On December 15 2025, Circle announced an agreement to acquire the entire Interop Labs team along with its proprietary technology, with the transaction expected to close in early 2026. The company plans to use this acquisition to expand its Arc enterprise L1 chain and CCTP cross-chain transfer protocol so that digital assets can move efficiently across more than 100 blockchains. Axelar Network, the Axelar Foundation, the AXL token and their community-led governance will remain independent, while Common Prefix will assume Interop Labs' previous Axelar responsibilities.

On December 15, 2025, ZachXBT stated that Ronald Spektor was arrested in New York for allegedly running a Coinbase support impersonation scam. His November 2024 investigation linked Spektor to a $6.5 million theft targeting a single victim in October 2024. It remains unclear whether any funds have been recovered.

President Donald Trump said this week the U.S. has taken in roughly $18 trillion from tariffs. Treasury data shows customs duties totaled about $195 billion in fiscal year 2025, with monthly collections in late 2025 exceeding $30 billion, and reviews note his tally bundles investment pledges rather than cash receipts. The administration is also pushing blockchain-based transparency for public financial data.

Updated on December 15, 2025 at 1:27 PM UTC, Oobit integrated Plasma, a stablecoin-focused blockchain infrastructure, to enable USD₮ spending via its DePay layer across a network of more than 100 million merchants. Users can pay from self-custody wallets like Phantom, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Binance Wallet, with negligible fees and deep USD₮ liquidity.

Doha Bank completed a digitally native US dollar bond, issuing $150 million in floating-rate notes with T+0 settlement on Euroclear’s D-FMI. Standard Chartered served as sole global coordinator and arranger, and the notes were listed on the London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market. The bank said the deal diversifies funding and expands its investor base.

According to an SEC filing, the agency has begun reviewing Nasdaq's proposed rule to list and trade tokenized securities alongside traditional shares on the same order book. Settlement would still run through DTCC systems, with blockchain used for operational efficiency, and industry feedback is split as regulators weigh legal and operational risks.

Security researchers report a surge in social‑engineering scams using fake Zoom or Teams meetings to install malware that siphons data and drains crypto wallets. Attackers impersonate known contacts via Telegram, use pre‑recorded video, and push a bogus audio or SDK patch during calls. Losses have topped $300m, with attempts observed on a daily basis across the sector.

On December 15, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a framework that uses zero-knowledge proofs to make social media algorithms verifiable without exposing proprietary code or user data. He proposed on-chain timestamps for content and engagement, delayed publication of algorithm code, and the use of layered cryptography, including MPC, FHE, and TEE, for applications such as voting. Buterin's ideas emerge as zero-knowledge rollups secure billions of dollars in value and are increasingly adopted by major financial institutions and stablecoin transactions.