Crypto Market Fear Subsides Significantly, Today's Fear and Greed Index at 45

On December 17th, U.S. pre-market trading for cryptocurrency-related stocks saw slight declines, with the following moves: - Circle (CRCL): down 0.39% - MicroStrategy (MSTR): down 0.85% - Coinbase (COIN): down 0.24% - MARA Holdings (MARA): down 0.37% - Riot Blockchain (RIOT): down 0.22% - BitMine Immersion (BMNR): down 0.57% - SharpLink Gaming (SBET): down 0.31%

On December 17, U.S. cryptocurrency-related stocks saw a slight dip in pre-market trading, per market data. Notable moves include: Circle (CRCL) down 0.39%; MicroStrategy (MSTR) down 0.85%; Coinbase (COIN) down 0.24%; MARA Holdings (MARA) down 0.37%; Riot Blockchain (RIOT) down 0.22%; BitMine Immersion (BMNR) down 0.57%; SharpLink Gaming (SBET) down 0.31%.

On December 17, per Chainwire, cryptocurrency payment service provider CoinGate has been granted a MiCA license by Lithuania’s financial regulator. MiCA— the EU’s Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation— sets a compliant framework for crypto-asset service providers operating across the European Union. With this authorization, CoinGate can now operate in the EU as a regulated crypto-asset service provider under the bloc’s formal rules.

On December 17, Binance released a partial blacklist of "Listing Agents" today, including BitABC, Central Research, May/Dannie, Andrew Lee, Suki Yang, Fiona Lee, and Kenny Z. Binance noted the list is not exhaustive and advised against trusting any "Listing Agent." Below is information on the above individuals and entities sourced from public records: - **BitABC**: A crypto advisory, incubation, and project acceleration firm offering services like project promotion, community building, liquidity incentives, and market consulting. It claims to help early-stage crypto projects gain visibility and traction on trading platforms. - **May/Dannie**: A key figure linked to Web3Port—an improper market maker previously flagged by Binance. May Liu and her team built a "Binance Brokerage Pipeline" spanning Spark Digital Capital → Web3Port → Whisper. Spark operates under the guise of a VC but actually runs market outsourcing and financial advisory (FA) businesses, securing free tokens by lever

On Dec. 17, Tencent Cloud—Tencent’s cloud computing arm—announced a strategic partnership with Bitkub, Thailand’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, per Reuters. Bitkub plans to migrate and upgrade its existing products leveraging Tencent Cloud’s infrastructure, database technology, and AI capabilities.