Fed Seeks Input on Fed Accounts for Fintechs

The US Federal Reserve is requesting public input on its proposed “payment account,” dubbed a “skinny master account” which fintechs and crypto firms are drawn to as it would allow access to the central bank without needing the typical approvals.  “These new payment accounts would support innovation while keeping the payments system safe,” Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday. In October, Waller recommended that the Fed explore the idea of implementing payment accounts to clear and settle certain transaction activities of eligible financial institutions. Waller added the Fed is…

Klarna Partners With Coinbase to Raise USDC Funding From Institutions

Klarna, a Swedish fintech company known for its “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) service, has partnered with crypto exchange Coinbase to add stablecoins to its institutional funding toolkit. Under the arrangement, the global payments and digital banking firm plans to raise short-term funding from institutional investors denominated in USDC (USDC), using Coinbase’s crypto-native infrastructure, according to a Friday announcement. “This is an exciting first step into a new way to raise funding,” Klarna chief financial officer Niclas Neglén said. “Stablecoin connects us to an entirely new class of institutional investors,…

Brazil Crypto Activity Jumps 43% as Average Investment Tops $1,000

Crypto activity in Brazil expanded sharply in 2025, with total transaction volume climbing 43% year over year as average investment per user crossed the $1,000 mark, according to a new report from crypto platform Mercado Bitcoin. The report, titled “Raio-X do Investidor em Ativos Digitais 2025,” claimed that the Brazilian crypto market is no longer driven purely by speculation but increasingly shaped by structured investing and portfolio planning. The data was based on activity across Mercado Bitcoin’s platform, the largest digital asset exchange in Latin America. Per the report, the…

Crypto Industry Reacts To US Sen. Lummis Stepping Down

The crypto industry has rallied in support of pro-crypto US Senator Cynthia Lummis after she announced she will not seek reelection in 2026.  Lummis, who is a vocal advocate for digital assets, played a significant role in US crypto policy discussions over the past few years and earned widespread respect across the crypto industry. Venture capital firm a16z head of government affairs, Collin McCune, said in an X post on Friday that “crypto would not be where it is today without her fight in the Congress.”  Lummis was a “great…

Crypto Market Sentiment Not Fearful Enough For Bottom: Santiment

Crypto traders have not yet shown enough fear on social media to confirm a market bottom, according to a crypto analyst who suggested Bitcoin could still slide to around $75,000. “It looks very tempting to come even closer to it,” crypto market sentiment platform Santiment founder, Maksim Balashevich, said on a video published to YouTube on Friday. A move to that level would represent an approximate 14.77% drop from Bitcoin’s (BTC) current price of $88,350, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin is up 1.81% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap Balashevich…

Copy-Paste Mistake Leads to $50M USDt Loss in Address Poisoning Scam

A single transaction error led to one of the largest onchain losses seen this year, after a user mistakenly sent nearly $50 million in USDt to a scam address in a classic address poisoning attack. According to onchain investigator Web3 Antivirus, the victim lost 49,999,950 USDt (USDT) after copying a malicious wallet address from their transaction history. Address poisoning scams rely on look-alike wallet addresses being inserted into a victim’s transaction history via small transfers. When victims later copy an address from their transaction history, they may unknowingly select the…

Bitcoin Failure At $90K Driven By Reduced Fed Rate Cut Odds

Key takeaways: Strong demand for US Treasurys and lower odds of a Fed rate cut indicate that investors are shifting toward safer assets, reducing interest in Bitcoin. Economic weakness in Japan and softer US job data add pressure to Bitcoin, limiting its use as a hedge in the near term. Bitcoin (BTC) has repeatedly failed to hold above the $92,000 level over the past month, prompting market participants to develop multiple explanations for the price weakness. While some traders point to outright market manipulation, others attribute the decline to rising…

US Clarity Act Will Not Move Needle On Bitcoin’s Price: Analysts

Veteran trader Peter Brandt said the potential passage of the US Clarity Act is unlikely to have a significant impact on Bitcoin’s price, after indications that it could pass Congress as soon as January. “Is it a world-shaking macro development? Nope. Needed for sure, but not something that should redefine value,” Brandt told Cointelegraph on Friday. “Having an asset regulated, particularly an asset for which die-hard investors never wanted to be regulated, is not an earth-shattering event,” he added. His comments came after White House crypto and AI czar David…

SEC Confirms Years-Long Director Bans for Former Alameda, FTX Execs

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh will be barred from assuming company leadership roles for eight to 10 years following a court judgment. In a Friday notice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had obtained final consent judgments against Ellison, Wang and Singh for their roles in the misuse of investor funds at FTX from 2019 to 2022.  The former Alameda CEO consented to a 10-year officer-and-director bar, while Wang and Singh consented to eight-year officer-and-director bars each.…

Blockchain Association Petitions US Lawmakers, for Crypto Customer Rewards

The Blockchain Association, a non-profit crypto advocacy organization, wrote a letter to the US Senate Committee on Banking, signed by over 125 crypto industry groups and companies, opposing the ban on third-party service providers and platforms offering customer rewards to stablecoin holders. Expanding the prohibition on stablecoin issuers sharing yield directly with customers, outlined in the GENIUS stablecoin regulatory framework, to include third-party service providers stifles innovation and leads to “greater market concentration,” the letter said. The letter compared the rewards offered by crypto platforms to those offered by credit…