SEC Greenlights Nasdaq Push Into Tokenized Securities Trading

A ruble-denominated stablecoin, A7A5, introduced by A7 LLC, has seen significant growth despite being linked to sanctioned entities. It facilitates cross-border payments for Russian users and taps into USDT liquidity through DeFi protocols on Tron and Ethereum blockchains.

In Manosque, France, three masked men broke into a home, tied up a woman at gunpoint, and stole a USB drive containing her partner's crypto data. The victim managed to free herself and contact the police, leading to an investigation by local authorities.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds experienced a three-day streak of outflows, totaling $934.8 million, as investors reevaluate risk amid market sentiment shifts. Factors contributing to the outflows include failed resistance at $92,000, macroeconomic uncertainty, and rising jobless claims.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was denied a pardon by President Trump, who previously pardoned other crypto industry figures. Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, appealing his 25-year prison sentence.

SharpLink Gaming has deployed $170 million worth of ETH to Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, Linea, aiming to optimize on-chain yields. The firm's treasury of 864,840 ETH is staked via custodians, with recent deployment on Linea for additional rewards.

Ethereum scaling network Polygon is reportedly in talks to acquire Coinme, a U.S. Bitcoin ATM kiosk provider, for $100-125 million. Coinme, operating in 49 states, added various crypto tokens to its kiosks after starting with Bitcoin in 2014.

The crypto market is experiencing a downturn, with Bitcoin trading around $90,600 and the total market cap at $3.06 trillion, down by $35 billion. Institutional money inflow into Bitcoin ETFs has been fluctuating, indicating a fragile market sentiment.

Florida's new bill, HB 1039, aims to establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve managed by the state's chief financial officer outside the state treasury. The proposed fund, which does not specify Bitcoin as the chosen cryptocurrency, requires assets to maintain a market cap of at least $500 billion over two years. Only Bitcoin qualifies, as of this writing.

The Ethereum validator exit queue has finally cleared after being clogged for four months, causing delays and headaches for staking protocols. The queue for new Ethereum validators is now increasing rapidly, with over 1.7 million ETH tokens entering since December 24.

Bank of America analysts upgraded Coinbase to “Buy” from “Neutral,” citing its leadership in tokenization and potential benefits from its blockchain network. They noted that Coinbase's outlook improved with the launch of new products, such as stock trading and prediction markets, appealing to asset managers.