December 18, 2025 @ 12:15 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Asia-Pacific deal ecosystem has reportedly experienced a slowdown in activity during January-November 2025, reflecting a “broader trend of cautious deal-making.” The total number of deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity and venture financing deals) announced in the APAC region “decreased by 5%… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 11:06 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mesh, the crypto payments network, today announced a partnership with Paxos, the blockchain infrastructure and tokenization platform. This integration will now reportedly allow Paxos to deploy Mesh’s technology “across its customer base, in order to enable seamless crypto deposits from verified sources.” By leveraging Mesh,… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 10:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ), a global provider of exchange-traded products (ETPs), in partnership with Galaxy Asset Management (Nasdaq: GLXY), a global enabler of digital assets and data center infrastructure, announced the launch of the Invesco Galaxy Solana ETP (QSOL). QSOL offers investors direct exposure to… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 9:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Olea Global Pte Ltd, a platform enabling global trade, announced the completion of its $30 million Series A round. The funding round was led by BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A), with participation from XDC Network, theDOCK, others, as well as existing shareholder SC Ventures,… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 8:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In a joint 2025 end-of-year report with FactSet, Talos has analyzed a year that marked a “structural” shift for digital assets. Drawing on Coin Metrics On-Chain and Market Data alongside FactSet’s capital markets intelligence, the report examines how regulation, institutional access, and “real economic usage… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 7:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Thunes, the so-called “Smart Superhighway” to move money around the world, has joined the World Economic Forum (WEF) Unicorn Community, which is described as a curated network of tech-driven, “high-growth” companies shaping the “future of global industries.” The latest collab between Thunes and WEF is… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 6:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) announced a host of new products and offerings today as the digital asset firm aims to lead the future of finance. In a video presentation, Coinbase executives revealed a series of product updates, including the ability for anyone to tokenize primary offerings. Coinbase… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 6:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Animoca Brands, a digital assets leader building blockchain and tokenized assets to advance the future of Web3, announced it entered into a term sheet with GROW Investment Group , China’s investment and asset management platform backed by Julius Baer. Under the term sheet, Animoca Brands… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 4:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

An affiliate of Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE:CRCL), a global financial technology firm and the issuer of USDC through its regulated entities, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with LianLian Global, a licensed cross-border payments provider. The collab will explore opportunities in stablecoin-enabled payment infrastructure to… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

Erebor Bank’s deposit insurance application has been approved by the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Erebor received approval for a bank charter in October, the first de novo national bank charter issued under the current administration. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the bank… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tether, which claims to be one off the largest companies in the digital assets industry, announced that it has made a strategic investment in Speed, Inc., a payments infrastructure company building instant, global settlement rails using the Bitcoin Lightning Network and stablecoins. Tether has reportedly… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:27 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The growing prevalence of card-not-present transactions will drive a 24% increase in global chargeback volumes by 2028, Sift predicts in its Q4 2025 Digital Trust Index: The Rising Impact of Chargebacks and Consumer Disputes. Card-not-present payments represent 63% of transactions. This growth will drive losses projected to… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

TRM Labs, the blockchain intelligence platform, announced a partnership with Sphinx, a key player focused on AI agents for financial crime detection and compliance operations. Together, the two firms will now aim to bring next-generation automation and intelligence to compliance teams facing operational pressure. According… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis noted that with more than $2.17 billion reportedly stolen from crypto services in the first half of 2025, protecting decentralized finance or DeFi and web3 protocols from hackers, operational faults, governance attacks, and financial exploits has become more urgent. This requires investment in more… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 2:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) announced the launch of USDC settlement in the United States, marking a key milestone in the company’s stablecoin settlement pilot program and strategy to “modernize its settlement layer underpinning commerce.” Now, U.S. issuer and acquirer partners can settle with Visa in… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

This week, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel of StarkWare, participated in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force Roundtable addressing privacy and financial surveillance. This is a hot topic today, especially with the advent of blockchain-powered financial services. While many blockchains allow anyone to… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 10:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Anchorage Digital has reportedly launched a full-stack token management solution to enable the so-called next-gen of protocol growth. Protocols are now able to effectively manage their entire token cap table and do so with “institutional-grade” security enabled by Anchorage Digital. As a partner for various… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 10:50 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

  Backbase’s 2026 Banking Predictions Report reveals how artificial intelligence, unified platforms, and invisible payments will shift from pilot projects to production-scale transformation across retail, commercial, wealth, and private banking. Drawing on feedback from executives at McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, EY, EverBank, Nedbank… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 10:48 am By Omar Faridi  |  

In a recent exchange on X, Mike Cagney, co-founder and executive chairman of Figure Technologies (Nasdaq: FIGR), dismissed real estate as a “red herring” in the push to migrate assets onto blockchain. Responding to a query about tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), Cagney argued thar real… Read More

December 17, 2025 @ 10:16 am By JD Alois  |  

The GENIUS Act, signed into law last July, legalized payment stablecoins as issued by regulated financial services firms. This includes traditional banks, with many poised to move into the new form of value transfer and payments. Yesterday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a… Read More