WuBlockchain Weekly: Yi He Appointed Co-CEO of Binance, Bank of America Recommends Clients Allocate to Crypto, China Reaffirms Prohibitive Policy on Virtual Currencies, etc

1. SEC Chair: SEC Expected to Issue “Innovation Exemption” for Crypto Industry in “About a Month” link

Paul S. Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated in an interview with CNBC that the SEC expects to release an “innovation exemption” for the crypto industry “in about a month.” He mentioned that the original progress was delayed due to the government shutdown, but the SEC has now resumed normal operations and will continue to advance a regulatory framework supporting crypto innovation to reverse the agency’s resistant stance over the past years. Atkins also noted that the SEC plans to introduce new policies next year to improve the IPO market environment.

2. UK’s “Digital Assets and Other Property Act” Officially Takes Effect link

John McFall, Lord Speaker of the UK House of Lords, announced on Tuesday that the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill has received Royal Assent from King Charles III of the United Kingdom, marking its official entry into force as law. The Act explicitly classifies digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as legally protected personal property, providing a legal foundation for the determination of ownership, asset recovery, bankruptcy proceedings, and inheritance handling of digital assets. It is hailed as a “significant milestone” in the UK’s crypto regulation. Data from UK financial regulators shows that as of last year, approximately 12% of UK adults hold crypto assets.

3. BlackRock CEO: Anonymous Sovereign Funds Are Buying Bitcoin to Establish Long-Term Positions link

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, revealed that several unnamed sovereign wealth funds are purchasing Bitcoin, and “they bought even more” as Bitcoin’s price pulled back from its peak of $126,000. Fink stated that these funds are buying Bitcoin “incrementally” and increased their holdings when the price dropped to the $80,000 range, with the aim of building long-term positions.

In recent months, sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi and Luxembourg have publicly disclosed their purchases of shares in BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF.

4. Bank of America First Recommends 1%-4% Crypto Allocation for Wealth Management Clients link

Bank of America (BofA) has put forward its first-ever recommendation that its wealth management clients allocate 1% to 4% of their assets to crypto assets. This suggestion applies to clients of Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank and Merrill Edge. Starting from January 5, 2026, the bank will officially provide research coverage for four Bitcoin ETFs, namely Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

Previously, BofA’s financial advisors were prohibited from proactively recommending crypto-related products. Now, approximately 15,000 wealth advisors of the bank are allowed to directly propose such allocation advice to clients, marking the official integration of crypto assets into the bank’s mainstream asset allocation system.

5. Strategy Announces $1.44 Billion Reserve to Pay Dividends link

Strategy announced the establishment of a $1.44 billion U.S. dollar reserve, which will be used to cover preferred stock dividends and debt interest payments for at least 12 months, with a plan to expand the reserve to support such payments for 24 months. The company stated that this reserve is funded through proceeds from its ATM equity offering. Currently, the company holds 650,000 Bitcoins, accounting for approximately 3.1% of the total global Bitcoin supply.

Previously, Strategy noted that it would only regard selling Bitcoin as a “last resort” if its mNAV (net asset value per Bitcoin) drops below 1 and the company is unable to secure further financing. CEO Phong Le emphasized that the company has no plans to sell its Bitcoin holdings and remains committed to a long-term holding strategy. However, he added that if the valuation premium disappears and the company faces obstacles in fundraising, technical reduction of holdings will not be ruled out to safeguard the interests of shareholders.

Sponsored by FinTax

6. Bitcoin Mining Profit Hits All-Time Low, Industry Enters Systematic Profit Compression Phase link

Bitcoin mining is currently trapped in its most severe profitability crisis to date. As Bitcoin experienced a sharp correction in November, the hash price has plummeted from approximately $55 per petahash per second in the third quarter to around $35 per petahash per second. This figure has fallen below the median total hashrate cost of roughly $44 per petahash per second among major publicly traded mining companies, turning theoretical profit pressure into full-fledged visible financial strain.

With the global Bitcoin network hashrate approaching 1.1 zettahashes per second, hashrate cost is more capable of reflecting the real profit level amid the difficulty adjustment cycle than the cost of mining a single Bitcoin. This has resulted in the payback period for the latest-generation mining rigs exceeding 1,000 days, which is longer than the approximately 850 days remaining until the next Bitcoin halving.

Affected by this harsh environment, after raising over $1 billion through the issuance of convertible bonds, CleanSpark has fully repaid its Bitcoin-collateralized credit line from Coinbase ahead of schedule. This move indicates that mining enterprises are accelerating deleveraging and focusing on preserving liquidity.

7. Ethereum Mainnet Successfully Completes Fusaka Upgrade and Achieves Finalization link

The Ethereum mainnet has successfully completed the Fusaka upgrade and achieved finalization. As a crucial step in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap, Fusaka enhances Layer 1 performance, expands blob capacity, improves the cost-efficiency of rollups, and delivers user experience (UX) optimizations. It has also introduced the Blob Parameter Only (BPO) fork mechanism, which is designed to safely boost blob capacity amid surging demand for rollups.

It is reported that Consensys stated Ethereum now plans to shift from an annual upgrade cycle to an accelerated development rhythm featuring two hard forks per year.

8. Ethereum Developers Advance Deployment of ZK-Based “Secret Santa” System link

Ethereum developers are testing a zero-knowledge proof (ZK)-based privacy protocol designed to implement Secret Santa-style anonymous matching on the chain. Participants verify relationships via ZK proofs, rely on relayers to obfuscate transaction origins, and encrypt gift — receiving information using shared random numbers. This effectively prevents address exposure, duplicate registrations, and self-matching.

Hailed as a significant milestone in the practical application of Ethereum’s privacy framework, the protocol can be further extended to scenarios such as anonymous voting, DAO governance, whistleblowing channels, and private airdrops.

9. Yi He Officially Appointed Co-CEO of Binance link

Binance announced at its Blockchain Week event on December 3rd that Yi He, the co-founder of the platform, has officially taken office as Co-Chief Executive Officer, with the exchange’s registered user base approaching 300 million. Binance stated that Yi He has long been engaged in the company’s management work. Going forward, she will work alongside the current Co-CEO Richard Teng to promote business expansion, product innovation and compliance progress.

10. People’s Bank of China and Other Authorities: Adhere to Prohibitive Policy on Virtual Currencies link

On November 28th, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) convened a coordination mechanism meeting. The meeting emphasized that virtual currencies do not have a legal status equivalent to that of fiat currencies, nor are they legally tender. They should not and cannot circulate as currency in the market, and relevant business activities are classified as illegal financial activities. Stablecoins, as a form of virtual currency, currently fail to effectively meet the requirements regarding customer identification and anti-money laundering (AML). They are at risk of being exploited for illegal activities such as money laundering, fund-raising fraud, and unauthorized cross-border fund transfers.

The meeting required that risk prevention and control should be regarded as an enduring theme of financial work. It stressed the need to continue adhering to the prohibitive policy on virtual currencies and sustain efforts to crack down on illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies. All participating authorities shall further strengthen collaborative cooperation, refine regulatory policies and legal frameworks, focus on key links including information flows and capital flows, enhance information sharing, and further improve monitoring capabilities. These measures aim to severely crack down on illegal and criminal activities, safeguard the property safety of the general public, and maintain the stability of the economic and financial order.

This meeting was a coordination mechanism conference on cracking down on virtual currency trading and speculation hosted by the PBOC. Participants included multiple authorities such as the Ministry of Public Security, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Central Financial Office, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Justice, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Administration of Financial Regulation, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The meeting further pointed out that affected by various factors recently, speculative trading in virtual currencies has been on the rise, with frequent occurrences of relevant illegal and criminal activities. As a result, risk prevention and control are confronted with new situations and challenges.

Fundraising

• Portal to Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-native interoperability protocol, announced the completion of a $25 million funding round. link

• Digital Asset secured $50 million in funding from BNY Mellon and Nasdaq. link

• Antithesis, a distributed system testing platform, announced the completion of a $105 million Series A funding round. link

• Fin, a stablecoin payment application, announced the completion of a $17 million funding round, led by Pantera Capital. link

• Axis, a decentralized quantitative yield protocol, announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round. link

• Ostium, a decentralized trading platform, announced the completion of a $20 million Series A funding round. link

• Bitstack, a French Bitcoin savings application, announced the completion of a $15 million Series A funding round. link

• DeepNode, a startup focused on decentralized AI infrastructure, announced the completion of a total of $5 million in funding. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

Follow us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain
Telegram: https://t.me/wublockchainenglish