Crypto Executives Search for Financial Redemption in the Persian Gulf — WSJ

Dow Jones Newswires

By Angus Berwick

ABU DHABI — The word went out among those gathered for the crypto conference: The Big Money guys were here. Representatives from a $330 billion United Arab Emirates sovereign-wealth fund were said to be circulating — if only they could be found.

Many of crypto's biggest players trooped to Abu Dhabi last week, hoping to secure deals with deep-pocketed Emirati investors who could inject fresh vigor into the industry following two months in the doldrums.

Crypto executives careened around the U.A.E. capital, dashing between a half-dozen different conferences, a "Whale Only" night at a secluded beach club, and champagne-soaked parties aboard superyachts. They traded intel about exclusive dinners with star guests, and sought out supposed gatekeepers to the royal family.

At the Bitcoin MENA conference was Michael Saylor, founder of the largest bitcoin-buying firm Strategy, whose share price has more than halved since midyear. He said he had been touring the Gulf to pitch "hundreds of investors" — including sovereign-wealth funds — on his plan to accumulate ever more of the digital currency through myriad financial instruments.

He displayed a presentation, which he said he had shown to potential investors, that portrayed Strategy as a space rocket fueled by bitcoin, headed toward a "$20 Trillion Idea."

The president of Metaplanet, a Japanese hotel-operator-turned-bitcoin-hoarder whose shares likewise have collapsed, said on stage it was looking to raise money via a new preferred-share plan called "MARS."

Other prospectors included the Trump family's go-to investment bank, Dominari Holdings, and the asset-manager arm of Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, which said it plans to make Abu Dhabi a regional hub as part of a push into crypto products.

The crypto-market downturn caught the industry off-guard. Many participants expected that President Trump's unbridled support for the sector would lead to accelerating adoption and boundless gains. But while U.S. stock markets have remained close to record highs, bitcoin lost steam in October after a cascade of market liquidations stung traders and exchanges.

And Trump's legislative agenda for crypto has stumbled, with some Democratic lawmakers hitting the brakes on a new bill to create a regulatory framework for the digital-currency market.

The U.A.E.'s appetite for crypto, however, has only grown.

Last week, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said it had received full approval from Abu Dhabi's financial regulator to operate its global trading platform from the capital. A state-backed Emirati investment firm bought a $2 billion stake in Binance earlier this year.

A unit of Mubadala, the sovereign-wealth fund, disclosed in November it had tripled a bet on bitcoin, building a position then worth about $518 million, while Mubadala separately recorded another bitcoin holding via an exchange-traded fund worth $567 million the same month. A spokesman for Mubadala declined to comment.

And Abu Dhabi's government is luring crypto startups to set up shop in the city's financial center by offering early financing, free office space and other perks.

"The liquidity, decision makers and infrastructure are all here," said Kristiina Lumeste, founder of Klumi Ventures, an Abu Dhabi-based venture-capital firm that is raising a $100 million crypto-focused fund from local investors.

The crypto industry split along tribal lines during the week. The hardcore faithful headed to the bitcoin conference with Saylor, whose fans tailed him around the event in the hope of getting a selfie, as his minders begged them to let him leave.

Organizers honored Saylor with a bright orange jacket, with the bitcoin symbol sewn onto its front pocket.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whom Trump pardoned in October after a jail term for an anti-money-laundering violation, strode onto stage wearing a pair of orange high-tops emblazoned with the words: "Trump. Crypto President."

The pardon followed Binance's efforts to boost the Trump family's own crypto venture World Liberty Financial, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

A lawyer for Zhao said the pardon was "completely unrelated to any of Binance's actual or purported business transactions." Binance doesn't have "any direct or indirect financial relationship" with the Trump family or their businesses, the company added.

World Liberty previously said it never facilitated or influenced a decision on Zhao's pardon.

Zhao and Binance executives a few days earlier had hosted guests at Abu Dhabi's Grand Prix on a three-story yacht moored trackside by dozens of other mega craft. Hundreds danced late into the night on decks mounted with disco balls, smoke machines and laser lights.

On Monday, Zhao attended a dinner in the St. Regis hotel that included another Trump pardon recipient: the president's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who told the conference he helped persuade Trump of crypto's merits.

Zhao's lawyer said many speakers at the conference attended the dinner. Manafort didn't respond to a request for comment.

The other tribe, the institutional money crowd, hung out at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week conference on the financial district's waterfront.

Executives from blue-chip U.S. crypto companies Coinbase and Circle mixed with Wall Street figures — including Bridgewater hedge-fund founder Ray Dalio and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman — and representatives from traditional-banking stalwarts UBS and HSBC.

Abu Dhabi's crown prince attended the opening, along with senior executives from Mubadala and other sovereign-wealth funds. A shop run by the organizers offered Abu Dhabi-branded T-shirts and hoodies with the logo "Capital of Capital."

Basil Al Askari, co-founder of Abu Dhabi-based crypto brokerage MidChains, which is backed by Mubadala, said there were a lot of U.A.E. first-timers looking to return home with a quick deal.

Several people he met made the "rookie mistake" of assuming he worked for a major U.A.E. investor just because he was Emirati and was wearing a traditional thobe.

Except for a few outliers, he said it typically took a few years of relationship-building, as well as commitments to develop operations here, to persuade a sovereign-wealth fund or major family office to invest.

The fortunate few who did so got to trumpet new deals. In a presentation, RockawayX, a venture-capital firm with about $1.8 billion in assets, called the U.A.E. "the new Wall Street of digital finance," a week after announcing it would be acquired by a company backed by an Abu Dhabi investor.

"They're not looking for people to parachute in and leave with a bag of cash," said Samantha Bohbot, chief growth officer of RockawayX, which had set up a U.A.E. headquarters and a local incubator hub for crypto projects. "You must have some substantive skin in the game, and stay the course."

Write to Angus Berwick at angus.berwick@wsj.com

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Banks Need Bitcoin for Clients, Rochard Says

U.Today

Bitcoin advocate Pierre Rochard has predicted that banks increasingly need Bitcoin exposure to serve clients and strengthen their own balance sheets.

He is convinced that global banks will eventually integrate with the network now that the institutional adoption of the flagship cryptocurrency is accelerating.

This echoes the forecast of Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor becoming active participants in Bitcoin-related products.

Coinbase’s new partnership

Earlier this week, Coinbase and Standard Chartered announced an expanded partnership aimed at developing institutional-grade digital asset services globally.

The collaboration expands beyond their previous work in Singapore (real-time SGD transfers for Coinbase users).

It aims to develop end-to-end digital asset services for institutions that include trading, custody, lending, staking, and so on.

Crypto and banking

PNC Bank has also teamed with Coinbase to allow direct Bitcoin trading for its private banking clients through the bank’s platform, marking a structural shift in how mainstream banks provide access to crypto.

Ripple expanded its partnership with AMINA Bank, enabling the bank to integrate Ripple’s payments solution.

In Europe and the Middle East, similar collaborations are taking shape. Bullish and Deutsche Bank teamed up to deliver seamless fiat integration for institutional crypto trading.

In the meantime, regulatory approval by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has opened the door for crypto firms like Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity to pursue national trust bank charters.

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Bitcoin And Ethereum Market Structure Points To Crypto Winter – Details

NewsBTC

The crypto market has shown a modest price rebound in the last three weeks, returning to a total market cap of $3.07 trillion. During this time, Bitcoin has climbed by 11% from its local bottom at $80,700, while Ethereum has been more aggressive, gaining by 18% within the same period. Despite these reassuring performances, a market analyst with the username PelinayPA postulates that the bear market has commenced, considering certain technical parameters.

BTC & ETH Moving Averages, Trading Volumes Signal Bear Season

Bear market speculations have been at a heightened level in Q4 2025, as the crypto market suffered extensive price corrections, during which Bitcoin alone retraced by around 36.5%. While the market may have shown some steady upward mobility in recent weeks, many analysts remain convinced the bears have assumed market control, leaving little bullish potential for a full market reversal.

In analyzing Bitcoin’s chart, PelinayPA explains that price is presently trading below the short (7, 14), medium (30, 50), and long-term moving averages (100), indicating a strong sellers’ dominance in the market. However, the more concerning observation is that these averages are sloping downward, suggesting the recent downtrend or corrections may not be temporary.

Furthermore, the seasoned crypto analyst notes these moving averages are acting as resistance in classic bear-market behavior that initiates a selling spree upon contact with price. In addition, sellers are also aggressive as red candles come with higher volume, while hesitant buyers load the green candles with relatively lower volumes. Based on these technical observations, PelinayPA explains that Bitcoin is not launching a bullish market reversal, but rather remains in a reaction within a larger bear market.

Meanwhile, the Ethereum market analysis shows a similar situation in that price is trading below key moving averages. However, the short-term MAs (7, 14) are beginning to turn upward. In addition, the price rebounds from lows are stable and stronger while candles are recording shorter wicks, indicating the selling pressure is less aggressive, why buying interest remains visible.

Therefore, while Ethereum is clearly stronger than Bitcoin, the bullish strength remains insufficient to initiate a trend reversal as long-term MAs remain downward sloping amid low buying volume.

Bitcoin Price Overview

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $90,155 after a minor 0.22% decline in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, daily trading volume is down by 20.34% and valued at $64.22 billion.

According to PelinayPA, the Bitcoin bull rally is finished, and a deeper price correction is needed before investors see another parabolic surge or all-time high. The analyst predicts Bitcoin to bottom around $50,000 in the “ongoing” bear market, postulating a potential 44.4% decline from the present market prices.

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Cardano Creator Reacts to 'New ADA' $1 Billion Day as XRP Falls Behind

U.Today

A token for Cardano’s privacy-focused network, Midnight (NIGHT), entered active market trading, recorded more than $1 billion in 24-hour volume and market cap, even ranking ahead of XRP by turnover on Bybit.

Of course, the main man behind Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, reacted to the astonishing milestone, though in a laconic manner, saying that $1 billion in volume is an "absolutely remarkable" achievement for a new token.

Now to NIGHT, which traded at around $0.069 across major exchanges, pushing its market capitalization above $1 billion. The volume-to-market-cap ratio currently stands at 96.5%, so to say that the trading activity for the token many may see as the "new ADA" is hot is to underestimate it.

Charles Hoskinson
@IOHK_Charles
1 billion volume. Absolutely remarkable pic.twitter.com/Nrk7ZJ9eR2
Dec 14, 2025

As was mentioned above, Bybit, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, alone accounted for over $650 million in turnover, with Binance, Alpha, OKX, KuCoin and Gate following close behind. This confirms that the activity was widespread, not isolated.

Midnight is not marketed as a meme or a short-term narrative asset. It is positioned as a programmable privacy network built on zero-knowledge proofs, dual-ledger architecture and selective disclosure tooling aimed at enterprises, identity systems and compliant DeFi.

NIGHT price chart reflects hype

After trading below $0.05 for most of the session, NIGHT surged into the $0.07 zone in a near-vertical move, then entered a consolidation band between $0.066 and $0.071.

For traders, the $1 billion print indicates that Midnight has joined the conversation about liquidity with top-tier Layer-1 ecosystems. For developers, it suggests an early commitment of capital ahead of mainnet tooling and the rollout of zero-knowledge (ZK) applications.

For Cardano itself, Midnight’s breakthrough redefines the ecosystem as a multi-network stack in which privacy, compliance and scalability can coexist without compromises.

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Twenty One’s first-day slide highlights investor caution toward BTC-backed stocks

Cointelegraph

Key takeaways

Twenty One Capital’s NYSE debut saw a nearly 20% drop, signaling cautious investor sentiment toward Bitcoin-heavy public listings.
XXI traded close to its net asset value, suggesting the market did not assign a meaningful premium beyond the value of the firm’s Bitcoin holdings.
The decline reflected broader market pressures, including Bitcoin volatility, fading enthusiasm for SPAC-backed listings and weakening mNAV premiums.
The muted reaction suggests investors may now expect Bitcoin-focused firms to show clear, durable revenue models rather than relying primarily on large BTC holdings.

The public debut of Twenty One Capital, a closely watched Bitcoin-focused company, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was met with cautious investor sentiment. Trading under the ticker XXI, the firm’s shares fell by nearly 20% on its first day.

This article explores what the market reaction may signal about shifting investor demand, the erosion of the mNAV premium and the broader scrutiny facing Bitcoin-backed equity listings.

What Twenty One Capital actually is

Twenty One Capital is an institutionally backed, Bitcoin-native public company with the stated ambition of becoming the largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin . The firm went public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) transaction with Cantor Equity Partners and began trading under the ticker XXI.

At launch, the company reported a treasury of over 43,500 BTC, valued at roughly $3.9 billion-$4.0 billion, placing it among the largest corporate Bitcoin holders.

The firm was built with a clear focus: a corporate structure that places Bitcoin at the center of its strategy. Its founders and backers position it as more than a treasury vehicle. Jack Mallers, who also founded Strike, has said that Twenty One aims to build corporate infrastructure for Bitcoin-aligned financial products.

This model places Twenty One alongside other digital asset treasury (DATs) companies, but with key differences. Its backers include Cantor Fitzgerald, a Federal Reserve primary dealer; Tether, the issuer of USDt (USDT) and a major holder of US Treasurys; Bitfinex and SoftBank. These institutional relationships position Twenty One as one of the most heavily backed Bitcoin-native companies to list publicly.

The company arrived amid a broader wave of publicly traded firms pursuing Bitcoin-centric strategies, inspired in part by the expansion model used by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). Still, Twenty One’s stated intention is not simply to replicate that approach but to pursue revenue-driven growth while maintaining a large Bitcoin reserve.

The debut and the sharp price drop

Given the scale of its treasury and the profile of its backers, many market participants expected strong attention around Twenty One’s launch. Yet its first day of trading on Dec. 9, 2025, delivered a different outcome. The stock fell sharply despite the company’s large Bitcoin holdings and high-profile institutional support.

When Cantor Equity Partners’ SPAC shares converted into XXI, the new stock opened at $10.74, below the SPAC’s prior close of $14.27. After-hours trading showed only a modest rebound. By the close of its first day of trading, the shares were down approximately 19.97%, settling at $11.96.

This performance underscored a broader trend in which newly listed crypto-related firms often trade below their pre-merger benchmarks. The move also left the newly public equity trading at a discount relative to its underlying cryptocurrency holdings, indicating that valuation dynamics for this type of stock may be shifting.

Investor caution and Twenty One’s NYSE slide

The sharp decline in Twenty One Capital’s stock price was not unique to the company. It reflected a convergence of three market factors in late 2025:

Erosion of the multiple-to-net-asset-value (mNAV) premium
Continued volatility in crypto markets
Weaker sentiment toward SPAC-driven public debuts.

Understanding the muted mNAV valuation

The clearest sign of market caution was that the stock did not trade at a meaningful premium to the value of its underlying Bitcoin holdings. This is typically assessed using the mNAV ratio.

Historically, Bitcoin treasury firms have commanded a high mNAV premium at points in past market cycles. That premium has often been interpreted as a sign of investor confidence in management’s ability to create value beyond the underlying assets.

Twenty One Capital, however, traded at or near its asset value, effectively assigning little to no premium to its business plans or management. This suggested the market was valuing the stock largely as a direct and potentially volatile proxy for Bitcoin rather than pricing in a distinct operating-business premium.

Market volatility and SPAC sentiment

Twenty One Capital debuted during a challenging period for both the crypto market and SPAC-driven listings. In the run-up to the debut, cryptocurrencies faced selling pressure. Bitcoin had fallen more than 28% from its October peak, creating a risk-off climate in which investors were less willing to assign generous valuations to crypto-linked equities.

The merger with Cantor Equity Partners was a SPAC-driven route to going public. While the prospect of the deal previously sent the SPAC’s shares sharply higher, by late 2025, enthusiasm for high-profile crypto SPACs had cooled. A long track record of post-merger underperformance has contributed to investor fatigue and skepticism, which can lead newly listed companies to trade below their pre-merger benchmarks.

Did you know? The equity trading below the value of its Bitcoin treasury is an example of a valuation paradox, where a newly public stock trades at a discount to the market value of the primary liquid assets it holds.

Market shift: Demand for proven business models

Another reason for investor caution may be the lack of a clear, proven, revenue-generating operating model at the time of the debut. This suggests some investors may be moving away from pure “Bitcoin treasury” narratives and placing greater emphasis on differentiation and predictable cash flows.

Twenty One Capital went public with large Bitcoin holdings, but without a detailed, publicly available business plan or a confirmed timeline. The debut also came during a period of heightened scrutiny of the digital asset treasury company sector.

According to Reuters, analysts suggest it is becoming “harder for DATs to raise capital” and that companies “need to show material differentiation” to justify their trading multiples.

The sharp drop in XXI’s share price may indicate that the market’s perspective is evolving. Some investors may be shifting their focus toward a company’s ability to execute a sustainable business model alongside its assets. Public markets may increasingly prioritize firms that can generate predictable cash flows rather than those that primarily hold Bitcoin.

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Ripple CTO Pokes Fun at Microsoft Edge

U.Today

David Schwartz, chief technology officer at Ripple, recently poked fun at the Microsoft Edge browser with an ironic roast.

The joke about Microsoft Edge has its roots in the older Internet Explorer (IE) meme, and it evolved over time as Microsoft updated its browser.

Classic internet meme

Internet Explorer had a reputation for being slow, buggy, and insecure. Users often joked that the only use of IE was to download Chrome. This idea became a running gag in tech communities.

IE 5 and 6 were widely used and dominated the browser market. IE 6, in particular, became infamous for security flaws, nonstandard HTML/CSS rendering, and crashes. IE 7 improved security and introduced tabs, but performance was still sluggish compared. Firefox and Chrome ended up upending its dominance.

Microsoft replaced IE with Edge in Windows 10. Early reactions noted that Edge was faster and more modern, but users still joked that it was primarily useful to download Chrome.

Microsoft Edge holds roughly 5% of the total worldwide browser market — much smaller than Chrome’s dominant 62-68% share.

On desktop specifically, Edge tends to sit around 11–12% market share.

The browser comes preinstalled on Windows 10 and 11, which helps maintain its user base.

Chrome criticism

Schwartz has also complained about Chrome's high memory usage. In 2024, he posted a screenshot showing it using 10GB RAM.

In January 2025, he criticized Google for "user-hostile changes" in both Chrome and Android that remove functionality.

However, it is pretty safe to say that Schwartz is not going to use Microsoft Edge anytime soon.

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Ethereum Active Address Count Hits Seven-Month Low — What This Means

NewsBTC

While the Ethereum price still struggles to mount a sustained bullish momentum, an investigation into its on-chain activity has revealed a significant change in the behavior of its market participants.

Active Addresses Decline To 327,000 From 483,000 August High

In a Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, market analyst CryptoOnchain shared that there has been a growing scarcity of activity within the Ethereum network. Specifically, the quant referenced data obtained from the Ethereum Active Addresses metric, observed on the 7-day Simple Moving Average.

Since reaching its peak in August, the Active Addresses metric has declined steadily from about 483,000 to 327,000 — a level which marks the lowest reached since May this year. This downturn of more than 32% suggests an increasing exit of willing participants from the Ethereum network.

Interestingly, the aforementioned downturn is not a stand-alone phenomenon. Just around the same period where active addresses explored the southside of the charts, the Ethereum price also took on a bearish direction. This period saw the Ether token lose its $4,800 valuation and begin its descent to the current price around $3,100.

According to the analyst, this strong correlation between the falling Ethereum valuation and its contracting network usage points to something clear — that the recent price drop is likely a result of reduced network demand. This further shows that market participants are moving past speculation, and are in lieu adopting a broader outlook on the Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum Market Outlook

On the more positive side, CryptoOnchain explained how healthy bull cycles differ from the present market cycle. Typically, rising prices are not taken for granted as they often indicate a healthy bullish cycle.

An expansion of the cryptocurrency’s network usage also lends credence — enough to serve as confirmation — to suspicions of structural shifts into bullish phases. This theory holds true from a variety of historical occurrences.

So, a market would not qualify as bullish enough if the Ethereum price were on the rise without any parallel growth in on-chain activity. Hence, for a convincing price reversal to hold, there has to be a significant and sustained recovery of active addresses.

This would signal the return of on-chain demand and further heighten expectations of imminent momentum. Until those conditions are simultaneously met, the Ethereum market remains in a state of utmost caution, where prices could head towards either direction, with the major factor being the influx of network users.

As of press time, the Ether token is valued at about $3,106, reflecting no significant movement since the past day.

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