Privacy crypto project MASK’s market cap surges past $35 million, hitting a new all-time high, with its price jumping over 70% in 24 hours.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov has released a statement expressing disappointment with the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Banking Authority (EBA)’s responses to the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) consultation. He noted that the two authorities not only advocate banning yields on stablecoin payments, but also propose restricting crypto asset service providers (CASPs) from granting users access to decentralized finance (DeFi) channels—including yield protocols involving stablecoins not authorized under MiCA—without clarifying a concrete implementation framework. Kulechov added that the proposals suggest limiting DeFi user access via so-called "appropriateness tests" and are considering introducing a certification system for DeFi lending protocols. He argued that if regulators decide which protocols are suitable for European users, it could lead to more closed DeFi ecosystems, eroding the open finance network’s liquidity and network effects. Stated Kulechov, excessive restrictions could increase barriers to innovation and slow the development of open, transparent, and auditable financial infrastructure. He believes stablecoins, DeFi, and tokenized securities have the potential to reduce frictions in financial services, enhance transparency, and expand users’ access to financial opportunities, calling on European regulators to place users and their interests at the core of the regulatory framework. Finally, he concluded: “DeFi will ultimately prevail.”

Trust Wallet announced via an official post that it has become the inaugural partner of Ondo’s Incentive Program (OIP). Users who swapped or held Ondo RWA assets through Trust Wallet this year can check their eligibility for rewards; qualified users may claim BLKH tokens on BNB Chain. Full eligibility criteria and claim details are available on Trust Wallet’s official page.

Citigroup has raised the price target for Bitcoin reserve company Strategy from $136 to $240, citing an upward revision to its Bitcoin price forecast. The new target implies a 50% upside from current levels.

THORChain announced its ZEC liquidity pool is now live, with the network having completed a node churn and all nodes starting to monitor the Zcash blockchain. The protocol noted that trading functionality will be its next step, adding that current liquidity remains shallow, so early trades should watch for risks such as slippage. Earlier, THORChain added native Zcash support via protocol upgrades, including UTXO processing, RPC logic, and the ZEC price oracle, and has been steadily advancing mainnet integration.

Alliance DAO co-founder QwQiao wrote in a post that the cryptocurrency eras of the 2010s and 2020s will always be the greatest. Anyone on Earth with internet access can own assets ultimately worth trillions of dollars with a valuation of less than $1 billion. By contrast, nearly all other tech waves, including artificial intelligence, originated in Silicon Valley, where only a small number of people close to the core circle have been able to amass extreme wealth.

Decentralized privacy solution Fairblock has announced the launch of its privacy-focused stablecoin CUSD, built on PYUSDx and backed by M0, PayPal, MoonPay, and Predicate, with its first deployment on Arbitrum. CUSD supports public transfers while also enabling users to hide payment amounts and account balances. Institutions can leverage it to protect payroll disbursements, treasury management, and OTC settlement information, while individuals can conceal on-chain payment amounts and transaction flows. Fairblock stated that it will drive adoption and expand the use of privacy features through economic incentives moving forward, with more details to be announced separately.