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Charting the themes impacting markets These shares could be funded using traditionally issued securities as well as tokens natively issued as digital securities, thereby expanding market accessibility and enhancing settlement efficiency. To encourage deposits, Wolf Capital created a referral system wherein investors could qualify for higher daily returns depending on the number of additional investors they recruited. Under the amendment, unlicensed virtual currency businesses could face criminal prosecution with charges ranging from an A misdemeanor to a C felony, based on the amount of cryptocurrency transmitted. The MegPrime tokens will also be available for purchase on MegPrime’s website and will trade on secondary markets. As these markets continue their rapid growth and market participants continue to evolve and mature their businesses, we are providing this weekly digest as a resource that highlights and summarizes a selection of key recent legal regulatory developments.
Better, More Clever Onramps/ Offramps For Stablecoins
- Clients have claimed Jim Walesa sold unsuitable investments in businesses he also owned and managed.
- Regulatory scrutiny could limit Al development, with data collection facing closer examination and potential fines.
- By late 2025, the asset had surged to an all-time high of $126,000, with 97% of its supply in profit.
- Nexo’s 2025 call of $250,000 for bitcoin "was less a rejection of its long-term thesis and more a consequence of market mechanics colliding with a shifting macro backdrop," according to Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at the cryptocurrency exchange.
- Elsewhere, Damon Polistina, director of research at Eaglebrook, believes that as more major institutions lean into digital assets, it reinforces the view that crypto is becoming a standard component of diversified portfolios.
- Its growth reflects institutional appetite for stable, yield-bearing assets on-chain.
Expected interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve would improve liquidity conditions, historically a favorable environment for risk assets, including Bitcoin. While leverage remains a feature of crypto markets, its impact has diminished following a sharp deleveraging phase in late 2025, when a cascade of liquidations wiped out billions in open interest in October. Against this backdrop, the following are three cryptocurrency investment themes worth watching in 2026. Still, a persuasive case can be made for focusing on assets and sectors with durable, long-term relevance, rather than relying solely on the predictability of four-year market cycles tied to the Bitcoin halving. For the first time in crypto’s 15-year history, institutions, corporations and regulators are largely moving in the same direction, laying the groundwork for broader adoption rather than actively resisting it.
Why 2026 Will Be A Big Year For Bitcoin, Stablecoins And Crypto Regulation
- “We continue to see a shift to an entirely new cohort and class of investors, and I think this will continue in 2026,” says Kuiper.
- There was a brief period of selling by people who owned massive quantities of crypto in 2021, but nothing like the sustained sell-off by a school of early “whale” investors in 2025.
- Beyond bitcoin, analysts expect continued growth in crypto-related infrastructure next year as use cases expand.
- While these systems are battle tested, trusted by regulators, and deeply integrated into complex banking scenarios, they are also holding back innovation.
- Kraken’s rollout of tokenized equities for select international markets has highlighted growing demand for 24/7, programmable access to traditional assets.
That question is important because, unlike stablecoins, deposits play a critical role in funding loans to consumers and businesses and supporting economic growth. Own crypto—and bank, borrow, invest—all in one app “It’s a multi-trillion-dollar asset class, and that’s been built over 15 years of hard work and real technology,” says Rasmussen, “and I think it’s going iqcent review to play a meaningful role in the way that our lives operate day to day.” This is true even as the declining impact of bitcoin’s four-year halving cycle decreases the market’s frequency of ups and downs. "While crypto lobbies have been active in trying to get market structure legislation passed, they haven’t been successful," he says, due in part to external political factors like the government shutdown.
The (near) Future Of Messaging Isn’t Just Quantum-resistant It’s Decentralized
For instance, AI agents trading on these platforms can scour the world for signals that help provide short-term trading edge, helping surface new ways of thinking about the world and predicting what will happen next. Centralized platform resolution (did a given event actually happen? how do we confirm it?) is important, but disputed cases like the Zelensky suit market and the Venezuelan election market show the limits. And as agentic systems begin browsing, transacting, and making decisions autonomously, both users and institutions across industries need cryptographic guarantees as opposed to “best-effort trust”. This is fine for some consumer applications, but many industries and users (like finance and healthcare) require companies to keep sensitive data private. But most data pipelines today — what’s fed into or out of the model — are opaque, mutable, and unauditable.
The real opportunity lies in the infrastructure that supports them. From an investment standpoint, dollar-pegged stablecoins themselves offer virtually no upside. Policymakers have also framed stablecoins as a mechanism for reinforcing the global role of the US dollar, particularly in regions where access to dollar-denominated banking remains limited.
Who owns 70% of Bitcoin?
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego, a billionaire from Mexico and one of the three richest people in the country, has put 70% of his wealth in bitcoin.
Butterfill cited risks such as inflation shocks or policy errors from the Fed as https://www.producthunt.com/products/iqcent-launch reasons why there might be demand for "alternative, non-sovereign monetary assets" like bitcoin. James Butterfill, head of research for crypto-focused asset manager CoinShares, expects to see bitcoin in a range of between $120,000 and $170,000 in 2026, with "more constructive price action likely occurring in the second half of the year." A little more than 17 years after Satoshi Nakamoto famously introduced bitcoin (BTC) to the world, cryptocurrency is still a fast-growing market. The dominance of “potential price increases” as the perceived greatest benefit reveals that speculation still drives cryptocurrency adoption more than practical utility. Americans want solutions to economic challenges far more than they wish crypto advocacy—and they’re not yet convinced that digital assets provide those solutions. This suggests that Trump’s pro-crypto rhetoric and policies have influenced market sentiment, but in reality, values did not increase in 2025 as much as experts had expected.
Who owns 70% of Bitcoin?
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego, a billionaire from Mexico and one of the three richest people in the country, has put 70% of his wealth in bitcoin.
Chainlink (link)
Is Coinbase Setting the Stage for a Strong and Strategic 2026? – Yahoo Finance
Is Coinbase Setting the Stage for a Strong and Strategic 2026?.
Posted: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMT source
Smith is required to pay $200,000 in civil monetary penalties and will be barred from trading and registering with the CFTC for three years. The complaint asks the court for a declaration and injunction to stop Polymarket, the largest prediction market exchange globally, from offering unlicensed wagering in violation of Nevada law. On Jan. 16, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) filed a civil enforcement action against Blockratize Inc. (Polymarket). Finally, it mandates a new expedited registration process for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Second, it expressly excludes stablecoins from CFTC oversight.
What crypto does Warren Buffett own?
“We don't own any, we're not short any, we'll never have a position in them.” But recent reports show Berkshire Hathaway and some of its investment managers may be getting more lenient in their views on cryptocurrency.
On-chain Profit/loss Dynamics: A Harbinger Of Bearish Sentiment
- Importantly, Chiu et al. find that the threat (but not the actuality) of the Federal Reserve issuing an interest-bearing CBDC would lead banks to raise deposit rates to attract more deposits.
- Youngblood warns that unclear rules continue to deter risk-averse institutions, even as crypto companies grow accustomed to operating in gray areas.
- 2026 is shaping up as a year where crypto matures beyond speculation.
Still, many major price forecasts assume bitcoin will surpass its prior peak in 2026 — despite some readjustments. And while some major outlets expect a conservative market following the sell-off, analysts and experts in the industry are predicting a trading range of $130,000 to $200,000 for BTC by the end of 2026. Crypto is entering 2026 on uneven footing after an October crash wiped out over $19 billion in liquidations, dragging bitcoin from an all-time high of $126,080 to nearly $80,000 — one of the sharpest drawdowns since 2022. The statements and opinions are those of the speaker, do not necessarily represent the views of Fidelity as a whole, and are subject to change at any time, based on market or other conditions.
- Among current owners, the commitment to cryptocurrency remains strong, with 61 percent planning to acquire more within the next 12 months.
- However, significant barriers still prevent the vast majority of American adults from investing in cryptocurrencies.
- Along similar lines, in 2026 we’ll see more “origination, not just tokenization” when it comes to stablecoins, which went mainstream in 2025; outstanding stablecoin issuance continues to grow.
In 2026, “Bitcoin will break the four-year cycle and set new all-time highs,” they argued, pointing to structural shifts that are reshaping the market. In doing so, these participants may be reshaping crypto market behavior, gradually shifting the narrative away from traditional drivers such https://tradersunion.com/brokers/binary/view/iqcent/ as miners, long-term holders and Bitcoin whales. Institutional capital, with longer time horizons and stricter mandates, is increasingly influencing price action and liquidity dynamics. Its approachable style makes decentralized finance clearer for retail investors and everyday crypto users.
As adoption expands, so too does the value of the platforms enabling these functions behind the scenes. Stablecoins pegged to other fiat currencies, including the euro and various emerging-market currencies, are gaining traction, underscoring their potential role as a global settlement layer rather than a purely dollar-centric product. In parallel, US regulators have begun laying the groundwork for broader participation by the banking sector.
From gold to crypto, fundies name their top trades for 2026 – AFR
From gold to crypto, fundies name their top trades for 2026.
Posted: Tue, 06 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT source
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Meanwhile, capital inflow support for crypto price growth from Wall Street ETFs was massive. There was a brief period of selling by people who owned massive quantities of crypto in 2021, but nothing like the sustained sell-off by a school of early “whale” investors in 2025. But its grip on the market is gradually loosening as investors explore alternatives. Bitcoin remains the undisputed king, owned by 74 percent of crypto holders in 2026, the same percentage as 2025.





















