For the Love of the Game

A hot December here at CryptoSlam is setting the stage for what’s to come in 2026.

That starts with last week's tease for Ethoswarm. 

We also hosted our 12-hour SLAM Nation BREAKOUT 2025 show, where some of the biggest names in Web3 and AI shared their favorite moments of the year, along with thoughts about the future of the industry. 

Yat Siu, Yahoo Finance, Nate Geraci, Mythical Games, Dapper Labs, Base, Virtuals, and over a dozen builders joined us for the live event.

You can watch the replay here - Part 1 | Part 2.

Catch SLAM Nation live every Monday through Friday at 9am ET on the SLAM Nation X account here.

If you want to appear on the show and tap into SLAMai data, come join us in SLAM Nation today! Join here.
 

Noteworthy Happenings

Coinbase Makes Everything Based

Coinbase revealed the future of its tokenized ecosystem in their highly anticipated Dec 17 System Update event.

• Coinbase will be building its own prediction market, powered by the team from The Clearing Company.

• 24/7 stock trading will be live on Coinbase, allowing customers to buy and sell stocks and ETFs using USD or USDC.

• The Base App officially went live in 140+ countries, now allowing everyone to tokenize their content, trade crypto, and use apps all in one location.

• Borrowing USDC against BTC and ETH holdings will be available on Coinbase.

• Coinbase Business will allow companies to pay and invoice using USDC.

Stablecoins’ Mainstream Moment

After the GENIUS Act passed earlier this year, stablecoins are now seeing serious adoption across the financial world. It’s only going to grow from here…

• Visa announced its first two banking partners that will settle payments in USDC 7 days a week, Cross River Bank and Lead Bank.

• The FDIC issued its first stablecoin proposal which allows banks to launch their own stablecoins. 

• The US House has drafted a bill to exempt crypto stablecoin transactions under $200 from capital gains taxes.

• SoFI launched SoFiUSD, the first national bank issued stablecoin on a public blockchain.

• JPMorgan projects the stablecoin market cap to grow to $600B by 2028.
   

Crypto Clarity Now Cloudy

The crypto market structure bill named the Clarity Act was supposed to be passed in December, but now some question if it will even pass by EOY 2026.

• The Clarity Act has officially been delayed, now pushing the hopeful markup hearing completed in January.

• With another government shutdown looming next month, some fear that the Clarity Act may get put on the back burner for the midterm elections if not passed by next month.

• Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of crypto’s loudest voices, announced that she will not be seeking re-election next year, and will make passing the Clarity Act her primary goal.

• Democrats are withholding support, using it as leverage for positions within the SEC and CFTC.

• Beyond the Clarity Act, a new crypto tax framework has been drafted called the Digital Asset PARITY Act to address crypto taxes.

• Senators have also introduced a bill to establish a federal crypto scam task force.

Peep the charts

AI

The AI market is down -2.15% in the past 7 days to a $5.4B market cap. Top token movers include TIBBIR (+20.08%), PIPPIN (-16.24%), IOTX (-16.27%), FARTCOIN (-13.13%), and TURBO (-9.39%).

• PayPal is partnering with USD.AI to fund AI infrastructure using PYUSD stablecoin.

• Quant.Fun launched their v2 yield farming platform last week with new vaults, marketing and more to come.

• vPay’s offshore banking accounts are now live, allowing crypto payments on branded debit cards.

• Virtuals integrated prediction markets directly into their Butler agent, powered by PredictBase and AIxBet.

• N.Y. governor Kathy Hochul signs AI safety bill, at odds with the new One Rulebook executive order from Donald Trump.

NFTs

• The NFT market stops a 2 week skid, with sales up +5.09% to $66.51M. Transactions were up +2.87% (783K), and average sales price up +2.15% ($83.87) but sellers fell -4.97% (98K), buyers -1.39% (134K), and trade profits fell -27.90% to -$11.46M.

• The Museum of Modern Art has acquired 8 CryptoPunks and 8 Chromie Squiggles.

• Netflix has acquired gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me for subscribers to carry personas and fandom across different games. Possibly using NFTs?

• Magic Eden begins revenue sharing by giving $ME token stakers USDC rewards.

• Animoca’s Anichess minted out 3,333 editions of their Checkmate Pass NFTs on Abstract.

• Quirkies launched a strategy token on Token.works called $STREET.

• Pudgy Penguins will take over the Las Vegas Sphere on Christmas Day.

• Art Blocks final Curated mint called send/receive is live for previous Art Blocks NFT holders.
   

https://www.cryptoslam.io/indexes/cs500

ETH NFT Composite - 398.83 (-4.10%)
SOL NFT Composite - 308.84 (-1.98%)
POL NFT Composite - 1.80 (-2.17%)
CAR NFT Composite - 118.10 (-3.20%)

Crypto

Top Gainers 7d

NIGHT - $0.08139 (+44.2%)
UNI - $5.79 (+11.9%)
SKY - $0.06407 (+10.5%)
CC - $0.08107 (+9.8%)
BCH - $579.69 (+6.2%)

Top Losers 7d
PUMP - $0.001752 (-27.5%)
AAVE - $151.20 (-19.9%)
TAO - $216.07 (-18.4%)
M - $1.38 (-16.0%)

MNT - $1.06 (-15.9%)

News Headlines

• Animoca partners with China-based GROW Investment Group for RWAs.
• JPMorgan launches a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum called MONY.
• Polymarket may be leaving Polygon and launching its own L2 blockchain.
• PayPal seeks Utah-Chartered industrial bank status.
• Rainbow Wallet’s upcoming token will give back to holders via class F shares.
• Crypto analysts declare that Bitcoin has officially entered a bear market.
• Kalshi launches mindshare markets in partnership with Kaito.
• Circle acquires Interop Labs but leaves behind its $AXEL token.
• Reports suggest that 30% of market makers went out of business on 10/10.
• JPMorgan explores crypto trading for institutional clients.