Stablecoin

Cardano's Midnight (NIGHT) saw trading activity surge over the last 24 hours, with volume up more than 68% to $3.53 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The token rose 3.15% to $0.06866, ranging between $0.06389 and $0.07, while sentiment gauges showed the Fear and Greed Index at 27 and RSI at 63.68.

A crypto user mistakenly sent 49,999,950 USDT to a look‑alike address, an incident attributed to address poisoning, according to SlowMist. The funds were rapidly moved into ETH, split across wallets, and partly routed via Tornado Cash; on December 20, 2025, Cos shared the involved addresses. The wallet had been active about two years with frequent USDT transfers.

On 20 December 2025, Klarna entered a partnership with Coinbase enabling institutional investors to fund its lending operations using stablecoins. The arrangement routes capital on-chain into short-term, interest-free consumer loans, with blockchain settlement cited for faster cycles and transparency. The move reflects stablecoins’ shift toward financial infrastructure.

Gemini, joined by more than 125 organizations, has asked the U.S. Congress to retain the Genius Act's original language to preserve stablecoin reward programs. The coalition argues that curbing rewards would weaken competition and user incentives across platforms such as Gemini, Kraken, and Coinbase. The Genius Act was passed in June 2025.

Led by the Blockchain Association, 125 crypto and fintech organizations sent a letter on December 18, 2025 to Senate Banking leaders Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren opposing efforts to widen the GENIUS Act's stablecoin yield ban beyond issuer payments. The coalition argued the move would suppress consumer rewards and shield traditional banks, and disputed Treasury's $6.6 trillion deposit-flight projection.

Rep. Min Byoung-dug of South Korea’s Democratic Party urged the government to institutionalize and expand the legal use of stablecoins to protect payment sovereignty. Speaking at the final session of the eighth Global Business Forum in Seoul, he said stablecoins are now essential for cross-border payments and trade, warning that delays could entrench reliance on dollar-pegged assets.

In its latest annual outlook, Galaxy Research forecast that dollar-pegged stablecoins could process more transaction volume in 2026 than the US Automated Clearing House system, citing current growth trends and pending regulation. The report also noted that stablecoin supply has been expanding at a 30%–40% compound annual rate and already handles volumes exceeding major card networks while approaching half of ACH activity. Galaxy's analysts further pointed to new offerings from firms such as Western Union, Sony Bank and SoFi as evidence of expanding stablecoin adoption.

On December 19, 2025, Terraform Labs' Plan Administrator filed a lawsuit in Illinois seeking $4B from Jump Trading, William DiSomma, and Kanav Kariya. The complaint alleges a secret arrangement to support UST's peg and ties the collapse to a $40B wipeout. Late last year, the SEC fined a Jump Crypto subsidiary $123M related to UST stabilization.

A court‑appointed administrator overseeing Terraform’s wind‑down sued Jump for $4 billion, alleging undisclosed trading and incentive arrangements used to defend TerraUSD’s peg, according to The Wall Street Journal. The dispute emerges as dollar‑pegged tokens gain roles in settlement and remittances, testing what $1 stability really entails. Jump has denied the claims.

Gemini Asia Pacific head Saad Ahmed said institutional investors now dictate how crypto markets digest shocks, focusing more on long-term positioning than daily price swings. He highlighted the November to December 2025 sell-off, when Bitcoin fell from near $100,000 to about $87,000 and Ethereum dropped from around $3,900 to roughly $2,745 before partially recovering, as an example of more disciplined risk management. Ahmed added that ETF flows, stablecoin activity and real-world asset usage are increasingly important signals of market health alongside on-chain fundamentals.