Bitcoin Breaks $88,000, 24-hour Gain 1.38%

On December 17, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved a proposed rule establishing an application process for banks to issue stablecoins via subsidiaries. The rule kicks off a 60-day public comment period, marking the first formal rulemaking proposal since the GENIUS Act—also known as the American Stablecoin Innovation Act—was passed.

Coinbase will list the MERL (Merlin Chain) perpetual contract on December 17, with trading set to launch on December 18. The MERL-PERP trading market will go live in eligible regions at 9:30 AM UTC or later, provided liquidity conditions are met.

On December 17, according to *New Consumption Daily*, Lingxi—JD.com’s digital asset platform—announced on December 16 that it has launched a gifting feature. Newly issued digital assets on Lingxi became eligible for gifting starting December 15, while the opening timeline for existing assets is yet to be determined. This move comes just one day after Lingxi kicked off its public beta. Back in December 2021, Lingxi launched on the JD.com app mini-program, with its first batch of digital artworks (featuring JD’s mascot “Joy”) going on sale. However, amid tightening regulations—and without enabling secondary trading—the platform once experienced a temporary halt. 2021 marked the first year of digital collectibles in China, with Tencent’s “Huanhe” app and Ant Group’s “Whale Exploration” platform leading the first half of the industry. The sector cooled down in the second half of 2022: the China Internet Finance Association and two other industry groups issued a *Proposal on Preventin

December 17 — Aave founder Stani.eth announced Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has wrapped up its four-year investigation into the Aave protocol. The Aave team poured substantial time and resources to safeguard the protocol and its ecosystem throughout the probe. In recent years, decentralized finance (DeFi) has faced unfair regulatory pressure. This resolution marks the start of a new era where developers can build the future of finance unshackled by unnecessary constraints.

On December 17th, Solana-based synthetic stablecoin protocol Solstice selected Ondo’s OUSG (its underlying asset) as collateral for its USX stablecoin. OUSG backs a diversified portfolio of tokenized institutional Treasury bonds issued by some of the world’s most reputable asset managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, State Street, WisdomTree, and Wellington Management.

Crypto wallet Rainbow unveiled its RNBW tokenomics on December 17, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Key allocation breakdowns include: - 15% for TGE temporal airdrops - ~3% for a CoinList-hosted community presale - 47% for the treasury - 12.2% for the team - 7.8% for investors - 15% for the community Additionally, the project noted approximately 20% of the total supply will be in circulation at TGE (covering airdrops, presale proceeds, etc.). Rainbow also announced the RNBW token’s TGE date: February 5, 2026.