PANews

Today's News Highlights:
1. South Korea's Supreme Court rules that Bitcoin stored on exchanges can be seized
2. After the Non-Farm Payrolls report, the probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates in January rises to 97.2%
3. a16z completes $15 billion in funding, focusing on investments in AI and the crypto sector
4. Stablecoin payment company Rain raises $250 million in a new funding round, post-money valuation reaches $1.95 billion
5. The total stablecoin transaction volume in 2025 hits a new high of $33 trillion, with USDC leading in trading volume
6. Meme coin "I'm Coming" reaches a new market cap high, up 63.4% in 24 hours
Macro & Regulation
South Korea's Supreme Court rules that Bitcoin stored on exchanges can be seized
In a ruling made on December 11, 2025, South Korea's Supreme Court determined that Bitcoin stored on centralized exchanges is subject to seizure under criminal procedure law. The court upheld the seizure

Written by: danny
"All functions must be accessed through API calls. No backdoor access of any kind is permitted. Those who do otherwise will be fired. Have a great day.
In 2002, Amazon's Bezos issued the famous "Bezos API mandate." At that time, Wall Street mocked Amazon as a retail company that had lost focus, yet Bezos was "self-destructively" dismantling its monolithic architecture. He was convinced that if a service could support Amazon's peak traffic, it should become the utilities of the entire industry.
In August 2025, OKX welcomed its own "AWS moment." By burning tens of millions of OKB tokens and permanently locking the total supply at 21 million, Xu Mingxing (Xu) completed a decisive "letting go"—cutting off OKB's dependence on exchange profit buybacks with his own hands, pushing it toward the deep waters of protocol sovereignty.

Author: @BlazingKevin\_ , Researcher at Movemaker
1 Research Summary
Figure Technology Solutions (hereinafter referred to as "Figure") is at the forefront of the transformation in the financial services industry, dedicated to reshaping traditional lending and capital markets through blockchain technology. As a vertically integrated fintech company, Figure is not only the largest non-bank home equity line of credit (HELOC) originator in the United States but also a key infrastructure provider in the field of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. As of December 2025, Figure has successfully completed an IPO, with a market capitalization stable between $7.5 billion and $9 billion.
The core argument of this report is that Figure represents the forefront of fintech development

99% of Web3 projects lack cash flow and rely on tokens and external funding to sustain operations. Most projects are overvalued due to early listing but fail to demonstrate the viability of their business models, ultimately leading to decline. Only 1% of leading projects prove their feasibility through actual revenue, forming a stark contrast. The current market's distorted structure makes pursuing short-term gains the norm, causing investors to suffer losses.

PANews Editor's Note: PANews has selected a week's worth of high-quality content to help everyone review and fill in gaps during the weekend. Click on the title to read.
2025 Review and 2026 Outlook
Waterdrop Capital: Left hand BTC, right hand AI computing power—Gold and oil in the era of digital intelligence
Waterdrip

Morgan Stanley's expansion into the crypto space is accelerating, shifting from an early cautious attitude to active participation. Recently, it has submitted multiple crypto ETF applications to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and plans to launch a digital wallet to support crypto and tokenized assets, demonstrating its new strategy in financial digital transformation.

—— A closed-loop funding system operating under the reputation of approximately 588,000 Wyoming residents
Source | U.S. MSB Daily News
Translation | USMSB Chinese
Review | Dali News
Wyoming hopes the market believes it has just invented a "secure" payment stablecoin.
What it actually launched is something much colder:
A limited recourse funding closed-loop wrapped in government jerseys, surrounded by a set of legal language that reads like a "pre-written escape route."
You can call it the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT).
You can also call it "unprecedented."
You might also call it "boring money."
But don't call it something it isn't:
Public guarantee.
Because once you strip away the patriotic narrative, this design's

Written by: Fish CoolFish
Recently, group members have been discussing three "CZ"s—namely Binance founder Zhao Changpeng, Manus Chief Operating Officer CZ Chen, and the Prince Group boss Chen Zhi, who was recently arrested and repatriated.
If Ar Bao in "Blossoms" is a glamorous transformation of 90s Shanghai under the tide of opportunity, then the following stories are three different scripts chosen by three CZs amid the wave of globalization.
Three people, three stories, spanning nearly half a century...
1. Chen Zhi and the Era of the Underworld—The Myth of Wealth in the Gray Area
In the mid-2010s, China's capital was eager to go global. This was a special moment: on one hand, China's economic strength continued to grow, foreign exchange reserves were abundant, and domestic enterprises and investment institutions increasingly sought global expansion, urgently looking for new growth points in overseas markets; on

Written by: imToken
In the past period, if you have been paying close attention to the Ethereum ecosystem, you might have experienced a sense of disconnection.
On one side, there are intense discussions about scaling solutions, Rollup architecture, Interop, ZK, PBS, Slot shortening, and other technical topics;
On the other side, there are debates around questions like "Is the Ethereum Foundation arrogant," "Why isn't it more aggressive," "Why is the coin price sluggish," and even emotional confrontations;
These discussions actually point repeatedly to the same deeper question: What kind of system does Ethereum ultimately want to become?
In fact, many disputes are not rooted in technical disagreements but stem from different understandings of Ethereum's "value premise." Therefore, only by returning to these premises can we truly understand why Ethereum has made choices that many consider "untimely" today.
1. Ethereum's "Ten-Year Itch": Ethere

Author: Jsquare Investment Team
Hyperliquid's HIP-3 upgrade introduces perpetual contract markets deployed by developers, aiming to theoretically support perpetual trading for almost any asset. This means that assets ranging from cryptocurrencies and commodities to prediction markets can all be built as perpetual contracts.
However, the design of the HIP-3 oracle introduces a critical limitation: each time the oracle updates its price, the change relative to the previous price can be at most ±1%. This "1% cap" mechanism was likely intended as a security measure to ensure smooth price movements and prevent malicious or abnormal oracle data updates.
But in practice, this mechanism severely limits support for high-speed or non-continuous pricing markets—where real prices can often experience large jumps in a very short period, even exhibiting "jump-like" changes,

Daily Market Highlights and Trend Analysis, produced by PANews.
1. Market Observation
In the first week of the New Year, the A-share market started strong, with trading volume surpassing 3 trillion yuan, marking the fifth time in A-share history that this level has been exceeded. At the same time, the Shanghai Composite Index successfully broke through 4100 points. This Friday's US December non-farm payroll report, the Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of tariffs, and Saturday's decision on tariffs for critical minerals (which will have a significant impact on Comex silver and platinum group metals prices) together constitute the main short-term uncertainties in the market. If tariffs are overturned, it could boost corporate profits, but may also pressure US debt due to concerns over the fiscal deficit.
The precious metals market is also experiencing increased volatility, with silver prices dropping in advance due to approximately $7 billion in selling pressure driven by Bloomberg Commodity Index's annual rebalancing expectations, despite Bawden Capital founder

Highlights of this Issue
The weekly coverage period for this edition spans from January 2, 2026, to January 9, 2026.
This week, the total on-chain market capitalization of RWA steadily increased to $19.8 billion, with holders surpassing 600,000; the total market cap of stablecoins slightly declined, but the monthly transfer volume surged by 29.04%, highlighting that "stock efficiency-driven" large-scale institutional settlements have become the main engine of activity, forming a structural divergence from the low activity of retail investors.
Regulatory frameworks in multiple countries continue to improve: China's central bank explicitly states that it will steadily develop digital RMB, and cross-border scenarios are continuously being implemented, with WeBank completing the first cross-border QR code payment between China and Laos; South Korea plans to require stablecoin issuers to be bank-led, and Russia is accelerating the promotion of digital ruble applications within the budget system.
Project activities are frequent: Jupiter launched the compliant reserve-backed stablecoin JupUSD, Tempo released the TIP-20 token standard designed specifically for payments. Traditional financial institutions are also actively engaging in...

Author: Lin, Trader
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Trader Lin recently shared his trading insights, including technical analysis, risk management, psychological factors, and more, suitable for novice traders or those who frequently incur losses. Below are the details.
Follow the Trend
A strong upward trend can often bring substantial profits. You should always trade in the direction of the trend. As the old saying goes, “The trend is your friend.” This is absolutely true. Investing is a game of probabilities. Therefore, you need to maximize your chances of winning.
Buying stocks in an uptrend is like sailing with the wind; everything feels easier. The market rises faster, lasts longer, and progress becomes more effortless. When sailing with the wind, even small pushes can lead to huge gains. That’s why everyone feels like a genius during a bull market.
So, how do you identify a trend?
Identifying the direction of a trend generally

责任编辑 | Zhai Jun, Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court
Text整理 | Li Feng, Xu Han Cheng
Page Editor | Zhou Yanyu
On November 25, 2025, the 4th "Zhizheng · Theory and Practice同行" Criminal Trial Seminar (click to view), organized by the China Criminal Law Society and the Shanghai High People's Court, co-hosted by Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court and Renmin University Law School, was held at Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court. This seminar focused on the theme of "Legal Uniformity in Virtual Currency Crime Cases," using the "Theory and Practice 2+2" discussion format. The content of the seminar is summarized as follows:
Topic 1: Determination of "Subjective Knowledge" in Money Laundering Crimes Involving Virtual Currencies
Case 1:
Cai held a large amount of U coins. He learned online that someone was purchasing U coins at a price 10% higher than the market price, so he contacted the buyer to sell all his U coins, making a profit of 1 million yuan. Later, it was found that the source of funds used by the buyer to purchase U coins was

The article discusses the relationship between Web3 and traditional finance, pointing out that although Web3 has revolutionary potential, traditional finance can easily enter the crypto market due to high compliance costs. The author takes the key moment of November 10, 2023, when a Bitcoin spot ETF was approved, as an example, emphasizing that compliance directly affects liquidity. In the future, crypto finance may be integrated into the traditional financial system, which is a sign of asset maturity.

Zcash Core Team Establishes New Company to Launch “cashZ” Wallet and Promote Ecosystem Expansion
Josh Swihart, a former core member of Electric Coin Company (ECC), announced that his team has left ECC and founded a new startup aimed at expanding Zcash to billions of users. The new company will launch a new wallet, “cashZ,” built on the Zashi codebase, with early access applications now open (cashz.org). Swihart emphasized that privacy should be a norm in the digital world, and Zcash needs an organizational structure with a “cyberpunk spirit” and scalable governance mechanisms to counteract large-scale surveillance trends and achieve true global adoption.
AI Data Platform Protege Completes $30 Million Series A Funding Led by a16z