XRP dropped below $2 following Ripple's transfer of 500 million tokens as part of its monthly escrow operations. The cryptocurrency declined from the mid-$2.20s to the upper-$1.90s as Ripple moved 1.2 billion XRP through its system. The price movement coincided with the company's routine token management activities, which involved multiple large-scale transfers.

Distributed Lab has released a zero-knowledge Secret Santa protocol enabling private transactions on Ethereum without exposing participant identities. The system uses cryptographic proofs and relayers to address blockchain transparency challenges. The development advances enterprise-grade privacy as global regulatory frameworks demand stricter data-sharing compliance.

Bitcoin traded above $86,000 after recovering from a brief drop below $84,000 on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency faces potential upward movement toward $93,000 resistance, while the critical $83,000 support level remains intact. Options data shows 15% of traders expect BTC to fall below $80,000 by year-end, while 21% anticipate prices exceeding $100,000.

Coinbase Institutional has expanded its COIN50 Index to include six digital assets: Hedera, Mantle, VeChain, Flare, Sei, and Immutable X. The additions reflect institutional interest in utility-focused blockchain projects and infrastructure platforms. The benchmark tracks the most investable assets available on Coinbase Exchange.

Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald disclosed a $1.28 million stake in the Volatility Shares Solana ETF, holding 58,000 shares as of mid-November, according to an SEC filing. The investment marks Cantor's first documented exposure to a regulated Solana-based product. The disclosure comes as multiple Solana ETF launches follow the SEC's September approval of generic listing rules for commodity-based trusts.

Vanguard Group began offering cryptocurrency ETF trading on its brokerage platform on December 2, 2025, granting more than 50 million clients access to Bitcoin and Ether funds from BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale. The firm, which manages approximately $11 trillion in assets, excludes memecoin, leveraged, inverse, and futures-based crypto products from its platform.

AI research firm Anthropic disclosed that automated AI agents successfully exploited 17 of 34 smart contracts in a simulated blockchain environment, extracting $4.5 million in test funds. The models tested included Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 against contracts deployed after March 2025. The AI agents also identified two previously unknown vulnerabilities in recently launched contracts.

Vanguard Group will enable crypto ETF trading for its brokerage customers starting December 2, 2025, granting access to over 50 million investors. The platform will support Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana ETFs. The asset manager cited matured administrative processes and evolving investor preferences as reasons for the policy shift.