Crypto.com Receives In-Principle MiCA Approval From Malta The action means that Crypto.com will receive the full MiCA license soon.

Best of the Week: Preparing for a New Trump Era This week on CoinDesk: changes at SEC, CFTC and FDIC; ETF expansion; bitcoin’s holding pattern; prediction problems; an America-First Reserve?

Ethereum Developers Finally Schedule ‘Pectra’ Upgrade Pectra is a “hard fork” of Ethereum encompassing an array of wallet, staking, and efficiency improvements.

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: NEAR Gains 6.3% as Index Trades Higher From Thursday Litecoin (LTC) joined NEAR Protocol (NEAR) as a top performer, gaining 5.9%.

Boerse Stuttgart Digital Lands MiCA License From Germany The license will enable it to provide services across the European Union.

Crypto Venture Capital Market Remained Difficult in 2024, Galaxy Digital Says VC activity has been subdued for the last two years despite the rally in digital assets, the report said.

Stablecoin Deals and China, Europe to Follow U.S. With Bitcoin Reserve: Wintermute Predictions Wintermute report reviewed a strong 2024 as OTC volumes grew by 313%.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Buzzes With Anticipation Before Trump’s Inauguration Your day-ahead look for Jan. 17, 2025

Publicly Traded U.S. Crypto Miners Double Bitcoin Holdings to Almost 100K in a Year Bitcoin holdings for public U.S.-listed companies have more than doubled since January 2024.

XRP Volume Overtakes Bitcoin on Coinbase as U.S. Investor Interest Grows XRP leads volume trends on Coinbase, with BTC and ETH taking second and third places. On Binance, bitcoin is still the most in demand.

Bitcoin Miners Have Started 2025 on a Strong Footing, JPMorgan Says The combined hashrate of miners tracked by the bank has doubled in the last year to roughly 30% of the global network, the report said.

Bitcoin’s ‘Coinbase Premium’ Muted Amid Reports Trump Plans to Designate Crypto a National Policy BTC trades at a slight discount on Coinbase relative to Binance, data from CryptoQuant show.

Crypto’s Senate Ally Lummis Pushes Federal Agencies on Digital Assets Issues Senator Cynthia Lummis, set to lead the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets panel, went after the sale of U.S. bitcoin holdings and FDIC debanking.

SEC’s Last Major Legal Official Exits, Leaving Clean Slate for Trump Era With the general counsel stepping down, some of the main characters in the crypto industry’s recent clashes with the Securities and Exchange Commission are out.

Texas Man Sues Attorney General Over DOJ’s Prosecution of Crypto Software Devs The plaintiff is seeking a declaratory judgment protecting his forthcoming crypto crowdfunding project from being prosecuted for unlicensed money transmitting.

Trump Treasury Pick Bessent Opposes Idea of U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency Scott Bessent, who is immersed in the Senate confirmation process as President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, only addressed crypto briefly.

How to Make the United States the Crypto Capital of the World Members of the crypto law bar lay out practical ways the new Trump administration can create the best environment for crypto development.

Litecoin ETF Could Attract Up to $580M of Inflows If Adoption Mirrors That of Bitcoin ETFs At the moment, Canary Capital appears best-positioned to be the initial issuer of the new vehicle.

Amanu: Bringing Apple-Like Simplicity to Crypto Wallets Founder Gianlua Minoprio is hoping to dramatically increase wallet adoption by eliminating the use of seed phrases, among other innovations.

Solana, XRP Jump as Trump Reportedly Mulls ‘America-First’ Strategic Crypto Reserve, but Experts Suggest Otherwise Two crypto market observers raised concerns to CoinDesk over the idea of expanding a potential national strategic reserve to altcoins.