Market Snapshot: Inflation Signals Ease, Uniswap Charts Ambitious Governance Path with 100M UNI Token Burn

Economic Winds Shift in Crypto’s Favor

The U.S. economy delivered a mixed but encouraging package this week. Initial jobless claims hit 224,000 for the week ending December 13—narrowly beating expectations of 225,000—while November’s unadjusted CPI came in at 2.7%, materially lower than the forecasted 3.1%.

White House National Economic Council Director Hassett seized on these numbers, calling the inflation reading “surprisingly good” and signaling that wage growth is now outpacing price increases. His statement that “the Fed has ample room for rate cuts” carries particular weight, given his position as a leading contender to succeed Powell at the Federal Reserve. Hassett also advocated for enhanced Fed transparency, arguing “all the cards should be on the table.”

SEC Clarifies Crypto and Blockchain Frameworks

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets rolled out comprehensive guidance through a newly published FAQ addressing crypto assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Key takeaways include:

Broker-dealer operations can now work with non-securities crypto assets outside Rule 15c3-3, and “crypto asset securities” enable control mechanisms for compliance. The SEC confirmed it won’t oppose non-paper form assets.

Customer protection under SIPC applies only to registered securities products. For non-securities crypto assets, treating them as “financial assets” under UCC Article 8 and placing them in securities accounts strengthens protection against bankruptcy scenarios.

Trading infrastructure gets green-light flexibility—National Securities Exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems can offer paired trading of crypto securities and non-securities assets if they meet disclosure requirements and provide detailed Form ATS filing.

Blockchain ledgers are now permissible as primary record systems for transfer agents handling registered securities, provided federal record-keeping standards remain intact.

Spot SUI ETF Moves Forward; Tether Expands Beyond Stablecoins

Bitwise advanced its institutional push by filing Form S-1 with the SEC, targeting a spot Sui ETF launch. The fund will track Sui’s value with professional custody arrangements and potential staking mechanisms embedded.

Meanwhile, Tether surprised the industry by introducing PearPass, a peer-to-peer password manager designed to keep encrypted user data off centralized cloud systems. CEO Paolo Ardoino hinted at an even bigger play: a Pear Operating System will “eventually be launched,” suggesting the stablecoin issuer is building infrastructure beyond digital currency.

Uniswap’s Governance Milestone: 100 Million UNI Tokens Face the Burn

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams submitted the Unification proposal for final community governance vote, scheduled from 10:30 PM EST on December 19 through December 25. If approved—a widely anticipated outcome—the protocol will execute three critical actions post-timelock:

Burn 100 million UNI tokens from treasury reserves, reducing supply and increasing per-token value potential. Current UNI trading at $5.00, down 6.09% in 24 hours, may react to this deflationary signal.

Activate fee switches for both v2 and v3 on mainnet, directing protocol fees into UNI token buyback-and-burn mechanics, including revenue from Unichain.

Formalize Uniswap Labs alignment through a Wyoming DUNA-compliant protocol contract, ensuring governance authority remains with the DAO.

The proposal represents a watershed moment: Uniswap moves from wealth redistribution debates to genuine tokenomic restructuring designed to concentrate value in the hands of long-term stakeholders.

Traditional Finance Meets Blockchain: A Tokenization Sprint

Standard Chartered Hong Kong, in partnership with Ant International and under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s DLT sandbox, tokenized HKD, RMB, and USD accounts on the Whale Platform. The solution enables 24/7 fund allocation and real-time liquidity—a sharp contrast to traditional banking’s business-hours constraints.

Forward Industries, the Nasdaq-listed Solana treasury company, went live with SEC-registered tokenized stock on the Solana blockchain via Superstate. Investors can now use these tokens as collateral to borrow stablecoins while maintaining equity exposure—unlocking on-chain liquidity for traditional assets.

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE’s parent) entered acquisition talks with MoonPay, the crypto payments platform targeting a ~$5 billion valuation in its forthcoming funding round. This signals institutional capital’s accelerating embrace of payment rails.

Ripple Equity Play: Blending CeFi and DeFi Capital

VivoPower, a Nasdaq-listed company, partnered with Korean asset manager Lean Ventures to raise $300 million acquiring Ripple Labs equity. At current XRP pricing of $1.98, this capital commitment translates to indirect exposure of approximately 450 million XRP tokens—roughly $900 million worth. The deal channels Korean institutions and qualified retail investors into Ripple’s cap table while VivoPower negotiates further preferred share purchases.

DePIN Hits $5B: Fuse Energy’s $70M Series B

Fuse Energy, the Solana-based distributed physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project, wrapped a $70 million Series B co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Balderton Capital. The round values the company at $5 billion, underscoring institutional conviction that tokenized energy infrastructure represents a meaningful asset class.

On the Radar: ETH (currently $3.23K, -2.79% 24h) remains volatile amid macro sentiment shifts. XRP at $1.98 shows resilience within the broader Ripple narrative arc. Sui ecosystem momentum builds ahead of the Bitwise ETF launch, with SUI trading near $1.56.