DEX

PIPPIN jumped to a fresh all‑time high on December 16 following a sharp squeeze in derivatives. Shorts dominated open interest, while on‑chain whales executed coordinated spot orders on Raydium and PumpSwap. The team made no new announcements during the move.

On Wednesday, Gemini Titan received a designated contract market license from the CFTC. On Monday, Gemini said via X that its Gemini Predictions platform is now available in all 50 US states. The product lets users trade on real-world outcomes and is part of the exchange’s push toward a super-app spanning crypto trading, staking, rewards, tokenized stocks, and prediction markets.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority unveiled plans on Tuesday to bring cryptoasset firms under a dedicated regime. The consultation runs until February 12, with the framework expected to be finalized next year and applied from 2027. The FCA softened earlier positions, allowing platforms to list their own tokens and trade directly with clients, while proposing controls on market abuse and staking programs.

On December 15, 2025, MetaMask introduced native Bitcoin support, enabling users to hold, buy, send, and swap BTC inside the wallet. The company said SegWit is supported with Taproot planned, and users may earn reward points under a $30 million community program. Purchases can be made via credit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, or bank transfers.

Aave Labs integrated CoWSwap into app.aave.com, replacing Paraswap, drawing objections from Aave DAO delegates over front-end fee routing. Delegates EzR3aL and Marc Zeller say the change diverts 15–25 basis points and could reduce DAO revenue by about $10m per year, raising governance and transparency concerns.

Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov has filed a proposal for a 17.45 million CRV grant, valued at about $6.6 million, to fund Swiss Stake AG. The plan covers research, development, infrastructure, and security for Curve’s lending stack and a 2026 roadmap, including upgrades to Llamalend. The proposal appeared on the Curve DAO forum on Sunday.

Hex Trust is introducing wrapped XRP (wXRP) on Solana to extend XRP's DeFi reach. According to DeFiLlama, Solana's 24‑hour DEX volume stands at $3.9 billion versus XRPL's $6.78 million, highlighting deeper on‑chain liquidity. The move shifts XRP activity from its native L1 toward Solana's ecosystem.

Ripple's Luke Judges outlined XRP's multichain strategy at the Solana Breakpoint event. According to a Dec. 13, 2025 post by Solana, Hex Trust and LayerZero will bridge wXRP—a 1:1-backed XRP representation—to enable use across Solana DeFi, with Phantom's 20 million users cited and perps integrations noted. wXRP will also be tradable with RLUSD on Ethereum and other RLUSD-supported chains.

Bernstein Private Wealth Management analysts argue that the traditional 4‑year crypto cycle has ended and forecast Bitcoin to reach $150,000 in 2026 and $200,000 in 2027. Other market commentators expect the extended bull phase and rising liquidity to benefit BTC alongside Ethereum, XRP, AI-focused tokens such as Bittensor, and newer DeFi and layer‑2 projects including Aster and Bitcoin Hyper.

At Solana Breakpoint 2025, Jupiter introduced JupUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin built with Ethena, alongside eight major upgrades aimed at turning the Solana DEX aggregator into a broader DeFi platform. The rollout includes the full open-source launch of Jupiter Lend, a new all-in-one trading Terminal, enhanced safety tools, and a rewards program with more than $1 million in swap incentives. JupUSD is designed to integrate directly into Jupiter's products for trading, lending, and rewards, while analysts such as Fabiano.sol view the combined feature set as a bullish catalyst for Jupiter's position in Solana DeFi.