Dexter became the largest daily facilitator for x402 transactions from December 11, according to data published by Hashed Official. The AI protocol has processed over 19.8 million total payments, 14 million fewer than Base. Charts indicate Dexter now handles roughly half of daily volume while Coinbase's share ranges from one-quarter to one-third.

In late 2025 and early 2026, Coinbase came under renewed fire from Base ecosystem traders and developers, who accused the exchange of "corporate double-speak" over how it lists tokens and backs projects. Critics pointed to Coinbase's initial reluctance to list Base-native tokens, its preference for Solana meme coins, and uneven support for ventures like Arcadia and Giza, while CEO Brian Armstrong defended the firm's reliance on DEX integrations and positioned Coinbase as an "everything exchange."

From late 2025 through July 2026, the EU’s MiCA framework will require exchanges, custodians, stablecoin issuers and other crypto intermediaries to secure authorization to keep operating. The rules exclude fully decentralized protocols and self-custody wallets from CASP status, but critics argue that heavy compliance costs, front-end control and additional traceability via the Transfer of Funds Regulation could sideline smaller DeFi startups and push services to geo-block EU users.

An on-chain alert shared by ZachXBT has highlighted a coordinated wallet-draining campaign across several EVM-compatible blockchains, with cumulative losses already exceeding $107,000 and most affected wallets losing under $2,000 each. Investigators report that the stolen funds are being routed through related addresses, but no specific wallet provider, dApp, or exploit vector has yet been identified. The pattern raises broader concerns about stealthy attacks on self-custody users interacting with multiple chains and protocols.

Updated on January 2, 2026 at 11:27 AM UTC, this roundup highlights ten active crypto airdrops and their qualification steps. According to the piece, Bitcoin hit $89,000 as sentiment improved, and rewards range from up to $100,000 to a $750 million pool. Items include Hyperliquid Season 2, OpenSea's SEA token, Polymarket, and more.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin changed his X profile picture to a Milady NFT, coinciding with the collection's floor price jumping almost 30% within a day. Milady Maker's minimum price climbed to about 1.07 ETH as trading volume and sales spiked, while Buterin also shared a New Year message outlining Ethereum's key technical progress in 2025 and longer-term mission.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT warned on January 2, 2026 of an active cross-chain exploit draining hundreds of wallets across EVM-compatible networks. Reported losses exceed $107,000, with most affected addresses losing under $2,000 each while the root cause remains unknown. Researchers are mapping victim addresses, including a suspicious wallet (0xAc2***9bFB) potentially linked to the thefts.

Crypto losses slowed in December 2025, totaling roughly ~$76M, more than 60% below November's $194.27M. The largest hits were an address-poisoning mis-send of about $50M and compromised multisig keys exceeding $27 million, while browser wallets remained frequent targets. Additional cases included a Trust Wallet extension issue near $7 million and a Flow ecosystem breach close to $4 million.