Triggered by a routine macro shock, crypto once again unraveled faster than any other market. Not because of sentiment alone, but because CEX risk engines, DEX liquidation incentives, and always-on leverage turn small moves into cascading stress.
From Polymarket’s stripped-down design to Kalshi’s regulatory breakthrough, prediction markets are turning collective opinion into a financial asset class — and a new battleground over who defines truth
While crypto remains banned, China’s state-backed blockchain ecosystem — led by Conflux — is expanding across Asia and into global finance. Conflux Network bridges China’s academic research, state strategy, and open blockchain innovation.
DeFi is moving from standalone apps into the backend of exchanges, with Coinbase and Crypto.com leading by embedding Morpho’s lending vaults. This “embedded DeFi” model raises a key question: are exchanges becoming banks, or just UIs? The answer will define DeFi’s role in future banking.
After years of development, blockchain games still capture only a sliver of the gaming industry. The promise of true asset ownership, stable economies, and transferability remains unmet. Recent trends suggest blockchain was more hype feature than genuine necessity
Triggered by a routine macro shock, crypto once again unraveled faster than any other market. Not because of sentiment alone, but because CEX risk engines, DEX liquidation incentives, and always-on leverage turn small moves into cascading stress.
01.01.2026 EU crypto tax transparency directive DAC8 takes effect, requiring crypto-asset service providers to report user data to national tax authorities.
01.01.2026 MiCA comes into force in Spain.
31.12.2025 Ethereum smart contract deployments hit a record high in Q4.
2026 OUTLOOK Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly
01.01.2026 EU crypto tax transparency directive DAC8 takes effect, requiring crypto-asset service providers to report user data to national tax authorities.
01.01.2026 MiCA comes into force in Spain.
31.12.2025 Ethereum smart contract deployments hit a record high in Q4.
2026 OUTLOOK Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly
Balancer Protocol was exploited through a tiny rounding bug in its code. As losses neared $100 million, projects froze pools, rolled back blockchains, and clawed back funds—revealing the centralized and still untamed side of decentralized finance
01.12.2025 Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces Cocoon, a decentralized confidential AI compute network.
01.12.2025 SushiSwap CEO steps down as Synthesis invests $3.3M in the struggling DEX.
01.12.2025 Grayscale to launch the first Chainlink ETF in the US.
01.12.2025 Germany and Switzerland
29.10.25 Ondo Finance launches Ondo Global Markets on BNB Chain.
29.10.25 Ethereum Foundation launches portal to guide institutional adoption.
29.10.25 Securitize goes public via SPAC merger with Cantor Fitzgerald’s CF Acquisition Corp VIII.
28.10.25 Trump Media & Technology Group to launch
Kazakhstan launched a state-backed crypto reserve, Alem Crypto Fund, partnering with Binance Kazakhstan and starting with an investment in $BNB.
SWIFT is building a blockchain ledger with 30+ banks using Consensys.
Polish lawmakers passed a Crypto-Asset Market Act, aligning rules with the EU’s MiCAR.
Vitalik Buterin opposes EU’s
Uniswap’s Unichain has boosted L2 volumes past $40B, but liquidity tells a different story. TVL has halved since July, exposing the limits of incentive-driven growth. Despite cheaper fees, users remain on Ethereum—where Uniswap continues to be one of the network’s largest revenue engines.
TON Strategy Company, formerly Verb Technology, has rebranded as a Toncoin treasury, holding $713M in TON and targeting over 5% of supply. By staking its holdings and adopting financial engineering akin to Strategy’s playbook, it aims to turn crypto reserves into shareholder returns
From $GOAT to $FART, memecoins show how hype burns fast and budgets vanish faster. Market caps in the tens of millions may look like real businesses, but behind the joke lies sunk marketing spend, fragile communities, and the math of attention that always runs out of breath
A year after the SEC’s X account was hacked to falsely announce Bitcoin ETF approval, only one man—Eric Council Jr.—has been charged. He pleaded guilty to SIM-swapping the account but acted on behalf of unidentified co-conspirators. Was insider information involved? The full truth remains elusive.
January set the tone for crypto regulation in 2025: as the U.S. loosens up, other regions take their own path—Africa pushes anti-fraud measures, Asia balances its approach, and Europe starts to follow the MiCA playbook.
Happy Sunday, Observers!
A common response to fear is to freeze.
All financial markets opened in red on Monday as a result of Donald Trump’s announcement of the imposition of tariffs on the United States largest trading partners.
The protectionist trade policy itself was postponed for a month in
The project has seen decent growth in 2024 but still trails leading players in adoption. While its strategic push into Web3 gaming aims to unlock broader success, the outcome remains uncertain.
01.01.2026 EU crypto tax transparency directive DAC8 takes effect, requiring crypto-asset service providers to report user data to national tax authorities.
01.01.2026 MiCA comes into force in Spain.
31.12.2025 Ethereum smart contract deployments hit a record high in Q4.
2026 OUTLOOK Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly
01.01.2026 EU crypto tax transparency directive DAC8 takes effect, requiring crypto-asset service providers to report user data to national tax authorities.
01.01.2026 MiCA comes into force in Spain.
31.12.2025 Ethereum smart contract deployments hit a record high in Q4.
2026 OUTLOOK Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly
Balancer Protocol was exploited through a tiny rounding bug in its code. As losses neared $100 million, projects froze pools, rolled back blockchains, and clawed back funds—revealing the centralized and still untamed side of decentralized finance
01.12.2025 Telegram’s Pavel Durov announces Cocoon, a decentralized confidential AI compute network.
01.12.2025 SushiSwap CEO steps down as Synthesis invests $3.3M in the struggling DEX.
01.12.2025 Grayscale to launch the first Chainlink ETF in the US.
01.12.2025 Germany and Switzerland
29.10.25 Ondo Finance launches Ondo Global Markets on BNB Chain.
29.10.25 Ethereum Foundation launches portal to guide institutional adoption.
29.10.25 Securitize goes public via SPAC merger with Cantor Fitzgerald’s CF Acquisition Corp VIII.
28.10.25 Trump Media & Technology Group to launch
Kazakhstan launched a state-backed crypto reserve, Alem Crypto Fund, partnering with Binance Kazakhstan and starting with an investment in $BNB.
SWIFT is building a blockchain ledger with 30+ banks using Consensys.
Polish lawmakers passed a Crypto-Asset Market Act, aligning rules with the EU’s MiCAR.
Vitalik Buterin opposes EU’s
Uniswap’s Unichain has boosted L2 volumes past $40B, but liquidity tells a different story. TVL has halved since July, exposing the limits of incentive-driven growth. Despite cheaper fees, users remain on Ethereum—where Uniswap continues to be one of the network’s largest revenue engines.
TON Strategy Company, formerly Verb Technology, has rebranded as a Toncoin treasury, holding $713M in TON and targeting over 5% of supply. By staking its holdings and adopting financial engineering akin to Strategy’s playbook, it aims to turn crypto reserves into shareholder returns
