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Found 6874 news

  • Binance mulls new US strategy, CZ potentially reducing stake: Report
    Cointelegraph.com - 18:50 Dec 17, 2025
    Binance exited the United States in 2019, and a separate company, Binance.US, has been serving US customers since that time. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is considering a strategic reshuffling to strengthen its presence in the US market, a move that could see Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s majority stake in the company reduced. Zhao’s controlling stake in Binance has been a “major hurdle” to the company expanding to strategically critical US states, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Although no concrete plans have been announced, the conversation surrounding any potential action remains reportedly “fluid.”  The company is also considering partnerships with US-based companies, including asset manager BlackRock and decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is linked to US President Donald Trump, to strengthen its footprint in the country. Read more
    Tags: Binance
  • Silvergate Bank lawsuit calls for FTX, Alameda clients to weigh in on $10M settlement
    Cointelegraph.com - 17:43 Dec 17, 2025
    More than 46,000 claimants could potentially receive a payout from a court-approved settlement involving the FTX-tied Silvergate Bank, which shuttered in 2023. One of the class-action lawsuits filed against the cryptocurrency-friendly Silvergate Bank in California is calling for claimants with ties to FTX or Alameda Research accounts. A group of investors asked Silvergate users who deposited fiat “into an FTX- or Alameda-related account” from 2019 to 2022 to submit claims for a settlement filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. According to the lawsuit, investors have until Jan. 30 to opt out or file a claim as part of a $10 million settlement that “resolves a lawsuit over whether Silvergate Bank, Silvergate Capital Corporation, and Alan J. Lane aided and abetted tortious conduct on the part of FTX, Alameda, and Sam Bankman-Fried.” Read more
  • Bitcoin tags $90K as crypto market spike liquidates $120M shorts
    Cointelegraph.com - 15:56 Dec 17, 2025
    Bitcoin took out liquidity at the Wall Street open as a move above $90,000 was followed by a snap retracement, liquidating late long and short entries. Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $90,000 after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as traders eyed vulnerable short positions. Key points: Bitcoin erases recent losses with a fresh trip to the $90,000 mark. Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • Kyrgyzstan’s USDKG shows how real-asset stablecoins are evolving in emerging markets
    Cointelegraph.com - 15:50 Dec 17, 2025
    Kyrgyzstan’s USDKG blends a USD peg with a gold reserve claim. Here’s what it signals for emerging markets and what to verify next. Kyrgyzstan has launched USDKG, a USD-pegged stablecoin that the project says is backed by physical gold rather than cash and short-term US Treasurys. The token was first deployed on Tron with a reported initial issuance of 50 million units, with plans to expand to Ethereum. This article explains why gold-reserve narratives and state-linked structures can appeal in remittance-heavy emerging markets that still price in dollars. Read more
  • How YouTube’s stablecoin payouts could change creator monetization
    Cointelegraph.com - 14:57 Dec 17, 2025
    YouTube has added an opt-in option allowing eligible US creators to receive payouts in PayPal’s dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD. YouTube isn’t changing how creators earn — only how they get paid. The stablecoin payout runs through PayPal’s existing payout infrastructure, with PayPal converting dollars into PYUSD. The feature positions PYUSD as a digital dollar for settlement and fund transfers. Read more
  • Did Bitcoin's 4-year cycle break, and is the bull market really over?
    Cointelegraph.com - 14:55 Dec 17, 2025
    Bitcoin ETFs, corporate treasuries and macro tailwinds are challenging BTC’s traditional four-year cycle, which could result in new all-time highs in 2026. Key takeaways: ETFs, treasuries and macro tailwinds may snap Bitcoin’s four-year boom-and-bust pattern. A bearish phase should not be ruled out before new all-time highs. Read more
  • Securitize announces ‘real’ tokenized stocks, touts DeFi integration
    Cointelegraph.com - 14:23 Dec 17, 2025
    Securitize plans to launch compliant, natively tokenized stocks in early 2026, enabling real equity ownership to trade 24/7 fully onchain. Securitize, a company focused on tokenizing securities, said Tuesday it plans to launch what it calls the first compliant, onchain trading experience for public stocks that are issued as tokens representing real share ownership. According to the announcement, Securitize’s stock product is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026. The company said the offering is designed to avoid structures that mirror stock prices without conveying ownership, and instead, the tokens “are real, regulated shares: issued onchain, recorded directly on the issuer’s cap table.” It also said trading will be presented in a “swap-style” interface familiar to users of decentralized finance (DeFi). Read more
  • Solana TVL hits $8.6B six-month lows: Is $80 SOL price next?
    Cointelegraph.com - 14:18 Dec 17, 2025
    SOL traded 52% lower than its $255 highs reached on Sept. 18, as onchain data and a bearish pattern suggested that SOL investors risked further losses. Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL), fell 52% from Sept. 18 to Nov. 21, following the broader altcoin market crash that saw Bitcoin hit a seven-month low of $80,000. As a result, SOL price has lost key long-term support levels, with onchain and technical data suggesting a deeper correction below $100. Key takeaways: Solana's total value locked dropped to a six-month low of $8.67 billion.  Read more
    Tags: Solana
  • New protocol targets redemption delays in $20B tokenized market
    Cointelegraph.com - 14:00 Dec 17, 2025
    Uniform Labs’ Multiliquid aims to bridge the gap between tokenized funds and stablecoins, targeting liquidity constraints that have slowed institutional adoption. Uniform Labs, a blockchain infrastructure company founded by veterans of Standard Chartered, has launched a new protocol designed to address persistent liquidity constraints in the emerging tokenization market. Announced on Wednesday, Uniform Labs unveiled Multiliquid, a protocol designed to enable 24/7 conversions between tokenized money market funds and major stablecoins, including USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT). At launch, Multiliquid supports integrations with tokenized Treasury assets issued by Wellington Management and other asset managers, allowing institutional holders to access on-demand liquidity rather than relying on issuer-controlled redemption windows. Read more
  • Former SEC counsel explains what it takes to make RWAs compliant
    Cointelegraph.com - 13:45 Dec 17, 2025
    The SEC’s changing approach to crypto is supporting RWA growth, but jurisdictional and yield constraints continue to limit compliant models. The key constraint on real-world assets (RWAs) has been regulatory engagement rather than technology, and that dynamic has been shifting in the US, said Ashley Ebersole, chief legal officer of Sologenic. Ebersole joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in early 2015, where he served in the agency’s early internal working groups on crypto and the application of securities law to blockchain-based assets. The securities regulator published the DAO Report in 2017, asserting its jurisdiction over tokens that met the definition of securities. What followed was an enforcement-led approach that left little room for sustained dialogue with the industry. Read more
    Tags: RWAs
  • Binance alleges fake listing agents, offers up to $5M whistleblower reward
    Cointelegraph.com - 13:21 Dec 17, 2025
    Binance warned users to avoid token listing agents and offered as much as $5 million to whistleblowers who report listing fraud. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, released a statement on its token listing process, cracking down on third-party involvement. In a Wednesday announcement, Binance outlined the official pathways and requirements for token listings on its platform, emphasizing that projects should never engage with any third-party entities and should apply for listings directly with the exchange. The exchange also identified several individuals and entities falsely claiming to be “Binance listing agents” offering to list on Binance in exchange for payment. Read more
    Tags: Binance
  • Bitcoin miner Hut 8 lands $7B Google-backed AI data center lease
    Cointelegraph.com - 13:07 Dec 17, 2025
    The 15-year agreement anchors Hut 8’s shift toward long-duration AI infrastructure revenue as hyperscalers seek power-first compute capacity. Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease to deliver 245 megawatts of artificial intelligence data center capacity at its River Bend campus in Louisiana, marking one of the biggest infrastructure agreements between a crypto-native company and hyperscale AI demand.  Hut 8 announced on Wednesday that infrastructure provider Fluidstack will lease the capacity, while Google will provide a financial backstop covering lease payments and related obligations over the 15-year base term. This means that Google will cover the payments if Fluidstack is unable to pay the costs. “River Bend reflects the strength of Hut 8’s power-first, innovation-driven development model, validated by the world-class counterparties we are executing alongside,” said Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot, adding that the agreement was a result of disciplined and patient execution. Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • Wall Street’s $4 quadrillion backbone to roll out tokenized US Treasurys
    Cointelegraph.com - 13:00 Dec 17, 2025
    The SEC gave DTCC the green light to launch a tokenization service last week, and the company will be starting by minting US Treasurys on Canton. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation said it is set to bring tokenized US Treasurys onchain, and plans to expand to a “broad spectrum” of assets in the future. The DTCC said on Wednesday that it plans to “enable a subset of US Treasury securities” custodied at its subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company, to be minted on the Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain created by the fintech company Digital Asset. “This collaboration creates a roadmap to bring real-world, high-value tokenization use cases to market, starting with US Treasury securities and eventually expanding to a broad spectrum of DTC-eligible assets across network providers,” said DTCC CEO Frank LaSalla. Read more
  • New Coinbase report points to ‘broken’ traditional finance system: Armstrong
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:53 Dec 17, 2025
    A new Coinbase–Ipsos survey shows younger US investors are trading more often, taking more risk and putting a far larger share of their portfolios into crypto. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says we already know the traditional financial system is broken. Younger people increasingly feel “locked out of the old wealth ladder,” and seek alternative assets like crypto. The numbers in Coinbase’s latest “State of Crypto” report back him up. The study, run by Ipsos in the fourth quarter, finds Gen Z and millennial investors are trading more often, taking more risk, and putting a much bigger slice of their portfolios into crypto and other non‑traditional assets than older generations.​ The survey of 4,350 US adults shows stock ownership is roughly the same across age groups (47% of younger investors versus 50% of older ones), but portfolio composition looks radically different. Read more
  • Solana tests quantum-resistant transactions in new Project Eleven pilot
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:29 Dec 17, 2025
    Solana has partnered with a security company to test quantum-resistant technology on a Solana testnet, claiming to offer a scalable end-to-end solution. The Solana Foundation announced a partnership with Project Eleven, a post-quantum crypto security company, to prepare Solana for the rise of quantum computing. According to a Tuesday announcement, Project Eleven led a full quantum computing threat assessment on Solana and prototyped a functioning Solana testnet using post-quantum digital signatures. The announcement claimed that its testnet implementation showed “end-to-end quantum-resistant transactions are practical and scalable.” This is a notable claim, given that post-quantum cryptography is expected to be more computationally expensive than traditional alternatives. Solana had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication, including to questions about which post-quantum encryption standard the testnet in question uses. Read more
  • CAR’s crypto push fueled ‘state capture’ by elites, criminal networks: Report
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:17 Dec 17, 2025
    A new report warned that the Central African Republic’s crypto push favored elites and exposed the country to foreign criminal networks, rather than boosting financial inclusion. The Central African Republic’s push into crypto has deepened elite control and exposed the country to “foreign criminal organizations,” according to a recent report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). In the report titled “Behind the blockchain: Cryptocurrency and criminal capture in the Central African Republic,” researchers claimed that the CAR’s crypto ventures, from adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender to launching Sango Coin and the CAR memecoin, were rolled out in a fragile nation with limited electricity, internet access and oversight. “An impoverished population, exposed to mass executions, torture and gang rape, with limited access to electricity, mobile phones and the internet, cannot engage in crypto investments in any meaningful way,” the report said, arguing that the programs were “...
  • Bitcoin price at ‘critical’ point as whale moves $348M BTC to exchanges
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:08 Dec 17, 2025
    A whale moved 4,000 Bitcoin to Binance, sparking fresh fears of a deeper BTC price drop if the $81,500 support level is lost. Bitcoin’s (BTC) market is at a “crucial moment” after breaking key long-term support levels, coinciding with large BTC transfers from a digital asset treasury company to a major exchange. Key takeaways: Bitcoin risks plunging into a bear market if it breaks below the True Market Mean at $81,500. Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • Polymarket shows stronger retention than most DeFi, wallets and exchanges
    Cointelegraph.com - 10:56 Dec 17, 2025
    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 institutional buys flip new supply for the first time in 6 weeks
    Cointelegraph.com - 09:56 Dec 17, 2025
    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
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • KuCoin taps Tomorrowland festivals as MiCA-era on-ramp for European fans
    Cointelegraph.com - 09:45 Dec 17, 2025
    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

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