Fusaka Upgrade Reignites Confidence in Ethereum, Analysts Eye $3,500 Target

Hua Xia Bank, a publicly traded financial institution linked to China’s government, issued 4.5 billion yuan ($600 million) in tokenized bonds on Wednesday, aiming to reduce clearing friction by removing intermediaries from the auction process.

According to Sina, the onchain government bonds were issued by Hua Xia Financial Leasing, a subsidiary of Hua Xia Bank, a state-controlled commercial bank in China. The bonds offered a three-year fixed yield of 1.84% to holders.

The $600 million bond tranche was auctioned off exclusively to holders of China’s digital renminbi, also known as the digital yuan.

1Money, a company co-founded by the former CEO of Binance.US, has launched a stablecoin orchestration platform ahead of its plans to build a layer-1 blockchain for payments.

In a Thursday announcement, 1Money said the platform by the same name will have “zero platform fees,” opting instead for usage-based fees for transactions involving stablecoins and fiat. According to the company, the initiative will continue on 1Money’s layer-1 network for stablecoin payments, offering no gas fees.

“For too long, legacy stablecoin service providers have held the ecosystem back with outrageously high monthly minimums and bloated fees, 1Money is ending that era,” said Brian Shroder, 1Money co-founder and CEO and former CEO of Binance.US.

As tokenization gains momentum, Wall Street and crypto executives revealed some potential rifts on how the Securities and Exchange Commission should regulate it and what role decentralized finance should play in it. 

On Thursday, executives from the likes of Citadel Securities to Coinbase to Galaxy discussed the topic at an SEC Investor Advisory Committee meeting. Tokenization can mean a variety of different types of assets, but it is essentially a real-world asset going on the blockchain. The panel is tasked with advising the commission on regulation and investor interests. 

Samara Cohen, senior managing director and global head of market development at BlackRock, noted the variety of perspectives during the meeting. 

She said the six-person panel proved useful given the “distinct paths and perspectives” represented, adding that the range of views reflects the challenge of the moment and suggests there is "probably more than one solution."

Thursday's meeting comes a day after some tension arose among some crypto advocates against a letter submitted by Citadel Securities on Wednesday. The giant market maker faced online backlash from some in the crypto industry for recommending that the SEC impose stricter rules on decentralized finance when it comes to tokenized securities.

Citadel Securities said the agency should fully identify intermediaries involved in the trades of tokenized U.S. equities, including decentralized trading protocols, and refrain from granting broad exemptive relief from statutory definitions of an "exchange" and "broker-dealer."

Some in the crypto industry pushed back against the TradeFi stance, and others said it was "unworkable." The industry has previously argued that generally DeFi works differently from more traditional finance, in part because there are no direct intermediaries, making it difficult to comply with the same rules.

"Let me be clear, we believe the tokenization of U.S. equities represents another promise, and has the potential to further benefit investors," said Jonah Platt, managing director and U.S. head of government and regulatory policy at Citadel Securities, on Thursday. 

However, granting broad exemptions for DeFi could have negative implications for investors, Platt added. 

"We should identify the rules that don't make sense, and we should change them," Platt later said. "But the suggestion that we should just grant blanket exemptive relief and not do that rule-by-rule analysis strikes us as very dangerous because the U.S. equity market is of such fundamental importance — we should take the time to get this right." 

Scott Bauguess, vice president for global regulatory policy at Coinbase, said he agreed on the need to go rule by rule, but said that the same rules for decentralized exchanges can't be the same for a broker. 

"You can't put regulatory obligations on a DEX, the same that exists on a broker, because if you do, you'd be asking them to take control of assets or the protocol and then introduce all he risks that don't currently exist in that environment," Bauguess said. 

Commissioners weigh in 

The investor advisory committee also met separately earlier in the day to discuss artificial intelligence and corporate governance in separate panels. SEC Chair Paul Atkins focused much of his prepared remarks on tokenization and shed light on the agency's stance.

"If we want to boost innovation, investment, and jobs here in the United States, we must provide compliant pathways that allow market participants to leverage the unique capabilities of this new technology," Atkins said. 

Lone Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, who will soon be leaving the SEC, raised concerns about the risks to investors and said new rules may be needed. One point of concern could be tokenized equities that are marketed as "wrapped securities," she said. 

"In truth, these tokenized products are far from a one-to-one replica of the underlying asset to which they are supposedly linked," Crenshaw said, adding that they could be less liquid and have different ownership rights.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index is down $448.87 today or 0.48% to $92533.69

• Snaps a two day winning streak
• Down 0.94% year-to-date
• Down 26.72% from its all-time intraday high of $126272.76 on Oct. 6, 2025
• Down 6.66% from 52 weeks ago (Dec. 5, 2024), when it traded at $99137.34
• Down 26.72% from its 52-week intraday high of $126272.76 on Oct. 6, 2025
• Up 22.19% from its 52-week intraday low of $74435.56 on April 7, 2025
• Traded as low as $90950.01
• Down 2.19% at today's intraday low

Note: CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX) at 4 p.m. ET close

Data compiled by Dow Jones Market Data

Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine, has predicted that the Bitcoin and crypto correction is over. Lee posted on X that the recently escalated fear by Venture Capital has marked the bottom for crypto correction, hence signaling a market reversal ahead.

His crypto market’s reversal thesis is backed by money, whereby BitMine purchased $150 million worth of Ethereum on Wednesday, December 4. The crypto investor used the theory that the capitulation of whale investors was the last signal of a correction bottom.

JPMorgan is Cautious about the Midterm Bitcoin Outlook amid Influence by Strategy 

 On Wednesday, JPMorgan reminded crypto investors that the Bitcoin price will be influenced negatively if Strategy sells its holdings. The bank said that Strategy must ensure that its enterprise value-to-Bitcoin holdings ratio must hold above 1.0, which currently stands at 1.13.

Strategy has a $1.44 billion cash reserve to ensure its debts are fully serviced. The company has since reduced its ambitious Bitcoin accumulation, whereby it added 9,062 tokens last month compared to 134,480 a year ago during the same month.

The company has protected its Bitcoin holdings ms with a sophisticated method, which involves leveraging the digital credit. 

Main Reasons BTC will Lead Crypto Debound Soon

According to Alice Liu, Head of Research at CoinMarketCap, during the Binance week in Dubai, the crypto market will record a comeback in the first quarter of 2026.

“We are going to see a market comeback in Q1 of 2026. February and March will be a bull market again, based on a combination of macro indicators,” Liu stated.

The rising global money supply, catalyzed by the Fed’s end of its Quantitative Tightening and declining lending rates will eventually increase crypto liquidity.

CNBC has entered a multi-year partnership with prediction market operator Kalshi to incorporate real-time forecasting data across its TV, digital and subscription platforms.

According to Thursday’s announcement, Kalshi’s event probability data will be integrated into CNBC programming beginning in 2026, including on shows such as “Squawk Box” and “Fast Money,” with a dedicated ticker displaying forecast moves in real-time.

Kalshi will also launch a CNBC-branded page on its platform featuring markets selected by the network.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the integration was the “next evolution” of financial reporting, “moving from data about what’s happening now, to real-time forecasts about what’s happening next.”

CNBC president KC Sullivan added that prediction markets are becoming important tools for understanding major events, calling Kalshi’s data a “powerful complement” to the network’s reporting.