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RAD Intel has 7-figure recurring contracts, sales set to 2x in 2025 [4], a valuation up 5000% in about 5 years, $60M+ raised from 14K+ investors, and a reserved Nasdaq ticker $RADI [4] while still private.
DTCC received an SEC no-action letter approval for a three-year pilot program starting H2 2026 to tokenize Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and US Treasury securities onchain while maintaining identical rights and protections as original securities. Potential benefits include collateral mobility, 24/7 trading access, and programmable assets. The move signals growing acceptance of blockchain in traditional finance, with over $33 billion in real-world assets now onchain. DeFi protocol Ondo Finance urged the SEC to delay Nasdaq's tokenization plans until DTC settlement processes are disclosed publicly to ensure fair competition and prevent larger institutions from gaining advantages.
Do Kwon received a 15-year prison sentence for his role in Terra's $50 billion collapse, exceeding prosecutors' 12-year request and tripling the defense's five-year proposal, which the judge called "utterly unthinkable and wildly unreasonable." District Judge Paul Engelmeyer cited the "eye-popping" magnitude of the crime, which affected hundreds of victims, Kwon's flight to Serbia and Montenegro on false passports, and "despicable" conduct during UST's de-peg advising retail to stay invested while insiders exited positions, with Kwon's trollish Twitter presence particularly galling to the judge. Kwon pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and wire fraud after extradition in Montenegro, reducing the original nine-count indictment, which carried 135 years maximum, to two counts. He must serve at least half his sentence before applying for a South Korea transfer, where additional charges await.
Bhutan has launched TER, a Solana-based gold-backed token issued through Gelephu Mindfulness City with custody by DK Bank, the kingdom's first licensed digital bank, offering international investors blockchain-based physical gold ownership with digital portability. The announcement follows Kyrgyzstan's $50 million USDKG gold-backed stablecoin launch days earlier, demonstrating a pattern of smaller nations using blockchain to fuse traditional asset reserves with regulated digital finance. Gelephu Mindfulness City operates as a special administrative region using digital assets for financial reserves and innovation as part of Bhutan's broader blockchain strategy to diversify its economy.
Coinbase has released x402 V2, an updated stablecoin-based AI agent payments protocol that features wallet-based identity, eliminating per-call repayment, automatic API discovery, dynamic payment recipients, and multi-chain/fiat support via Chain Agnostic Improvement Proposals. The modular SDK enables custom networks and schemes, moving the protocol from "what does it do" to "which services plug in next" as developers combine payments with secure wallet access. The update expands on the original open-source x402 protocol and x402 Bazaar discovery layer released earlier this year, positioning the system as future-proof infrastructure for unified payment models between agents and humans.
Fogo cancelled its $20 million token pre-sale, originally planned for December 17, instead airdropping the 2% allocation to better distribute tokens and reward early users ahead of its mainnet launch on January 13, with 38.98% of supply unlocked. The Solana Virtual Machine-based Layer 1 adjusted tokenomics to give institutional investors, Distributed Global and CMS Holdings, 8.77% while burning an additional 2% from core contributors' genesis allocation, with the team taking a snapshot of testnet Fogo Fishers and Portal Bridge users for Fogo Flames points redeemable for tokens. Fogo is the first blockchain implementing Jump Crypto's Firedancer client.
The persistent ~6% premium for USDT in India isn't a retail quirk, it's a shadow exchange rate driven by capital controls and gold smuggling economics. India legally taxes imported gold at 6%, and historically, smugglers bypassed this using the hawala system to move money offshore. Today, hawala has upgraded to USDT as people with unreported cash buy Tether at a premium in India to pay gold suppliers abroad, pushing USDT above the RBI-managed INR/USD rate. The premium tracks the gold duty almost perfectly, as when the tax was 15%, the USDT premium was ~15% and when the tax dropped to 6%, the premium fell to ~6%.
Consumers have an unfair relationship with banks. People earn almost nothing on deposits while banks take large risks, keep the upside, and rely on taxpayer bailouts for the downside. Historically, this was controlled by Glass-Steagall, which forced banks to separate boring deposit-taking from speculative investment banking, creating a safer and more socially aligned system. Deregulation in the 80s–90s removed those guardrails, letting banks earn huge profits while lobbying to restrict competition from yield-bearing stablecoins. There are two paths we may pursue: one is to allow free competition between banks and stablecoins, or consider bringing back Glass-Steagall to realign banks with public interest.
Dismissing crypto cards because they're “not the endgame” misses how infra transitions actually happen, as we won't jump from SWIFT to self-custodial ZK payments overnight, and cards exist because merchant acceptance rails haven't moved yet. Commoditizing Cards-as-a-Service is an accelerant (not a weakness) that pushes differentiation up-stack into custody, yield routing, tax/FX transparency, UX, and compliance. Most crypto cards will die, especially in bear markets, but the winners will be self-custodial, multi-stablecoin native, yield-safe, low-FX, niche-focused, and genuinely user-first.
Tether, a sponsor and partner of Juventus Football, submitted a $1.3 billion bid to acquire a majority stake in the football club, which was quickly declined.
Meme coins aren't just about gambling or “financial nihilism”, they're the first large-scale experiment in turning attention itself into a tradeable asset.
Citadel Securities sent a letter to the SEC urging it to regulate DeFi technology as if it were traditional financial intermediaries, arguing that validators, wallets, and smart contract developers should be treated like brokers.
Stripe's stablecoin volume on Polygon has grown from under $1M per month in late 2024 to peaks of $8–9M in 2025, signaling rising merchant confidence in Polygon as a payments layer.