with fake crypto investments. She met a man calling himself “Ed” on Facebook, who quickly moved their conversations to WhatsApp. There, he sent daily affectionate messages, slowly building emotional trust before steering her into a fraudulent crypto investment platform he controlled.
Believing she was earning large returns, Loke made a series of escalating transfers — starting with $15,000 and eventually wiring nearly $1 million, including her retirement savings and a second mortgage on her home. When her supposed crypto account suddenly “froze” and “Ed” demanded another $1 million to unlock the funds, she turned to ChatGPT for advice.
ChatGPT immediately flagged the situation as a scam, prompting Loke to confront the man and contact police. Investigators later confirmed that her money had been routed to a bank in Malaysia and withdrawn by scammers.
Her case reflects a broader surge in pig-butchering scams, which cost American seniors an estimated $9.3 billion in 2024. Authorities warn that recovering funds sent to overseas scam networks is extremely rare, leaving victims like Loke with almost no recourse.
Believing she was earning large returns, Loke made a series of escalating transfers — starting with $15,000 and eventually wiring nearly $1 million, including her retirement savings and a second mortgage on her home. When her supposed crypto account suddenly “froze” and “Ed” demanded another $1 million to unlock the funds, she turned to ChatGPT for advice.
ChatGPT immediately flagged the situation as a scam, prompting Loke to confront the man and contact police. Investigators later confirmed that her money had been routed to a bank in Malaysia and withdrawn by scammers.
Her case reflects a broader surge in pig-butchering scams, which cost American seniors an estimated $9.3 billion in 2024. Authorities warn that recovering funds sent to overseas scam networks is extremely rare, leaving victims like Loke with almost no recourse.
Yearn Finance reveals numerical flaw behind $9 million “infinite-mint” yETH exploit
Yearn Finance has published an in-depth post-mortem detailing how last week’s yETH exploit occurred, attributing the incident to a numerical bug in an outdated weighted-stableswap pool. The flaw enabled the attacker to mint an effectively unlimited amount of yETH LP tokens and drain approximately $9 million worth of assets from multiple linked liquidity pools.
According to Yearn’s breakdown, the attack unfolded in three distinct phases. First, the exploiter submitted extremely imbalanced liquidity deposits, pushing the pool’s fixed-point solver into an unintended operating zone. This caused a critical internal product value (Π) to collapse to zero, breaking the pool’s invariant and allowing substantial over-minting of LP tokens relative to the attacker’s actual deposit value.
In the second phase, the attacker repeatedly invoked remove_liquidity and related functions, using the over-minted LP tokens to withdraw nearly all liquid staking token (LST) liquidity from the pool. Much of the cost of the over-mint was offloaded onto protocol-owned liquidity, driving the pool’s internal supply to zero while ERC-20 token balances remained.
The final phase exploited a bootstrap initialization path meant only for the pool’s first deployment. By submitting a crafted “dust” configuration that violated key domain conditions, the attacker triggered an unsafe subtraction operation, causing an arithmetic underflow that minted an enormous—effectively infinite—quantity of yETH LP tokens. These were then used to drain the linked yETH/ETH Curve pool.
Yearn confirmed that 857.49 pxETH has been recovered so far, in coordination with Plume and Dinero, with recovered funds to be distributed pro rata to yETH depositors based on balances immediately prior to the exploit. Additional funds may also be retrieved through continued tracing efforts.
The post-mortem reiterates that yETH operates under YIP-72 with a “Use at Own Risk” disclaimer, meaning Yearn contributors and YFI governance are not liable for any reimbursement. However, all assets recovered will be returned to affected users.
To prevent similar incidents, Yearn outlined a remediation plan that includes stricter domain validation on the solver, treating Π = 0 as a fatal error, replacing unsafe arithmetic with checked math, and permanently disabling bootstrap logic once a pool is launched. The team will also enhance its testing framework through more aggressive invariant-based fuzzing, adversarial numerical testing, and differential comparison against off-chain models.
Yearn credited ChainSecurity for supporting the root-cause analysis and SEAL 911 for assisting in the response and asset recovery. Technical investigations and monitoring of attacker-linked transactions remain ongoing.
According to Yearn’s breakdown, the attack unfolded in three distinct phases. First, the exploiter submitted extremely imbalanced liquidity deposits, pushing the pool’s fixed-point solver into an unintended operating zone. This caused a critical internal product value (Π) to collapse to zero, breaking the pool’s invariant and allowing substantial over-minting of LP tokens relative to the attacker’s actual deposit value.
In the second phase, the attacker repeatedly invoked remove_liquidity and related functions, using the over-minted LP tokens to withdraw nearly all liquid staking token (LST) liquidity from the pool. Much of the cost of the over-mint was offloaded onto protocol-owned liquidity, driving the pool’s internal supply to zero while ERC-20 token balances remained.
The final phase exploited a bootstrap initialization path meant only for the pool’s first deployment. By submitting a crafted “dust” configuration that violated key domain conditions, the attacker triggered an unsafe subtraction operation, causing an arithmetic underflow that minted an enormous—effectively infinite—quantity of yETH LP tokens. These were then used to drain the linked yETH/ETH Curve pool.
Yearn confirmed that 857.49 pxETH has been recovered so far, in coordination with Plume and Dinero, with recovered funds to be distributed pro rata to yETH depositors based on balances immediately prior to the exploit. Additional funds may also be retrieved through continued tracing efforts.
The post-mortem reiterates that yETH operates under YIP-72 with a “Use at Own Risk” disclaimer, meaning Yearn contributors and YFI governance are not liable for any reimbursement. However, all assets recovered will be returned to affected users.
To prevent similar incidents, Yearn outlined a remediation plan that includes stricter domain validation on the solver, treating Π = 0 as a fatal error, replacing unsafe arithmetic with checked math, and permanently disabling bootstrap logic once a pool is launched. The team will also enhance its testing framework through more aggressive invariant-based fuzzing, adversarial numerical testing, and differential comparison against off-chain models.
Yearn credited ChainSecurity for supporting the root-cause analysis and SEAL 911 for assisting in the response and asset recovery. Technical investigations and monitoring of attacker-linked transactions remain ongoing.
HashKey Holdings has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, offering 240.57 million shares as the city expands its regulated crypto market. The filing shows HK$29.0 billion in staking assets and HK$7.8 billion in assets under management, alongside widening multi-year losses. The listing is set to gauge market appetite for licensed digital-asset platforms as Hong Kong deepens its regulatory push. Final pricing is due on December 16, with trading to begin on December 17 under stock code 3887.
The SEC has officially closed its years-long investigation into Ondo Finance’s tokenization activities and the ONDO token without filing any charges. The probe began under the Biden administration during a period of heightened regulatory scrutiny over digital-asset firms. Ondo said it fully cooperated throughout the process and maintained that it was not a justified enforcement target, emphasizing its focus on regulated financial products backed by highly secure traditional assets.
ONDO’s price rose modestly on the news, although it remains significantly below last year’s peak. Ondo now issues more than 100 tokenized assets, with its short-term U.S. Treasuries fund reaching $774 million.
The article also highlights how the SEC’s stance has shifted since Gary Gensler’s departure and the appointment of Paul Atkins, who is seen as more crypto-friendly. Under the new leadership, the SEC has withdrawn more than a dozen investigations and lawsuits. Tokenization is now part of the agency’s formal agenda, with Nasdaq and Commissioner Hester Peirce advocating for clearer regulatory frameworks.
ONDO’s price rose modestly on the news, although it remains significantly below last year’s peak. Ondo now issues more than 100 tokenized assets, with its short-term U.S. Treasuries fund reaching $774 million.
The article also highlights how the SEC’s stance has shifted since Gary Gensler’s departure and the appointment of Paul Atkins, who is seen as more crypto-friendly. Under the new leadership, the SEC has withdrawn more than a dozen investigations and lawsuits. Tokenization is now part of the agency’s formal agenda, with Nasdaq and Commissioner Hester Peirce advocating for clearer regulatory frameworks.
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