Из жизни альткоинов

Coinbase (COIN) revealed on Wednesday its plans to roll out a suite of new products intended to transform the platform into a comprehensive financial application, including the addition of stocks, advanced trading tools, and prediction markets.

Brian Armstrong’s Vision

CEO Brian Armstrong envisions his platform as the go-to destination for a diverse range of trades, including stocks, streamlined futures, and perpetual contracts, as well as prediction markets through its partnership with Kalshi. 

The prediction market remains defined by Kalshi and Polymarket. However, Armstrong emphasized that the appeal of prediction markets extends beyond mere trading.

“When looking at economic indicators or elections, people utilize prediction markets to gauge what might happen next month,” he explained in an interview with CNBC. 

“While only about 1% of users approach it as an asset class for trading, a striking 99% leverage it to obtain insights—almost as an alternative to traditional media or entertainment,” Armstrong further explained.

Recently, Robinhood (HOOD) has demonstrated a similar trajectory by broadening its prediction markets into sports-style contracts resembling parlays and prop bets, marking this category as one of its fastest-growing revenue streams. 

New Outcome Trading And Tokenization Strategy

Coinbase also aims to introduce its form of outcome trading into a wider ecosystem, betting on the future of brokerage services as a unified platform blending traditional assets, derivatives, and blockchain capabilities.

This trading expansion is closely linked to the cryptocurrency exchange’s tokenization strategy, which aims to bring more traditional assets onto the blockchain, including equities. 

The company is launching “Coinbase Tokenize,” an institutional-grade infrastructure designed to support the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). Armstrong sees this expansion as a stepping stone toward a more significant goal. 

“Trading stocks is a good starting point,” he noted, adding that the ultimate aim is to facilitate the trading of tokenized equities. Achieving this, according to him, could democratize access for individuals globally and unlock new structures in the US market, enhancing professional futures tied to equity trading.

Coinbase Targets All Asset Classes 

For businesses and developers, Coinbase is broadening its appeal beyond retail trading; the company has announced that Coinbase Business will now be accessible to eligible customers in the US and Singapore, along with an expanded API suite encompassing services like custody, payments, trading, and stablecoins.

Armstrong articulates a broader thesis: crypto is not merely a niche but rather a vital upgrade to the entire financial system. He asserts that all major asset classes, including prediction markets, equities, commodities, and, eventually, real-world assets like real estate, will transition to blockchain systems. 

Additionally, Coinbase plans to introduce “custom stablecoins” for companies that require branded stablecoin solutions, while also highlighting its x402 payments standard, which aims to simplify stablecoin payments associated with web requests.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

Сооснователь Эфириума Виталик Бутерин заявил, что для подлинной децентрализации сети разработчикам необходимо упростить протокол Эфириума. По мнению Бутерина, настоящая децентрализация зависит от того, сколько людей могут полностью разобраться в устройстве протокола.

In a new bipartisan initiative to regulate the cryptocurrency sector, Senators Elissa Slotkin and Jerry Moran have unveiled the “SAFE Crypto Act,” which aims to establish a federal task force designed to address the increasing risks associated with digital asset scams.

New Task Force Proposed

The SAFE Crypto Act seeks to create a comprehensive task force that will bring together the Treasury Department, law enforcement agencies, regulators, and private-sector experts. 

As outlined in the Senators’ announcement, the task force will enhance local law enforcement capabilities, improving their tools for combating crypto-related scams. 

“It’s critical we protect Americans against scams in all industries, but especially cryptocurrency as it becomes more popular,” Senator Slotkin emphasized. She believes empowering local law enforcement with the necessary resources to tackle these scams is essential. 

Slotkin added, “This task force, established by the SAFE Cryptocurrency Act, will allow us to draw upon every resource we have to combat fraud in digital assets.”

Senator Moran echoed her sentiments, stating, “With fraud and other payment scams continuing to grow, protecting the financial security and well-being of Kansans is critical.” 

He noted that their legislation would strengthen coordination among governmental agencies, law enforcement, and the financial services sector as they work together to identify and combat cryptocurrency fraud. 

Highlights Of The SAFE Crypto Act

The text of the SAFE Crypto Act outlines several key purposes for the task force. It will examine current trends in financial grooming scams involving digital assets, identify effective prevention methods, and issue recommendations to enhance efforts against these fraudulent activities. 

A cross-sector approach will ensure that the task force’s recommendations encompass the entire spectrum of the issue, given that scams affect individuals across multiple jurisdictions and industries, including financial services, telecommunications, and technology.

The task force will also include insights from stakeholders with direct experience supporting scam victims as well as industry participants who can provide valuable information about organized crime networks involved in these scams. 

Their work will involve evaluating best practices for countering various methods used by scammers, including Ponzi schemes, money laundering activities, and fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

Additionally, the task force will be responsible for assessing international efforts to prevent scams involving digital assets and reviewing current scamming methods that target individuals through digital asset intermediaries. 

Furthermore, the task force will coordinate efforts to ensure that law enforcement can identify and pursue perpetrators of scams involving digital assets. It will consult with other relevant stakeholders, including state, local, and tribal agencies, as well as financial services providers. 

The task force will also determine whether additional federal legislation or resources would be beneficial in combating scams in the digital asset space.

Within one year of its establishment, the task force will submit a comprehensive report to various Senate and House committees, detailing its findings and recommendations. After the initial report, annual updates will also be provided to keep Congress informed of ongoing progress and emerging threats.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com

Американский экономист, президент брокерской компании Euro Pacific Capital Питер Шифф (Peter Schiff) заявил, что при угрозе обвала доллара США первым из всех активов может потерять свою ценность биткоин.

Петербургская компания «Розетки СПб» запатентовала модель зарядной станции для электромобилей, в которую вмонтирован модуль майнинга криптовалюты. О новом патенте рассказала газета «Деловой Петербург».

Волатильность биткоина в этом году оказалась ниже волатильности акций компании Nvidia. Данная тенденция может сохраниться и в 2026 году, заявили аналитики компании Bitwise.

Комиссия по ценным бумагам и биржам США (SEC) опубликовала руководство для брокеров-дилеров по хранению криптоактивов, которые регулятор определил как «токенизированные версии акций или облигаций».

Ripple has published the first formal specification of the XRP Ledger’s Payment Engine, positioning it as a foundational upgrade for protocol safety as XRPL moves into a more feature-dense era. The document was released in partnership with formal methods firm Common Prefix and is intended to become a canonical reference for how payments and cross-asset value transfer behave on-ledger.

The motivation is straightforward, and Ripple does not sugarcoat it. XRPL has operated for more than a decade without downtime, but the team argues that a long track record is still not the same as provable correctness. In the DEV Community post published Dec. 17 under the RippleX Developers banner, the authors write that “to prepare the ledger for the next generation of complex features, we must move beyond empirical success to mathematical certainty.”

A Turning Point For XRP Ledger Security

That is the tone throughout: less victory lap, more engineering debt disclosure. For much of XRPL’s life, the C++ implementation (xrpld) has effectively acted as the only definitive source of truth for core behavior. Ripple’s post calls out a practical problem with that model: “The code tells us, in very precise C++ terms, what it does. It does not always tell us why.” In other words, when code is the spec, it becomes difficult to separate intentional design choices from historical behavior that simply persisted because nothing broke.

That gap starts to matter more as new amendments arrive. Ripple points directly to a pipeline of complex features — including lending, DEX-related work tied to Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPTs), batch transactions, and permissioned DEX concepts — and warns that the number of possible system states expands quickly as new modules “weave into the decades-old logic of the ledger.”

The published specification is hosted on GitHub and labeled as work in progress, but it is already framed as a serious technical artifact: “a technical specification document intended for developers implementing or verifying XRPL payment system behavior.” It also spells out the heart of the system in plain language: the Payment Engine is what “figures out how value should travel and then carries out those moves,” enabling payments to draw across “trust lines, MPTs, order books, AMMs, and direct XRP.”

The deeper point, though, is what this enables next. Ripple’s post lays out a two-part target. First, a human-readable specification that reduces ambiguity and becomes the canonical reference for builders and researchers. Second, a machine-verifiable model — a mathematical representation of the spec — that can support mechanical proofs about system properties and whether proposed changes violate core safety guarantees.

It is also explicit about scope discipline. Ripple argues that specifying the entire ledger in one shot is not realistic: “It would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to specify the entire system at once.” So the work focuses on what it describes as the two most critical and complex components: the Payment Engine and the Consensus Protocol.

Consensus, in particular, is framed as non-negotiable infrastructure. Ripple describes it as “the heart of the ledger,” adding: “Its correctness is non-negotiable and underpins the safety and liveness of the entire network.”

The stated objective is to formally model the mechanism to prove properties such as liveness, safety, and finality. On timing, Ripple is clear that this is the starting line, not the finish. After publishing the Payment Engine specification, the team says it intends to begin formal verification work on the Payment Engine and the Consensus Protocol in 2026.

The closing line captures the direction of travel: “The shift from code-as-truth to mathematics-as-truth is underway.”

In the XRP community, the announcement landed with predictable euphoria. “Absolute freaking game changer! … Aerospace & military grade security incoming,” wrote XRPL validator and community member Vet, adding: “The XRP Ledger is receiving its first formal specification for the payments engine. By mathematically specifying key protocol components […] Basically, this is the enabler for the endboss of audits AND for other things like complex features or client diversity.”

At press time, XRP traded at $1.83.

Основатель инвестиционной компании Cyber Capital Джастин Бонс (Justin Bons) заявил, что по ряду показателей Solana превосходит Биткоин, несмотря на меньшую капитализацию на крипторынке.

На сегодняшний день биткоин торгуется на уровне около $86 500, сохранив позицию выше критического уровня поддержки в $81 300, несмотря на недельное снижение стоимости на 6,5%, заявили в Glassnode.

Автор книги о личных финансах «Богатый папа, бедный папа» Роберт Кийосаки (Robert Kiyosaki) рассказал подписчикам, в какие активы нужно вкладываться, чтобы разбогатеть в условиях финансовой неопределенности и разрушения мировой экономики.

Быстрое ослабление энтузиазма трейдеров и инвесторов указывает на приближение переломной точки на рынке биткоина и завершение нисходящей динамики, предположили аналитики CryptoQuant.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and a key witness in the FTX prosecutions, was quietly moved from federal prison to community confinement on October 16, 2025, with the transfer happening largely under the radar.

According to court records and media reports, the move comes after Ellison served about 11 months of a two-year sentence. Her projected early release date is February 20, 2026.

Transfer To Community Confinement

Based on reports, Ellison was moved out of the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut and placed under community confinement supervised by the US Bureau of Prisons.

Community confinement can mean home detention or placement in a residential reentry center, but the Bureau typically does not disclose exact housing details for individuals. The transfer was completed quietly, with officials offering only routine confirmation of custody status.

Former Alameda Research CEO and SBF’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison was transferred on Oct. 16 from the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut to community confinement, which may include home confinement or a halfway house, while remaining under federal custody. Ellison has…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 17, 2025

Ellison’s Time Behind Bars

Ellison was sentenced in September 2024 and began serving her sentence in November 2024. She has spent roughly 11 months in custody prior to the transfer.

The sentence she received reflected her guilty pleas to multiple federal counts tied to the collapse of FTX, and it was shorter than other prison terms handed down in the larger case.

Role In The FTX Case

Ellison pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges stemming from what prosecutors described as an $11 billion collapse that devastated customers and shook the crypto sector.

She cooperated with prosecutors and was a central government witness at the 2023 trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried was later sentenced to 25 years and remains in custody while his appeals proceed.

How The Move Is Handled

Transfers like this are handled under standard Bureau of Prisons procedures. The agency may shift inmates to community confinement for several reasons, including the remaining length of sentence, program needs, or space considerations at facilities.

Specific conditions — such as whether Ellison will serve time in a halfway house or under home confinement — are not being released for privacy and safety reasons, according to officials quoted in news reports.

 

Reaction And Next Steps

The transfer has renewed media attention on the FTX prosecutions and on how sentencing outcomes have played out for cooperating witnesses.

Some outlets have noted that Ellison’s cooperation with prosecutors did not prevent a prison term, while others point to the relatively brief time she will now spend in a secure facility.

Ellison’s projected early release on February 20, 2026 remains subject to Bureau of Prisons rules and any adjustments that could arise from administrative reviews.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Мошенники особенно активизируются перед новогодними праздниками, пользуясь настроением инвесторов и их страхом упустить выгоду (FOMO), предупредили в Ассоциации регуляторов ценных бумаг Северной Америки (NASAA).

Федеральная корпорация по страхованию депозитов (FDIC) США опубликовала правила, определяющие порядок выпуска платежных стейблкоинов американскими банками и нефинансовыми учреждениями.

Amid significant regulatory shifts under President Trump’s administration, Binance is gearing up to relaunch in the United States, potentially reducing the stakes held by its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). 

Following years of legal hurdles that culminated in Zhao serving time in prison, his recent presidential pardon has revitalized the exchange’s prospects within the US crypto landscape.

Binance’s Path To Re-Establish US Operations

According to a recent Bloomberg report, Binance has been exploring options to restart operations for its American affiliate, Binance.US. This includes discussions of a recapitalization that could dilute Zhao’s majority stake, which has complicated the company’s efforts to expand in the country. 

At a recent Binance Blockchain Week event, Zhao expressed his commitment to transforming the US into a central hub for cryptocurrency, dubbing it “an emerging land for us.” 

His remarks came in the wake of a challenging period for Binance.US, which has seen its market share plummet from an impressive 35% to virtually zero since US regulatory bodies charged Zhao and the cryptocurrency exchange two years ago. 

Several states have also rescinded Binance’s licenses, while others, notably New York, never granted one in the first place. Supporters of the exchange believe that a forthcoming market-structure bill could establish a federal licensing regime, potentially altering the operational landscape for companies like Binance. 

However, Bitcoinist has continuously reported that the bill’s progress has stalled amid political divisions, casting doubt on its future. For now, the anticipated markup has been delayed until January 2026. 

The report suggests that if Binance were able to buy back some or all of Zhao’s holdings, it might consider new leadership and strategies to drive growth while leveraging political connections in Washington. Sources familiar with the situation emphasize a sense of urgency for the exchange to make critical decisions. 

Potential Partnerships With BlackRock 

In a separate effort to bolster its standing, the exchange is reportedly aiming for a closer partnership with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and issuer of the largest Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US. 

This relationship could involve the utilization of BlackRock’s tokenized money-market fund to support trades on Binance. Discussions regarding enhanced financial ties between the two have included the potential development of additional products and revenue-sharing opportunities.

Additionally, Binance is looking to strengthen its relationship with World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto venture co-founded by members of the Trump family. 

These moves appear to have taken shape following Zhao’s pardon and signify the crypto company’s desire to recalibrate its presence in a more favorable political atmosphere.

To facilitate these efforts, Binance has promoted Yi He, Zhao’s partner, as a stabilizing force for the company. Over the past few months, she has assumed a prominent role, leading strategic initiatives and revitalizing Binance’s growth narrative. 

However, her elevation has sparked questions regarding the dynamics of power between her and Teng, the former regulator who has been instrumental in guiding the exchange’s outreach efforts.

At the time of writing, BNB, the exchange’s native token, is trading at $846. This represents a major correction of 38% over the past few months, following the cryptocurrency’s all-time high of $1,369. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com

Министерство по развитию транспорта, энергетики и дорожного хозяйства республики Бурятия поддержало ввод круглогодичного запрета на добычу криптовалют. В ведомстве подчеркнули, что это поможет стабилизировать энергоснабжение региона.

Привычные для рынка четырехлетние циклы биткоина уходят в прошлое, уступая место более сложным макроэкономическим и инфляционным закономерностям, заявил председатель правления BitMine и сооснователь инвестфонда Fundstrat Том Ли (Tom Lee).

Two massive Ethereum transactions have just flowed out from FalconX, with Lookonchain linking them to ETH treasury company BitMine.

BitMine Has Received 48,049 Ethereum From FalconX

In a new post on X, on-chain sleuth Lookonchain has pointed out how BitMine appears to have acquired 48,049 ETH from a hot wallet connected to FalconX, an institutional digital asset trading platform.

The coins transferred through two transactions to two different wallets. The larger transfer involved 31,867 ETH, while the smaller one 16,182 ETH. In total, the tokens were worth about $140.58 million at the time that they were transacted.

The moves have come as Ethereum has plunged alongside the wider cryptocurrency sector, with its price dropping below the $3,000 level. Thus, it would appear possible that they are a sign of BitMine buying the dip.

Originally a Bitcoin mining-focused company, BitMine transitioned to being an Ethereum treasury vehicle under the leadership of chairman Tom Lee in June of this year. Since then, the firm has rapidly accumulated the cryptocurrency and has established itself as the “Strategy” of ETH.

On Monday, BitMine published a press release announcing that its holdings reached 3,967,210 ETH. So far, the company hasn’t made any official announcement of the latest buy, but if confirmed, it would take the total reserve past the 4 million ETH milestone.

The firm has set a target of 5% of the total circulating Ethereum supply. At present, the company still has some ways to go before this goal is hit, but at about 3.3% of the supply now sitting in its wallets, it has certainly made significant progress.

With holdings valued at more than $11 billion, BitMine is the second-largest cryptocurrency corporate holder in the world, only behind Strategy. Unlike Michael Saylor’s firm, however, the Ethereum hoarder has its treasury sitting in the red right now. Nonetheless, if the two blockchain transactions correspond to purchases, then it’s a sign that BitMine is still committed to accumulating more.

CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has talked in an X post about how the Ethereum price has changed since BitMine started its accumulation spree. It’s visible in the chart that during the initial buying period, ETH witnessed some rapid growth.

Clearly, however, despite continued buying from the treasury company, the asset’s price first flatlined and then declined. “Big buys ≠ sustained momentum,” noted the analyst.

ETH Price

Ethereum managed to make a recovery to $3,400 last week, but the coin has once again gone through bearish momentum since then, as its price has returned to the $2,930 level.

A bipartisan bill introduced on Dec. 15, 2025 would form a national response to rising cryptocurrency fraud, aiming to give law enforcement and regulators new tools to stop scams as they happen.

According to the sponsors, the Strengthening Agency Frameworks for Enforcement of Cryptocurrency (SAFE Crypto) Act creates a coordinated federal effort to detect, track, and shut down illicit schemes that use crypto rails.

Task Force To Target Crypto Scams

The bill would set up a task force that pulls together Treasury officials, federal and local law enforcement, regulators, and private-sector experts to share intelligence and act quickly on threats.

Reports have disclosed that the legislation is pitched as a way to get real-time visibility on suspicious activity and to give local police better technical help when they investigate.

Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) are listed as the bill’s proponents. The measure appears in Congress under a title that would establish a “Task Force for Recognizing and Averting Cryptocurrency Scams,” and is referenced by bill number S.3428 in congressional records. As of Dec. 17, 2025, the full legislative text had not been posted on the Congressional site.

Public Education And Local Support

The sponsors say the task force will do more than hunt scammers. It will fund public awareness work so consumers can spot fake investment pitches, phishing schemes, and impersonation fraud.

Local law enforcement would get training and access to blockchain analytics tools, the backers say, so officers can follow illicit funds and identify criminal networks before victims lose large sums.

Industry figures quoted in the announcement said crypto fraud has been large and growing. According to one industry policy lead cited by the sponsors, “Over the last two years, we’ve tracked billions in scams and fraud across the crypto ecosystem.” That warning is a central piece of the case lawmakers are making for faster, coordinated action.

ngl a lot of memecoin etc scammers will probably end up shitting themselves if this goes hard, it fills a regulatory/enforcement gap that many probably assumed is permanent/long-term https://t.co/AdKlzVPh9D

— _gabrielShapir0 (@lex_node) December 16, 2025

Cybercriminals: Panic Mode

Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at crypto investment firm Delphi Labs, said that if the SAFE Crypto Act is carried out effectively, it could leave crypto scammers scrambling to stay ahead of enforcement.

Shapiro added in a post on X on Tuesday that “scammers will probably end up sh*tting themselves if this goes hard,” stressing that the US attorney general, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the director of the US Secret Service would be among the senior officials leading efforts to pursue the bad guys.

Why Lawmakers Are Pushing Now

Lawmakers argue that criminals have grown more skilled at using decentralized systems and cross-border services to hide proceeds. The SAFE Crypto Act is being presented as a way to narrow that gap by making public and private responders work from a shared playbook. The initiative is part of a wave of digital currency-related policy moves being discussed in Congress this year.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView