Aave’s founder Stani Kulechov confirmed this week that the U.S. SEC has closed its four-year investigation into the protocol without recommending enforcement. Shortly after, a new governance proposal from BGD Labs co-founder Ernesto Boado asked for AAVE token holders to move the Aave brand, domains, social channels, and developer gateways into a DAO-controlled legal entity. If approved, this shift could mark one of DeFi’s most far-reaching decentralization restructurings by redefining who owns and steers the protocol’s public-facing infrastructure.

During the holiday period, scammers intensify phishing, fake wallet apps, bogus presales and romance schemes to exploit distracted crypto users and the irreversibility of blockchain transfers. They also run impersonation, recovery and holiday-themed token scams, sometimes aided by AI voice cloning and malicious SDKs that steal wallet phrases. Users can reduce risk by relying on official apps and links, protecting keys, using strong security tools and carefully verifying offers, charities and giveaways.

On Tuesday, the Canton Network announced that World Liberty Financial will deploy the USD1 stablecoin on Canton to support compliant, privacy‑enabled onchain finance for institutions. According to CoinGecko, USD1 has surpassed $2 billion in market cap and is fully reserved and redeemable 1:1, with custody and issuance handled by BitGo entities.

Singapore-based StraitsX plans to extend its XSGD and XUSD stablecoins to Solana by early 2026. The move targets automated payments and onchain SGD–USD exchange, with the pair having processed over $18 billion in onchain transactions. StraitsX operates under MAS oversight and is exploring a consumer pilot with Grab.

Crypto.com has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre to research how distributed ledger technology can be applied to global commodities trading and settlement. The collaboration will assess tokenized commodities listings, custody models, and liquidity tools across sectors such as precious metals, diamonds, energy, and agriculture, while also adding education programs and running in parallel with Crypto.com's separate expansion into prediction-based market intelligence.

Wyoming-chartered Custodia Bank filed a December 15 petition asking the full Tenth Circuit to rehear its case contesting the Federal Reserve's denial of a master account. The filing argues the October 2-1 panel ruling misread the Monetary Control Act and raises constitutional issues by giving Reserve Banks unreviewable discretion over access to core payment services.

On December 16th, 2025, Masters of Trivia reported that its utility token MOT was listed on CoinMarketCap, increasing exposure for its token-based learning and quiz platform. The project was also chosen for the HundrED Global Collection 2026 after a review process covering more than 800 education innovations, highlighting its focus on scalable, multilingual, quiz-driven education and on-chain participation.

Bhutan and Cumberland DRW signed a multi-year MOU to develop a crypto ecosystem in Gelephu Mindfulness City. The plan emphasizes talent building, national stablecoin infrastructure, sustainable mining, and AI compute. Bhutan also launched the gold-backed TER token on Solana, issued via GMC, with DK Bank as custodian and distributor.