Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency

The Bank of Russia has set out a new framework to regulate cryptocurrencies, proposing tiered access that would allow everyday investors to buy digital assets alongside professional market participants, while maintaining tight controls on risk and usage. In a concept paper released Tuesday and submitted to the government for review, the central bank said both qualified and non-qualified investors would be permitted to acquire crypto assets, but under different rules, limits and testing requirements.

Dr. Michael Burry, the man behind The Big Short and, more recently, the Cassandra Unchained Substack newsletter, sees an AI bubble, and he's betting against it with bearish put options against two of the highest flyers out there: Palantir ( NASDAQ:PLTR) and Nvidia ( NASDAQ:NVDA). Even if there weren't an AI bubble, I'm sure there are a multitude of scenarios that could play out and result in pretty painful plunges for shares of the two companies.

RMJDT is being pitched as a ringgit-pegged token tied to Johor's Crown Prince. It was launched by his company, Bullish Aim, and issued on Zetrix, a network connected to Malaysia's national blockchain infrastructure. The token is intended for payments and cross-border trade settlement, with the project also announcing a 500 million Malaysian ringgit ($121 million) Zetrix-token treasury to support the network's day-to-day operations.

When PayPal launched almost three decades ago, the company made its name as one of the world's first fintechs. Now, PayPal faces a slew of competitors, from the payments colossus Stripe to Big Tech giants like Apple. "One of the challenges when you are at a certain scale and you've been around for a while is the very classic innovator's dilemma," Alex Chriss, the president and CEO of PayPal, told Fortune.

Previously, creators could receive earnings through traditional bank transfers or PayPal balances in fiat currency. Now, eligible US creators can opt in to receive those same earnings in PYUSD instead of a direct dollar payout. Importantly, this is optional: Creators must actively choose the stablecoin option, and they can continue using standard payout methods if they prefer. The rollout is limited to the United States, and YouTube has not announced a timeline for expanding the option to creators in other countries.

In a major regulatory win for the cryptocurrency sector, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approval for Circle Internet Group ( ) and Ripple to establish new national trust banks. The OCC also conditionally approved Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets to convert their existing state trust licenses into national charters. These five approvals mark a significant step toward integrating digital asset firms into the federal banking system.

The Cumulative Value Days Destroyed (CVDD) metric has historically called Bitcoin price cycle lows almost to perfection across every cycle since Bitcoin's inception. This metric begins with Coin Days Destroyed, a measure that weights Bitcoin transfers by the duration they were held before movement. For example, holding 1 Bitcoin for 100 days produces 100 coin days destroyed when transferred, while holding 0.1 Bitcoin for the same result requires 1,000 days of holding.

A shower of dollar bills, the image of Donald Trump, and a voice in the background similar to the president's asking: Do you want to be a billionaire? That's the start to the one-minute trailer introducing the Trump Billionaires Club, a 3D game set in New York that allows users to deposit and spend $TRUMP, the presidential memecoin, to acquire properties and build business empires.

In a speech at Bitcoin MENA, Mohammed Al Shamsi, representing UAE National Security, framed the current era as a "historical phase" for the global economy, noting the rapid changes reshaping finance worldwide. Bitcoin is no longer merely a "digital asset," Shamsi emphasized, but is now recognized as a "key pillar" in modern financing. Central to this evolution is the role of mining, described as the "beating heart" that underpins network strength, security, and continuity.

Shares of MicroStrategy ( NASDAQ:MSTR) are trading 20% below their 200-day moving average of $332.74, coinciding with a sharp deterioration in retail investor sentiment. Reddit discussions have turned decidedly bearish, with sentiment scores falling to 28 out of 100 in early December. The shift comes as Bitcoin dropped 16.6% from its mid-November peak of $104,050 to current levels around $86,774, putting pressure on MicroStrategy's $56 billion cryptocurrency holdings.

Users and developers have continued to flock to Solana, in part due to the fact that this network can handle thousands of transactions per second, at a fraction of the cost of competing networks. I'm of the view that these trends will continue to hold for the foreseeable future, though given the rate of innovation and technological development within the crypto sector, it's also entirely possible that a competing network begins to take market share over time.