Today’s Crypto & Finance Highlights (Quick Catch-Up)

🔰 Ethereum whale move: Tom Lee’s Bitmine loaded up another 98,852 ETH last week, pushing its total stash to 4.06M ETH, now valued around $12.4B.

🔰 Wall Street Meets crypto: Banking giant JPMorgan ($4.5T AUM) is reportedly exploring crypto trading services for institutional clients.

🔰 Bitcoin Accumulation: Trump Media added 451 BTC (~$40M), lifting its total holdings to 11,542 BTC, roughly $1B at current prices.

🔰 Regulatory shift: Pro-Crypto advocate Michael Selig has officially been sworn in as the 16th Chairman of the CFTC.

🔰 Stablecoin update: Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says USAT will focus on “delivery of value” as the company prepares to launch its US-compliant stablecoin.

🔰 Exchange consolidation: Coinbase is set to acquire prediction markets startup The Clearing Company, signaling deeper expansion beyond spot trading.

🔰 Ethereum treasury rotation: ETHZilla disclosed a 24,291 ETH sale (~$74.5M) as it pivots away from mNAV tracking toward RWA-driven growth.

🔰 Tokenomics Alert: Aster announced its Stage 5 buyback program starting Dec 23, allocating up to 80% of daily platform fees toward $ASTER buybacks.

🔰 Digital banking push: Peter Thiel-backed crypto-friendly bank Erebor is raising $350M, more than doubling its valuation to $4.35B.

🔰 Strategy update: Strategy boosted its USD reserves to $2.19B, though it made no new BTC purchases last week.