A PayPal-backed survey released on Tuesday found that around four in ten of roughly 620 merchant decision-makers already take cryptocurrency at checkout, with nearly three-quarters of those seeing higher crypto sales over the past year. Close to 85% of respondents expect crypto payments to become standard within five years, and adoption is most common among firms generating over $500 million in annual revenue.

Hyperliquid reported on Monday that HIP-3 deployed decentralized exchanges have pushed open interest to a new all-time high above $790 million, driven by stronger commodities trading. CEO Jeff Yan said the platform now offers some of the tightest bitcoin perpetual spreads versus Binance, while HIP-3 markets have expanded rapidly since launching Builder-Deployed Perpetuals in October.

BlackRock is seeking to launch an iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF that would hold bitcoin while generating income through an options strategy, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday. The fund aims to sell call options primarily on IBIT shares to capture premiums and currently has no ticker. BlackRock’s Nasdaq-listed IBIT spot bitcoin ETF has about $69.75 billion in assets under management.

Chainlink announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams to supply onchain market data for tokenized stocks and ETFs. The solution, tied to the Chainlink Data Standard integrated with 40 blockchains, will be adopted by platforms such as Lighter and BitMEX to extend trading beyond regular hours.

Riot Platforms shares jumped over 14% on Friday after the firm agreed a 10-year data center lease with AMD worth at least $311 million and bought land in Texas for $96 million funded by selling 1,080 bitcoin. Galaxy Digital also secured approval for an 830 MW grid connection at its Helios site in Texas, supporting plans for up to 1.6 GW of capacity as mining stocks broadly outperformed other crypto-related equities.

Trump Media plans to issue a new blockchain-based rewards token to DJT shareholders in collaboration with Crypto.com, with allocations tied to investors' existing stock holdings. The company says the token will not represent equity, may be non-transferable and cannot be redeemed for cash, and could provide benefits or discounts linked to Trump Media products throughout the year.

On Tuesday evening, Hyper Foundation asked validators on Discord to vote on recognizing HYPE in Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund as burned, effectively removing nearly $1 billion from circulating and total supply. The stake‑weighted vote remains open until Dec. 21 at 04:00 UTC, and the fund currently holds about 37 million HYPE, over 13% of a 270 million supply, according to The Block.

On Monday, MetaMask announced native Bitcoin support, enabling users to buy BTC with fiat, transfer it onchain and swap between BTC, EVM assets and SOL. The update follows earlier 2024 launches such as Solana integration, a Polymarket onramp, an mUSD stablecoin and in-app perps trading via Hyperliquid, and ties into MetaMask's upcoming MASK rewards program that includes over $30 million in LINEA incentives.

Coinbase has selected Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol as the exclusive bridge for its wrapped assets, including cbBTC, cbETH, cbDOGE, cbLTC, cbADA, and cbXRP. The token set is valued at about $7 billion. Launched in beta in 2023, CCIP is designed to streamline deployment of these assets to additional blockchains.