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Institutional investment and clear-cut regulations are laying the foundation for a strong start to 2026 for the wider cryptocurrency industry. Industry players including Anthony Scaramucci, Kristin Smith, Eli Ben-Sasson, Ian Rodgers, Reeve Collins and Joseph Chalom delivered optimistic outlooks for the new year after a year of positive change, particularly in the United States.Cointelegraph’s latest LONGITUDE event featured panels focused on Solana’s growth, surging interest in privacy protocols and lessons learned from security incidents in 2025. From left, Solana Policy Institute president Kristin Smith, Cointelegraph journalist Ciaran Lyons and SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci.“There’s been a tremendous amount of progress in 2025,…

A growing rift has emerged in Washington, D.C., between the cryptocurrency industry and labor unions as lawmakers debate whether to ease rules allowing cryptocurrencies in 401(k) retirement accounts.The dispute centers on proposed market structure legislation that would allow retirement accounts to gain exposure to crypto, a move labor groups say could expose workers to speculative risk. In a letter sent on Wednesday to the US Senate Banking Committee, the American Federation of Teachers argued that cryptocurrencies are too volatile for pension and retirement savings, warning that workers could face significant losses.The letter drew immediate pushback from crypto investors and industry…

Tether, the stablecoin company that issues the USDt (USDT) dollar-pegged token, is considering tokenizing investor equity and share buybacks to offer liquidity for investors as it seeks a $500 billion valuation. Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Tether recently stopped an existing shareholder from selling their stake as the company is in talks to raise $20 billion for a 3% stake in the stablecoin’s issuer business. The investor sought to sell a $1 billion stake that valued Tether at $280 billion, Bloomberg reported. In response, Tether plans to offer investor liquidity through tokenization or…

TIX, a settlement layer for the live-events industry, has emerged from stealth to apply decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and onchain settlement to a sector that has long functioned like a private credit market.To date, the TIX network has facilitated over $8 million in ticket sales and generated approximately $2 million in venue financing. The activity has been conducted through KYD Labs, with TIX expected to launch on the Solana mainnet by mid-2026, the company told Cointelegraph.TIX, led by Ticketmaster and Buildspace veterans, serves as the underlying settlement and financing layer for KYD Labs, a consumer-facing ticketing platform that raised $7…

Cryptocurrencies performed relatively well on Friday as the value of all tokens increased by 3% in a day to $3.14 trillion. Amidst the improved sentiments, PYTH outperformed the broader market with a nearly 7% uptick on its daily chart.The digital token flipped bullish after Pyth Network revealed bold plans for its next growth phase. The team took it to X today, December 12, to announce a revenue-fueled token buyback program to link the blockchain’s expansion to native PYTH’s value.Pyth Network has thrived in the past sessions, powering over $2.3 trillion in net trading volume in the past four years. Now,…

Cryptocurrency markets saw another week of downside, as investors eagerly anticipated the year’s last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.Bitcoin (BTC) rose to a weekly high of $94,330 on Tuesday as investor morale was bolstered by Strategy’s $962 million Bitcoin acquisition, the company’s largest investment since July 2025.On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve delivered a widely anticipated 25-basis-point interest rate cut. Crypto markets saw a temporary bounce, as lower rates and cheaper borrowing costs typically increase risk appetite and capital entering risk assets such as crypto.However, the market’s upside was temporary, as the Fed’s latest interest rate cut was “widely…

Figure Technology, a blockchain-based financial services company focused on tokenized assets and lending, has filed for a second public offering aimed at issuing native equity directly on a public blockchain. The move, which follows the company’s recent Nasdaq listing, is designed to expand decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases on Solana.Speaking at the Solana Breakpoint conference, Figure executive chairman Mike Cagney said the company has submitted a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch what he described as “a new version of Figure equity on a public blockchain,” specifically Solana.Cagney said the blockchain-native equity would not trade…

The payments subsidiary of blockchain services company Ripple has partnered with Swiss bank Amina to provide it with access to its payment infrastructure.According to a Friday Ripple Payments announcement, the company will allow Amina to “settle transactions more efficiently without relying on traditional payment infrastructure, making transactions faster, lower cost, and with increased reliability and transparency.” This builds on a previous relationship between the companies, with the bank’s integration of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin happening back in July.The move also reinforces Ripple’s presence in Europe, with Amina being a Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority-regulated financial institution. The bank’s Austrian…

Crypto wallet application Phantom has partnered with regulated prediction market Kalshi to bring event-based trading directly into its wallet interface, signaling a deeper convergence between onchain finance and real-world outcome betting. The companies said on Friday that the integration would allow Phantom users to discover trending events, track live odds and place bets without leaving their wallets. A new feature called Phantom Prediction Markets will allow users to trade tokenized positions that reference Kalshi’s event markets across politics, economics, sports and culture. “By integrating a layer of tokenized positions referencing Kalshi’s regulated event markets with Phantom, users can trade what they care about…

Traditional financial markets are moving rapidly onchain as the US Securities and Exchange Commission chair doubles down on the idea of an “innovation exemption” to accelerate tokenization.“U.S. financial markets are poised to move on-chain,” wrote Paul Atkins, the chair of the SEC, in a Friday X post, adding that the agency is “embracing new technologies to enable this onchain future.”His comments come shortly after the SEC issued a “no action” letter to a subsidiary of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), enabling it to offer a new securities market tokenization service.The DTCC plans to tokenize assets including the Russell…