Huang Renxun has left Beijing, and NVIDIA has not disclosed whether Huang Renxun met with the DeepSeek founder.

On December 18, JPMorgan Chase migrated its tokenized deposit product JPM Coin (JPMD) from its internal permissioned chain Kinexys to Base—Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network— to address institutional clients’ needs for on-chain payments, collateralization, and margin settlement. JPMorgan noted that cash or cash-like instruments on public blockchains are currently primarily stablecoins, creating market demand for on-chain payment tools tied to bank deposits. JPMD is a permissioned token restricted to transfers between whitelisted users and can act as collateral or margin for crypto transactions. (Source: CoinDesk)

Starting at 16:00 GMT+8 on December 18, 2025, Binance Dual Investment will add support for the following new tokens: Aster (ASTER), Ethena (ENA), Zcash (ZEC), Uniswap (UNI), and Aave (AAVE). Supported trading pairs include: ASTER/USDC, ASTER/USDT, ENA/USDC, ENA/USDT, ZEC/USDC, ZEC/USDT, UNI/USDC, UNI/USDT, AAVE/USDC, AAVE/USDT. Available subscription tokens: ASTER, ENA, ZEC, UNI, AAVE, USDT, or USDC.

December 18—Per DefiLlama data, mainstream perpetual DEX (Perp DEX) trading volumes rose broadly over the past 24 hours. An ambiguous statement from Lighter’s CEO has dimmed market expectations for its token launch this year, pushing its trading volume lower (it now ranks third) while Hyperliquid has climbed to the top spot. Most platforms saw minimal changes to Total Value Locked (TVL), and some reported lower open interest than yesterday. Key Perp DEX metrics (past 24h): - Hyperliquid: Volume ~$79.1B | TVL ~$41.6B | Open Interest ~$66.7B - Aster: Volume ~$76.3B | TVL ~$13B | Open Interest ~$24.1B - Lighter: Volume ~$73.2B | TVL ~$14.6B | Open Interest ~$16.5B - EdgeX: Volume ~$49B | TVL ~$3.86B | Open Interest ~$7.48B - ApeX: Volume ~$24.4B | TVL ~$46.15M | Open Interest ~$1.4B - Backpack: Volume ~$13.8B | TVL Unavailable | Open Interest ~$1.98B - Variational: Volume ~$10.2B | TVL ~$66.18M | Open Interest ~$3.31B - Pacifica: Volume ~$6.31B | TVL ~$41.46M | Open

On December 18, Pacifica’s official website announced that its funding rate comparison page has added Lighter. Users can now view funding rate data from multiple platforms—including Pacifica, Binance, Hyperliquid, Bybit, and Lighter—enabling quick comparison of rate differences across these platforms. For traders focused on high-frequency trading (HFT) and volume-based point accumulation, funding rates serve as a key metric to select trading pairs with manageable trading costs. Per this logic, some HFT volume traders prioritize Pacifica pairs with favorable terms to minimize trading slippage. On-chain data analytics and copy-trading tool Coinbob has launched Coinbob Pacifica (@CoinbobPAC_bot) on Telegram. This bot allows users to copy high-frequency traders’ strategies, earn trading points, and prepare for potential airdrop opportunities. (Links: [Pacifica](https://app.pacifica.fi/?referral=pacbot), [Coinbob Pacifica Telegram Bot](https://t.me/CoinbobPAC_bot))

December 18th — Former Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun plans to raise €500 million for his new startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs), according to the Financial Times. The AI firm is set to be valued at roughly €3 billion pre-launch, with the fundraising expected to wrap up before January begins. Sources familiar with the matter note LeCun recently announced he will depart Meta by year’s end. He has also tapped Alexandre LeBrun — founder of French health tech startup Nabla — as CEO. Full details of AMI Labs will be unveiled in January, with LeCun serving as chairman.

December 18 Update: Per the official website, Binance Alpha has launched LISA, with the token currently trading at $0.16549.