Australian Pension Fund Eyes Bitcoin Access for Members

The Consumer Price Index rose 3% in the 12 months through September, slightly below the expected 3.1% increase. Bitcoin saw a 2% gain, trading at around $111,300, while Ethereum and Solana also experienced positive movements.

Five members of a dark web drug trafficking network were convicted for shipping illegal narcotics nationwide and laundering millions through crypto. The operation, known as "FireBunnyUSA," ran from 2019 to 2022, with investigators making undercover purchases of drugs like cocaine and MDMA.

Representative Maxine Waters criticized US President Donald Trump's pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, characterizing it as a "payoff" amid allegations of corruption and ties between the Trump family and Binance. Zhao, also known as CZ, served four months in prison last year for failing to prevent money laundering through Binance.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to launch a program by the end of 2025 allowing institutional clients to use Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for loans, managed by a third-party custodian. This move follows the bank's decision in June to accept crypto ETFs as collateral.

Operation Catalyst, a joint effort by Interpol and Afripol, resulted in 83 arrests across six African countries, seizing $600,000 of $260 million in illicit assets. The operation targeted terrorism financing, money laundering, and online scams, with cooperation from entities like Binance and Moody’s.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will enable institutional clients to utilize Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for loans by the year's end, expanding Wall Street's crypto involvement. The program, available worldwide, will involve a third-party custodian to protect the tokens pledged by clients.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was pardoned by President Donald Trump, sparking backlash for rewarding criminal behavior amid a government shutdown. The pardon, defended by the White House, is seen as ending "the Biden Administration's war on crypto."

Despite macro headwinds, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have shown an uptick, with large bag holders continuing to accumulate BTC. The recent Black Friday event liquidated $19 billion in leveraged positions, but the dolphin cohort's accumulation is keeping the long-term bull run intact.

A British Columbia court ruled that a crypto exchange was not liable for a customer's C$671,000 loss to an online scam, despite issuing multiple fraud warnings. The court found that the exchange had fulfilled its obligations by alerting the customer about potential fraud risks.

Two wallets associated with the Melania Trump meme coin received $1.2 million from the Meteora airdrop, sparking concerns as the former project lead faces a class action lawsuit. The wallets swiftly transferred the funds to different addresses, raising questions about the distribution process.