Wu Blockchain News

Coinbase announced that Lighter (LIGHTER) has been added to its asset listing roadmap. The launch of trading will depend on the availability of market-making support and the readiness of technical infrastructure, with the trading start to be announced once conditions are met. — link

Tether announced that it has submitted a binding all-cash proposal to Exor to acquire Exor’s entire stake in Juventus Football Club, representing 65.4% of the club’s issued share capital. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and the execution of definitive documentation. The acquisition would be fully funded with Tether’s own capital, and, if completed, Tether plans to invest up to €1 billion to support the development of Juventus. — link

According to Bloomberg, although Vanguard Group now allows clients to trade spot Bitcoin ETFs on its platform, its overall view of crypto has not changed. Vanguard’s global head of quantitative equity, John Ameriks, said Bitcoin is better viewed as a speculative collectible rather than a productive asset with long-term investment characteristics, citing its lack of income, compounding, and cash-flow properties, and likened it to a “digital Labubu.” — link

According to WSJ, digital asset custodian BitGo said it received conditional approval from OCC on Friday to convert into a bank, which upon final approval would allow it to custody digital assets and certain non-deposit financial assets and to offer regulated crypto-related services. In addition, crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that OCC has also conditionally approved applications from several other crypto firms, including Ripple, Circle, Fidelity, and Paxos, to establish or convert into national trust banks. — link

Interactive Brokers has begun allowing a subset of eligible U.S. retail clients to fund individual brokerage accounts with stablecoins, transferring directly from crypto wallets without using traditional banks. The feature will be rolled out in phases. — link

Jupiter unveiled multiple upgrades at Solana Breakpoint, including open-sourcing Jupiter Lend, the upcoming JupUSD stablecoin, VRFD upgrades, and a unified developer platform, along with the acquisition of Rainfi to expand on-chain lending and liquidity. — link

WuBlockchain Weekly: CFTC launches a digital asset collateral pilot allowing BTC, ETH and USDC; Binance confirms its global relocation to ADGM; Strategy buys 10,624 BTC; SEC Chair Paul Atkins signals a shift on ICO classification; Argentina moves to lift banks’ crypto ban; a16z reports $46T in stablecoin volume, and more. — link

Phantom has partnered with Kalshi to bring tokenized prediction markets directly into the Phantom crypto wallet. Users can discover trending events, trade positions using Solana tokens or cash, track real-time odds, and join live community chats without leaving the wallet. The integration offers tokenized positions referencing Kalshi’s CFTC-regulated prediction markets, covering politics, crypto, sports, and culture. — link

According to Bloomberg, Tether is seeking to raise up to $20 billion through a share sale that would value the company at around $500 billion. To ensure liquidity for investors after the deal, Tether is considering options such as share buybacks or tokenizing its equity to provide an exit path. The company previously intervened to block some existing shareholders from selling their stakes at a steep discount, which would have valued Tether at about $280 billion. — link

The Bank of Japan is moving to raise its policy rate at the Dec. 18-19 monetary policy meeting with a 25-basis-point increase from 0.5% to 0.75% emerging as the leading option, Nikkei has learned. This would be the first hike since January 2025 and will lead to a level not seen since 1995. — link

According to KBS, Binance was asked by South Korean police to freeze crypto assets stolen from Upbit but froze only part of the funds. Authorities requested a freeze on about 470 million KRW in Solana tokens, but Binance, citing the need for further verification, froze only 17% of the amount (around 80 million KRW) and did so after a roughly 15-hour delay. — link

On December 11 (ET), U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $77.34 million, with Fidelity’s FBTC leading at a $104 million outflow. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw a total net outflow of $42.37 million, with 21Shares’ TETH being the only product to post net inflows. Spot Solana ETFs recorded total net inflows of $11.02 million. — link

Members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins urging rule updates to allow Bitcoin and other digital assets in 401(k) plans. The move aligns with President Trump’s directive to expand retirement investment options. Lawmakers also called for easing the “accredited investor” definition and for the SEC to coordinate with the Department of Labor on related rules. — link

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued no-action letters to Polymarket, PredictIt, Gemini, and LedgerX/MIAX, granting conditional relief from certain recordkeeping and data-reporting requirements. The move means the regulator will not pursue enforcement as long as the platforms meet specified compliance conditions while operating their prediction-market and derivatives services. — link

According to Bloomberg, Coinbase is expected to announce the launch of new features—including proprietary tokenized U.S. equities—at its December 17 event. Screenshots of the upcoming application have been circulating on X for weeks, though the company has not formally disclosed the product. A spokesperson declined to comment on details, saying more information will be revealed during the livestream. — link

DTCC said its subsidiary DTC has received a No-Action Letter from the U.S. SEC authorizing a three-year, controlled-production tokenization service for DTC-custodied assets, with rollout expected in the second half of 2026. The authorization permits tokenizing traditional assets on approved L1 and L2 networks, with the digital versions carrying the same rights and protections as their conventional forms. — link

According to Inner City Press, over a four-year period Do Kwon publicly misled the market, fabricated the stablecoin mechanism, and concealed the support arrangement with Jump Trading, ultimately causing more than $40 billion in losses and harming hundreds of thousands of investors. The judge imposed a 15-year prison sentence. — link

x402 released V2, expanding the protocol beyond single-call payments into a more general payment layer. The update adds wallet-based identity, automatic API discovery, dynamic payment recipients, and broader chain and fiat support via CAIP standards, along with a modular SDK for custom networks. x402 is an open-source payment protocol from the Coinbase Developer Platform built on the HTTP 402 status code. — link

According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan arranged the issuance and settlement of a $50 million U.S. commercial paper for Galaxy Digital on the Solana blockchain, with Coinbase and Franklin Templeton purchasing the notes and both payment and redemption conducted in Circle’s USDC. The bank is using Solana to build multi-chain experience and plans to support additional bond issuances on public blockchains. — link

For the week ending December 6, U.S. initial jobless claims were 236k, above the expected 220k, with the prior week's revised to 192k. The September trade deficit was $52.8 billion, better than the expected $63.3 billion, and revised from $59.6 billion to $59.3 billion. The trade deficit narrowed to the smallest since June 2020.