StableChain launches mainnet with USDT gas fees, dedicated governance token

DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bybit, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, hosted its BIG Series – Bybit Institutional Gala in Abu Dhabi, bringing together key Bybit executives, global regulators, banking partners, liquidity providers, and institutional clients for a forward-looking dialogue on the evolution of digital markets. The evening set the stage for Bybit's strengthened global strategy following its newly secured full Virtual Asset Platform Operator (VAPO) license from the UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and its MiCAR license across the entire European Economic Area (EEA), — a milestone that positions the company at the center of regulated digital finance.

Institutional Confidence Powered by Retail Strength and Scalable Infrastructure

Opening the gala, Ben emphasized the industry's shift toward an integrated and institution-ready market structure. He reiterated a core advantage of Bybit was its uniquely powerful retail ecosystem.

In just its first year, the Bybit Card surpassed 1.8 million cards issued across 13 regions, complemented by expanding Pay and bank-integrated fiat rails. This retail scale increasingly fuels superior pricing and execution for institutional clients.

Ben also highlighted the acceleration of its wealth and asset management business, where AUM grew from USD 40 million in Q2 to USD 200 million in Q4, underscoring widening institutional engagement and strong demand for qualified asset management services.

Compliance as the New Institutional Trust Product

In a keynote session from Robert MacDonald, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer of Bybit, reinforced the growing importance of compliance as a decisive factor in institutional adoption.

He highlighted how predictable onboarding, product-embedded compliance, and proactive regulatory engagement now function as a competitive advantage — strengthening Bybit's banking relationships and reducing operational friction for professional investors.

Bybit's Expanding Institutional Ecosystem

In her keynote, Yoyee Wang, Head of Business to Business at Bybit, introduced the next wave of institutional offerings coming in 2026, aimed at strengthening market connectivity and operational efficiency for institutional clients. These include two major advancements:

• Bybit's upgraded INS Credit Suite now integrates Bybit Custody with RWA yield products, enabling institutions to keep assets in custody, earn returns through tokenized money market funds, and simultaneously access institutional credit. This unified structure enhances capital efficiency without compromising control. The suite continues to offer market-leading 5× leverage and support for up to 1,000 sub-accounts.
• The recent launch of Bybit's Market Maker Gateway (MMGW), a dedicated high-performance access point that gives institutional clients faster and more stable connectivity to Bybit's trading environment, reducing round-trip latency from 30ms to 2.5ms for high-frequency and quant clients.

Bybit also revealed that INS loan notional grew by 26% quarter-over-quarter, driven by strong adoption from multi-strategy and High-Frequency Trading (HFT) firms.

Yoyee highlighted the importance of collaboration in shaping the next phase of institutional adoption:

A Global Dialogue on the Future of Capital Markets

As part of the evening program, the gala convened a cross-regional dialogue moderated by Dimitrios Psarrakis, Head of Global Affairs at Bybit, and featuring European regulator, Jean-Marc Laventure, Head of Financial & Securities Services Sales, Investors, Middle East, Standard Chartered Bank and other honorable guests.

The conversation highlighted a clear industry shift: traditional finance and digital assets are no longer parallel tracks but converging systems built on shared principles of transparency, efficiency, and institutional-grade governance.

Celebrating Industry Achievement

This convergence provided a fitting transition to the evening's closing ceremony, where Bybit recognized leading institutions and ecosystem contributors for their excellence, performance, and impact across global digital markets.

The awards presented included:

Premier Corporate Trading Terminal Award

• Vantage
• Jarvis Lab

Broker Market Leadership Award

• Insilico Terminal
• Coinroutes
• Finestel

Outstanding Institutional Contribution Award

• Wintermute
• Amber Group
• Da Vinci
• GSR
• Cumberland

Liquidity Leadership Award

• Pulsar
• Atomic
• Gravity
• Hashwave

Institutional Trading Excellence Award

• CyantArb
• AlberBlanc
• Presto
• Rosario

#Bybit / #CryptoArk 

About Bybit

Bybit is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 70 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for everyone. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit partners strategically with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, empowering builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com.

For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press

For media inquiries, please contact: media@bybit.com

For updates, please follow: Bybit's Communities and Social Media

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Cronos has received a major boost from 21Shares. On Monday, December 8, 2025, 21Shares announced a strategic partnership with Crypto.com to catalyze the mainstream adoption of CRO through regulated investment products.

21Shares Boosts Institutional Adoption For CRO

21Shares, a major issuer of spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced that it will be offering investment products for CRO. The firm intends to boost the adoption of CRO via issuing investment products tracking its spot performance. 

“Crypto.com and Cronos are both paving the way for scalable and interoperable blockchain solutions, and this collaboration reinforces our commitment to delivering institutional-grade regulated exposure to the most relevant crypto assets,” Federico Brokate, Global Head of Business Development at 21Shares, noted. 

According to Eric Anziani, President and COO of Crypto.com, the crypto exchange will continue to support the mainstream adoption of the Cronos blockchain. At the time of this writing, the Cronos chain had a total value locked of about $387 million and a stablecoin supply of around $181 million.

Cronos Price Eyes New ATH

Following the announcement, CRO recorded a 40% surge in its daily average traded volume to hover about $15.7 million at reporting time, according to market data from The mid-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $10.3 billion, has signaled a potential bullish rebound catalyzed by a supportive macroeconomic backdrop.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the watchdog overseeing the country’s financial sector, has released proposals as part of its strategy to “boost UK investment culture,” and is asking for help from the crypto industry.

In discussion and consultation papers released on Monday, the FCA asked crypto companies to provide feedback on proposals aimed at “expanding consumer access to investments” and amending rules for “client categorization and conflicts of interest.”

Major publicly traded HYPE token holder Hyperliquid Strategies (ticker PURR) is the latest digital asset treasury (DAT) to roll out a stock repurchase program. 

Hyperliquid Strategies’ board has authorized a program to repurchase up to $30 million worth of the company’s outstanding stock over the next 12 months, according to an announcement on Monday. The firm is far from the first to announce a willingness to support its stock price, with everyone from the largest ETH DAT BitMine supporting buybacks to Michael Saylor's Strategy launching a cash reserve to act as a liquidity buffer amid a market pullback. 

“We are fully committed to maximizing shareholder value through disciplined execution of our treasury strategy,” Hyperliquid Strategies CEO David Schamis said. “Our primary objective is providing investors with efficient access to HYPE, the native token of the dominant Hyperliquid ecosystem. We will use our cash to increase our shareholders’ per-share exposure to HYPE in the most efficient way possible.”

Though what is perhaps unique is that the repurchase program was disclosed just days after the digital asset treasury officially launched.

Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. was formed through a merger of the publicly-traded healthtech firm Sonnet BioTherapeutics and Rorschach, a special purpose acquisition company incorporated this year with a connection to Hyperliquid-supporter and prominent crypto VC Paradigm. The merger, announced in July and expected to close in November, was delayed by two weeks after not crossing a key level of support from shareholders and was ultimately completed on Dec. 2.

The Nasdaq-listed stock, which began trading under the ticker symbol PURR on Dec. 3, is down about 1.1% at the time of press to $3.64. The Block has reached out to Schamis for comment.

Venture forward?

In October, Hyperliquid Strategies filed an S-1 statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $1 billion to fund its treasury activities. The firm previously said it would stake “substantially all of its HYPE holdings” or deploy funds in non-staking DeFi-related activities.

Somewhat unusually, Hyperliquid did not raise venture capital funding. Instead, about a third of the HYPE token supply, valued at $1.2 billion, was airdropped to early users when it debuted in late 2023. Additional tokens went to the founding team and to set up the Hyper Foundation, with none explicitly earmarked for VCs or investors.

The protocol has since grown to become the largest decentralized perps DEX by accumulated volume, according to The Block’s data, and has only seen meaningful competition in recent months via the rise of BNB Chain-based Aster and Ethereum Layer 2 Liquid. 

Hyperliquid Strategies, which aims to "provide capital-efficient and productive access to the HYPE token for U.S. and institutional investors," counts D1 Capital, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, Republic Digital, and 683 Capital as strategic backers. It has also named former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond as chairman.

The firm is not the only HYPE treasury play. In June, Hong Kong-based brokerage and trading firm Lion Group Holding Ltd. raised $600 million to fund its own HYPE DAT. 

HYPE is relatively flat on the past day at $29. The token hit an all-time high of $59.30 in September, according to The Block’s price page.

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.

MicroStrategy announced today that it spent nearly $1 billion to acquire an additional 10,624 BTC, increasing its total Bitcoin holdings to 660,624 BTC.

The purchase comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny for MicroStrategy’s figurehead, Michael Saylor. The company has faced significant pressure during a broader market downturn driven by Bitcoin’s weak price performance.

Accumulation Continues as Pressures Grow

Saylor has continued expanding MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings despite sustained public scrutiny of the company’s approach.

Bitcoin’s price has weakened over the past two months, failing to reclaim the $100,000 level it lost in November and currently trading around $89,950.

MicroStrategy, now effectively a Bitcoin-focused treasury rather than a traditional software firm, has been hit hard as its valuation moves in lockstep with Bitcoin’s volatility, creating persistent headwinds.

Even so, the company has pressed ahead with new purchases. Notably, it did not buy during the recent dip to $86,000 over the weekend but instead announced its latest acquisition as Bitcoin briefly rallied to $90,615.

Some viewed the move as a way to energize supporters and maintain high morale among loyal investors. However, some analysts believe MicroStrategy’s ability to fund future Bitcoin purchases is weakening.

Analyst Novacula Occami noted that, for this latest purchase round, MicroStrategy was only able to sell $44 million of preferred stock last week, which is a very small amount compared to past capital raises.

This suggests the market may be less willing to lend or buy their preferred equity.

Because leverage is becoming more challenging, MicroStrategy is shifting back to issuing regular shares. In this case, it sold 5.1 million MSTR shares at $181 each, which dilutes existing shareholders.

Given MicroStrategy’s current conditions, this method may soon become unsustainable.

Stock Weakness Threatens Funding Model

MicroStrategy experienced a severe downturn at the start of December when its market cap briefly fell below the net value of its Bitcoin holdings. The event produced fresh concerns about leverage, liquidity, and overall investor confidence.

The share price dropped to $156, reducing the company’s valuation to $45 billion. At the same time, the value of MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings stood at roughly $55.2 billion, marking an unusual period in which the market valued the company below its underlying assets.

MicroStrategy has since regained its foothold. However, if its stock were to again trade below the value of the assets it owns, issuing new shares will become harder and less effective.

As leverage continues to dry up and equity dilution becomes less sustainable, MicroStrategy may face a moment where it cannot raise enough capital to continue its accumulation model. 

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has taken to the X social media network to note that XRP ETFs have become the fastest products to reach $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) in the U.S. since Ethereum-based ones. 

According to Garlinghouse, there is pent-up demand for regulated crypto products.

With platforms like Vanguard enabling access to these ETFs through traditional retirement and brokerage accounts, millions of Americans can now get exposure to cryptocurrencies.

As reported by U.Today, Garlinghouse recently predicted that the overall share of crypto within the ETF market will increase significantly. The Ripple CEO had rejected the notion that the recent ETF enthusiasm was merely hype. 

Current leaders 

A total of 477.93 million XRP is currently held in custody across several U.S. crypto ETFs. 

Canary Capital leads the group, holding 166.1 million XRP, the largest amount among the ETFs. 

Grayscale follows with 104 million XRP, then Bitwise with 91.8 million, Franklin Templeton with 63 million, and REX-Osprey with 53 million XRP. Combined, these five ETF issuers account for the full 477.93 million XRP currently locked in ETFs.

The combined daily trading volume for XRP ETFs is roughly $14.98 million at press time.

Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ leads with $4.57 million traded (201.75K shares), followed by Canary Capital’s XRPC at $4.17 million (187.95K shares). Bitwise XRP has $3.40 million traded (145.50K shares), REX-Osprey XRPR is at $1.79 million (104.50K shares), and Grayscale GXRP has the remaining portion of the volume.