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VanEck is Rebranding Its Gaming ETF to the “Degen Economy” ETF

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

VanEck has announced a major overhaul of its existing VanEck Gaming ETF (ticker: BJK), rebranding it as the VanEck Degen Economy ETF.

This move, approved by the fund’s board on December 5, 2025, shifts the ETF’s focus from traditional gaming sectors to what VanEck calls the “Degen Economy”—a high-growth, speculative segment blending digital finance, gig work, online gambling, and digital gaming.

The changes are set to take effect after April 8, 2026, marking the first ETF to include “Degen” short for “degenerate,” a crypto slang term for high-risk, impulsive trading in its official name.

The original Gaming ETF, launched in 2007, had underperformed, trading flat or in “neutral” sentiment among retail investors recently, with assets under management hovering around $75 million.

VanEck is pivoting to capitalize on booming “degen” trends, which they describe as a cultural and economic force driven by millennials and Gen Z. These sectors are projected to grow rapidly due to increased disposable income, mobile adoption, and regulatory tailwinds in digital markets.

As ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X, it’s a savvy way to “mess with” a dud product by leaning into the “degen” narrative, potentially attracting a new wave of speculative investors.

The “Degen Economy” Index

The ETF will now track the MarketVector Degen Economy Index, a market-cap-weighted benchmark of global companies deriving at least 50% of revenue from “degen”-adjacent activities. Key pillars include: Digital brokerages like Robinhood), neobanks, crypto exchanges, and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services.

Gig economy includes ride-sharing, food delivery (e.g., DoorDash), and on-demand platforms. Online casinos, iGaming software, sports betting apps (e.g., DraftKings), video game developers, and sports data analytics.

This isn’t a pure crypto play—it’s more about “Robinhood culture crossed with Uber and DraftKings,” as one analyst put it—but it nods to decentralized finance (DeFi) and speculative digital assets.

VanEck positions it as a bet on volatile, sentiment-driven industries that could boom or bust with user incentives and regulatory shifts. The announcement sparked lively discussion, with over 120,000 views on Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas post alone.

Crypto influencers like Tyler_Did_It highlighted it as a “way to bet on cultural trends or their demise,” while skeptics called it an “oxymoron” or mere marketing for underperforming assets.

This aligns with VanEck’s crypto-friendly stance, they’ve filed for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs. Amid Fed rate cuts and crypto inflows ~$535M into BTC ETFs since Nov 20, it’s timed for a risk-on environment. Degen sectors are inherently volatile—tied to boom-bust cycles, regulatory crackdowns (e.g., on gambling), and sentiment swings.

The term “degen” is short for degenerate — originally a derogatory label in traditional finance and gambling circles for people who take extreme, reckless risks with money like betting the house on a single hand or YOLO-ing life savings into a penny stock.

It was reborn and positively reclaimed around 2020–2021 in crypto Twitter (CT) and WallStreetBets (WSB) culture, turning from an insult into a badge of honor. Retail traders on Reddit pumped GameStop, squeezing hedge funds. “YOLO” became mainstream.

“Degen” starts being used ironically/positively by retail traders. Yield farming at 10,000% APY, 1000x meme coins, and NFT flips on OpenSea. Crypto Twitter calls these high-risk players “degens.”

Telegram groups called “Degen Lair.” Being a degen = embracing volatility, leverage, and meme coins. Apeing, rug pulls, leverage trading. Terms like “ngmi” (not gonna make it), “wagmi” (we’re all gonna make it), “send it” emerge. Degen becomes a full subculture with its own slang and aesthetics.

“Degen” now explicitly means speculative, sentiment-driven trading. VanEck launches “Degen Economy ETF”, Bloomberg covers “degen trading”, BlackRock analysts use the term. The joke becomes an official investment theme

High-risk, high-leverage trading Perpetuals with 50–125x leverage on crypto exchanges. Memecoin casino culture Launching or aping into coins with zero fundamentals, purely on vibes and Telegram hype. Gig economy as speculative labor Driving for Uber or delivering DoorDash to fund the next degen trade

Millennials and Gen Z have lower trust in traditional institutions and see “safe” investing (index funds, 401ks) as rigged or too slow. Crypto and options give instant P&L, unlike waiting 40 years for compound interest.

Calling yourself a degenerate while wearing it as a flex disarms critics. Many early degens turned hundreds into millions during 2021 and many more went to zero, creating legends and copycats.

The Degen Economy started as crypto/gambling slang in 2021, got turbocharged by meme stocks and DeFi, and by 2025 had grown large and visible enough that a major asset manager (VanEck) literally named an ETF after it.

It’s the financial equivalent of punk rock — loud, reckless, and deliberately offensive to boomers. Fees remain at 0.65%, but expect higher beta than the old fund. If you’re eyeing exposure, it’s a thematic play on digital disruption, but not for the faint-hearted.

This could be the start of more “meme-ified” finance products—what’s next, a “FOMO 500”?

Silver Surges to New All-Time High Above $63

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Silver has smashed through another record today, December 11, 2025, reaching intraday highs over $63 per troy ounce for the first time ever.

This marks a staggering ~110% year-to-date gain, outpacing gold’s rally and signaling intense bullish momentum in the precious metals market. Hovering around $62.50–$63.25 USD/oz, after peaking at $63.86 in overnight Shanghai sessions.

24-Hour Change: Up ~3–5% from yesterday’s close near $60.90. Yearly performance peak from ~$30 at the start of 2025 to now— a true melt-up. For context, silver first broke its inflation-adjusted 1980 high around $50 in today’s dollars back in October, but the past month has been explosive, with multiple retests of $60+ levels.

This isn’t just hype—structural forces are at play. The Silver Institute projects a fifth straight annual deficit of ~149 million ounces in 2025, driven by booming industrial demand like solar panels, EVs, and electronics outstripping mine output.

Visible stocks on exchanges like Comex and SHFE are at multi-year lows. Yesterday’s 25bp rate cut and signals for more in 2026 is fueling safe-haven buying. Lower rates make non-yielding assets like silver more attractive vs. bonds.

Heavy accumulation into silver ETFs (e.g., SLV) and constrained physical delivery on Comex have amplified the upside. Retail and institutional “stackers” are piling in, echoing the 2021 squeeze but on steroids.

Ongoing global tensions and sticky inflation are boosting precious metals as hedges. Silver’s dual role 50% industrial, 50% investment gives it extra leverage over gold.

On X, the buzz is electric—traders are calling for $70–$100 targets soon, with posts like “Silver just printed another fresh ATH overnight… up 100% in a year” going viral.

This rally underscores economic fragility—think persistent deficits, green tech boom, and de-dollarization vibes. Silver’s outperformance vs. gold up 102% YTD vs. gold’s 59% highlights its volatility but also upside potential.

If you’re holding physical silver, congrats—it’s a monster performer. ETFs or miners via SLV or juniors offer easier exposure, but watch for volatility— silver can drop 10% in a day. Analysts see $65–$70 by year-end if deficits widen.

Silver’s Industrial use now accounts for ~55–60% of total annual silver demand — the highest proportion in history — and it’s the primary reason silver has decoupled from gold and outperformed gold in this cycle.

Every GW of solar installed uses ~15–20 tons of silver. China + India + US are installing at record pace expected >600 GW new capacity in 2025. Silver in electrical contacts, switches, busbars, and increasingly in LFP/NMC batteries. Each EV uses 1–2 oz vs. ~0.5 oz in ICE vehicles.

Data centers, 5G infrastructure, inverters, smart grids — all heavy on silver contacts and plating. Silver paste in PCBs, membrane switches, RFID, 5G antennas, AI chips.

Unlike gold, ~60% of silver demand is price-inelastic industrial use — manufacturers can’t easily substitute it away. Mine production is essentially flat ~830–850 Moz in 2025 and recycling can’t scale fast enough. Structural multi-year deficit of 150–200 Moz annually, with exchange inventories at critically low levels.

China’s solar build-out — single largest marginal buyer; installed >250 GW in 2024 and on track for another record in 2025. India’s PV push — targeting 300 GW solar by 2030; domestic module production ramping hard, all silver-intensive.

AI data-center boom — hyperscalers adding hundreds of GW of power demand ? more inverters, switches, and silver contacts. EVs hitting inflection — global sales >20 million units in 2025, each pulling more silver than the year before.

Industrial demand is no longer a side story — it’s the main engine pulling silver to repeated all-time highs and the reason many analysts now forecast persistent deficits through at least 2030.

If solar + EV + AI keep growing at current rates, we’re looking at industrial demand potentially hitting 1.5 billion ounces by 2030 — almost double today’s total global supply.

A hawkish Fed pivot or sudden supply surge could cap gains, but current scarcity suggests more ATHs ahead. Stack accordingly—this “sweet baby silver” is on fire.

Google Launches Commercial AI Pilot with Publishers, Offering Direct Payments to Offset “Zero-Click” Risk

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

Google has announced the launch of a new commercial partnership pilot program with a roster of major international news publishers, centered on integrating AI-powered article overviews directly onto their Google News pages.

The initiative is part of a broader strategy to “explore how AI can drive more engaged audiences,” while simultaneously attempting to address the growing crisis of “zero-click” search results that threaten publishers’ core business models.

The AI Overview Pilot: A Financial Safety Net

The core feature of the pilot is the introduction of AI-generated summaries that appear on the Google News pages of participating publications. Google’s intent is to give users “more context before they click through” to read an article.

This initiative is a commercial exchange designed to mitigate the inherent risk posed by AI summarization. As industry data shows, AI overviews can cause a substantial decline in click-through rates (CTR)—with some studies showing drops of up to 80% for informational content—by satisfying the user’s query directly on the search page. The reduction in referral traffic leads directly to a loss of advertising revenue for publishers.

To counteract this potential decrease in traffic, publications participating in the commercial pilot program will receive direct payments from Google. This financial compensation is a key mechanism of the partnership, aiming to offset the revenue loss tied to the declining ad impressions that result from fewer clicks.

The program includes prominent global publishers such as:

  • The Guardian (UK)
  • The Washington Post and The Washington Examiner (US)
  • Der Spiegel (Germany)
  • El País (Spain)
  • Folha (Brazil)
  • The Times of India (India)
  • Kompas (Indonesia)
  • Infobae (Latin America)

Crucially, the AI-powered overviews will only appear on the participating publications’ Google News pages and not anywhere else in Google News or in the main Search results, providing a controlled testing environment for the new monetization model.

This pilot builds on Google’s earlier moves to integrate AI into its news ecosystem. In July, the company rolled out AI summaries in Discover, the personalized content feed inside its search app. That change shifted the feed from displaying single headlines to showing an AI-generated summary that cites the logos of multiple news publishers, fundamentally changing how users encounter breaking and trending news.

As part of the new pilot, Google is also experimenting with audio briefings for people who prefer listening to the news rather than reading it, further diversifying the consumption formats driven by AI. Google has committed that all new features will include clear attribution and a direct link to the original articles to maintain transparency and guide users to the original source.

Furthermore, Google is expanding partnerships with wire services and news organizations like Estadão, Antara, Yonhap, and The Associated Press to incorporate real-time information and enhance results in the Gemini app.

New Features for Personalization and Control

In conjunction with the AI pilot, Google announced several new features aimed at enhancing user control and addressing fragmentation in news consumption:

  • Preferred Sources Global Rollout: The “Preferred Sources” feature, which allows users to select their favorite news sites and blogs to appear prominently in the Top Stories section of Google Search results, is now launching globally. It will be available for English-language users worldwide in the coming days, with a rollout to all supported languages planned for early next year. While this feature promotes user choice, it also raises concerns about potentially confining users to an “ideological bubble” that limits exposure to diverse perspectives.
  • Subscription Highlighting: Google will now highlight links from users’ news subscriptions and display these links in a dedicated carousel within the Gemini app in the coming weeks, with integration into AI Overviews and AI Mode to follow. This aims to increase the value users derive from their paid subscriptions.
  • Enhanced AI Links: In the Gemini app’s AI Mode, Google is increasing the number of inline links and introducing “contextual introductions” for embedded links. These are brief explanations that clarify why a link is useful to explore, thereby improving the utility and transparency of AI-generated responses.

Google stressed that as news consumption evolves, they will continue to work “in collaboration with websites and creators of all sizes, from major news publishers to new and emerging voices.”

Gemini Secures CFTC Approval for U.S. Prediction Markets

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Gemini Space Station, Inc. (ticker: GEMI), the cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by the Winklevoss twins, announced that its affiliate Gemini Titan, LLC has received a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

This approval, after a five-year application process, allows Gemini to launch regulated prediction markets for U.S. users, offering binary “yes or no” event contracts on future outcomes. Examples include whether Bitcoin will close the year above $200,000 or if Elon Musk’s X will pay a $140 million fine to the European Commission by 2026.

The platform, branded as Gemini Titan, will integrate directly with Gemini’s existing web interface, enabling users to trade these contracts using their USD balances, with mobile app support to follow. Gemini plans to expand into other CFTC-regulated derivatives like crypto futures, options, and perpetual contracts in the future.

The move positions Gemini as a direct competitor to established players like Kalshi and Polymarket which received similar U.S. clearance last month in a sector poised for growth under the Trump administration’s more innovation-friendly regulatory stance.

Gemini President Cameron Winklevoss praised Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham for fostering a “pro-business, pro-innovation” environment, noting that prediction markets could rival traditional capital markets in scale.

The announcement led to a 13.7% surge in GEMI shares during after-hours trading, though the stock remains down significantly year-to-date.

Trump Family’s American Bitcoin Bolsters Holdings with $38M BTC Purchase

In a parallel development in the crypto space, American Bitcoin Corp. (ticker: ABTC), the Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining and treasury firm co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., disclosed on December 10, 2025, that it has acquired an additional 416 BTC—valued at approximately $38.3 million at current prices.

This brings the company’s total treasury to 4,783 BTC, worth roughly $440 million, solidifying its rank among the top 25 public Bitcoin holders.

The purchase follows a similar 363 BTC addition the prior week and underscores American Bitcoin’s aggressive accumulation strategy since its public debut via a reverse merger with Gryphon Digital Mining in September 2025.

Eric Trump, the firm’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, highlighted the rapid growth, with “satoshis per share” a metric tracking Bitcoin exposure per equity share rising over 17% month-over-month to 507.

ABTC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Hut 8 Corp., reported third-quarter profitability in November, with net income of $3.47 million and revenue doubling to $64.2 million, driven by expanded mining operations and Bitcoin’s price momentum.

ABTC shares cratered ~40% in early December amid a “crypto winter” and lock-up expiry, underperforming BTC’s 25% dip and erasing ~$1 billion from the family’s net worth in weeks. Yet, treasury builds like this tighten supply, historically correlating with price rebounds.

The purchase signals insider conviction—high-profile accumulation often precedes narrative shifts, as “capital with information positions early.” It could catalyze broader adoption, with 74% of polled traders betting on $120K BTC recovery over a $100K drop.

While bullish for BTC’s legitimacy, the Trump ties raise conflict-of-interest alarms: family ventures like $MELANIA down 96% YTD prioritize profit over policy, complicating bipartisan crypto bills and fueling Democrat opposition.

Trump’s meme coins and $WLFI have drawn fees amid BTC’s inaccessibility ~$100K, widening the wealth gap and inviting volatility lessons—ABTC’s swings highlight crypto’s underperformance risks for branded assets.

Positively, it boosts U.S. mining infrastructure like the Bitmain deals, but critics see it as “elite power grab” centralizing decentralized ideals. These events converge on a pro-crypto U.S. renaissance: Gemini’s license embodies regulatory maturation, enabling prediction markets to forecast BTC outcomes that ABTC’s buys directly influence.

Together, they forecast 2025 as a year of hybrid finance—regulated derivatives meeting treasury strategies—potentially propelling BTC toward new highs, though ethical frictions and volatility persist. As one observer noted, “When families with real influence start buying BTC with size, the shift already happened behind the scenes.”

This latest move aligns with the broader Trump family’s deepening crypto involvement, including ventures like World Liberty Financial and Trump Media’s $2 billion Bitcoin reserves, amid expectations of lighter U.S. regulations under second Trump’s term.

However, ABTC shares have faced volatility, recently tumbling amid a “crypto winter” but rebounding on treasury expansion news.

L.xyz Begins LXYZ Presale as It Builds Toward a Multi Chain, High Performance DeFi Exchange

By
TI Partners
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0

L.xyz has begun the presale of its native token LXYZ while progressing toward its goal of building a high performance, multi chain decentralized exchange. The platform is designed to support fast execution, deep liquidity, cross chain market access, and advanced trading tools, making it an ambitious project within the Solana ecosystem.

The exchange is anchored by a hybrid AMM and order book engine. This structure provides both the continuous liquidity of AMM pools and the precision of order book execution. Traders can navigate spot markets, futures markets, and high leverage opportunities with greater control and reduced slippage.

 Expanding Into a Multi Chain Trading Future

 L.xyz intends to extend beyond Solana by introducing cross chain swap functionality and multi chain liquidity pools. This expansion will allow users to trade assets across different blockchain networks without leaving the platform.

As the ecosystem grows, L.xyz will introduce AI powered insights, mobile applications, and advanced derivatives that appeal to users seeking a full spectrum trading environment.

 Presale Offers Early Access to Ecosystem Utility

The LXYZ token is central to governance, staking, liquidity incentives, and future cross chain features. The presale allocates 200 million tokens equal to 40 percent of the total supply. These tokens are released in ten structured phases with predictable price progression.

Participants receive tokens with lock up periods and vesting schedules to support long term ecosystem balance and reduce short term volatility. 

Feature Set Designed for Both Active and Passive Users 

L.xyz supports a wide range of trading profiles through its set of tools and incentives. These include:

  • Spot, margin, and futures markets
  • Up to 100x leverage for selected pairs
  • Real time charting tools for technical analysis
  • Limit and stop orders for structured strategies
  • Risk tools including liquidation monitoring
  • Liquidity mining and staking rewards for passive participants

Together, these features aim to create a trading environment that is both powerful and accessible while retaining full decentralization. 

Toward a High Performance, Community Driven Exchange 

L.xyz incorporates a DAO based governance model where token holders influence listings, upgrades, and platform decisions. This structure ensures that the growth of the exchange remains aligned with the needs of its users.

As the LXYZ presale progresses, early supporters are positioned to participate in a platform that aims to combine speed, scalability, advanced tooling, and community governance across multiple blockchains.

 

Telegram: T.me/ldotxyz

X: X.com/ldotxyz

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