Bitcoin is pushing above $124,000 after touching the mid-$120,000’s in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin hit record highs above $126,000 earlier this week, but it seems investors took some profits and a strengthening U.S. dollar challenged the so-called “debasement-trade” flows. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $123,962.

Many investors have started to use bitcoin as a hedge against a potential devaluation of the dollar, known in trading circles as “debasement trades.”

The surge earlier in the week was fueled by heavy inflows into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) and speculative bets on fiat currency weakness amid a prolonged U.S. government…

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Polygon, the Ethereum Layer 2 network, has rolled out the Rio hard fork on its Proof-of-Stake mainnet — a major upgrade aimed at making the blockchain faster, lighter, and more efficient for global payments and real-world asset transactions. The update redesigns block production and introduces stateless verification to improve scalability.

At the center of Rio is the new Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP) model, where validators select a small group of producers to create blocks for longer durations. Polygon says this innovation reduces chain reorganizations, shortens block times, and ensures fair fee distribution, keeping all validators incentivized.

The upgrade also includes PIP-72, enabling “witness-based” stateless validation so nodes can verify blocks without storing the full blockchain state — cutting hardware costs and improving speed. Part of Polygon’s “GigaGas” roadmap, Rio aims to process up to 5,000 transactions per second, marking a key step toward faster and more reliable crypto infrastructure.

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Square is rolling out a tool that could make Bitcoin usable in everyday business — from coffee shops to corner stores.

Square is bringing Bitcoin to your local small businesses.

The company announced a new product suite called Square Bitcoin today, designed to let small businesses accept Bitcoin payments, hold it in a built-in wallet, or automatically convert part of their sales into Bitcoin — all within the same dashboard they already use for point-of-sale and banking.

If unfamiliar with Square, Square is an all-in-one platform that helps small businesses accept payments, manage operations, and grow. The company offers a mix of hardware and software for POS systems,…

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In a market where most public companies still hesitate to touch Bitcoin, DDC Enterprise Limited is doing the opposite: accelerating its bitcoin purchases. 

The consumer brand and e-commerce company announced today a $124 million equity financing round, led by PAG Pegasus Fund and Mulana Investment Management, with participation from OKG Financial Services. 

Founder and CEO Norma Chu also joined the round personally, investing $3 million of her own capital.

The financing, priced at $10 per Class A share — a 16% premium to the company’s recent close — marks another step in DDC’s transformation from a retail operator into one of the most aggressive public Bitcoin…

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Crypto asset manager Bitwise expects U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to post record-breaking inflows in the fourth quarter of 2025, potentially surpassing their total for the entire year. Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said recent data and strong early-quarter performance signal a major momentum shift, with $3.5 billion already added in the first week of Q4. Total inflows now stand near $26 billion, and Hougan believes the year will end above $36 billion — setting a new all-time high.

Hougan highlighted three key catalysts fueling this optimism: growing approval from wealth managers, Bitcoin’s price rally above $125,000, and rising interest in the “debasement trade” — investing in assets that hedge against currency erosion. Financial giants like Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and UBS are now allowing advisors to allocate client funds to Bitcoin ETFs, signaling mainstream adoption.

Gold and Bitcoin remain the year’s top-performing assets. With renewed investor enthusiasm and mounting institutional access, Bitwise says Bitcoin ETFs are on track to dominate global inflows as 2025 closes.

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