China's central bank escalated its crackdown on digital assets by explicitly designating stablecoins as illegal on November 28. The People's Bank of China convened a multi-agency meeting with financial, judicial, and cybersecurity officials to address rising virtual currency activity. Authorities singled out Tether (USDT) and Circle's USDC, stating they lack customer identification and anti-money laundering safeguards required under the country's 2021 cryptocurrency ban.

Ethereum has experienced three consecutive days of short position liquidations as whale investors deploy significant capital into the market. Notable transactions include a $10 million DAI purchase and a $29 million position by Machi Big Brother. Spot market participants have injected approximately $47 million into ETH purchases, indicating renewed confidence following an extended period below $3,200.

Franklin Templeton has launched the Franklin Solana ETF (SOEZ) on NYSE Arca, offering direct exposure to Solana's price movements with integrated staking functionality. The fund, managed by the firm overseeing more than $1.6 trillion in assets, can stake up to 100% of its SOL holdings to generate additional rewards for investors. SOEZ joins five other institutional Solana products currently trading in the market.

Ethereum has returned to the $3,200 level following sustained buying by mid-tier investors. Data show wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 ETH accumulated 450,000 tokens—worth approximately $1.4 billion—between November 18 and December 2. The network also recorded 190,000 new addresses during the recovery, reflecting increased participant activity.

The International Monetary Fund published a briefing paper on December 5, 2025, examining regulatory frameworks for stablecoins across the US, UK, Japan, and EU. The IMF warned that rapid stablecoin expansion—now exceeding $300 billion—may generate inefficiencies and regulatory gaps due to divergent national approaches and interoperability challenges.

Grayscale's spot Chainlink ETF launched December 3 with $42 million in first-day inflows and $13 million in trading volume. LINK climbed over 20% from $12 to $15 during the week, while Open Interest rose from $194 million to $240 million.

The official Pepe memecoin website has been infiltrated through a front-end exploit involving Inferno Drainer malware. Cybersecurity firm Blockaid issued an alert on December 4, 2025, warning users that malicious code was injected into the site. The attack aims to redirect visitors to phishing pages designed to steal wallet credentials and drain digital assets.

Lighter, an Ethereum-based decentralized perpetual exchange valued at $1.5 billion, introduced spot market trading starting with ETH on Thursday. The platform processed $292.5 billion in trading volume during November, becoming the highest-volume perpetuals protocol that month. Lighter plans to add additional spot markets in the coming days.