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Found 8821 news

  • Trust Wallet hack shifts to verification amid surge in false claims
    Cointelegraph.com - 13:12 Dec 29, 2025
    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 to let banks pay interest on digital yuan wallets from January 2026
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:50 Dec 29, 2025
    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
    Tags: China
  • Crypto ETPs shed $446M over Christmas as year-end sentiment remains fragile
    Cointelegraph.com - 11:55 Dec 29, 2025
    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
  • Real-world assets top DEXs to become 5th-largest category in DeFi by TVL
    Cointelegraph.com - 11:22 Dec 29, 2025
    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 price pauses at $90K: What will trigger new year rally?
    Cointelegraph.com - 11:22 Dec 29, 2025
    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
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • BitMine locks up $1B in Ether as big corporates stake ETH for yield
    Cointelegraph.com - 10:36 Dec 29, 2025
    The largest corporate Ethereum holders continue seeking passive yield through staking, effectively reducing the sellable Ether supply on the open market. Corporations are increasingly turning to Ethereum staking to earn passive yield, a shift that is tightening the amount of Ether available for sale on the open market. BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, staked 342,560 ETH worth over $1 billion in the two days leading up to Sunday, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain. Staking involves locking ETH into Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network to secure the blockchain in exchange for a passive annual percentage yield (APY) of about 3%–5%. Read more
    Tags: Ether
  • Higher activity, lower fees: Here’s what December’s onchain data shows
    Cointelegraph.com - 10:13 Dec 29, 2025
    Onchain data shows activity holding up on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum and Avalanche even as fee revenue declines across the crypto sector. Several of the biggest blockchain networks handled more transactions in December even as user fees fell, a sign that recent scaling upgrades are increasing capacity and easing competition for block space, according to data compiled by Nansen. Data from Nansen showed that Bitcoin, Tron, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche and The Open Network (TON) recorded month-over-month increases in transactions, while fee revenue declined sharply across the same period.  Ethereum transactions increased by 16% despite a 57% decline in fee revenue. Polygon showed a similar divergence, with transaction counts jumping 82% while fees dropped 47%. Arbitrum and Avalanche also showed a very notable transactions-up, fees-down pattern. Read more
    Tags: December
  • Bitfinex whales go long BTC for 2026: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
    Cointelegraph.com - 09:45 Dec 29, 2025
    Bitcoin failed to flip $90,000 to support at the start of the last week of 2025, but Bitfinex whale long positions built on their highest levels in nearly two years. Bitcoin (BTC) heads into year-end 2025 stuck around $90,000 as stocks and precious metals roar higher. Bitcoin sees only a modest uptick after its last weekly close of the year, as liquidity analysis warns of a fresh dip. Traders’ cost bases form the backbone of support reclaim targets heading into 2026. Read more
  • Trend Research lifts ETH holdings to $1.8B with $35M buy, is ‘bullish’ on 2026
    Cointelegraph.com - 09:27 Dec 29, 2025
    Trend Research founder Jack Yi pledged to continue buying Ether, claiming more financial and regulatory tailwinds will drive crypto valuations in 2026. Update Dec. 29, 1:40 p.m. UTC: This article has been updated to include the latest $48 million Ether buy from Trend Research. Hong Kong-based investment firm Trend Research has continued accumulating Ether even as one of the biggest corporate ETH holders expects a sharp drawdown during the first quarter of 2026. Trend Research acquired $35 million in Ether (ETH), pushing its holdings above 601,000 ETH worth about $1.83 billion, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain. Read more
  • ETH validator entry queue is suddenly almost double the exit queue
    Cointelegraph.com - 05:58 Dec 29, 2025
    Digital asset treasury companies such as Tom Lee’s BitMine have contributed to the increase in the entry queue, but the network’s Petcra upgrade may have also helped. Ethereum’s staking queue has flipped the exit line for the first time in six months, with almost twice as much ETH now lined up to be staked as ETH trying to leave the network. The entry queue for validators has roughly 745,619 Ether (ETH) with a nearly 13-day wait, while the exit line has around 360,518 ETH and an eight-day wait, according to the blockchain explorer Ethereum Validator Queue. The flippening happened on Saturday, when both queues were around 460,000, but the entry queue has gone vertical since, while some argue the exit queue is trending towards zero. Read more
  • Silver’s wild 6% price spike and 10% plunge mirrors crypto volatility
    Cointelegraph.com - 05:45 Dec 29, 2025
    Silver’s recent price surge mirrors Bitcoin’s trademark volatility. The precious metal is swinging wildly on rate cut bets and shifting industrial demand. The price of silver continues to notch new highs amid a precious metals market boom, with the asset trading in a very crypto-like fashion over the weekend with sharp volatility.  Silver hit a new all-time high of almost $84 on Sunday, with demand for gold also driving the price up to new heights of around $4,530. Meanwhile, the crypto market continues to stutter.   As highlighted in a post on Sunday by markets publication The Kobeissi Letter, silver saw extreme volatility over the weekend, spiking 6% and then dumping 10% in the span of an hour. Read more
    Tags: Silver
  • Bitcoin helps USD’s reserve status ‘in a strange way’: Coinbase CEO
    Cointelegraph.com - 03:48 Dec 29, 2025
    Bitcoin is helping reinforce the US dollar’s reserve currency status by acting as a market check on excessive inflation and deficit spending, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has claimed Bitcoin provides healthy competition for the US dollar, which in turn pressures policymakers to maintain fiscal discipline and helps preserve the greenback’s dominance. “[Bitcoin] provides a check and balance on the dollar in the sense of if there's too much deficit spending or inflation in the US, people will flee to Bitcoin in times of uncertainty,” Armstrong argued in an interview on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin on Thursday. “It might be okay to have 2-3% inflation if the economy is growing at 2-3% but if inflation outstrips the growth of the economy, you'll eventually lose the reserve currency status, and that would be a massive blow to the United States.” Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • Crypto heavyweights slam proposed 5% wealth tax in California
    Cointelegraph.com - 02:48 Dec 29, 2025
    Crypto executives, including Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley and Castle Island Ventures founding partner Nic Carter, have pushed back against a proposed billionaire tax in California. A proposed 5% tax on billionaires' wealth in California has drawn a strong response from crypto executives, who argue it would trigger an exodus of entrepreneurs and capital flight, and would be wasted anyway. The ballot initiative, known as the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, proposes a 5% tax on net wealth above $1 billion to help fund the health care system and state assistance programs, according to the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West union. As the proposed wealth tax is partly assessed against unrealized gains, some billionaires may need to sell stock or parts of their businesses to raise funds to pay the tax, which would either be payable in one installment, or over five years with interest payments. Read more
  • Ubisoft halts Rainbow Six Siege after hackers give each player $13.3M credits
    Cointelegraph.com - 02:00 Dec 29, 2025
    A server-wide hack flooded Rainbow Six Siege with billions in credits, forcing an emergency shutdown and a major rollback operation. French video gaming giant Ubisoft has been forced to halt the live services of Rainbow Six Siege after hackers breached the game and dished out 2 billion in-game credits to every player. The exploit was initially confirmed by the team via X on Dec. 27, with a series of updates following, ultimately leading to a suspension of the game’s servers and marketplace the following day. Reports from players on social media indicate that hackers were able to take control of the major parts of the game’s online systems, with players reporting that everyone was receiving 2 billion in-game R6 credits upon logging in, alongside rare items such as skins and guns.  Read more
  • Flow validators urged to halt work after divisive blockchain rollback
    Cointelegraph.com - 00:33 Dec 29, 2025
    The Flow Foundation has been slammed for rolling the layer 1 Flow chain back to patch up a $3.9 million exploit, with one partner advising validators to stop processing transactions until further notice. deBridge founder Alex Smirnov has urged validators on the Flow blockchain to stop processing transactions until the Flow Foundation devises a remediation plan for users impacted by its controversial rollback of the chain. The rollback was in response to the theft of $3.9 million on Dec. 27 when an attacker exploited a flaw in Flow’s execution layer and siphoned funds off the chain via multiple cross-chain bridges. deBridge is one of Flow’s main bridge providers and Smirnov called on Flow to clarify plans to address doubled balances for users who bridged out during the rollback window. Read more
    Tags: Flow
  • Most crypto treasuries ‘will disappear’ amid bleak 2026 outlook: Execs
    Cointelegraph.com - 00:16 Dec 29, 2025
    Many crypto and Bitcoin treasury companies may go under in 2026 as the model comes under pressure, industry executives tell Cointelegraph. Digital asset treasury (DAT) companies face a grim future heading into 2026, with shares in many of the largest players sharply down, industry executives say. “Going into the next year, I think that the outlook for DATs is looking a bit bleak,” Altan Tutar, co-founder and CEO of crypto yield platform MoreMarkets, told Cointelegraph. Large numbers of crypto treasury companies emerged in 2025 to give Wall Street investors another avenue to access cryptocurrencies. The share prices of many initially shot up as heavyweight investors poured in billions as Bitcoin (BTC) rose to a peak in October, but a broad crypto market decline has since hurt their valuations. Read more
  • Bitcoin needs a 6.24% rally to close 2025 in the green: Analyst
    Cointelegraph.com - 21:48 Dec 28, 2025
    Many analysts previously forecast that Bitcoin would hit a price target between $180,000-$250,000 in 2025, but the price has fallen flat. The yearly Bitcoin (BTC) price candle is set to close in the red, ending 2025 lower than at the start of the year, unless BTC can rise by 6.24% above the yearly open of about $93,374.  “3 days for Bitcoin to recover and close up on the year. If not, this will be the first post-halving year we close in the red. 6.24% required to make this a green candle,” Puckrin said.  Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $125,000 in October, days before a historic market crash put a dent in Bitcoin’s rally and dropped crypto prices across the board. Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • BTC mining difficulty records last adjustment in 2025, forecast to rise in Jan
    Cointelegraph.com - 19:29 Dec 28, 2025
    The rising Bitcoin network mining difficulty ensures the network remains sufficiently decentralized but also makes life harder for miners. The Bitcoin (BTC) network mining difficulty, the relative computing challenge of adding a new block to the ledger, increased slightly to 148.2 trillion in the last adjustment of 2025 and is projected to rise again in January 2026. The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is projected to occur on January 8, 2026, at block height 931,392 and is expected to raise the network mining difficulty to 149 trillion, according to CoinWarz. Average block times are about 9.95 minutes at the time of this writing, slightly below the 10-minute target, meaning that difficulty will likely increase to get block times closer to the target. Read more
  • Bitcoin outperformed gold and silver over the last 10 years: Analyst
    Cointelegraph.com - 17:08 Dec 28, 2025
    Bitcoin has outperformed precious metals over the last decade, but critics say the comparison doesn't hold up under shorter time horizons. Bitcoin (BTC) has outperformed gold and silver by several orders of magnitude since 2015, racking up a 27,701% gain, compared to silver’s 405% gain and gold’s 283% appreciation during the same period, according to author and analyst Adam Livingston.  “Even ignoring the first six years of Bitcoin's existence, for the crybabies who whine about the timeframe comparison, gold and silver drastically underperform the apex asset,” Livingston said in an X post. Gold advocate Peter Schiff, one of Bitcoin’s harshest critics, chimed in, telling Livingston that he should compare these assets over the last four years instead of 10. “Times have changed. Bitcoin's time has passed,” Schiff said. Read more
    Tags: Bitcoin
  • Trump, tariffs and utility tokens: Animoca’s Yat Siu says crypto finally has to grow up
    Cointelegraph.com - 12:00 Dec 28, 2025
    Trump‑era tariffs, bruising rate realities and a burned‑out memecoin cycle are forcing crypto to shed its Peter Pan phase and build tokens with real utility, says Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu. For Animoca Brands co‑founder Yat Siu, 2025 will be remembered as “the Trump year,” not because US President Donald Trump saved crypto, but because the industry bet too heavily on him and mispriced everything from tariffs to rate cuts. Trump was supposed to be crypto’s cheat code in 2025. Instead, Bitcoin (BTC) is limping into the year’s end, facing its fourth annual decline in history. Memecoin liquidity has been sucked into political side quests, and one of the sector’s longest‑running builders thinks the market over‑trusted the new president.​ “If I had to give it a grade, I would say B-/C+,” Siu said. Traders treated Trump as if crypto were his “first child,” he says, when in reality, “we’re probably his third, fourth or fifth child, maybe even an eighth child.” Read more
    Tags: Trump

8821 items