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Harriet Hageman’s “Soon” teaser on X sharpens talk of a 2026 Senate bid to replace crypto ally Cynthia Lummis, raising the stakes for Wyoming’s pro‑crypto brand. Wyoming Representative Harriet Hageman fueled speculation about a 2026 Senate run after posting a cryptic video days after Senator Cynthia Lummis announced she will not seek reelection. The five-second clip shows the congresswoman alongside a single-word caption: “Soon.” It breaks a months‑long lull on her account and bolsters speculation that she is eyeing Lummis’ open seat. Wyoming’s Senate seat has been a reliable voice in advancing regulatory clarity for the crypto industry, from market structure bills and stablecoin regulation to banking access. Whoever replaces Lummis will help decide whether crypto keeps a dedicated champion in the Senate. Read more
Bybit will phase out services for Japan-based users starting in 2026, following earlier steps to halt new registrations. Bybit will begin phasing out services for residents of Japan from 2026, introducing gradual account restrictions as it moves to comply with the country’s regulatory requirements, the cryptocurrency exchange said on Monday. The exchange said users classified as Japanese residents will be subject to the restrictions on a rolling basis, while those incorrectly flagged have been asked to complete additional identity checks. Bybit is not registered with Japan’s Financial Services Agency, which requires crypto exchanges serving Japanese users to hold local approval. “If you're a resident of Japan, please note that starting from 2026 your account will be subject to gradual restrictions. You'll receive additional updates on the remediation process in subsequent communications,” the exchange said in an announcement on Monday. Read more
CFTC acting chair Caroline Pham says Monday was her last day at the regulator, with Michael Selig being officially sworn in to chair the agency. The US commodities watchdog has a new leader. Michael Selig was sworn in as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday as acting chair Caroline Pham departed the agency after nearly a year at the helm. Pham, who had been serving as the CFTC’s acting chair since January and its sole commissioner since August, said on Monday that it would be her last day at the agency. Meanwhile, the CFTC confirmed that Selig was sworn in as the agency’s 16th chairman on Monday after being nominated for the role by President Donald Trump on Oct. 27 and confirmed by the Senate on Thursday. Read more
CoinEx’s Jeff Ko tells Cointelegraph there likely won’t be an altseason in 2026 as liquidity will flow into the top cryptocurrencies. The typical altcoin rally is likely to wane next year, with only “blue chip” cryptocurrencies seeing the lion’s share of liquidity, says CoinEx Research chief analyst Jeff Ko. “Retail investors expecting a rising tide to lift all boats will be disappointed,” Ko told Cointelegraph. “We predict no traditional altseason; instead, liquidity will be ruthlessly selective, flowing only to blue-chip survivors with real adoption.” Ko anticipated “modest global liquidity tailwinds in 2026,” tempered by divergent central bank policies, but added that Bitcoin's historical sensitivity to the M2 money supply growth “has softened since the 2024 ETF launches, with correlation diminishing.” Read more
Bitcoin perpetual open interest climbed to 310,000 BTC while funding rates doubled, signaling bullish positioning for the year-end. Crypto derivatives markets are heating up as Glassnode reports perpetual open interest has risen in anticipation of a big move at the end of this year. Perpetual open interest (OI) has risen from 304,000 to 310,000 Bitcoin (BTC) as its price briefly touched $90,000 on Monday, Glassnode said on Monday. The funding rate has also “heated up” from 0.04% to 0.09%, which suggests derivatives traders are anticipating a potential market move by the end of the year. Read more
BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF has featured on the $13.5 trillion asset manager's homepage, representing one of three major investment themes as the market heads into 2026. BlackRock says its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund was one of its three biggest investment themes in 2025, putting it alongside Treasury bills and the largest US tech stocks. The asset manager named its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) alongside its ETF tracking Treasury bills and another tied to the “Magnificent 7” tech stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. IBIT has attracted more than $25 billion in net inflows this year, ranking sixth among all ETFs and trailing broad index funds, despite the fund delivering a negative return so far for 2025. Read more
Bitcoin has often surged after sustained hashrate drops, a trend that would provide much-needed relief to many struggling Bitcoin miners at current prices. Bitcoin’s hashrate fell 4% over the month to Dec. 15, which could be a positive sign for the cryptocurrency’s price in the months ahead as miner capitulation is “historically a bullish contrarian signal,” VanEck analysts say. “When hash rate compression persists over longer periods, positive forward returns tend to occur more often and with greater magnitude,” VanEck crypto research lead Matt Sigel and senior investment analyst Patrick Bush noted in a report on Monday. They noted that since 2014, Bitcoin’s 90-day forward returns have been positive 65% of the time when the network’s hashrate had declined over the prior 30 days, compared with 54% when the hashrate rose. Read more
Federal Reserve policy and crypto-friendly regulation could be setting the market up for a bullish 2026, but there are still a handful of hurdles investors should be aware of. 2025 was a blockbuster year for Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider crypto market as crypto-friendly legislators platformed growth-focused regulation and Wall Street finally accepted Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and numerous altcoins as a valid asset class worthy of inclusion in an investment portfolio. The global bid on Bitcoin, Ether and Solana’s SOL (SOL) token was near immeasurable, with total net flows into the spot Bitcoin ETFs reaching $57 billion and the total net assets across the ETFs reaching $114.8 billion. Going into 2026, the real question is, will the pace of institutional, corporate and government-level adoption, which were critical price drivers in 2025, continue? Since October, the robust inflows to the spot Bitcoin ETF tapered off and, in some cases, turned into a sellers' market for weeks on end, and this was followed by a 30% co...
Luckey-backed Erebor raised $350 million at a $4.35 billion valuation as OCC and FDIC approvals signal momentum for crypto- and AI-focused banking. Erebor, the digital bank co-founded by tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey and backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, has secured a $4.35 billion post-money valuation after raising $350 million in a funding round led by Lux Capital, according to Axios sources. The valuation milestone, which underscores growing institutional appetite for banking models tailored to crypto, AI and stablecoin-friendly customers, comes as Justice Department regulators take swift steps toward chartering the company. Erebor recently received preliminary conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a key regulatory hurdle toward becoming a fully licensed bank. Read more
The Council of the European Union endorsed the launch of the European Central Bank’s digital euro in both an online and a privacy-focused offline version. The Council of the European Union (EU) the European Central Bank’s (ECB) digital euro design, A Friday document outlined the council’s position on the digital euro, including alignment with the ECB on launching online and offline variants simultaneously ECB President Christine Lagarde that t rest with EU lawmakers Read more
The transaction highlights growing pressure on crypto treasury companies to prioritize debt reduction as token prices remain volatile. Crypto treasury company ETHZilla said in a filing with US regulators that it sold part of its Ether holdings to repay outstanding convertible notes amid a broader market downturn. The company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the sale of 24,291 Ether (ETH) for $74.5 million at an average price of $3,068.69 per token, leaving about 69,800 ETH on its balance sheet as of Friday. The company said it expects to use all or a significant portion of the proceeds to redeem its outstanding senior secured convertible notes. Read more
Two bills and one resolution proposed by state lawmaker Wendy Rogers could allow Arizona voters to change the state's taxation laws applied to digital assets and blockchain. Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers has proposed two bills and a resolution in an effort to change the state’s laws on taxing digital assets. In legislation prefiled with the Arizona Senate on Friday, Rogers proposed amending state statues to exempt virtual currency from taxation (SB 1044), barring counties, cities and towns from taxing or fining entities running blockchain nodes (SB 1045), and amending the state constitution’s definition of property taxes to clarify rules on digital assets (SCR 1003). The blockchain node bill may move through the state legislature, but the crypto tax bill and resolution would require a vote by Arizona voters during the next general election, in November 2026. Read more
The company sold about 4.5 million common shares last week, lifting its cash reserves to $2.19 billion while pausing Bitcoin purchases. Strategy added $747.8 million in net proceeds from the sale of common stock last week to its cash reserves and paused its Bitcoin purchases, as the company rebalances its assets amid the crypto downturn. According to a post by Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor, the company's cash reserves now stand at $2.19 billion, while its crypto stash is at 671,268 Bitcoin (BTC). A filing with regulators shows Strategy sold 4.535 million shares of its Class A common stock (MSTR) during the Dec. 15-21 period, generating $747.8 million in net proceeds through its at-the-market offering program. The company did not sell any preferred stock during the period. Read more
Following Michael Selig's confirmation, White House official David Sacks said the SEC and CFTC were set to offer "clear regulatory guidelines" for digital assets. US President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar has signaled that the White House may have all the pieces in place for digital asset regulation following the confirmation of Michael Selig to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In a Monday X post, David Sacks said the US was at a “critical juncture” for crypto regulation, and that Selig and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins made up a “dream team to define clear regulatory guidelines.” Sacks’ comments were in response to Selig saying that the US Congress was preparing to complete work on a crypto market structure bill. “We are at a unique moment as a wide range of novel technologies, products, and platforms are emerging, retail participation in the commodity markets is at an all-time high, and Congress is poised to send digital asset market structure legislation that wil...
Behind the scenes, US banks are rebuilding core financial infrastructure so cash, custody and funds can move onchain under regulatory oversight. US banks are prioritizing tokenized versions of familiar products, including deposits, funds and custody, rather than launching new crypto-native assets. Most onchain bank activity is taking place in wholesale payments, settlement and infrastructure, largely out of public view. Regulators are increasingly allowing crypto-related banking activities, but only within tightly supervised and risk-managed frameworks. Read more
From niche experiment to $7 billion market, tokenized US Treasurys are quietly becoming a major driver of institutional onchain yield. Tokenized US Treasurys have emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the real-world asset (RWA) market, with data pointing to 50x growth in less than two years amid rising institutional demand for on-chain yield. Data from Token Terminal shows that the combined market capitalization of tokenized US Treasury products has exploded from well under $200 million in January 2024 to almost $7 billion in late 2025. The growth underscores the rapid acceleration of onchain adoption for government-backed debt instruments. At the center of this expansion is BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which is widely regarded as the flagship product of the tokenized Treasury market. Read more
Bitcoin and select altcoins are attempting to start a recovery, but higher levels are expected to attract strong selling by the bears. Key points: Bitcoin is attempting to start a recovery, but higher levels are likely to attract sellers. The weak bounce in several altcoins shows that the bears continue to exert pressure. Read more
The move by the traditional banking giant would represent a significant deepening of ties to the crypto industry and change in CEO Jamie Dimon’s approach to digital assets. Banking giant JPMorgan Chase is considering offering cryptocurrency trading to its institutional clients, marking a significant expansion for a traditional financial institution expanding its digital asset services. According to a Monday Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the plans, JPMorgan Chase is assessing products and services in its markets division as part of a potential expansion into cryptocurrencies. The company’s plans were not public at the time of publication, but could include digital asset spot and derivatives trading. The crypto trading services are in the early stages of development, in response to interest from the company’s clients amid the changing regulatory environment in the United States. The government under US President Donald Trump has enacted several policies favoring the crypto industry since Januar...
Ether rebounded 16% to reclaim $3,000 as whales accumulate heavily, exchange supply hits nine-year lows and network activity surges. Ether’s (ETH) price reclaimed the $3,000 level on Monday, a 16% rebound from the $2,620 multimonth low reached on Nov. 21. Market analysts pointed to key data metrics that suggest that ETH is “building up for breakout” to higher highs. Key takeaways: Ether whales accumulated aggressively over the last six months. Read more
Coinbase is buying The Clearing Company as it expands into prediction markets and broadens its product lineup beyond crypto trading. Coinbase has agreed to acquire The Clearing Company, an on-chain prediction markets startup that spans digital assets, politics, sports and culture, as it expands its push to become an “Everything Exchange” offering a broad range of investment products. In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Coinbase said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Clearing Company, with the transaction expected to close in January. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition marks a rapid turnaround for The Clearing Company, which was founded earlier this year and counted Coinbase Ventures among its investors in a $15 million funding round alongside Union Square Ventures, Haun Ventures and several other venture firms and angel investors. Read more7246 items