Crypto Payment Service Provider CoinGate Receives MiCA License from Lithuania

Dec 17 — CoinGecko data shows the total market cap of tokenized gold assets has topped $4.2 billion, up roughly 147% over the past six months. Tether’s XAUT holds ~$2.24 billion in market cap, while Paxos’ PAXG stands at ~$1.5 billion—together accounting for ~89% of the market. Each XAUT and PAXG token is backed by a 1:1 physical gold reserve. Market data puts spot gold’s intraday gain at ~1.1%, currently trading at $4,326.50 an ounce. At the start of 2025, spot gold was at $2,624 an ounce, marking a nearly 65% jump this year. A recent Morgan Stanley analysis projects gold will rise to $4,800 an ounce by Q4 2026, driven by ongoing rate-cut expectations and a renewed weakening of the U.S. dollar index.

December 17 — Bitcoin Magazine reports that Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the entity overseeing Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, has backed several governance proposals from Metaplanet, a Bitcoin treasury firm, and will exercise its voting rights at the company’s shareholder meeting on December 22. As of the end of June 2025, NBIM holds approximately 0.3% of Metaplanet’s outstanding shares.

December 17th data from Dune Analytics shows Polymarket’s open interest has climbed steadily throughout 2024, recently hitting a yearly high of ~$326 million—up 170% from its ~$120 million starting point at the year’s outset. By category, Sports, Politics, and Crypto lead in market share, accounting for 46.6%, 21.12%, and 12.4% respectively. Notably, roughly one-third of open interest contracts settle at month-end due to high volumes of monthly settlements. Polymarket previously set an all-time total contract volume record of $410 million during November 2023’s U.S. election period, with $385 million in open interest tied to Politics contracts then. In a recent report outlining Bitwise’s top 10 crypto market predictions for 2026, the firm projects Polymarket’s open interest will hit a new all-time high next year, exceeding levels seen during the 2024 U.S. election.

On December 17th, Binance Alpha announced it will list VOOI on December 18th. Eligible users can visit the Alpha event page once trading goes live to claim their airdrop using Alpha Points. Further details will be released soon.

On December 17th, Morgan Stanley noted at its inaugural thematic conference earlier this month that the market’s key long-term focus areas are fourfold: AI capital expenditure and data center power bottlenecks, shifts in consumption and productivity driven by the longevity economy, tokenization fueling upgrades to financial infrastructure, and the potential boom in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) at the intersection of healthcare, AI, and manufacturing. BiyaPay analysts advise that in the short term, investors should prioritize reliable opportunities along the “AI → Power → Infrastructure” value chain. For the medium to long term, it’s wise to track technological adoption and service upgrades in the longevity economy, while monitoring improvements in multi-asset trading and liquidity under regulated tokenization frameworks. As a multi-asset trading wallet, BiyaPay supports USDT trading for U.S. stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and futures, and offers zero-fee spot and contract trading

On December 17, Binance unveiled its 2025 Binance Mining Pool Review Report. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate climbed from 795 EH/s to 1,031 EH/s this year, posting a 30% year-over-year (YoY) growth—largely fueled by large-scale institutional miners expanding operations globally and deploying new hash power. Binance Pool rolled out over 20 system upgrades, launched 10 initiatives (including 8 Super Mining events), and awarded extra income (beyond regular mining rewards) to 590 miners. Looking ahead to 2026, Binance Mining Pool will prioritize user experience enhancements, infrastructure development, and expanding Super Mining activities to deliver greater value to miners.