Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced that cryptocurrency ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) related to web tokens, digital collectibles, or digital tools should not be considered securities and therefore do not fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC. Currently, only tokenized securities are subject to SEC regulation. This indicates that even before market structure legislation is introduced, ICO fundraising may still have a chance to revive in the U.S.

Aster launches a human vs. AI trading experiment, where 70 funded human investors will compete in one-on-one trading matches against 30 AI agents. Each participant receives 10,000 USDT to trade perpetual contracts, can keep all profits, and does not bear any losses. The championship prize is $100,000, but only if a human is the first to reach the finish line; if an AI leads, the prize is withheld.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its two-year investigation into Ondo Finance without recommending any charges. The investigation began in October 2023, focusing on whether Ondo violated securities laws in tokenizing U.S. Treasury bonds and whether its ONDO token should be considered a security. The company stated that the regulator informed them at the end of November that the investigation had been closed. This decision aligns with the regulatory shift under the leadership of Paul Atkins.

Famous for its "mobile mining" concept and boasting a large user base, Pi Network is facing the most severe challenge in its development history. In early December, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California accepted a class-action lawsuit against Pi Network's parent company, SocialChain Inc., and its founders, with the plaintiffs seeking up to $10 million in damages. The lawsuit accuses the project team of conducting a years-long fraudulent scheme, including unauthorized transfers of users' tokens, secretly selling up to 2 billion Pi tokens, and deliberately delaying the mainnet migration, resulting in asset depreciation. Although the Pi core team has remained silent so far, the community has strongly questioned key data presented in the lawsuit. Impacted by this news, the price of the PI token dropped 5%, with technical analysis showing it is hovering around a key support level and its future trend remains highly uncertain.

Tempo, a dedicated payment blockchain jointly developed by global payment giant Stripe and top crypto venture firm Paradigm, officially launched its public testnet on December 10, opening access to any company interested in building real-world stablecoin payment applications. This release also welcomes heavyweight new "design partners," including UBS Group, Mastercard, and prediction market platform Kalshi, joining the already impressive ecosystem lineup of Deutsche Bank, OpenAI, Shopify, and others.
Tempo aims to fundamentally solve the pain points of skyrocketing fees and settlement delays caused by transaction congestion on traditional blockchains by reserving dedicated block space for payments at the protocol layer and offering a fixed rate of $0.001 per transaction. Its target is the trillion-dollar daily payment and microtransaction market.

Tether announced that its US dollar stablecoin USDT has been recognized as an "Accepted Fiat-Referenced Token" (AFRT) within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). This approval covers nine blockchains, including Aptos, Polkadot, and TON. Authorized institutions holding a license from the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) can provide regulated services related to USDT on these networks, shaping the infrastructure for multi-chain operations.

Nick Timiraos, a Wall Street Journal reporter known as the "Fed mouthpiece," revealed that as many as 5 out of the 12 voting members of the Federal Reserve have publicly expressed reservations about cutting interest rates, and 10 out of the 19 total members believe there is no sufficient reason for easing. The market expects Fed Chair Powell to repeat the strategy from 2019: first lowering the interest rate to the 3.50%-3.75% range, and then adding stricter policy thresholds in the statement.

China’s new AI, Kimi K2, predicts that XRP could surge to $5–$8 in 2026. With Grayscale ETF and Elon Musk’s support, DOGE is expected to reach a new all-time high of $0.70–$1.30 in 2026. The Shibarium privacy upgrade is set to be ready in 2026, which could impact SHIB supply.

On the eve of the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting, the cryptocurrency market saw a strong rebound. On December 10, the price of Bitcoin briefly surpassed $94,000, rising nearly 4% within 24 hours, while major altcoins such as Ethereum, XRP, and Solana also climbed in tandem. However, the market sentiment is marked by significant caution amidst the optimism: although the market generally expects the Fed to implement a 25-basis-point rate cut, traders are increasingly concerned that Powell may use this opportunity to deliver a "hawkish" signal, hinting at a pause in easing measures in January next year. Analysts warn that if this scenario materializes, the "Christmas rally" that Bitcoin is hoping for may fall through, and hopes of reclaiming the $100,000 mark within the year will become slim.

Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has issued what may be the clearest regulatory positive signal in recent years. At the Blockchain Association Policy Summit, he cited his “Token Classification Framework” proposed last month, and explicitly stated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) related to network tokens, digital collectibles, or digital utilities should not be considered securities offerings and therefore do not fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
This means that the vast majority of ICO activities may instead fall under the more relaxed oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), potentially opening the door for a revival of the long-stagnant U.S. ICO market. Atkins also pledged to quickly advance the “innovation exemption” policy in the new year, providing reassurance to the industry.

After surging, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a slight pullback and was temporarily quoted at around $92,190 on December 10. The U.S. Senate version of the crypto market structure bill (the "Responsible Financial Innovation Act") is expected to be released this week, with a hearing and vote scheduled for next week. U.S. SEC Chairman hinted that key crypto regulatory initiatives will be rapidly advanced at the beginning of the 2026 New Year, stating that "the best is yet to come."

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis revealed at the Blockchain Association Policy Summit that a hearing on the U.S. Congress’s Responsible Financial Innovation Act is expected to take place next week. She stated that the goal is to share the final draft of the bill by the end of this week, allowing industry stakeholders and bipartisan lawmakers to review it before the hearing next week. The bill would grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) greater regulatory authority over digital assets, marking a significant shift of oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan has released a revised regulatory Q&A, confirming that contracts for difference (CFDs) linked to overseas crypto ETFs are "not acceptable." The ban takes immediate effect, with companies such as IG Securities ceasing to offer CFD products tracking US Bitcoin ETFs. Japan states that, under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, these products are considered high-risk crypto derivatives. Since Japan has not approved spot crypto ETFs, the investor protection framework remains incomplete.

Last week, the crypto market witnessed a rare phenomenon: XRP-related investment products attracted more capital inflow than the combined total of Ethereum and Solana. According to CoinShares data, XRP exchange-traded products (ETPs) raised $245 million in a single week, while SoSo Value shows that the XRP ETF has recorded positive inflows for 16 consecutive days, with total assets surging to $935 million.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter confirming that national banks can act as riskless principals in facilitating crypto transactions without having to include the assets on their balance sheets. The guidance confirms that facilitating crypto transactions for clients falls within the scope of "banking activities," citing 12 U.S. Code § 24 as the legal basis. Banks can act as principals in transactions with clients while simultaneously hedging with another client, a structure similar to riskless principal transactions in traditional markets.

Pi Network has fallen into a trust crisis due to a $10 million fraud lawsuit. The plaintiff, Harrow Morn, alleges that the project is involved in a large-scale fraud scheme, causing the price of PI coin to drop by 5%. The lawsuit reveals three major issues: unauthorized transfer of 5,137 PI tokens in April 2024, secret sale of over 2 billion tokens, and intentional delays in network migration resulting in user losses.

Bitcoin rose to $92,526 on December 10, with a daily increase of 1.92%. The core reason for Bitcoin's rise today is that Trump will interview candidates for Federal Reserve Chair this week. The leading candidate, Hassett, is seen as extremely dovish and may push rates further down from the current 3.5% to 3.75% to Trump's requested 1%. The market expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 25 bps on Wednesday, marking the third consecutive rate cut.

Sidra Chain is the world's first blockchain platform specifically designed for Shariah compliance. Forked from Ethereum, it adopts a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism and provides interest-free financial transactions that meet Halal standards. The project was founded by Qatari entrepreneur Dr. Mohammed Al Jefairi (MJ), and its target market covers the global population of 1.8 billion Muslims.

MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, in a speech in Dubai on December 4, fully revealed the DAT (Digital Asset Treasury) business model for the first time. MicroStrategy currently holds 650,000 Bitcoins, with an investment of approximately $4.8 billion. Saylor explicitly stated that they will never sell their coins; as long as Bitcoin’s annualized growth rate exceeds 1.36%, it will cover their costs. The company holds $1.44 billion in cash reserves, which can support 21 months of operations.

A recent study by top venture capital firm Paradigm points out that mainstream data platforms systematically double-count the trading volume of leading prediction market Polymarket. Researchers found that each transaction on Polymarket generates two types of OrderFilled events on-chain, but dashboards like DefiLlama and Blockworks sum these two data points together, resulting in the actual trading volume being overestimated by a factor of two.