The Block

Quick Take Payments company Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal, according to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. Stripe’s largest acquisition to date, and the largest acquisition in the crypto industry’s history, Bridge had raised $58 million from investors and was previously valued at $200 million. Bridge offers software that helps businesses accept payments in stablecoins and signals an expansion of Stripe’s crypto adoption efforts.

Quick Take Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined possible approaches the Ethereum community might take to minimize proof-of-stake centralization as part of the blockchain’s planned ‘Scourge’ upgrade in a recent blog post. Buterin called the issue “one of the biggest risks” to Ethereum’s network and outlined several possible approaches to block construction and staking capital provision to minimize dangers.

Quick Take The Pump.Fun team is planning a future token launch, according to an announcement made on a recent X Space. The Solana-based memecoin exchange also announced “Pump Advanced,” a trading terminal with advanced features for power users and 0% fees for the first month.

Quick Take Economists from the European Central Bank argue in a new paper that a perpetually rising price of bitcoin would benefit early holders only and would “…imply a corresponding impoverishment of the rest of society, endangering cohesion, stability and ultimately democracy.” The economists argue that Satoshi’s original vision for bitcoin as a global payment system has failed, leading to a repositioning of bitcoin as an investment asset, and that late adopters can suffer losses even without a “burstin

Quick Take The total net asset value held by US-based spot bitcoin ETFs has reached the highest level yet recorded at over $66 billion—nearly 5% of bitcoin’s total market cap—following a six-day streak of positive net inflows. The ETFs recorded over $2 billion in inflows in the past week alone, their best showing since March. The SEC recently gave the go-ahead for exchanges NYSE and Cboe to list options trading for multiple spot bitcoin ETFs.

Quick Take The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency is having its best weekly performance in over a month. Crypto-related stocks like Coinbase, Hut and several others are following suit with notable gains in Friday’s session.

The SEC granted “accelerated approval” to allow for the trading and listing of options of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs.The agency first approved listing options on the iShares Bitcoin Trust on Nasdaq ISE, LLC in September.

Quick Take An exploiter, possibly a Norther Korean hacker, was able to obtain the private keys in a social engineering attack that drained $4.4 million worth of cryptocurrencies, the Tapioca Foundation said. The organization worked with the emergency response team SEAL911 and others to recover assets the exploiter had missed.

DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, has launched “DBS Token Services,” a new suite of blockchain-based products designed to enhance liquidity management and streamline operations for institutional clients.BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF added another $309 million in net inflows on Thursday, contributing to more than $1 billion worth of positive inflows for its IBIT product this week alone.The SEC filed a “Civil Appeal Pre-Argument Statement” late Thursday, seeking to challenge the U.S. District Court for the South

Quick Take Decentralized finance can complement more centralized financial sectors, but will not replace it, said Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller. Waller also alluded to the need for regulation.