As crypto platforms explore prediction market integrations, retention data highlights why sustaining user engagement remains one of the industry’s most challenging tasks. While attracting new users may not be a core challenge for crypto, keeping them active beyond the first month is far more difficult, and data from prediction markets is spotlighting the issue. Polymarket retention data, compiled by analytics company Dune and market maker Keyrock, tracked monthly cohorts of new active users and measured the number of users who returned to trade in subsequent months. According to the report, which sampled 275 crypto projects spanning networks, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, wallets and trading apps, Polymarket’s average retention outperformed over 85% of protocols. Read more
Bitcoin buying power from institutions flipped the daily mined BTC supply for the first time since the start of November, new data showed. Bitcoin (BTC) institutional demand is finally outpacing new supply as the market hits a key pivot point. Key points: Bitcoin institutional demand is now 13% higher than the amount of newly mined BTC on a rolling daily basis. Read more
KuCoin is using a freshly minted MiCA license to wire crypto payments and perks into Tomorrowland’s flagship festivals. KuCoin announced an exclusive multiyear deal with Tomorrowland Winter and Tomorrowland Belgium from 2026 to 2028, making the exchange the music festival’s exclusive crypto and payments partner. The move comes just weeks after KuCoin secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) service provider license in the European Union. KuCoin EU Exchange recently obtained a crypto asset service provider license in Austria under the EU’s MiCA regime, giving it a fully regulated foothold in the bloc as Brussels’ new rulebook for exchanges, custody and stablecoins comes into force. Read more
The proposal seeks a binding social consensus that the funds will never be accessed through future protocol upgrades. The Hyper Foundation proposed a validator vote to formally recognize HYPE tokens held in the Hyperliquid protocol’s Assistance Fund system address as permanently inaccessible, excluding them from the asset’s circulating and total supply. According to the foundation, the Assistance Fund is a protocol-level mechanism embedded in the layer-1 network’s execution. It automatically converts trading fees into HYPE tokens and routes them to a designated system address. At the time of writing, the wallet contains about $1 billion in tokens. The system address was designed without control mechanisms, making the funds irretrievable without a hard fork. “By voting ‘Yes,’ validators agree to treat the Assistance Fund HYPE as burned,” Hyper Foundation wrote. Read more
Speed, which leverages the Bitcoin Lightning Network to facilitate USDT transfers, has secured $8 million from Tether and Ego Death Capital. Stablecoin giant Tether has led an $8 million investment round in Bitcoin startup Speed to support its mission in enabling more enterprise stablecoin payments on the Bitcoin layer-2 Lightning Network. “Speed’s architecture demonstrates how Lightning and stablecoins can operate together to move money at high scale with low fees, strong compliance, and global reach,” Tether said in a statement on Tuesday. “Speed’s execution and adoption signal that Bitcoin-rooted networks are ready for mainstream commerce,” Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino added. Read more
The number of crypto exchange-traded products is going to “accelerate forward at ridiculous speed” in 2026, according to Bitwise researcher Ryan Rasmussen. More than 100 crypto exchange-traded products could launch in quick succession in 2026, following recent guidance from the US securities regulator that drastically reduced the processing times for new funds, according to a Bitwise researcher. “From here we are going to accelerate forward at ridiculous speed,” Bitwise researcher Ryan Rasmussen said during an interview with the Bankless podcast on Tuesday. “We think over 100 crypto-linked ETPs will launch next year; those will be spot crypto, index, equities, smart beta, momentum, all kinds of things,” Rasmussen added. Read more
Canada’s central bank will approve only fiat-backed, high-quality stablecoins to ensure they are “good money” as part of the country’s plan to modernize its financial system. The Bank of Canada has signaled it will only approve high-quality stablecoins tied to central bank currencies to ensure stablecoins serve as “good money” under the country’s upcoming stablecoin regulations, expected in 2026. “We want stablecoins to be good money, like bank notes or money on deposit at banks,” Governor Tiff Macklem told the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. Macklem wants the stablecoins to be pegged at a one-to-one ratio to a central bank currency and backed by “high-quality liquid assets” that can be easily converted into cash. Such assets typically include Treasury bills and government bonds. Read more