U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

On December 17, blockchain infrastructure firm Uniform Labs announced the launch of Multiliquid—a 24/7 exchange protocol supporting tokenized money market funds, real-world assets (RWAs), and stablecoins. The company was founded by former executives from Standard Chartered Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and other financial institutions. The new protocol aims to let institutions trade around the clock between blue-chip tokenized money market funds and stablecoins, eliminating extended redemption delays and liquidity constraints while supporting USDT and USDC liquidity trading.

On December 17, Polygon Labs announced a strategic investment in Boys Club—a crypto culture media and creative agency—aimed at driving Polygon’s mainstream adoption in payments, stablecoins, and everyday financial scenarios through more culturally engaging content narratives. Founded in 2021, Boys Club is known for translating complex technology into humanized, humorous, and culturally resonant storytelling. It has built a broad community via newsletters, podcasts, and events, and has collaborated with partners including Coinbase, Sotheby’s, and a16z. The investment will not impact Boys Club’s editorial and creative independence; the agency will continue working with ecosystems like Base, Solana, and Aptos. Both parties plan to collaborate on event planning, narrative development for payments and stablecoin use cases, and social content strategy—all to strengthen the link between Polygon’s technology and real-world scenarios.

**Dec 17 (Quick Update) — Ripple has announced a partnership with Swiss crypto bank AMINA Bank, making it the first European institution to adopt Ripple’s end-to-end payment solution.** By integrating Ripple Payments, AMINA can offer customers 24/7, real-time cross-border fund settlement without relying on the traditional correspondent banking system. The collaboration aims to address inefficiencies in the traditional banking system that crypto-native businesses face with cross-border payments—especially stablecoin settlements. Ripple Payments supports parallel processing of fiat and stablecoins, bridging the gap between Web3 and traditional finance. AMINA stated that adopting Ripple’s technology will significantly reduce cross-border friction and enhance its ability to serve crypto-native clients. Earlier this year, the bank became the world’s first to support custody and trading of Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD.

On December 17, EquiLend—a securities lending infrastructure giant with a lendable asset pool of roughly $40 trillion—announced a strategic minority equity investment in Digital Prime Technologies, a regulated crypto lending service provider. The move aims to position EquiLend in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and the digital asset market; financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. EquiLend noted the investment responds to client demand for compliant, transparent, and governable workflows that support simultaneous coverage of traditional financial and digital asset instruments across trading, clearing, settlement, and reporting. The partnership will center on Digital Prime’s institutional lending network, Tokenet, which offers multi-custodial, multi-collateral full lifecycle management, risk exposure monitoring, and institutional-grade reporting. Down the line, the firms plan to add compliant stablecoins as collateral and expand tokenized financial instrument offerings.

December 17 — Official sources confirm OKX Wallet users can now transfer USDT and USDC on X Layer with zero gas fees. Powered by OKX’s in-house x402 protocol, this feature is part of the ongoing development and refinement of X Layer — OKX’s layer-2 network — infrastructure. The upgrade aims to further reduce users’ core transaction costs, enhance on-chain experience, and fuel growth of the X Layer ecosystem. Users can access the feature directly via OKX Wallet. X Layer is a global on-chain ecosystem focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), payments, and real-world assets (RWA). It connects the OKX and Ethereum ecosystems, with a vision to bring everything on-chain. As a leading one-stop Web3 gateway, OKX Wallet already supports over 140 top public chains.

On December 17, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said the Fed’s interest rates are 50 to 100 basis points above the neutral rate. The central bank could cut rates solely based on an easing inflation outlook. (FXStreet)