🔥 Firedancer Goes Live, MetaMask Adds Bitcoin Support

Good afternoon,

Crypto markets pulled back further today, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP hitting new local lows as liquidations topped $500 million. Meanwhile, MetaMask expands beyond Ethereum and Solana with new Bitcoin support, and Solana gears up for its next phase as Jump Crypto’s Firedancer goes live.

Let’s unpack this and more! 👇

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News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• Bittensor’s Halving Is a Growth Catalyst, Not a Miner Shakeout (TAO Daily)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• Moody’s Lays Groundwork for Stablecoin Ratings Centered on Reserve Strength (The Block)

• Wrapped XRP Heads to Ethereum and Solana in Bid to Expand DeFi Reach (Decrypt)

• DeFi Industry Pushes Back on Citadel’s Call for Stricter Rules on Tokenized Securities (The Block)

• ZEROBASE Warns Users of Phishing Contract Targeting USDT Approvals on BNB Chain (ZEROBASE)

• Itaú Asset Management Recommends 1%-3% Bitcoin Allocation for 2026 (CriptoFacil)

• Singapore Gulf Bank Launches Solana-Based Stablecoin Minting and Redemption (CoinMarketCap)

• Aevo’s Legacy Ribbon Vaults Drained of $2.7M After Oracle Upgrade Flaw (The Block)

• Phantom Begins Rolling Out Cash Debit Cards to Early Users (Phantom)

• JPMorgan to Launch $100M Tokenized Money-Market Fund on Ethereum (WSJ)

• Visa Launches Stablecoins Advisory Practice to Guide Banks and Fintechs (Fortune)

• Ripple Partners With Wormhole to Bring RLUSD Stablecoin to Layer 2 Networks (The Block)

• Ondo Finance Brings Tokenized U.S. Stocks and ETFs to Solana (CoinDesk)

• CME Launches Spot-Quoted XRP and Solana Futures (PR Newswire)

• Russia’s Sberbank Tests DeFi Products as Crypto Demand Surges (DL News)

• USCF Investments Launches Oil Plus Bitcoin Strategy ETF (WTIB) on NYSE Arca (Business Wire)

• Aster Launches Shield Mode for Private, Gasless Perpetual Trading (Aster)

• Circle Acquires Interop Labs Team, Boosting Interoperability Efforts Across Blockchains (The Block)

• Anchorage Digital Acquires Securitize’s Wealth Management Unit to Expand RIA Services (The Block)

• Bank of Japan Set to Begin ETF Sales in January, Unwinding $534B Stockpile (Bloomberg)

Exchanges

• Coinbase Puts Lighter on Listing Roadmap, Trading to Follow When Ready (Coinbase)

• OKX Alleges Coordinated OM Manipulation, Says Losses Covered by Insurance Fund (OKX)

• Upbit to List HumidiFi (WET) With KRW, BTC, and USDT Pairs (Upbit)

• BingX Surpasses 40M Users in 2025, Daily Volume Tops $26B (BingX)

• Coinbase to Launch Spot Trading for Beam (BEAM) on Dec. 16 (Coinbase)

Exchange-Traded Products

• From Dec. 8 to Dec. 12, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $287 million in net inflows.

• U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs attracted $209 million in net inflows from Dec. 8-12.

• From Dec. 8-12, U.S. Solana spot ETFs posted $33.6 million in net inflows.

• U.S. XRP spot ETFs recorded $93.57 million in net inflows from Dec. 8-12.

• Gulf Petrodollars Move Into Bitcoin Via ETFs, Reshaping Liquidity (Cointelegraph)

• Global Crypto ETPs Record $864M Weekly Inflows as Investor Optimism Grows (The Block)

• Bitwise Moves Closer to Hyperliquid ETF Launch With Finalized Ticker and Fee (The Block)

Infrastructure

• Jump Crypto’s Firedancer Goes Live, Pushing Solana Toward a New Era (The Block)

• Ethereum Draft Proposal ERC-8092 Targets Cross-Chain Account Identity Standard (Ethereum Magicians)

• Prysm Details Cause of Fusaka Outage After Dec. 4 Ethereum Incident (Prysm)

• Espresso Founder Outlines Fast-Finality Vision to Fix Web3 Fragmentation (Wu Blockchain)

• Buterin and EF’s Crapis Call for Transparent, Verifiable Social Media Algorithms (Cointelegraph)

• Bhutan Expands Green Bitcoin Strategy With Cumberland-Backed Digital Infrastructure (Cointelegraph)

• MetaMask Adds Bitcoin Support, Expanding Beyond Ethereum and Solana (Decrypt)

Markets

• Bitfinex Flags 66% Spot Volume Slump as Typical Pre-Breakout Lull (Cointelegraph)

• Bitcoin OGs’ Covered Call Strategy Is Capping Price Gains (Cointelegraph)

• Bitcoin’s Four-Year Cycle Persists, Now Driven by Politics and Liquidity (Cointelegraph)

• Over $309M in Large Token Unlocks Scheduled for the Coming Week (Tokenomist)

• Crypto Markets Slide as Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Hit Weekly Lows Amid $500M Liquidations (Decrypt)

• Bitcoin Slides Below $87K as Analysts Split on Bear Market Signals (The Defiant)

Meme Coins

• Base Co-Founder Faces Backlash After Promoting Soulja Boy Meme Token (ZachXBT)

Politics & Regulation

• SEC Issues Investor Guide on Crypto Wallets and Custody Risks (SEC)

• UK Lawmakers Urge Pro-Innovation Stablecoin Rules (CoinDesk)

• NYDIG Says Tokenization’s Impact Will Start Small but Grow With DeFi Integration (Cointelegraph)

• South Korea’s FSC Misses Dec. 10 Deadline for Won-Stablecoin Regulatory Bill (Newsis)

• UK Treasury Plans FCA Oversight of Crypto From 2027, Eyes Ban on Crypto Political Donations (The Guardian)

• Hassett Says Trump Won’t Influence Fed Rate Decisions (Cointelegraph)

Token Generation Events

• Fogo Scraps $20M Token Sale, Opts for Airdrop Ahead of January Mainnet (The Block)

Treasuries & Reserves

• Strategy Retains Nasdaq 100 Spot as Index Providers Review Eligibility (Cointelegraph)

• El Salvador’s Bitcoin Holdings Top 7,500 BTC (Crypto Briefing)

• Trump-Backed American Bitcoin Raises Holdings to 5,044 BTC (Crypto Briefing)

• Strategy Buys 10,645 BTC, Total Holdings Reach 671,268 Bitcoin (Strategy)

• BitMine Immersion Amasses Nearly 4M ETH, Controls Over 3% of Supply (PR Newswire)

Venture Capital

• Pantera and Coinbase Lead $176M Crypto Funding Spree Despite Market Pullback (DL News)

• YO Labs Raises $10M to Expand Cross-Chain DeFi Yield Optimization (CoinDesk)

Other News

• Tether Moves to Buy Controlling Stake in Juventus With All-Cash Offer (Tether)

• Victim Impact Letters Weigh Heavily in Do Kwon’s 15-Year Terra Sentence (Decrypt)

• Juventus Turns Down Tether’s All-Cash Takeover Bid (DL News)

• ‘Bitcoin Rodney’ Hit With Expanded HyperFund Charges, Faces Decades in Prison (The Block)

• Vienna Killing of Ukrainian Student Linked to Alleged Crypto Theft (TSN)

• Spanish Police Break Up Cross-Border Crypto Kidnapping Ring After Fatal Attack (CoinDesk)

• Debate Erupts as Critics Brand Transhumanism a ‘Death Cult’ (Decrypt)

• Willy Woo Says Bitcoin OGs Would Absorb Satoshi Coins in a Quantum Hack Scenario (Cointelegraph)

• North Korean ‘Fake Zoom’ Crypto Scams Now a Daily Threat, SEAL Warns (Cointelegraph)

• Brazilian Police Seize $500M in Major Crypto Money Laundering Crackdown (Cryptopolitan)

• Do Kwon Could Face Decades More in Prison With Separate South Korean Trial (Decrypt)

• Solana Tops CoinGecko’s Most-Followed Blockchain Ecosystems (CoinGecko)

• Rekt Invitational Hosts Largest Live-Streamed Crypto Golf Event (Decrypt)

Check This Out!

Active traders on Solana have fallen sharply—from 4.8 million at the start of 2025 to about 680,000 now, a drop of roughly sevenfold.

Meme of the Day

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