On Monday, Fitch Ratings warned that Bitcoin-backed securities exhibit heightened market value risk consistent with speculative-grade credit profiles. The agency cited Bitcoin's sharp price volatility, collateral coverage pressures and past crypto lender failures as key concerns, potentially affecting how institutions evaluate crypto-linked credit products.

The Digital Chamber plans to host more than 50 member companies in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to brief Senate offices on the Responsible Financial Innovation Act market structure bill. Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees are expected to move toward markup in mid-January, with Senator Tim Scott scheduling a Jan. 15 vote on market structure. Analysts and lawmakers have warned that the 2026 U.S. midterm elections and potential government shutdowns could influence the bill's timing and prospects.

CoinFlip introduced a workplace benefit that lets US employees buy cryptocurrencies via payroll deductions, with allocations starting at $25 per pay period. The program supports Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and select stablecoins. On Aug. 7, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to review the treatment of alternative assets in retirement plans.

On Tuesday, Tether launched Scudo, a unit equal to one‑thousandth of a troy ounce and 1/1,000 of an XAUT token, to enable smaller onchain gold transactions. XAUT is backed by more than 1,300 gold bars and has a market cap of about $2.3 billion, according to Tether. The rollout follows a year in which gold prices rose above $4,550 per troy ounce.

After a governance proposal to move Aave's brand IP to the DAO was rejected on Monday, founder Stani Kulechov published a Friday forum post outlining a broader strategy. He signaled expansion into RWAs, institutional lending and consumer products, and said Aave Labs plans to distribute non‑protocol revenue to AAVE holders, with a fresh governance proposal coming on IP and brand rights.

Onchain metrics from CryptoQuant indicate that reports of large Bitcoin holders aggressively accumulating are exaggerated, as exchange wallet consolidation has distorted whale balance data and major addresses remain net distributors. At the same time, VanEck research shows long-term Bitcoin holders have turned back to net accumulation over the past 30 days after their largest sell-off since 2019, while BTC trades slightly above $90,000 and avoids a drop below its November low near $80,000.

BitVentures Limited kicked off U.S. crypto mining less than two weeks after its Dec. 24 rebrand to BVC. The firm bought Bitmain Antminer units to mine BTC, LTC and DOGE, with 0.5 megawatts of capacity across U.S. data centers and deployment slated later this month. The move marks its first operational step into digital assets after years of losses.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Ethereum's onchain development hit an all-time high with 8.7 million new smart contracts deployed, according to Token Terminal. The surge was primarily linked to real-world asset tokenization, stablecoin usage and infrastructure projects, even as Ether's price hovered near $3,000 after retreating from levels close to $5,000 earlier in the year. Ethereum also continues to dominate RWA deployments and hosts more than half of the $307 billion stablecoin supply in circulation.

BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has reached $100 million in cumulative onchain dividend payouts, announced Monday by its issuer Securitize. Launched in March 2024 on Ethereum, BUIDL invests in short‑term U.S. dollar assets and has expanded to six additional blockchains, with assets peaking above $2.8 billion in October.