The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has added four more entities to its "Suspected Virtual Asset Trading Platforms" list, including HKTWeb3 and AmazingTech.

December 17 — For most of the past three years, the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report has been a top data point U.S. stock traders watched closely. Now, investors aren’t on edge—instead, they’re waiting for Thursday’s November inflation data release with a sense of detachment. Options traders are betting the S&P 500 will move less than 0.7% daily—well below the 1% average actual volatility seen in the 12 CPI reports through September this year. The shift in market sentiment makes sense. The Fed has lately focused more on labor market weakness signals than minor inflation fluctuations. Tuesday’s data showed the job market’s still sluggish, leaving room for rate cuts next year. “The market’s priced in that this data is either irrelevant, or its quality is questionable from a data collection standpoint—so it won’t get overly scrutinized,” said Alexander Altmann, Barclays’ Global Equity Tactical Strategy Director. The report also won’t likely change the outcome of th

**December 17: SBI Ripple Asia, Doppler Finance Sign MoU to Explore XRP Yield, RWA Tokenization on XRPL** SBI Ripple Asia and XRPL-native yield protocol Doppler Finance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop interest-bearing XRP products and tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). This marks the first collaboration between SBI Ripple Asia and an XRPL-native yield protocol. The partners will focus on building a compliance-focused, transparent yield infrastructure for institutional clients—pushing XRP’s evolution from a payment asset to a yield-generating financial instrument. Doppler Finance will provide the on-chain yield framework, while SBI Digital Markets (regulated by Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS) will act as an institutional-grade custodian, offering segregated asset custody services. The partnership is a key step to deepen institutional engagement with the XRPL. Historically, the XRPL has seen limited on

On December 17, stablecoin issuer Tether launched PearPass—a peer-to-peer (P2P) password manager app where all account credentials are stored **only locally on users’ devices** (no cloud servers involved), fundamentally eliminating the risk of centralized data leaks. Tether noted PearPass uses end-to-end encryption and a point-to-point sync architecture: device-to-device data sync is fully controlled by users’ own keys, with no need for third-party infrastructure or intermediaries. The tool supports local credential storage, password generation, multi-device P2P sync, and a user-controlled key recovery system—directly addressing the vulnerability of traditional cloud-based password managers to targeted attacks. PearPass is the **first open-source app** under Tether’s decentralized Pears technology ecosystem, designed to deliver a more censorship-resistant, resilient digital security infrastructure. It’s now freely available across mainstream platforms.

December 17 — CNBC reports that Robinhood (HOOD) stock has far outperformed the S&P 500 Index, with a cumulative gain of over 200% to date, significantly outpacing the broader market. Analysts remain bullish on its outlook, with firms like Truist Financial Corporation assigning a Buy rating and an elevated price target. They cite ongoing upside potential in areas including predictive markets, expanded product offerings, and business growth, noting the stock’s fundamentals and valuation have not yet fully priced in future growth expectations. However, market sentiment is mixed. Some observers highlight recent heightened volatility and declines in certain operational metrics as potential sources of short-term uncertainty.

**December 17 – An Indian lawmaker proposed draft tokenization legislation on December 17, aiming to "democratize investment opportunities" by standardizing asset tokenization and expanding middle-class access to digital investment options in traditional assets like real estate and stocks.** **The draft calls for establishing a clear regulatory framework to enable asset tokenization under legal, compliant conditions, while prioritizing investor protection, boosting market transparency, and enhancing capital liquidity. If passed, the bill would significantly advance India’s financial market digital asset infrastructure and make tokenized products a viable choice for everyday investors.**

On December 17, Bitcoin miner Hut 8’s pre-market shares jumped more than 18%, pushing its market capitalization to $3.981 billion. The rally followed Hut 8 signing a 15-year, $7 billion lease deal with Fluidstack: the latter will rent 245 megawatts (MW) of IT hashing capacity from Hut 8’s River Bend data center campus. Under the agreement, Fluidstack also secured a right of first offer (ROFO) for up to an additional 1,000 MW of IT capacity in future campus expansion phases—contingent on the site scaling up its power supply.