Wu Blockchain News

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.

a16z released its annual report covering topics such as stablecoins, tokenization, payments & finance, privacy, security, AI, and agents in the blockchain and crypto industry. The report highlights that stablecoin transaction volume reached $46 trillion in 2024, more than 20 times the volume of PayPal and nearly 3 times that of Visa. It also notes the progress of traditional asset tokenization, particularly the move of U.S. equities, commodities, and indices onto the blockchain via crypto technology. — link

Interpreting China's Latest Policy Signals on Virtual Assets - Any Impact on Hong Kong? Since 2017, mainland China’s ban on cryptocurrency-related activities has never wavered, and authorities reiterate it almost every year. The meeting does not expand the legal prohibitions. It strengthens enforcement under the framework established in 2021, when crypto activities were formally defined as illegal financial activity. Hong Kong continues its open, rules-based framework — including stablecoin legislation and RWA initiatives. Read more: — link

According to CNN, Belarus has tightened its crypto rules as President Lukashenko signed a decree banning individuals from buying or selling digital assets through foreign exchanges or brokers. All crypto trading must now occur on domestically regulated platforms. The policy primarily targets residents of the High Technology Park (HTP), including both individuals and entrepreneurs. Currently, licensed crypto exchanges in Belarus can only be operated by HTP-registered entities. — link

Coinbase Protocol Specialist Andrew stated that Coinbase is expanding its native support for Solana. The platform has launched Solana-based DEX trading within its app, allowing users to trade Solana-based tokens directly and pay using USDC, cash, bank accounts, or debit cards. — link

Binance's product derivatives trading update log shows that on December 11, USDⓈ-M futures have added a new REST API, including the endpoint POST /fapi/v1/stock/contract for signing the TradFi-Perps agreement contract. This is likely paving the way for the upcoming launch of stock perpetual contracts. — link

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the decentralized, open-source encrypted document tool Fileverse has spent recent months fixing bugs and is now stable enough for secure document sharing, commenting, and collaboration “without further issues.” He added that many projects are more mature than people assume, and Fileverse’s key advantage is that it does not depend on network effects — users can open it and start collaborating without needing prior knowledge of Fileverse or Ethereum. — link

Blockchain technology company BTSE has launched the first staking interest campaign for Stable (STABLE), now open for subscription. Users can participate by depositing or purchasing STABLE. The campaign includes 3 prize pools, with the subscription deadline set for December 18, 10:00 (UTC+8). Stable is a L1 blockchain focused on stablecoin payments, based on USDT. This post is sponsored by BTSE. — link

a16z crypto has announced the establishment of its first Asia office in Seoul and appointed former Monad Foundation Head of Asia-Pacific Sungmo Park to lead regional operations. The new office will work with founders to drive partnerships, expand distribution channels, and support regional community development, with a particular focus on high crypto ownership rates in Korea and Singapore and Japan’s growing on-chain activity. — link

Gemini has received CFTC approval to operate a Designated Contract Market, allowing its Gemini Titan platform to offer binary event contracts with potential expansion into crypto futures, options, and perpetuals. Gemini first applied for the DCM license in March 2020. U.S. prediction markets have grown since Donald Trump took office, with Kalshi and Polymarket recording their strongest volumes in October and November. — link

The Federal Reserve announced its target rate upper bound at 3.75%, in line with the expected 3.75% and down from the previous 4.00%, marking a 25-basis-point cut. — link

ChainOpera AI announced a collaboration with the Princeton AI Lab to launch CryptoBench, the first expert-level dynamic benchmark for the crypto industry. Developed with Professor Mengdi Wang and her PhD student Jiacheng Gu, the tool evaluates LLM Agents in cryptocurrency across scenarios such as real-time data retrieval, future trend forecasting, on-chain intelligence analysis, and DeFi risk assessment. — link

Sei announced a partnership with Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer, to pre-install a next-generation crypto wallet and discovery app on new Xiaomi smartphones sold outside mainland China and the United States. The companies also plan to introduce stablecoin payments across Xiaomi’s global retail network, starting in Hong Kong and the EU in Q2 2026. The app will support Google and Xiaomi ID login, MPC wallet security, dApp access, and peer-to-peer and merchant payments, with initial rollout focused on Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. — link

Strategy submitted feedback opposing MSCI’s proposal to exclude digital asset treasury companies (DATs) from its Global Investable Market Indexes. Strategy said DATs are operating companies, the 50% digital-asset threshold is arbitrary, and the proposal inappropriately brings policy factors into index construction, conflicts with U.S. policy, and may hinder innovation. The company urged MSCI to withdraw the plan. — link

Japan’s FSA proposes shifting crypto regulation from the PSA to the FIEA to strengthen disclosures, regulate IEOs, and target unregistered platforms. The new framework would require exchanges to disclose issuer details and conduct independent code audits, while issuers must reveal their identities and token allocation. It also introduces a ban on insider trading. — link

November Exchange Data Report: Spot trading volume of major exchanges in November 2025 fell 28% compared with October. The top three exchanges by change rate were Bitfinex +17%, Coinbase -8%, and KuCoin -17%. The bottom three were Bitget -62%, Gate -44%, and MEXC -34%. — link

QCP said the crypto market has steadied, with Bitcoin near $92,000 and sentiment still cautious. ETF inflows reached $56.5M after over $1.1B in November outflows. Markets now focus on the FOMC meeting and Powell’s remarks, while Japan’s Dec. 19 BOJ meeting is the next risk event as bond yields hit multi-year highs. Bitcoin remains flat this year with no clear new trend. — link

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Elon Musk once made Twitter a global symbol of free speech, but it has now become a hub for hate speech, which he believes undermines free speech itself. He expressed concern that this shift could harm core social values in the coming years. Notably, Farcaster — a decentralized social network once endorsed by Vitalik — recently announced a shift from social-first to a wallet-driven model. — link

Bybit and DL Research released the 2025 Global Crypto Rankings Report, assessing crypto adoption in 79 countries. Singapore ranked first, followed by the U.S., Lithuania, Switzerland, and the UAE. The report highlights three trends: RWA tokenization value up 63% to $2.57 billion, accelerating national currency stablecoin initiatives, and on-chain payroll adoption rising to 9.6%, with stablecoins accounting for over 90%.

ZK verifiable computation platform Brevis has partnered with multi-chain DEX Aster to improve speed, security, and privacy through verifiable computation. Brevis moves complex on-chain computations off-chain and verifies them with zero-knowledge proofs to lower costs. The partners will explore ways to protect user privacy while preserving market transparency. — link