The Lighter project has sparked an intense debate within the decentralized finance ecosystem after presenting its new asset LIT. During this Tuesday, December 30, the platform revealed a distribution structure that reserves half of the supply for investors and the team. According to Lighter’s official announcement, this decision seeks to ensure the sustainable development of its perpetual exchange infrastructure.
Author: liam
liam
Liam writes about Web3 and decentralized finance, focusing on how protocols, applications, and governance models are used in practice. His coverage centers on real adoption, integration, and the mechanics behind decentralized systems. Market developments and regulatory context are part of his reporting when they intersect with Web3 or DeFi activity.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has drawn a firm line against reopening the GENIUS Act, declaring it a “red line” issue while accusing traditional banks of lobbying to restrict stablecoin rewards. The controversy centers on whether Congress should narrow the Act’s provision allowing third-party platforms to share yield generated from stablecoin reserve assets with users.
Ripple is directing a coordinated push to increase on-ledger activity on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by partnering with major Japanese banks and ecosystem firms. The effort centers on the Japan Financial Infrastructure Innovation Program (JFIIP), backing from Mizuho Bank and SMBC Nikko, and a planned enterprise-grade stablecoin, RLUSD, with SBI Holdings — moves intended to shift institutions from messaging rails toward native XRPL utility.
The ALT5 Sigma crypto firm, linked to the Trump family’s financial environment, faces a new scandal after revealing its auditor is unlicensed. According to a Financial Times report, the firm Victor Mokuolu CPA PLLC is barred from performing audits for failing to comply with state registration regulations at this time. This finding worsens the entity’s compliance crisis, which already has significant delays in its reports.
Trend Research recently withdrew 20,850 ETH from Binance as the market observes an aggressive institutional Ethereum accumulation by various financial giants. According to journalist Anas Hassan, these corporate treasury operations are driving the asset price toward critical resistance levels at this time. The strategy includes using stablecoin loans to maximize exposure ahead of an imminent recovery of the digital market.
Digital asset investment products recorded crypto fund outflows of 446 million dollars during the last week of December. James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, confirmed that this trend reflects a lingering fragility in the sentiment of investors across the board. The weekly report highlights that the market has not yet fully recovered from the sharp correction suffered in October.
IREN has emerged as the standout performer in Bitcoin mining in 2025, posting roughly a +300% year-to-date gain after accelerating into AI cloud services. By contrast, Bitdeer’s shares have fallen about 50% YTD despite growing mining output, a divergence that highlights investor preference for immediate AI monetization over longer-term capacity builds.
The AI tokens sector fell sharply in 2025, losing roughly 75% of its value and erasing about $53 billion from market capitalizations, a collapse that accelerated late in the year and reshaped risk perceptions for speculative crypto plays. The decline comes after two years of strong gains and arrived amid thinning liquidity and growing geopolitical headwinds, immediately affecting trader positioning and portfolio rotation.
Nvidia struck a reported $20 billion strategic arrangement with AI chip startup Groq structured as a non‑exclusive licensing agreement plus the hiring of key Groq personnel. The move is designed to strengthen Nvidia’s inference capabilities and has immediate implications for the competitive landscape and for projects promoting decentralized AI.
The Canton token (CC) jumped about 27% following an announcement that the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) will mint a portion of U.S. Treasury securities on the Canton Network. The move, backed by an SEC no-action letter and an MVP target for H1 2026, immediately re-priced the token on prospects of institutional adoption and faster, more efficient settlement. The announcement signaled concrete progress toward bringing high-value, real-world assets onchain under institutional controls.