Binance Pay has surpassed the milestone of 20,000,000 connected merchants worldwide — a 1700-fold increase since the beginning of 2025, indicating the mass adoption of crypto payments across various industries and regions.

Stablecoins dominate the ecosystem, accounting for over 98% of all B2C transactions on the platform thanks to instant transfers, low fees, and borderless functionality.

The success of Binance Pay and the growing popularity of stablecoins are pushing traditional financial institutions to adapt blockchain technologies — for example, SWIFT has already launched an initiative to integrate blockchain ledgers to speed up international settlements.

During last week’s downturn, altcoins showed unusual relative strength compared to BTC, with most sectors actually outperforming the first cryptocurrency — Glassnode.

Strategy stated that it will be fine even if BTC falls to $25,000.

Tether has become the world’s largest independent holder of gold — only the central banks of economically developed countries hold more.

Against this backdrop, S&P Global downgraded the stability rating of the USDT stablecoin to the lowest level, citing the growing share of volatile assets in the company’s reserves, including Bitcoin and gold

Tether sharply criticized the assessment, calling it outdated and noting that the stablecoin has never failed redemptions, processes billions in volume daily, and generates multi-billion profits.

The company also emphasizes that its assets include a substantial package of U.S. Treasury bonds and that USDT has long evolved into critical financial infrastructure for emerging markets — far from just a speculative token.

Cryptorank: top 10 token unlocks in December

It is expected that a spot LINK ETF will be launched next week — Nate Geraci, head of ETF Store

The Yearn Finance project has been hacked for $9,000,000 — the attacker gained the ability to mint an infinite amount of yETH and drained the pool in a single transaction.

The IMF has warned that stablecoins could trigger ‘currency substitution’ and weaken central banks’ control, especially in cases of cross-border and non-custodial use

The current correction has reached 32% — a level that could turn out either to be a local bottom, as in 2021, or a precursor to a new bearish cycle, as in 2022, according to CryptoQuant.

A new season of the trading tournament among AI models has concluded — the winner was the secret Mystery Model, which turned out to be GROK 4.20. Over two weeks, it delivered a return of 12.11% (just kidding).

The previous season’s champion — Qwen 3 Max — which dominated in crypto trading, failed to perform on the stock market this time.

Last night, hackers breached Binance’s WeChat account and used it to promote sales of the MUBARAKAH shitcoin — earning about $55,000 from the scheme.