Today's top news highlights:
Trump has been actively hinting that Hassett will be the next Federal Reserve Chairman.
CME launches Bitcoin volatility index, similar to the VIX in the stock market.
Binance co-founder He Yi appointed as co-CEO; platform has nearly 300 million registered users.
Bank of America recommends that its wealth management clients allocate 1%–4% to crypto assets.
Macro
Reuters: Strategy is in talks with MSCI about potential removal from its index.
According to Reuters, Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is in talks with index provider MSCI regarding a potential removal from the MSCI USA and MSCI World indices. MSCI is expected to make a decision on January 15, 2026. If removed, the removal could trigger an outflow of up to $8.8 billion, particularly from passive investment vehicles such as ETFs. Strategy's Executive Chairman, Michael Saylor, stated that the company is involved in the process but expressed uncertainty about the scale of the outflow predicted by JP Morgan.
21shares, a leading global provider of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs), announced the launch of two new ETPs: 21shares Ethena ETP (ticker symbol: EENA) and 21shares Morpho ETP (ticker symbol: MORPH). Both products are listed on SIX Switzerland, Euronext Amsterdam, and Euronext Paris, and support trading in USD and EUR. Mandy Chiu, Global Head of Product Development at 21shares, stated that Ethena and Morpho represent significant advancements in on-chain financial infrastructure, and the new products will provide investors with transparent and convenient investment channels.
The UK has officially recognized crypto assets, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, as property under legal protection. On Tuesday, Lord Speaker John McFall announced that the Property (Digital Assets, etc.) Bill, with royal assent by King Charles, has become law. Based on recommendations from the Law Commission of England and Wales in 2024, the bill explicitly classifies crypto assets as a new form of personal property. This provides a clearer legal basis for digital assets, particularly in areas such as proof of ownership, recovery of stolen assets, and bankruptcy or estate management. CryptoUK notes that the bill affirms that "things" in digital or electronic form can be objects of personal property rights, even if they do not fall under the traditional categories of "physical property" or "debt property." Industry insiders say this change provides greater clarity and protection for consumers and investors, while laying the foundation for supporting new financial products, tokenized physical assets, and a more secure digital market. The UK had previously planned to introduce a crypto regulatory framework aimed at integrating crypto businesses into a similar regulatory system as other financial companies, promoting its development as a global crypto hub.
According to CME's "FedWatch": the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in December is 89.2%, and the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 10.8%. The probability of the Fed cumulatively cutting rates by 25 basis points by January next year is 66.6%, the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 7.7%, and the probability of cumulative rate cuts of 50 basis points is 25.7%.
YZi Labs announced the full list of founders and companies for the second season of EASY Residency during Binance Blockchain Week. These teams will showcase their innovative projects at Demo Day. This season focuses on the intersection of Web3, AI, and biotechnology, demonstrating the potential for technological convergence over the next decade. Selected projects include 42.space, 4D Labs, AllScale, Advent, and AgriDynamics, covering areas such as prediction markets, 3D data, cross-border payments, gene therapy, and agricultural robotics.
Trump has been actively hinting that Hassett will be the next Federal Reserve Chairman.
During a White House meeting, President Trump introduced Hassett, stating that the potential Federal Reserve Chair was "here." Earlier, Trump had indicated he might announce his nominee for Fed Chair early next year, adding that Treasury Secretary Bessett did not want the position.
CME launches Bitcoin volatility index, similar to the VIX in the stock market.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) announced the launch of new crypto benchmarks, including the Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVX), to quantify market uncertainty. The index references the implied volatility of Bitcoin and Micro Bitcoin options, similar to the VIX in the stock market, aiming to optimize option pricing and risk management. The Bitcoin volatility benchmark launched by CME and CF Benchmarks includes the real-time index BVX and the settlement index BVXS. Both are the first benchmarks to directly measure 30-day forward implied volatility, derived from the CME Bitcoin and Micro Bitcoin options order book, and use variance swap pricing to isolate volatility exposure. BVX is published every second during trading hours, while BVXS is published at 16:00 London time.
AI
According to CoinDesk, Amazon has launched its next-generation AI chip, Trainium 3, boasting four times the training speed of its predecessor and targeting Nvidia's market share. This chip will be offered through AWS to facilitate large-scale model training. Meanwhile, several Bitcoin mining companies, such as Core Scientific and IREN, are transforming their data centers into AI infrastructure and have reached multi-billion dollar cooperation agreements with Microsoft, Google, and others. Despite the surge in investment in AI infrastructure, analysts warn that if demand slows, these companies could face a funding gap of up to $800 billion.
According to the Financial Times, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin preparations for one of the largest IPOs in history, potentially as early as 2026. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the company is in talks for a private funding round with a valuation exceeding $300 billion. Multiple sources also indicated that the company has discussed potential IPO plans with several major investment banks. However, these discussions are still in the preliminary and informal stage, and the company is not yet close to selecting IPO underwriters. An Anthropic spokesperson stated, "For a company of our size and revenue level, operating as efficiently as a publicly traded company is fairly standard practice." "We have not made any decisions regarding when or even if we will go public, and there is no information to share at this time."
Opinion
Strategy CEO: Does not rule out the possibility of lending Bitcoin to enhance financial flexibility.
According to Bloomberg, Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) has established approximately $1.4 billion in cash reserves to cover dividends and interest during periods of market volatility. These reserves are expected to last approximately 21 months, potentially extending to two years, without requiring the use of its approximately $59 billion Bitcoin position. Strategy CEO Phong Le also stated that the company is not ruling out the possibility of lending Bitcoin to enhance its financial flexibility.
Project Updates
Solana x402 Hackathon Announces Partner Track Awards, Multiple AI and Micropayment Projects Win.
According to Solana Developers, the x402 Hackathon Collaboration Track has selected several innovative projects covering AI agents, micropayments, Web3 data, and prediction markets. Winners include Sentinel Agent (on-chain AI payment platform), Galaksio (USDC for computing power and storage), Learn Earn (self-learning module), ParallaxPay (AI agent marketplace), Agentx402 (advanced AI model without subscription), x402 Triton Gateway (micropayment gateway for querying historical Solana data), scanna-x402 (x402 payment based on Web3 consumer data), InsightAI (TG Bot with whale signal), Marketputer (meme marketing assistant), Polycaster (AI-driven prediction market analytics), and x402Resolve (Oracle-verified payment escrow). Multiple projects showcased new scenarios for AI interaction and on-chain economics based on the x402 protocol.
Clanker will begin its first round of pre-sales on Thursday, lasting for 7 days.
Clanker has announced that its first pre-sale will begin this Thursday at 9:30 AM (December 4th, Pacific Time) and will last for 7 days. All participants will enjoy the same terms. Clanker will be listed for trading 24 hours after the pre-sale ends. The official statement indicates that the project and team will be showcased through multiple channels, and there are plans to improve the pre-sale mechanism. Previously, Binance announced the listing of CLANKERUSDT and BEATUSDT perpetual contracts.
Binance will delist FIS, REI, and VOXEL on December 17th.
According to a Binance announcement, the platform will delist FIS, REI, and VOXEL tokens on December 17, 2025. Their current market capitalizations are $6 million for FIS, $16 million for REI, and $7 million for VOXEL.
Binance co-founder He Yi appointed as co-CEO; platform has nearly 300 million registered users.
Binance announced at its Binance Blockchain Week event that co-founder He Yi has officially assumed the role of Co-CEO. Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng stated, “Since Binance’s inception, He Yi has been a key member of the core management team. Her innovative thinking and user-centric approach have played a crucial role in advancing and shaping the company’s vision, culture, and bottom-up business strategy. This appointment is a natural progression, and she will continue to drive the company’s growth.”
Binance Alpha will list Power Protocol (POWER)
Binance Alpha will list Power Protocol (POWER) on December 5th. Eligible users can claim the airdrop using Binance Alpha Points on the Alpha event page after trading opens on Alpha. Further details will be announced later.
The Stable mainnet will launch on December 8th at 21:00.
Stablecoin blockchain has announced that its mainnet will officially launch at 21:00 Beijing time on December 8th.
Binance will delist 15 spot trading pairs on December 5th, including ACH/BTC and WAXP/BTC.
According to Binance's announcement, the platform will delist 15 spot trading pairs at 11:00 AM Beijing time on December 5, 2025, including ACH/BTC, DENT/ETH, EGLD/FDUSD, HAEDAL/BNB, INIT/FDUSD, PORTAL/BNB, PORTAL/BTC, PROVE/FDUSD, QTUM/BTC, RIF/BTC, SHELL/FDUSD, STRAX/BTC, TREE/FDUSD, WAXP/BTC, and W/BTC, involving assets priced in BTC, BNB, ETH, and FDUSD.
Stable, a stablecoin public blockchain, has announced its STABLE token economic model, with a fixed total supply of 100 billion tokens. The token will primarily be used for network governance, consensus security, and ecosystem incentives, while all user interactions will still be settled entirely in USDT, without requiring STABLE to pay gas. The STABLE token allocation includes: ecosystem and community (40%), team (25%), investors and advisors (25%), and genesis allocation (10%). The network will adopt a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism, where validators stake STABLE to participate in consensus and share USDT transaction fees.
Bithumb will launch BOB and TRAC Korean Won trading pairs.
According to a Bithumb announcement, Bithumb will launch a trading pair between BOB and OriginTrail (TRAC) Korean Won.
According to Jupiter's official announcement, the decentralized fundraising platform "DTF (Decentralized Token Formation)" has officially launched, with its first certified project being HumidiFi (WET), an active liquidity DEX within the Solana ecosystem. The WET token sale will begin at 23:00 Beijing time on December 3rd. Whitelist slots are oversubscribed and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Users can connect their wallets to check their eligibility and participate in the subscription.
According to a MetaMask announcement, the new "Transaction Shield" feature is now live, providing up to $10,000 in monthly compensation for transactions that pass its security verification, limited to 100 transactions. This service is currently available to extended users, supports multi-chain interaction, and costs $9.99 per month, with a discounted annual price of $99. New users can try it free for 14 days, and it will be expanded to mobile devices in the future.
Coinbase will launch Dash perpetual contract trading on December 4th.
According to a Coinbase Markets announcement, Dash (DASH) perpetual contract trading will launch on December 4, 2025, with an expected start time after 9:30 AM UTC on that day, subject to liquidity conditions. The contract will be available to retail users in specific regions via Coinbase Advanced, while institutional users can access it through Coinbase International Exchange.
Celestia-based AstraNetwork has terminated its shared sorter network.
According to The Block, Astria Network, based on Celestia, "intentionally ceased" operation on December 2nd at block 15,360,577, marking the official shutdown of its shared orderer network. The project, launched in 2023, aimed to provide a decentralized orderer solution for L2 networks and had received a total of $18 million in funding. However, due to limited adoption, the gradual shutdown of key components, and development disruptions, it ultimately decided to withdraw completely, without disclosing detailed reasons for the shutdown.
Coinbase has included five new tokens in its listing roadmap, including WET, ZKP, and PLUME.
According to Coinbase Markets, Humidifi (WET), zkPass (ZKP), Plume (PLUME), Hyperlane (HYPER), and Jupiter (JUPITER) have been added to Coinbase's listing roadmap, involving Solana, Ethereum, and the Base network. The official statement indicates that official trading launches are subject to market-making support and technical readiness conditions; specific trading times will be announced separately.
Important data
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of $58.4995 million yesterday.
According to SoSoValue data, as of December 2nd (Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $58.4995 million, marking the fifth consecutive day of net inflows. BlackRock's IBIT saw the largest net inflow at $120 million, while ARKB experienced a net outflow of $90.9383 million. As of now, Bitcoin spot ETFs have total assets of $119.587 billion, representing 6.58% of Bitcoin's total market capitalization.
The USDC Treasury minted an additional 500 million USDC on the Solana blockchain.
At 9:29 and 9:30 (UTC+8), the USDC Treasury minted 250 million USDC on the Solana chain, for a total value of $500 million.
According to Ember's monitoring, pump.fun transferred another 75 million USDC to Kraken two hours ago. Since November 15, it has transferred a total of approximately $555 million USDC from its ICO sales to the exchange.
Investment and Financing/Acquisition
Kraken to acquire tokenized asset platform Backed Finance
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced its acquisition of tokenized asset platform Backed Finance. Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated in an interview that Kraken already offers stocks and ETFs issued by Backed, and plans to more tightly integrate these products into its platform following the acquisition. Sethi said, “While everyone is talking about tokenized stocks, we’re already putting it into practice. We’re focused on long-term investing, not hype.” Kraken did not disclose the terms of the transaction. Data from rwa.xyz shows that Backed Finance is currently the second-largest platform in the tokenized listed stock space, with a market share of approximately 23%. Backed’s xStocks product offers exposure to over 60 tokenized stocks and ETFs, all backed one-to-one by underlying assets.
According to market sources, Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company Sonnet BioTherapeutics has received shareholder approval for a business merger with Hyperliquid Strategies, Inc. Previously, it was reported that Sonnet planned to change its name to Hyperliquid Strategies through the merger, and was expected to hold 12.6 million HYPE tokens and $300 million in cash.
Circle established the Circle Foundation, dedicated to promoting global financial inclusion.
According to its official blog, Circle announced the establishment of the Circle Foundation, a new philanthropic initiative dedicated to advancing financial resilience and inclusion in the United States and globally. The Circle Foundation, seeded by a 1% equity commitment from Circle, aims to support organizations that can strengthen the financial system, including institutions that work with small businesses in U.S. communities and international organizations that modernize humanitarian aid infrastructure. The Foundation will initially focus on strengthening the financial resilience of small businesses across the United States by providing grants to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Globally, the Circle Foundation will partner with international organizations to modernize humanitarian financial infrastructure.
Institutional holdings
BitMine's new wallet received over 30,000 ETH from Kraken, worth approximately $91.75 million.
According to Onchain Lens, a newly created wallet under BitMine received 30,278 Ethereum from the Kraken exchange, which is worth approximately $91.75 million at current prices.
According to PR Newswire, Token Cat Limited (NASDAQ: TC) announced that its board of directors has formally approved a crypto asset investment policy, authorizing the company to allocate a portion of its cash reserves to selected crypto assets under a strict risk management framework. The board has approved a maximum overall allocation limit of $1 billion for the digital asset plan. Deployment will be phased in based on market conditions, risk assessment, and fund management needs. The initial allocation will focus on tokens from emerging crypto projects with strong growth prospects, including assets related to artificial intelligence, on-chain raw data initiatives, and token-equity hybrid models. Future expansion to other asset classes will require reassessment and approval by the board's risk committee. The company will not self-custody the purchased crypto assets. A crypto asset risk committee, led by the CFO, has been established to oversee asset allocation, manage risk controls, and report regularly to the board.
Bank of America recommends that its wealth management clients allocate 1%–4% to crypto assets.
According to Yahoo Finance, Bank of America (BAC) has advised its wealth management clients to consider allocating a certain percentage of their portfolios to cryptocurrencies. The firm recommends that clients of its Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Private Bank, and Merrill Lynch Edge platforms allocate 1%-4% of their funds to digital assets. Its investment strategists will begin monitoring four Bitcoin ETFs (BITB, FBTC, Grayscale Mini Trust, and IBIT) starting in January 2026. Chris Hyzy, Chief Investment Officer of Bank of America Private Bank, stated in a press release: “A moderate allocation of 1%-4% to digital assets may be appropriate for investors with a strong interest in thematic innovation and who can tolerate high volatility. Our recommendation emphasizes choosing regulated investment vehicles, making thoughtful asset allocations, and clearly understanding the opportunities and risks involved. For investors with a more conservative risk appetite, the lower end of this allocation range may be more suitable; while for investors with a higher overall portfolio risk tolerance, the upper end is more appropriate.”
According to Cryptopolitan, Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald disclosed that it holds $1.28 million worth of Volatility Shares Solana ETF shares, marking the first time the firm has been revealed to hold regulated Solana products. The filing, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in mid-November, lists 58,000 shares of the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (NASDAQ: SOLZ). At the time of the filing, its Volatility Shares Solana ETF holdings were valued at $1,282,960.
