Your Monday industry catch-up 📰

Crypto & Blockchain Update: Dec 2-8

📈Market Highlights

- Bitcoin breaks $100,000, up by 4% over last 7 days and currently sitting at $98k
- Ethereum hits $4,000 with 7% increase last week, currently at $3,800
- Last week’s top 3 gainers were MOG (+69%), BGB (+58%), and JASMY (+53%); while top 3 losers were ZLM (-11%), AR (-3.6%), RAY (-3.6%)
- Crypto market’s Fear & Greed Index is at 83 Extreme Greed today
- Crypto market capitalization at $3.5 trillion, down 3% since yesterday
- Stablecoin trading volume increased 2.5% within 7 days, currently at $198 billion
- NFT sales volume is up by 18% in the last 24 hours while transactions count is down 1.5%
- PEPE memecoin flips Uniswap token in market cap as it hits new all-time high

🎮Blockchain Tech & Gaming

- Blockchain firm Layer N is pivoting to N1, moving from being a layer-2 blockchain on Ethereum to being a layer 1 that supports Typescript, Rust, C and processes 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), among fastest blockchains
- PancakeSwap launched SpringBoard, its code-free token launch platform similar to https://t.co/LxxKKgaGUA
- Popular NFT collection Pudgy Penguins to release a token called PENGU on Solana network, with supply of 88 billion tokens
- Ultra-rare Pokemon card from 1999 up for auction, tokenized via Polygon and auctioned by Courtyard platform, with top bid at $44,000 currently
- Free-to-play apocalyptic shooter game Shatterline went live on Epic Games Store

📃Regulatory Updates

- Grayscale joins 21Shares, Canary Capital, VanEck and Bitwise by filing for a Solana ETF in the United States
- Russia sentences Hydra market founder S. Moiseev and his 15 accomplices to prison
- FCA issues a warning regarding https://t.co/LxxKKgaGUA in the UK, banning the platform
- Czech government to exempt crypto that’s held longer than 3 years or transactions under $4,200 per year from being taxed
- Poland arrests ex-CEO of Russian crypto exchange WEX in Warsaw, to be extradited to US
- Trump appoints venture capitalist David Sacks as AI and crypto czar

💰Investments & Partnerships

- Amazon shareholders submitted proposal urging company to diversify reserves into Bitcoin $BTC, with 5% minimum allocation
- Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 to raise up to $500M to buy Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, its stock rises 8% following the stock repurchase program
- Healthcare tech firm Semler Scientific added $30 million in $BTC to its balance sheet

🛡️Crypto Security

- While November phishing losses decreased by 53% compared to October, crypto phishing scams will surge during holiday season in December
- Cardano Foundation’s X account compromised, scam links posted by hackers promoting fake ADAsol token and fake potential SEC lawsuit

🗞️Miscellaneous

- Active addresses on Ethereum have increased from 368k to 523k from September to December
- 9 out of 30 spots in the finance category for Forbers “30 Under 30” list for 2025 were taken by crypto company founders
- Virgin Voyages launches “Annual Pass” program 2025, which would be the first cruise product to accept cryptocurrencies
- BIT Mining states that mining Dogecoin and Litecoin has been 3 times more profitable than mining only Bitcoin

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Have a successful new week ahead!🤝