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Jarett Dunn Sentenced in the UK Amid PUMP on Multi-Dimensional Low

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

A London court sentenced Jarett Dunn, a former senior developer at Pump.fun the popular Solana-based memecoin launchpad, to six years in prison two concurrent six-year terms for fraud by abuse of position and transfer of criminal property.

He stole approximately $2 million worth of Solana (SOL) from the platform in 2024, shortly after joining for just six weeks. Instead of keeping the funds, Dunn distributed them to thousands of random wallet addresses and publicly confessed on social media, attempting to frame it as a “whistleblower” act to expose the platform’s risks.

The judge rejected this defense. Dunn, a Canadian national, had pleaded guilty earlier but tried to withdraw it, leading to delays. He received credit for time served including remand and electronic tagging.

The incident occurred when Pump.fun was still emerging, but the platform has since generated nearly $1 billion in revenue. Regarding $PUMP. It has been under pressure recently, with reports of a -32% decline over the past week and significant outflows.

The token is trading near multi-month lows amid broader market weakness and renewed scrutiny on Pump.fun including an ongoing U.S. fraud lawsuit alleging insider manipulation.

The sentencing news has circulated widely in crypto communities, potentially contributing to sentiment-driven selling. The sentencing news resurfaced old controversies around Pump.fun’s security and governance. Combined with broader crypto market weakness and whale selling like major dumps reported in mid-December.

$PUMP has traded near multi-month lows, down significantly in recent weeks reports of -30% weekly drops and over 50% YTD declines in some analyses. While not a new all-time low it amplified selling pressure and contributed to bearish momentum.

Crypto X discussions largely view the event as closure on a 2024 incident, with some ironic commentary like Dunn’s “whistleblower” defense failing while Pump.fun thrived. No major FUD spike, but it reminded holders of past risks.

The 2024 theft occurred when Pump.fun was nascent, with ~$44 million lifetime revenue. Since then, it has generated nearly $927-930 million in total revenue per Dune and multiple reports as of December 2025, becoming one of Solana’s top protocols. This highlights the memecoin sector’s growth despite incidents, underscoring robust demand for easy token launches.

The quick recovery and subsequent improvements show platforms can survive insider threats. However, it reinforces the need for strong internal controls in DeFi. A six-year sentence concurrent terms, with credit for time served signals growing real-world accountability for crypto crimes, even non-traditional ones— Dunn distributed funds rather than pocketing them.

This could deter similar abuses in fast-growing projects. Pump.fun faces a major U.S. class-action lawsuit alleging fraud, insider manipulation via MEV tools, and securities violations naming co-founders, Solana entities, and Jito Labs.

Recent developments include court approval for amended complaints with new evidence (leaked chats). If successful, it could lead to damages, regulatory scrutiny on memecoin launchpads, or precedents classifying certain tokens/activities as securities—potentially chilling innovation on Solana.

Pump.fun remains dominant in Solana memecoin launches, but revenue has cooled from 2025 peaks like monthly highs >$100M early year, dropping later amid memecoin slowdowns. $PUMP’s utility ties to platform growth, so sustained activity could support recovery, but legal overhang poses downside risk.

Overall, the sentencing closes a chapter positively for Pump.fun’s narrative of survival and growth, but the active lawsuit represents the bigger existential threat.

A Look At U.S. November CPI Report and How It Is Impacting U.S. Housing Market’s Mindshare

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0
A detached three-bedroom apartments are pictured at Haggai Estate, Redeption Camp on Lagos Ibadan highway in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria on August, 30, 2012. The high cost of living and the massive urbanization of Lagos, the largest city and the economic capital of Nigeria, has engineered a migration of residents mostly middle class and the poor to neighbouring towns in Ogun State, both in southwest part of the country in search of cheap accommodations. Estate developers are quick in exploiting the high cost and scarcity of accommodation leading to emerging new towns, modern estates to accommodate the spillover in Lagos. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GettyImages)

US Core CPI for November 2025 dropped to 2.6% year-over-year, the lowest level since March 2021 and well below economist expectations of around 3.0%.

Headline CPI came in at 2.7% y/y, also cooler than the forecasted 3.1%. This report released recently, combined with data for October and November due to a prolonged federal government shutdown that disrupted October price collection by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

No separate October CPI was published, and monthly changes for November alone weren’t calculated—instead, a two-month— September to November change of about 0.2% was reported for both headline and core indexes.

The shelter category, which makes up over 40% of core CPI, showed an unusually sharp slowdown: essentially flat or up only ~0.2% over the two months. Prior to this, shelter had been rising ~0.3% monthly on average through the first nine months of 2025.

Economists widely attribute this to distortions from the shutdown: BLS couldn’t collect survey data for October and couldn’t retroactively gather most of it. For missing data, prices were likely “carried forward” imputed as unchanged, creating a downward bias.

Data collection resumed only mid-November, potentially capturing more holiday discounts and missing earlier price trends. Analysts describe the report as “noisy,” “downwardly biased,” “Swiss-cheese,” or warranting “the entire salt shaker” of skepticism.

Many expect a rebound in the December CPI due January 13, 2026, with clearer, undistorted data. Despite the low reading, shelter y/y still rose 3%, contributing significantly to remaining core inflation pressures. Apparently, while markets reacted dovishly boosting rate-cut odds, the Federal Reserve is likely to downplay this report and focus on upcoming cleaner data.

The shelter component is one of the largest parts of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), accounting for about one-third around 33-40%, depending on exact weighting of the overall basket and over 40% of core CPI which excludes food and energy. It includes: Rent of primary residence actual rents paid by tenants.

Owners’ equivalent rent (OER) estimated rental value of owner-occupied homes, the biggest subcomponent. Lodging away from home e.g., hotels. Shelter has been a persistent driver of inflation in recent years, often rising faster than other categories due to lagging effects from the post-pandemic housing market.

The November 2025 CPI report showed an unusually sharp slowdown in shelter inflation: the shelter index increased just 0.2% over the two-month period from September to November 2025 averaging ~0.1% per month. This was far below the typical ~0.3% monthly pace seen in the first nine months of 2025.

This slowdown was largely artificial and stemmed from data collection disruptions caused by the prolonged U.S. federal government shutdown. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) could not collect survey data for October 2025, as field staff were furloughed. These survey data especially for rents and OER, which rely on in-person or phone surveys of landlords and tenants cannot be collected retroactively.

Per standard BLS procedures, missing prices were handled via carry-forward imputation: October prices were assumed unchanged from the last available data often from September or earlier periods, such as April for some rent samples.

This effectively set shelter price changes to zero for October in many cases. Data collection only resumed on November 14, 2025, covering roughly half the month and potentially capturing more end-of-month discounts around Black Friday. As a result the two-month shelter increase was biased downward.

Primary rents rose an implausibly low ~0.06-0.1% on average over the two months. OER rose ~0.14%. Economists widely view this as “noisy” or “downwardly biased” data. Private-sector measures like Zillow, Apartment List showed ongoing rent growth during this period, inconsistent with near-zero BLS readings.

Shelter’s heavy weight amplified the distortion, contributing to the surprisingly low core CPI reading of 2.6% y/y, lowest since March 2021. Many analysts from Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Harvard’s Jason Furman expect a rebound in shelter inflation in upcoming reports, particularly December 2025 CPI, which will have full-month undistorted data.

Some lingering effects may persist until the missed October sample is fully replaced potentially into spring 2026. The shelter slowdown reflects methodological necessities due to the shutdown, not a genuine sharp drop in housing costs. Cleaner data in future reports should provide a more accurate picture.

SoFi Technologies Launches SoFiUSD to Drive Stablecoin Acceleration

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

SoFi Technologies announced the launch of SoFiUSD, a fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by its nationally chartered bank, SoFi Bank, N.A.

Launched initially on Ethereum, a public, permissionless blockchain, with plans to expand to other chains over time. Backing: 1:1 fully backed by cash reserves held at the Federal Reserve, ensuring immediate redemption and no credit or liquidity risk.

SoFi claims this makes it the first U.S. national bank to issue a stablecoin on a public blockchain distinguishing it from private/permissioned ones like JPMorgan’s JPM Coin.

Primarily for faster, 24/7 settlements in payments, remittances, crypto trading, and enterprise use. It positions SoFi as a “stablecoin infrastructure provider,” allowing other banks and fintechs to white-label their own interoperable stablecoins or integrate SoFiUSD directly.

Currently used for internal settlements; rollout to SoFi members is coming soon. This follows SoFi’s recent re-entry into crypto trading and aligns with clearer U.S. regulations like the GENIUS Act passed in July 2025.

The introduction of SoFiUSD by SoFi Bank marks a significant milestone as the first stablecoin issued by a U.S. national bank on a public blockchain like Ethereum. This development has broad implications for the financial sector, blending traditional banking with decentralized technology under evolving regulations like the GENIUS Act of 2025.

SoFiUSD operates under strict oversight from the OCC, FDIC, and Federal Reserve, ensuring 1:1 backing with cash reserves held at the Fed. This eliminates credit and liquidity risks associated with non-bank issuers, positioning it as “regulated bank money” rather than a pure crypto asset.

It aligns with the GENIUS Act’s requirements for reserve backing and federal supervision, potentially paving the way for more banks to enter the space without facing the same hurdles. However, it also highlights a potential fault line in crypto governance, where bank-issued stablecoins could enable greater regulatory control, such as freezing accounts or blocking transactions, raising concerns about centralization versus individual sovereignty.

SoFiUSD intensifies competition in the $200B+ stablecoin market, challenging dominant players like USDT and USDC with its bank charter advantage—direct Fed reserve access reduces liquidity risk and builds a “regulatory moat.

By offering “stablecoins as a service,” SoFi enables white-label issuance for other banks, fintechs, and enterprises, lowering entry barriers and potentially expanding the overall stablecoin ecosystem. This could democratize access, turning stablecoins into standard infrastructure rather than niche crypto tools.

It bridges traditional finance (TradFi) with decentralized finance (DeFi) by providing bank-grade infrastructure on permissionless blockchains. This facilitates applications like crypto trading within SoFi’s platform, remittances via SoFi Pay, and enterprise settlements through partners like Galileo.

For SoFi, it enhances economics through trapped deposits, better margins, and new revenue streams from fees and reserve yields, while boosting user engagement and cross-selling.

Broader implications include accelerating crypto adoption now at 10-12% of global population by offering FDIC-insured, yield-bearing options that appeal to risk-averse users. SoFi can monetize its balance sheet as on-chain infrastructure, handling stress scenarios like mass redemptions through robust reserves.

It reframes stablecoins as “internet-native money rails” for B2B settlements, potentially evolving into a serious settlement layer via API integrations. While bullish for SoFi’s stock and operations, it’s seen as more about efficient bank plumbing than a “crypto revolution.”

This launch validates on-chain finance, signals institutional bridging, and could spur more banks to follow, but it underscores tensions between compliance-driven efficiency and decentralized ideals. SoFiUSD enhances liquidity by injecting trusted, regulated USD equivalents into digital ecosystems, enabling faster capital flows and deeper market participation.

Fully backed by Fed reserves with immediate redeemability, it minimizes issuer risks, encouraging adoption and increasing the pool of stable USD assets on Ethereum. White-labeling allows partners to issue interoperable stablecoins, expanding supply without regulatory burdens, which amplifies overall market liquidity.

Unlike traditional rails like SWIFT with T+1/T+2 delays, SoFiUSD offers near-instant, low-cost transfers, improving liquidity in payments, remittances, and trading by allowing constant capital movement.

This is key for crypto trading; on/off-ramps and enterprise uses like B2B flows. Interoperability with public blockchains enables DeFi applications like lending and yield farming, drawing institutional capital for better market depth and reduced volatility.

Regulated status attracts risk-averse entities, enhancing liquidity through higher volumes and partnerships. Reserves generate yield 4% on $1B float yields ~$40M annually, which can be passed to holders, incentivizing holding and circulation.

For partners, it streamlines liquidity management with transparent, programmable money. In essence, SoFiUSD drives liquidity by making USD more fluid and accessible in digital realms, fostering a more efficient, interconnected financial system.

ICE’s Potential Investment in MoonPay amid Uniswap’s UNIfication Proposal Going Live

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Bloomberg reported that Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is in talks to invest in cryptocurrency payments firm MoonPay as part of a new funding round.

The round could value MoonPay at approximately $5 billion, a significant increase from its previous $3.4 billion valuation in 2021.
Talks are described as advanced but private, and the deal is not yet finalized—it could fall through or change terms.

This potential investment aligns with ICE’s broader push into digital assets, following moves like its up-to-$2 billion commitment to Polymarket earlier in 2025 and ownership of the Bakkt crypto platform.

MoonPay has strengthened its position with: Regulatory approvals in New York including a Limited Purpose Trust Charter alongside its BitLicense. Expansion into custody services and stablecoins. High-profile hires, such as former acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham joining as chief legal officer.

This reflects growing bridges between traditional finance— Wall Street and the crypto sector amid a more favorable regulatory environment. While the deal is not finalized and could change or fall through,

ICE’s involvement would link Wall Street’s institutional network directly to MoonPay’s fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramps, making it easier for institutions and retail users to enter crypto. This could lower barriers and embed crypto payments into broader financial ecosystems, including potential integrations with NYSE-linked services.

Faster global reach for stablecoins and payments, positioning crypto as a viable alternative in commerce. A $5 billion valuation represents a ~47% increase from MoonPay’s 2021 peak of $3.4 billion, serving as a strong signal of recovery and maturity post-2022 downturn.

Backing from a legacy giant like ICE which also owns Bakkt and recently committed up to $2 billion to Polymarket indicates that mainstream finance views regulated crypto infrastructure as a legitimate, long-term asset class.

This could encourage more venture capital inflows—crypto funding has already hit nearly $19 billion in 2025—and stabilize valuations across the industry. Its builds on its crypto push— Bakkt custody, Polymarket bet, stablecoin explorations with Circle’s USDC, diversifying beyond traditional exchanges into payments, tokenization, and on-chain infrastructure.

Its aligns with trends like asset tokenization like DTCC’s tokenized settlements and a more pro-crypto U.S. regulatory and political environment under the Trump administration. This positions ICE to capture value in emerging areas like regulated custody, stablecoins, and cross-border efficiency.

MoonPay’s recent New York regulatory wins make it an attractive, compliant partner. The investment would fuel expansions in custody, stablecoins, and acquisitions, evolving MoonPay from a simple on-ramp to a full-service institutional gateway comparable to Coinbase or PayPal in regulatory standing.

It einforces the shift toward “regulated” crypto growth, reducing risks from past volatility and scandals. No immediate direct price impact on crypto markets noted, but it contributes to positive sentiment amid Wall Street’s increasing exposure.

This could pave the way for more hybrid products blending tradfi and crypto, such as tokenized assets or integrated clearing services. This potential deal highlights a maturing crypto industry where bridges between Wall Street and blockchain are forming rapidly, driven by regulatory progress and institutional interest. If completed, it would mark another milestone in crypto’s integration into global finance.

Uniswap’s UNIfication Proposal is Live on Uniswap Governance Portal

The on-chain governance vote for Uniswap’s “UNIfication” proposal—including activation of the long-awaited fee switch—is Live.

The proposal was submitted on-chain on, and voting officially starts today with some sources noting ~10:30 PM EST on December 19, effectively beginning late today. It runs until December 25, 2025. If passed after a 2-day timelock: 100 million UNI tokens burned immediately from the treasury a retroactive adjustment for missed fees since launch.

Fee switch activated on Uniswap v2 and v3 pools on Ethereum mainnet, with protocol fees routed to buy and burn UNI making the token deflationary and tied to protocol revenue. Unichain sequencer fees also used to burn UNI.

Uniswap Labs formally aligns with governance via a legally binding agreement under Wyoming’s DUNA law. This marks a major shift for UNI, turning it from a pure governance token into one with direct value accrual through burns linked to trading volume.

The proposal passed earlier off-chain Snapshot votes with strong support >63M UNI in favor. This has generated significant buzz in the community, with many viewing it as a bullish catalyst for $UNI.

100 million UNI ~10-16% of circulating supply, worth ~$500-800M at recent prices burned retroactively from the treasury. Ongoing protocol fees from v2/v3 on Ethereum mainnet and Unichain sequencer revenue routed to buy and burn UNI, creating a deflationary mechanism tied to trading volume.

UNI evolves from a pure governance token to one with “cash flow” characteristics—estimated 2.5-3% annual implied yield via supply reduction under moderate growth. At current run-rates ~$1B+ annualized fees in 2025, this could generate hundreds of millions in annual burns.

UNI has already rallied significantly on anticipation 40-70% pumps post-initial proposal. Passage could sustain momentum, positioning UNI as a top “fundamentals” play in DeFi. Fee switch diverts a portion of fees to the protocol, v2: LP fees drop from 0.30% to 0.25%, protocol takes 0.05%; v3: 1/6 to 1/4 of LP fees.

This taxes LPs, potentially leading to liquidity migration to competitors like Aerodrome on Base, Curve offering higher yields. Cleaner ecosystem eliminates many scam/honeypot pools which rely on zero protocol fees, improving overall quality and reducing rug risks.

Minimal direct impact fees mostly unchanged, but potential higher slippage if liquidity fragments. Long-term, more efficient routing via v4 hooks, UniswapX could benefit users. It merges Uniswap Foundation into Labs, eliminates Labs’ interface/API fees set to 0%, and funds growth via treasury 20M UNI/year budget.

Labs binds legally to governance via Wyoming DUNA framework, reducing misalignment risks. Gradual rollout starting Ethereum mainnet, expanding to L2s/v4 minimizes disruption. Could solidify Uniswap as the “default DEX” with deeper liquidity and innovations like MEV capture, aggregator hooks.

It sets a model for protocol revenue sharing via burns, encouraging similar moves elsewhere while addressing past criticisms of “untapped” value ~$4T+ lifetime volume without holder accrual. If LPs migrate en masse, short-term volume/TVL drop possible some analysts predict significant Base volume is “scammy” and will vanish.

Ties revenue directly to holders; could attract SEC attention though resolved prior issues. Phased approach and governance flexibility adjustable fee tiers mitigate risks, but competition remains fierce.

This is widely viewed as a net positive catalyst for UNI and DeFi maturation—turning Uniswap into a revenue-generating, deflationary asset while unifying operations.

Market sentiment is overwhelmingly bullish, with passage expected to drive further upside. Track the vote on Uniswap governance portal for real-time updates.

Google Takes Legal Aim at Data Scraping Firms as AI Intensifies the Fight Over Online Content

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

Google has escalated its battle against large-scale data scraping by filing a lawsuit against SerpApi, a Texas-based company it accuses of systematically siphoning content from its search results using massive volumes of fake queries, in what the tech giant describes as industrial-scale theft of copyrighted material.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in California, alleges that SerpApi generated hundreds of millions of automated Google search requests to bypass Google’s technical safeguards, extract data embedded in search results, and then resell that information to third parties. Google argues that the practice allows SerpApi and its customers to “take it for free at an astonishing scale,” undermining both content creators and Google’s own contractual obligations to partners.

Google’s general counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, said the company had little choice but to resort to legal action after other measures failed.

“We devote significant resources to fighting this abuse and protecting websites’ content in our results,” she said in a statement. “When our technical security protections are circumvented in such a brazen way, as a last resort we take legal action to stop this behavior.”

At the heart of the dispute is the growing value of search data in the age of artificial intelligence. Google said its search results often include licensed and copyrighted material from third parties across products such as Knowledge Panels, Google Maps, and Google Shopping. These results, described in the complaint as “high-quality, content-rich,” are precisely what make Google a prime target for scrapers seeking structured data that can be repurposed for analytics, resale, or AI-related applications.

SerpApi did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Google is seeking unspecified monetary damages as well as a court order to block SerpApi from continuing its scraping activities.

The case adds Google to a growing list of platforms pushing back against companies accused of harvesting online content without permission, a conflict that has intensified alongside the rapid expansion of generative AI. In October, Reddit filed a lawsuit against SerpApi and other scraping firms, alleging that its content was being taken to help train Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine. While Perplexity is not named in Google’s complaint, the overlap highlights how search data and user-generated content have become critical inputs in the AI ecosystem.

A Reddit spokesperson welcomed Google’s move, saying the company was “encouraged” by the lawsuit.

“When bad actors scrape content without permission or guardrails, they are turning the openness of the Internet against itself,” the spokesperson said.

For Google, the lawsuit also reflects broader strategic and legal pressures. The company sits at the center of the global information economy, aggregating and organizing vast amounts of data from across the web, often under complex licensing arrangements. Large-scale scraping threatens not only its infrastructure and revenue models, but also its relationships with publishers, map providers, and retailers whose content appears in search results under specific terms.

More broadly, the case underscores how the AI boom is reshaping old debates about web scraping, fair use, and data ownership. What was once a niche technical practice has become a high-stakes commercial activity, with companies racing to secure training data and real-time information at scale. Courts are increasingly being asked to draw lines between legitimate access, competitive intelligence, and outright misappropriation.

The lawsuit is titled Google LLC v. SerpApi LLC, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California under case number 5:25-cv-10826. Its outcome could help set new boundaries for how far third-party firms can go in extracting value from search engines — and may shape how data flows across the internet as AI systems continue to proliferate.

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