Trust Wallet said it has identified 2,596 compromised addresses following its Christmas Day exploit as investigators work to separate real victims from false claims. Trust Wallet has moved into a verification phase after a Christmas Day exploit involving its browser extension; while thousands of wallets have been identified, the company has received far more reimbursement claims than expected. On Monday, Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen said the company had identified 2,596 wallet addresses tied to the compromised extension. Still, it has received almost 5,000 claims, suggesting a significant amount may be false or duplicate submissions. “Because of this, accurate verification of wallet ownership is critical to ensure funds are returned to the right people,” Chen wrote. “Our team is working diligently to verify claims; combining multiple data points to distinguish legitimate victims from malicious actors.” Read more
China’s central bank will let banks pay interest on digital yuan wallets from Jan. 1, 2026, reshaping e-CNY as deposit-like money as the US bans CBDCs. China’s central bank is rolling out a new framework for the digital yuan that will allow commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY wallet balances starting Jan. 1, 2026, a move officials say will push the central bank digital currency (CBDC) beyond its original role as a cash substitute. The new CBDC framework will allow banks to treat the digital yuan as part of their asset-liability operations, Lu Lei, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, wrote in a PBOC-affiliated China Financial Times article published on Monday. “The digital RMB will move from the digital cash era to the digital deposit currency (Digital Deposit Money) era,” said Lei in the report. “It has the functions of monetary value scale, value storage, and cross-border payment.” Read more
Weekly fund flows point to lingering caution, with investors favoring newer products and select regions over broad market exposure. Crypto exchange-traded products recorded $446 million in net outflows last week, extending a cautious trend persisting since October’s sharp market correction. According to asset manager CoinShares, the latest withdrawals bring total outflows since Oct. 10 to $3.2 billion, signaling that investor confidence has yet to recover as the year ends. The weekly outflows contrast with year-to-date (YTD) inflows of $46.3 billion, a figure broadly consistent with 2024 levels. CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill, said that total assets under management (AUM) have risen by just 10% YTD. He said this indicated that “the average investor has not seen a positive outcome this year once flows are taken into account.” Read more
RWA protocols have overtaken decentralized exchanges by total value locked, as tokenized Treasurys, private credit and commodities become core onchain building blocks. Real-world asset (RWA) protocols are one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi’s) winners in 2025, overtaking decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category by total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama. RWAs now account for about $17 billion in TVL, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024, highlighting how quickly tokenized Treasurys, private credit and other real-world claims have moved from niche experiments to core DeFi plumbing. As DefiLlama noted, “At the start of this year, they weren’t even in the top 10 categories.” Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that RWA growth is being driven by “balance-sheet incentives rather than experimentation,” with higher-for-longer rates making tokenized Treasurys and private credit attractive as onchain, yield-bearing assets, amid improving regulat...
Bitcoin needs a return of retail and institutional demand for BTC to clear the next big hurdle at $90,000 and spark a new rally toward six figures. Bitcoin’s (BTC) end-of-year rally toward $90,000 appeared to be stalling due to a lack of demand and weak onchain activity. Still, a new technical setup suggested that momentum may increase once the BTC/USD pair breaks above $90,000. Key takeaways: Apparent demand and buying from US investors must recover to secure a new year rally for BTC. Read more