Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted that U.S. spot XRP ETFs have posted 30 consecutive sessions of net inflows, with cumulative inflows crossing about $1 billion and total net assets reaching roughly $1.18 billion. This steady demand contrasts with sizable outflows from bitcoin and ether ETFs, while XRP's price trades lower over recent weeks, underscoring a notable gap between institutional flows and market performance.

Ripple said in a press release it will expand RLUSD to Ethereum in 2026, running a "trial" on Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain via Wormhole. The move brings an existing $1.3 billion supply deeper into Ethereum’s Layer 2s, while ETH recently slipped below $3,000 with key support eyed near $2,800 and risk toward $2,500.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its multi‑year investigation into the Aave Protocol without recommending enforcement, following a process Aave's founder said demanded substantial resources. The probe, which began around late 2021 or early 2022, had focused on DeFi lending and borrowing services, and its conclusion eases immediate regulatory pressure on Aave while its AAVE token recently traded between $184 and $194.

Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed a roughly four-year investigation into the DeFi protocol. In a Tuesday X post, he shared an Aug. 12 SEC letter stating it does not intend to recommend enforcement. AAVE rose more than 3% in the past 24 hours to $187.85.

On December 16, 2025, the SEC under President Trump concluded a four-year investigation into Aave Labs, a case dating back to 2021. Aave founder Stani Kulechov announced the closure on X, and soon after, a governance proposal urged AAVE holders to assert DAO control over the Aave brand, domains, social channels, and developer gateways.

On December 16, 2025, Tether and ego death capital co-led an $8 million strategic funding round for Speed1, a Lightning Network and stablecoin payments platform handling over $1.5 billion in annual volume and serving about 1.2 million users. The deal aims to expand Bitcoin-native USDT payment infrastructure and deepens Tether's broader push into Lightning-based commerce and multi-chain stablecoin use cases.

Polygon's proof-of-stake chain has seen daily transactions climb back to multi-year highs, driven mainly by Polymarket activity and peer-to-peer USDC payments. A recent upgrade increased Polygon's throughput by 30% to about 1,400 transactions per second, while the POL token continues to trade near its all-time low around $0.11 with open interest close to $35M. Despite losing most play-to-earn traffic from the 2021 bull market, the network now functions primarily as a settlement layer for prediction markets and stablecoin transfers.

Coinbase plans to list Theoriq (THQ) on December 17 for spot trading once liquidity requirements are fulfilled, following confirmations from KuCoin, Kraken and BingX. THQ, an AI-native liquidity and yield protocol token, is trading at $0.09 with a $12.44 million market cap and a $29.84 million 24-hour volume, while its price shows a -49.77% change.