Sony to Launch USD Stablecoin for Games & Anime

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• David Sacks, US AI & Crypto Czar, says the New York Times is investigating his alleged conflicts of interest, but has repeatedly shifted its accusations after earlier claims were disproven; Sacks has since hired Clare Locke law firm.

• ⭐️ Ethereum $ETH to launch Fusaka upgrade on December 3rd; introduces PeerDAS, phased blob expansion, & more.

• ⭐️ Kalshi launches tokenized prediction markets on Solana $SOL; also launches $2M+ in builder grants; teases "more chains coming soon."

• Grayscale Chainlink $LINK Trust ETF to begin trading on December 2nd; Bitwise Chainlink ETF to also begin trading soon.

• Digital Asset Investment Products saw $1.06B of inflows last week; Bitcoin $BTC ~$461M inflows, Ethereum $ETH ~$308M inflows, Ripple $XRP ~$289M inflows, Cardano $ADA ~$19M outflows.

• HashKey $HSK clears the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's listing hearing for its upcoming IPO; Hashkey has yet to disclose the size and the timeline of the planned IPO.

Alpha

• Base teases "Wrist-check, 12.18.25" on X; Coinbase $COIN to host System Update event on December 17th

• ⭐️ Fogo $FOGO launches incentivized transfers to Fogo mainnet genesis; transfer USDC into Fogo "in preparation for something."

• Aztec $AZTEC to launch public sale on December 2nd; offering 14.95% of supply with a starting floor price of $275M FDV.

• OpenSea $SEA launches boosted holiday rewards; OpenSea activity earns a 5% boost toward Treasure Chest progress until December 2nd.

• Infinex $INX launches Craterun; to distribute INX vouchers, cash prizes, & more; earn crates by trading on Infinex Perps, importing wallets with historical perps activity, & more.

Airdrops

• Aster $ASTER launches stage 3 airdrop eligibility & allocation checker; Stage 3 participants are eligible; claim on December 15th.

• Rayls $RLS launches airdrop claim; Rayls Points holders were eligible to register.

• AltLayer $ALT launches $EIGEN airdrop phase 2 claim; reALT stakers & holders are eligible.

• Cysic launches airdrop registration & eligibility checker; testnet participants; Cysic CUBE NFT holders, & more are eligible.

• ICYMI Monad $MON launches mainnet, tge, & airdrop; tokens automatically distributed to wallets; 5.5K community members & 220K onchain were eligible to register.

Finance News

• US Federal Reserve officially ends quantitative tightening.

• ⭐️ Sony $SONY Bank to launch USD stablecoin for games & anime; partners with stablecoin issuer Bastion; to launch as early as FY 2026.

• ⭐️ Vanguard to allow clients to trade crypto ETFs & crypto mutual funds on its platform starting on December 2nd; Vanguard previously said it would steer clear of crypto-related products.

• Strategy $MSTR buys an additional 130 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$11.7M at ~$89,960 per BTC; now holds 650,000 BTC (~$56.3B) acquired for ~$48.38B at ~$74,436 per BTC; also announces a $1.44B USD Reserve.

• Bitmine $BMNR buys an additional 96,798 Ethereum $ETH (~$270M); now holds 3,726,499 ETH (~$10.4B); also holds $882M in unencumbered cash.

• Forward Industries $FWDI appoints Ryan Navi as Chief Investment Officer; Navi was previously Capital Managing Director at ParaFi; FWDI currently holds 6.9M Solana $SOL (~$875M).

• Yorkville Acquisition Corp $MCGA confidentially submits draft registration statement of Form S-4 with the US SEC; Yorkville, Trump Media $DJT, & Crypto[.]com $CRO to create a Cronos treasury firm.

Security and Exploits

• Yearn $YFI exploited for ~$9M due to exploit; team has since recovered ~$2.4M; to be returned to affected depositors.

• Europol supports Germany & Switzerland in taking down Cryptomixer; seized $27M in crypto, three servers, & 12 TB of data.

• Google $GOOG releases Android security update; patches 107 security vulnerabilities, including two that have been exploited in the wild.

• ICYMI North Korea's Lazarus Group suspected in $30M Upbit hack; South Korean authorities to launch an on-site inspection of Upbit; affected users to be fully reimbursed.

Token Unlocks

• Sui $SUI / ~$66M / DEC 01st
• EigenCloud $EIGEN / ~$21M / DEC 01st
• Ethena $ENA / ~$10M / DEC 02nd
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• OpenEden $EDEN raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from several investors.

• XMAQUINA $DEUS raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding led by Borderless Capital.

The Degen Farmer