This Week's News Preview | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Releases November CPI Data; HASHKEY Listed for Trading
Highlights of the week from December 15 to December 21.整理：Jerry，ChainCatcher
Key News:
- U.S. SEC to hold a roundtable on crypto privacy issues on December 15, focusing on financial surveillance and crypto privacy policies
- CBOE to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum continuous futures contracts on December 15
- Football.Fun to start public sale on Legion on December 16
- Bloomberg: Coinbase plans to announce its prediction market and tokenized stock products on December 17
- HASHKEY reveals IPO details: plans to raise up to 1.67 billion HKD, expected to be listed on December 17
- Binance to delist FIS, REI, and VOXEL on December 17
- Berachain liquid staking protocol Infrared to conduct TGE on December 17
- Octra to conduct a $20 million public token sale on Sonar at a $200 million valuation on December 18
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to release November CPI data on December 18
December 15 (Monday)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crypto special working group will hold a roundtable on December 15 to discuss policy issues related to financial surveillance and privacy.
Among the guests for the discussion on "Financial Surveillance and Privacy Issues" are Yaya J. Fanusie, Global Policy Director of the Aleo Network Foundation; Jill Gunter, Chief Strategy Officer of Espresso Systems; Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash; Koh, CEO and Executive Director of the Aleo Network Foundation; Simon Letort, Strategic Planning Director at Digital Asset; Nikhil Raghuveera, Co-founder and CEO of Predicate; and Wayne Chang, Founder and CEO of SpruceID.
Guests for the "Financial Surveillance and Privacy Task Force" include Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel of StarkWare; Carole House, CEO of Penumbra Strategies; Linda Jeng, CEO of Digital Self Labs; Summer Mersinger, CEO of Blockchain Association; Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union; J.W. Verret, Associate Professor at George Mason University School of Law; and Steve Yelderman, General Counsel of Etherealize.
CBOE to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum continuous futures contracts on December 15
According to Bloomberg, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will launch Bitcoin and Ethereum continuous futures contracts on December 15.
According to Decrypt, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has confirmed that it will stop paying USDC rewards to non-paying users next week, with only Coinbase One premium subscription users eligible to earn 4% on their held stablecoins.
The exchange first announced this news in an email sent to Coinbase customers on Thursday, stating that the change will take effect on December 15. A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed that USDC rewards have now become an exclusive benefit for Coinbase One members.
Binance Wallet to stop supporting ARC-20 assets on December 15
Binance Wallet will stop supporting ARC-20 assets on December 15, 2025, at 18:00. After this date, users will no longer be able to view, send, or receive ARC-20 assets in Binance Wallet. Users are advised to manage or transfer ARC-20 assets before the support cessation date.
Hong Kong High Court to hear JPEX case involving 8 defendants on December 15
The police are investigating the cryptocurrency trading platform JPEX for suspected fraud, with 16 individuals charged so far, one of whom has already appeared in court. The remaining 15 are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, obstructing justice, and "fraudulently or recklessly inducing others to invest in virtual assets" under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance. The cases were heard in the Eastern Magistrates' Court yesterday afternoon, and the 15 defendants do not need to plead at this stage.
The prosecution has applied to transfer the cases of the first 8 defendants to the High Court, with a further hearing scheduled for December 15. Among the first 8 defendants, except for former artist Zheng Junxi, whose bail application was rejected and must remain in custody, the other 7 have been granted bail pending trial, with internet celebrity Lin Zuo and Chen Yingyi each bailed at 300,000 HKD. Lin Zuo is charged with one count of fraud and an alternative charge of "fraudulently or recklessly inducing others to invest in virtual assets."
The charges allege that from July 8 to September 12, 2023, he falsely represented or allowed others to make false statements to induce others to enter into agreements regarding the acquisition, disposal, subscription, or underwriting of virtual assets, making fraudulent or reckless misrepresentations. The prosecution pointed out that Lin Zuo was alleged to have been able to successfully withdraw assets from JPEX and possessed internal information unavailable to ordinary investors, claiming that investing in designated virtual assets through JPEX could yield specific percentage returns.
Yala to announce detailed redemption plan for retail users on December 15
Yala posted on the X platform that all native BTC under the institutional model will be withdrawn from the Yala protocol, and this process will be completely separate from retail activities, not affecting retail users' YU balances or redemption rights. A complete redemption plan and timeline will be announced on December 15.
Additionally, Yala will release an updated roadmap outlining the next phase of development, including a shift towards AI-driven agent prediction.
Yield-bearing stablecoin protocol Level announced it has been acquired by a leading DeFi protocol, and the Level team will subsequently join that protocol.
As part of the transition, the Level protocol (including lvlUSD and slvlUSD) will gradually cease operations. All users can unstake slvlUSD and redeem lvlUSD, with all cooling periods reduced to 2 seconds. The last batch of yield distribution will occur on October 2, 2025, after which no yield will be generated regardless of whether the assets remain staked. The frontend will continue to operate until December 15, 2025, after which users can still unstake and redeem directly through smart contracts.
December 16 (Tuesday)
Coinbase announced it plans to suspend order book trading for the ANKR-GBP, AXS-EUR, AXS-USDT, CGLD-EUR, CGLD-GBP, LRC-USDT, and LRC-BTC trading pairs at 12:00 PM EST on December 15, 2025 (1:00 AM Beijing time on December 16), aiming to further improve overall market health and consolidate liquidity. Eligible Coinbase Advanced users can still trade the relevant tokens on the USD order book, and the aforementioned trading pairs have now switched to limit order mode, with market orders no longer being accepted.
Football.Fun to start public sale on Legion on December 16
The sports prediction application Football.Fun on the Base chain will start its public sale on Legion on December 16, with users required to participate using Ethereum mainnet USD1.
December 17 (Wednesday)
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. plans to announce the launch of two products: a prediction market and tokenized stocks next week.
Sources indicate that Coinbase will officially unveil these two products during a presentation event on December 17. Notably, its tokenized stock product will be launched through internal development rather than through a partnership.
HASHKEY HLDGS (new listing number: 03887) plans to conduct an IPO from today until the 12th. The parent company of Hong Kong licensed virtual asset exchange Hashkey Exchange, HASHKEY, plans to issue 240 million shares, with 10% available for public offering in Hong Kong, at an offer price ranging from 5.95 HKD to 6.95 HKD, raising a maximum of 1.67 billion HKD, with a minimum entry fee of 2808 HKD for 400 shares.
HASHKEY expects to be listed on December 17. JPMorgan, Cathay Securities, and Guotai Junan International are the joint sponsors.
As of October 31, HASHKEY had 1.48 billion HKD in cash and cash equivalents and digital assets worth 570 million HKD, with mainstream tokens accounting for 89% of the digital assets, including ETH, BTC, USDC, USDT, and SOL.
As of the end of September, the platform's assets exceeded 19.9 billion HKD, with 3.1% stored in hot wallets and 96.9% in cold wallets. The exchange's spot trading volume totaled 13 trillion HKD. The main business is trading facilitation services, accounting for nearly 70% of revenue.
In the past three years, HASHKEY reported losses of 590 million HKD, 580 million HKD, and 1.19 billion HKD, respectively.
In the first six months of this year, HASHKEY reported a loss attributable to equity shareholders of 510 million HKD, narrowing by 34.8% year-on-year, while revenue fell by 26.1% to 280 million HKD.
Regarding the use of net proceeds: 40% will be used for technology and infrastructure iteration, 40% for market expansion and ecosystem partnerships, 10% for operations and risk management, and 10% for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Valour plans to list four digital asset ETPs on Brazil's B3 exchange on December 17
DeFi Technologies Inc. announced that its subsidiary Valour has received approval from Brazil's B3 exchange to list four digital asset exchange-traded products (ETPs), including Valour Bitcoin (BTCV), Valour Ethereum (ETHV), Valour XRP (XRPV), and Valour SUI (VSUI), expected to start trading on December 17.
Binance to delist FIS, REI, and VOXEL on December 17
Binance will stop trading and delist the following tokens on December 17, 2025, at 11:00: StaFi (FIS), REI Network (REI), and Voxies (VOXEL). Before this, users should pay attention to changes in the relevant trading pairs and manage their orders and trading bot settings in a timely manner to avoid potential losses.
Synthetix to return to Ethereum mainnet on December 17, SLP to launch simultaneously
The decentralized derivatives protocol Synthetix announced it will return to the Ethereum mainnet on December 17.
Synthetix Liquidity Providers (SLP) will launch simultaneously, with SLP access being whitelisted and plans to open to all users as soon as possible.
Berachain liquid staking protocol Infrared to conduct TGE on December 17
According to an official announcement, Berachain's liquid staking protocol Infrared has released details of the IR token airdrop. This airdrop aims to reward early community members who continuously used Infrared during the points program, participants of the Boyco pre-deposit event, and users actively engaging in community activities (such as Discord interactions, user surveys, community events, testnet participation, etc.).
The IR token has three main functions: staking to earn sIR for governance voting rights; participating in profit sharing through buybacks; and token issuance to optimize protocol efficiency and revenue. Users can pre-claim the airdrop through the CEX pre-deposit process, with the three centralized exchanges for pre-deposit being Bitget, Gate, and KuCoin.
Important dates are as follows: the centralized exchange pre-deposit window opens on December 16 at 1:00 (UTC+8), the centralized exchange pre-deposit window closes on December 17 at 16:00 (UTC+8), and the IR token will officially launch. All claims will permanently close on January 12, 2026, at 08:00 (UTC+8).
According to an official announcement, the decentralized security project Hats Finance announced on the X platform that Hats.finance will finalize its custody operations, as it believes that continuing to run a centralized user interface (UI) and servers is no longer sustainable, and there are currently no plans to adopt a new legal or operational framework to continue this custody structure.
Current arrangements are as follows: the user frontend and backend (UI and servers) of Hats.finance are expected to go offline on December 31, 2025, with most functions relying on this custody structure gradually phased out; the Hats protocol remains deployed on-chain and managed by DAO, with core contracts designed to continue running as coded;
Currently, the user frontend has provided an IPFS-based version, which users can access through public gateways as long as this version is still operational. However, since payments to current fixed service providers (such as Pinata) will cease, its continued availability and performance cannot be guaranteed. Users can submit withdrawal requests via the custody UI before December 17; after that, they will need to interact directly with the contract to complete withdrawals.
December 18 (Thursday)
Octra to conduct a $20 million public token sale on Sonar at a $200 million valuation on December 18
The team behind the privacy blockchain project Octra, Octra Labs, will hold a public token sale on the Sonar platform on December 18. Sonar is a token issuance platform launched by Jordan "Cobie" Fish, recently acquired by Coinbase.
This week-long token sale aims to raise $20 million by selling 10% of the total OCT token supply, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $200 million, Octra stated on Tuesday. The sale will adopt a fixed price + commitment-style distribution model, allowing any number of participants to deposit funds and receive tokens proportionally, designed to maximize decentralization.
Octra stated that if demand is strong, the sale allocation may increase; any unsold tokens will be burned. All sold tokens will be fully unlocked and distributed shortly after the sale ends. The $200 million valuation is double the valuation from Octra's earlier funding round on Echo earlier this year (raising $4 million). Additionally, Octra previously completed a $4 million pre-seed round with investors including Big Brain Holdings, Finality Capital Partners, Karatage, and Presto Labs.
Regarding token distribution: early investors hold 18% of OCT, Octra Labs holds 15%, and 67% is allocated to the community, including early users, validators, funders, Echo participants, and ICO purchasers. Octra stated that no investor holds more than 3% of the tokens.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to release November CPI data on December 18
On December 18 (Thursday) at 21:30, the U.S. will release data on the November unadjusted CPI year-on-year/core CPI year-on-year, U.S. November seasonally adjusted CPI month-on-month/core CPI month-on-month, and the number of initial unemployment claims for the week ending December 13.
Risk warning
Risk warning
