Argentina weighs letting traditional banks trade crypto: Report

Ripple’s latest funding round, where they had raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation, has sparked fresh discussion across the industry. This is because of how the deal was structured, according to Bloomberg.

Some of the biggest names in traditional finance, including Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, Pantera Capital, and Marshall Wace, joined the round and were set for success from the start. Here’s why.

A Funding Round With Safety Locks

This deal carried safeguards rarely seen. Investors secured the right to sell their shares back to Ripple after three or four years at a guaranteed 10% annual return, unless the company goes public first. Ripple can also choose to buy the shares back but doing so would require offering a 25% annualized return instead.

There’s also a liquidation preference, meaning these investors move to the front of the line if a major event like a sale or bankruptcy ever occurs.

While Wall Street wants exposure, it wants to be secure doing it.

XRP Continues to Shape Ripple’s Valuation

Another key detail stood out. According to multiple funds, roughly 90% of Ripple’s net asset value comes from XRP. The company held $124 billion worth of the token as of July, though much of it remains locked with scheduled releases.

XRP’s market performance has added pressure. The token is down 26.16% over the last 60 days and more than 30% from the past 90 days, during what has been one of the toughest selloffs since 2022.

Despite the drop, Ripple’s XRP holdings were still valued at $83.3 billion as of Sunday, comfortably above the valuation used in the share sale.

A Big Year for Crypto Fundraising

The Ripple deal lands in a year where crypto companies have already raised $23 billion, supported by a friendlier political environment after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Tether is also reportedly raising as much as $20 billion with interest from major global investors.

But the broader market picture remains uneven.

Several crypto firms that went public in 2025, including Circle, have seen sharp declines in their share prices. Even American Bitcoin Corp., co-founded by Eric Trump, plunged more than 50% in minutes on Dec. 2

Ripple, meanwhile, maintains it has “no plan, no timeline” for an IPO.

FAQs

Investors can sell their shares to Ripple with a built-in 10% yearly return, while Ripple must offer a higher 25% return if it chooses to buy the shares back.

No. Ripple has repeatedly stated it currently has “no plan and no timeline” for an IPO, preferring to stay private while continuing to buy back shares when needed.

Top-tier names joined, including Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, Pantera Capital, and Marshall Wace—marking a big Wall Street vote of confidence in Ripple.

SINGAPORE, Dec. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2025, Mantle entered a new phase of its evolution. What began as a high-performance Layer-2 rapidly transformed into a full-stack on-chain financial ecosystem, uniting infrastructure, liquidity, institutions, builders, creators, and global communities.

The release of Mantle "2025 RWApped" captures this shift — a year defined by accelerating institutional momentum, rapid RWA expansion, and Mantle's growing role as the distribution layer connecting traditional finance with on-chain liquidity.

Ecosystem MoMNTum at Scale

In 2025, Mantle reached multiple ecosystem all-time highs, signaling its progression into a more mature, institution-ready network:

• Top-30 ranking on CoinMarketCap & CoinGecko at ATH
• Treasury peaked above $7.9B
• TVL surpassed $2.2B
• Stablecoin supply exceeded $750M
• Global community topped 1M members
• 200+ ecosystem partners and dApps across DeFi, RWAs, infrastructure, and consumer applications

These milestones marked Mantle's emergence as a credible on-chain venue for real-world finance.

Infrastructure Built for the RWA Era

Two major upgrades in 2025 established Mantle as a high-throughput, institutional-grade settlement layer:

• EigenLayer Integration: As the first and largest L2 to partner with EigenLayer, Mantle unlocked modular security, shared validation, enhanced censorship resistance, and enterprise-grade scalability.
• OP-Succinct via Succinct Labs: Mantle became the first OP Stack L2 to launch as a ZK Validity Rollup, and the largest ZK rollup by TVL, enabling faster settlement, safer execution, and frictionless capital flow between real-world and digital markets.

Together, these upgrades positioned Mantle as an execution and settlement layer for compliant, high-volume RWA activity.

Deep CeFi Integration with Bybit

A core driver of Mantle's 2025 expansion was its deep, native integration across the Bybit ecosystem, embedding across spot markets, institutional trading desks, and VIP liquidity programs. This transformed into a true CeFi-native asset, driving large-scale participation from both retail and institutional traders and forming a powerful distribution bridge between centralized exchange liquidity and on-chain finance.

Global Liquidity Across CeFi and DeFi

As adoption scaled, Mantle's liquidity footprint expanded worldwide across platforms including Coinbase, Hyperliquid, Moomoo, Backpack, and Coinhako, ensuring seamless access for retail users, professional traders, and institutions deploying capital into Mantle-native applications.

Builders, Creators & Global Community

Ecosystem growth in 2025 was powered by people. Mantle hosted its largest global hackathon to date with 800+ builders, and launched the industry's first RWA Scholars Program, selecting 6 scholars from 5 countries from over 2,000 global creator submissions.

Mantle also activated its community worldwide through:

• 67 global AMAs
• 25 international events
• 12 developer meetups
• 19 online activations

From ETHDenver and TOKEN2049 to Korea Blockchain Week and CCCC Lisbon, Mantle's presence became truly global.

Key Strategic Milestones

• 5 Aug 2025 — The Bybit Era Begins: Mantle became the heart of Bybit's on-chain ecosystem; Helen Liu and Emily Bao joined as Key Advisors.
• 1 Oct 2025 — The RWA Pivot: Mantle went all-in on RWAs with major integrations including Anchorage, Backed/xStocks, Aave, DMZ Finance, Ethena, Agora, and Securitize.
• Oct 2025 — Builders Activated: Launch of Mantle's First Global Hackathon.
• Nov 2025 — Education Meets RWAs: Debut of the RWA Scholars Program at CCCC Lisbon.

By year-end, Mantle had transitioned from RWA strategy to full ecosystem execution, firmly positioning itself as a distribution layer connecting traditional finance with on-chain liquidity.

Looking Ahead to 2026

With infrastructure hardened, liquidity globalized, and institutional momentum accelerating, Mantle enters 2026 focused on:

• Scaling real-world assets on-chain
• Deepening institutional finance integration
• Expanding global distribution and developer adoption

The MoMNTum continues.

About Mantle

Mantle positions itself as the premier distribution layer and gateway for institutions and TradFi to connect with onchain liquidity and access real-world assets, powering how real-world finance flows.

With over $4B+ in community-owned assets, Mantle combines credibility, liquidity and scalability with institutional-grade infrastructure to support large-scale adoption. The ecosystem is anchored by within Bybit, and built out through core ecosystem projects like mETH, fBTC, MI4 and more. This is complemented by Mantle Network's partnerships with leading issuers and protocols such as Ethena USDe, Ondo USDY, OP-Succinct and EigenLayer.

For more information about Mantle, please visit: mantle.xyz

For more social updates, please follow: Mantle Official X & Mantle Community Channel

For media enquiries, please contact: contact@mantle.xyz

Cardano’s privacy-focused Midnight network is stepping into the spotlight as its native token, NIGHT, is now set to go live on the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance. With multiple major exchanges joining in, Midnight appears ready to enter Web3 in a big way.

Following this announcement, Cardano’s ADA price jumped 4.3%, trading above $0.4330.

Midnight (NIGHT) Token To List On Binance 

In a recent tweet post, Binance wallet announced that Binance Alpha will be the first to feature the NIGHT token on December 9, marking the official beginning of trading for the Cardano sidechain.

The listing also comes with an airdrop opportunity. Eligible Binance Alpha users will be able to claim NIGHT using Alpha Points once trading begins, with the exchange promising more updates soon.

This isn’t just a listing; it’s a global launchpad.

Binance highlighted that supporting NIGHT also helps accelerate the adoption of “rational privacy,” a core feature of the Midnight blockchain designed to give users private, compliant, and secure transaction layers.

Other Top Exchanges To List Night Token Too

What makes this launch even bigger is the number of major exchanges stepping in at the same time. Along with Binance, platforms such as Bybit, OKX, Bitpanda, MEXC, and Gate.io have also confirmed their NIGHT listings, signaling broad demand even before its first trading session.

With multiple top-tier exchanges supporting the token on day one, Midnight is getting one of the strongest debut lineups seen in the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano ADA Price Jumped 4% 

Right after Binance confirmed the NIGHT token listing, Cardano’s ADA price quickly reacted and climbed 4.3%, now trading above $0.4330. This jump brings some relief to holders, especially since ADA had fallen nearly 26% over the past month.

At the same time, ADA is also showing early bullish signs on the charts. On the 2-day timeframe, the price is retesting the descending channel bottom near $0.45, a zone where buyers are actively defending support. Rising volume suggests that more buyers are stepping in.

Ripple’s latest fundraise at a $40 billion valuation drew elite investors, but the terms reveal great caution about the risks in the crypto sector, Bloomberg said Monday.

As reported, investors have negotiated a set of terms that allow them to sell their shares back to Ripple after three or four years at a higher predetermined price, effectively guaranteeing profits unless the company goes public before that point.

If Ripple chooses to repurchase the shares instead, it would be required to pay an annualized return of 25%.

Citadel Securities and other major funds such as Fortress Investment Group, Marshall Wace, Brevan Howard, Galaxy Digital, and Pantera participated in the financing round with these profit-protection provisions.

Many investors believe Ripple’s value is anchored almost entirely to XRP, which the company held at $124 billion as of July. The coin has dropped considerably during the latest crypto market downturn. These conditions could create major financial obligations for Ripple in the future as it works to reduce its dependence on a single token.

Crypto funds recorded a second consecutive week of inflows, pulling in $716 million as investor sentiment across crypto markets continued to stabilize and improve.

The fresh capital increased total assets under management (AuM) to $180 billion, marking a 7.9% rebound from the lows in November. However, this is still significantly below the sector’s all-time high of $264 billion.

Crypto Inflows Hit $716 Million as Crypto Sentiment Turns Higher

According to weekly flow data, crypto inflows were broad-based across major regions, signaling renewed global participation. The US led with $483 million, followed by Germany with $96.9 million and Canada with $80.7 million.

This highlights a coordinated return of institutional interest across North America and Europe.

Bitcoin once again emerged as the primary beneficiary, attracting $352 million in weekly inflows. That brings Bitcoin’s year-to-date (YTD) inflows to $27.1 billion, still trailing the $41.6 billion recorded in 2024, but showing renewed momentum after months of hesitation.

At the same time, short-Bitcoin products saw outflows of $18.7 million, the largest withdrawal since March 2025.

Historically, similar outflows have coincided with price bottoms, suggesting that traders are increasingly abandoning bearish positioning as downside pressure weakens.

However, daily data showed minor outflows on Thursday and Friday, which analysts attribute to the release of fresh US macroeconomic data indicating persistent inflation pressures.

That brief pause suggests that while sentiment is improving, it remains sensitive to interest rate expectations and signals from the Federal Reserve.

XRP and Chainlink Post Standout Demand

Beyond Bitcoin, XRP continued its strong multi-month run, recording $245 million in weekly inflows. This pushes XRP’s YTD inflows to $3.1 billion, dramatically outperforming its $608 million total for all of 2024.

The sustained demand reflects ongoing optimism surrounding XRP’s institutional use cases and regulatory positioning in key jurisdictions.

Chainlink posted one of the most striking performances of the week, with $52.8 million in inflows, its largest weekly intake on record.

Notably, this figure now represents over 54% of Chainlink’s total ETP AuM, highlighting how fast capital is rotating into oracle and infrastructure-focused crypto assets.

Sentiment Shifts After November’s Surge

The latest inflow streak follows an even stronger period at the end of November. For the week ending November 29, crypto funds recorded a powerful $1.07 billion in inflows, driven largely by rising expectations of potential 2026 interest rate cuts.

Together, the late-November surge and the current $716 million follow-up suggest a gradual yet consistent shift in institutional sentiment, even as concerns about inflation remain unresolved.

While total AuM remains well below peak levels, the steady return of capital into Bitcoin, XRP, and Chainlink suggests growing confidence that the worst of the recent risk-off cycle may be behind us.

Blockchain-based prediction markets are drawing in more speculators as traders hunt for returns that can beat simply holding spot cryptocurrencies, according to a new report.

Prediction markets are emerging as a new speculative arena for traders, pitting casual retail participants against data-driven, professional traders, creating “extreme information asymmetry and meaningful arbitrage windows,” according to a Monday report from crypto research company 10X Research.

While sports bets account for the lion’s share of activity on these platforms, Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto-outcome related events are presenting more niche opportunities that digital asset traders can’t ignore, according to 10X.

“It is a valuable reminder that nearly every major crypto trading venue operated its own market-making or ‘treasury’ desk, not just to provide liquidity, but to stand on the other side of retail flow, and rarely at a loss,” the company wrote.