Here’s a quick recap of the crypto landscape for Wednesday (December 17) as of 9:00 p.m. UTC.
BTC spiked to US$90K in early trading, then whipsawed down to around US$86.4K, showing volatile liquidity grabs and rejection at overhead supply.
Weak spot demand indicates a bearish tilt, but institutional dip-buying hints at stabilization near supports between US$85K-US$86K.
Price dips near the critical US$81,500 True Market Mean support risks a bear market plunge if lost.
Current blockchains like Solana use encryption vulnerable to quantum computers, expected as a threat to DeFi in 5-15 years. Project Eleven, a cybersecurity firm specializing in post-quantum cryptography, ran a full threat assessment on Solana’s wallets, validators and signatures, and has built a prototype testnet using post-quantum digital signatures, showing end-to-end transactions stay fast and scalable without performance hits.
Securitize announced it is launching the first compliant, onchain platform for trading tokens representing actual legal ownership of a public stock in Q1 2026.
According to the announcement, the tokens will be recorded directly on the company’s official cap table and carry full shareholder rights such as dividends and voting. Investors will be able to buy, sell and self-custody them 24/7 on-chain via a DeFi-style swap interface, using stablecoins, while staying compliant through whitelisted wallets and KYC.
Unlike wrappers or offshore proxies, which add counterparty issues, Securitize plans to issue the tokens natively as regulated securities via its SEC-registered transfer agent and broker-dealer arms. This enables instant settlements, programmability for DeFi uses like collateral, and bridges traditional stocks to Web3 without losing legal protections.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today a partnership with Digital Asset and the Canton Network to enable tokenization of a subset of US Treasury securities custodied at its Depository Trust Company (DTC) subsidiary on the permissioned Canton blockchain.
This follows last week’s news that the SEC issued a no-action letter approving DTCC’s three-year pilot to custody tokenized stocks, bonds, ETFs and Treasuries on approved blockchains
The initiative mints select assets as on-chain tokens in registered wallets while preserving legal rights. DTCC will oversee transfers via a root wallet for reversals, with quarterly reporting on usage and risks. Expansion to more securities is planned post-pilot.
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Mining (TSX:HUT,NASDAQ:HUT) is leaning harder into artificial intelligence infrastructure after locking in a 15-year, US$7 billion lease tied to its River Bend campus in Louisiana.
The agreement covers 245 megawatts of IT capacity and includes a financial backstop from Google, which guarantees lease payments for the duration of the base term.
While Google will not operate the facility or run workloads on-site, its backing significantly lowers counterparty risk and boosted investor confidence. Hut 8 shares rose nearly 4 percent in regular trading before surging more than 21 percent in premarket action, extending year-to-date gains to roughly 79 percent.
The deal ranks among the largest AI infrastructure commitments ever secured by a publicly listed Bitcoin miner.
A bipartisan pair of US senators has introduced legislation aimed at tightening the federal response to cryptocurrency-related fraud after reported losses surged last year.
The SAFE Crypto Act would require the Treasury Department to form a dedicated task force focused on detecting and preventing crypto scams.
Lawmakers cited FBI data showing Americans lost about US$9.3 billion to crypto investment fraud in 2024, a 66 percent jump from the previous year. Older investors accounted for a disproportionate share of those losses, according to federal officials.
The proposed task force would bring together agencies including the Treasury, DOJ, FinCEN, and the Secret Service, alongside state and local law enforcement.
Energy officials in parts of eastern Russia are welcoming plans to extend seasonal crypto mining bans into year-round prohibitions, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
Authorities are expected to block all mining activity in southern Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai starting in 2026, citing chronic strain on local power grids.
Regional officials said electricity shortages across several Siberian regions have approached 3,000 megawatts, making mining restrictions a necessary stabilizing measure. The move would also expand an existing winter-only ban that runs from mid-November through mid-March.
The decision marks a reversal from earlier government signals that no additional mining bans were planned.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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