The Federal Reserve has released a comprehensive bank regulation manual, enhancing regulatory transparency.

On December 18, the Solana team announced that the NEAR token has been issued cross-chain on the Solana network.

**Binance Founder CZ Shares Insights in Year-End Q&A (Dec 18)** On December 18, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) discussed his work priorities, views on the BNB ecosystem, crypto market trends, key sector judgments, entrepreneurship advice, and investment focus during his year-end Q&A. ### Key Takeaways: 1. **Current Focus Areas**: CZ spends most of his time on four initiatives: Giggle Academy, YZi Labs, the BNB ecosystem, and pushing for national cryptocurrency adoption. 2. **BNB Chain Growth**: The chain saw strong 2023 growth—annual trading volume up ~600% year-over-year, daily active users topping 2 million. CZ emphasized it needs to keep creating value for actual builders, noting the ecosystem’s future scale will surpass any single business within it (including centralized exchanges and protocols). 3. **Stablecoin Sector**: A "better" stablecoin hasn’t scaled broadly yet; current options are 1.0/1.5 iterations (e.g., FDUSD, USD1). The market has massive untapped pot

On December 18, The Block reports that Intuit has inked a multi-year partnership with Circle to integrate USD Coin (USDC) payments into its core products—including TurboTax and QuickBooks—aimed at modernizing the fund flows of the financial software giant’s platforms. Under the deal, Intuit will leverage Circle’s stablecoin infrastructure to enable faster, lower-cost payment processes for tax refunds, business payments and other financial services.

On Thursday, December 18, a London judge sentenced Canadian national Jarett Dunn to six years in prison, per a Decrypt report. Dunn had previously pleaded guilty to two charges: abusing his position to commit fraud and transferring criminal proceeds. The court noted the former Pump.fun employee had been under electronic monitoring for 308 days, with 154 days credited toward his sentence. He also spent roughly five months in pre-trial detention, which typically automatically reduces his final term. More than a year has passed since Dunn moved roughly $2 million worth of Solana (SOL) from his then-employer Pump.fun.

On December 18, Onchain Lens monitoring data indicates a newly created wallet address received 30,075 ETH from FalconX—valued at roughly $88.31 million—and is likely linked to Bitmine.

December 18th, per The Block, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Danh C. Vo—founder and CEO of Bitcoin mining firm VBit—with embezzling $48.5 million, some of which he used for gambling and gifting to family members. The SEC says Vo and VBit Technologies Corp. collectively raised over $95.6 million from roughly 6,400 investors. Related charges are laid out in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The regulator noted Vo made false statements to investors about VBit’s Bitcoin mining operations and how investment funds would be used. Vo also told investors VBit would offer an “all-in-one solution” for everyday people, letting them earn passive income via Bitcoin mining without the hassle of managing mining rigs themselves.