Protests erupted in Tehran on Monday after the rial plunged to record lows against the US dollar. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said in an X post that Bitcoin offers a way to safeguard savings as currencies weaken, while the Financial Times reported the rial is around 1.4 million per dollar after losing over 40% purchasing power since June.

In a post on X, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi forecast that by 2026 a Big Tech firm could launch or buy a crypto wallet and more Fortune 100 financial institutions will roll out their own blockchains using stacks such as Avalanche, OP Stack, Orbit and ZK Stack. He expects these corporate and fintech layer 1s to struggle for activity against Ethereum and Solana, predicts Bitcoin will trade above $150,000 while losing dominance, and sees the stablecoin market expanding by about 60% as Tether’s share slips.

In a recent interview, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that Bitcoin acts as a market-based check on excessive US inflation and deficit spending, indirectly supporting the dollar's position as the leading reserve currency. He suggested that investors could move into Bitcoin during periods of economic uncertainty, pressuring policymakers to maintain fiscal discipline. The article also notes that US national debt has climbed to $37.65 trillion and highlights debate over whether Bitcoin or rapidly growing dollar-pegged stablecoins play the larger role in preserving dollar dominance.

Validators on the Flow blockchain are being urged to pause transaction processing after a controversial chain rollback tied to a $3.9 million exploit. The decision has stalled the network, triggered a sharp drop in the FLOW token, and raised concerns over decentralization, user balances, and cross-chain bridge risks.

On Dec. 26, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell three points to 20/100, extending an ‘extreme fear’ streak that began on Dec. 13. Bitcoin traded at $88,650, nearly 30% below its Oct. 6 all-time high of $126,080, as tariff concerns and rate-cut uncertainty weighed on sentiment.

On Thursday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Grok, X's AI chatbot, makes the platform more truth-seeking by challenging users' assumptions. He argued it is a net improvement despite concerns about fine-tuning and recent hallucinations, while Elon Musk blamed adversarial prompting for errors.

Kraken Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg told CNBC on Wednesday that blockchain-based tokenization is pushing the concept of money beyond fiat, allowing people to save, trade, and spend in a wide range of tokenized assets. He noted that Kraken's tokenized stock product has drawn more than 80,000 wallets and around $14 billion in volume since launching in the second quarter of this year, while on-chain real-world assets have reached nearly $415 billion.

Upexi filed a shelf registration to raise up to $1 billion, saying proceeds may fund general purposes and expansion of its Solana holdings. The stock closed Tuesday down 7.54% to $1.84, then rose 4.34% after hours to $1.92. The firm holds 2.1 million SOL valued at $262.3 million.

Matador Technologies has been authorized by the Ontario Securities Commission to issue up to CA$80 million ($58.4 million) in securities over 25 months. The Bitcoin-focused firm plans to use the capital to expand its holdings from 175 BTC toward a 1,000 BTC treasury target by the end of 2026, even as its MATA shares fell 3.57% following the announcement.