Author: MNK News

The XRP price has wiped out some of the gains made in November as the cryptocurrency sell-off continued. Ripple (XRP) retreated to $2.14 on Monday, a 26% decline from its highest level this month, meaning that it has moved into a bear market.  XRP’s drop happened as its social sentiment score and futures open interest continued falling. According to CoinGlass, the futures open interest dropped to $1.89 billion on Monday, down from the year-to-date high of over $4.29 billion.  Ripple’s daily volume has also dropped in the past few weeks as its momentum waned. Its 24-hour volume was over $10…

Justin Sullivan / Staff / Getty Images Chip stocks surged Monday, led by Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices following bullish calls from analysts anticipating gains driven by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). UBS analysts raised their price target for Broadcom’s stock, citing the chipmaker’s AI revenue growth. Rosenblatt analysts called AMD a “top pick” for the first half of 2025, noting its growing market share and AI-driven potential. Shares of other chipmakers, including Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel, also rose. Chip stocks surged Monday, led by Broadcom (AVGO) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) following bullish calls from analysts anticipating gains driven…

Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures led the $10 million Series A funding round for Usual, a decentralized fiat-backed real-world assets stablecoin issuer. Usual, the RWA-backed stablecoin issuer that uses its USUAL token to distribute value and ownership, revealed the fundraising via X on Dec. 23.  The protocol said it had secured $10 million in the Series A round led by the Binance and Kraken venture capital arms Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures. Usual’s fundraiser also attracted the participation of other heavyweight VC platforms across the ecosystem, including Galaxy Digital, OKX Ventures, Wintermute and Amber Group. Usual hit this milestone on…

A Ukrainian ground robot in testing.Via WarTranslated A Ukrainian national guard brigade just orchestrated an all-robot combined-arms operation, mixing crawling and flying drones for an assault on Russian positions in Kharkiv Oblast in northern Ukraine. “We are talking about dozens of units of robotic and unmanned equipment simultaneously on a small section of the front,” a spokesperson for the 13th National Guard Brigade explained. It was an impressive technological feat—and a worrying sign of weakness on the part of overstretched Ukrainian forces. Unmanned ground vehicles in particular suffer profound limitations, and still can’t fully replace human infantry. That the 13th…

(Reuters) – Nicaragua’s legislature is set to vote on a bill overhauling the Central American nation’s banking system, which would give the state control over appointing the leadership at private financial institutions in the country. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT The bill, sent by President Daniel Ortega to Congress, was presented to lawmakers on Monday. The proposal would give the national banking regulator the ability to name banking executives at private firms. The regulator could also dissolve or liquidate banks by decree, the bill’s text reads. ADDITIONAL CONTEXT The proposal would represent the latest tightening of state control over the sector. Last…

Chainlink, the oracle network bringing global finance on-chain, has announced the launch of an oracle solution it says will help decentralized finance protocols recapture maximal extractable value. The Chainlink Smart Value Recapture is a MEV solution that DeFi applications can tap into to recapture non-toxic maximal extractable value from Chainlink Price Feeds.  According to an announcement by the Chainlink (LINK) team, the initial version of its SVR is an effort contributed to by Aave (AAVE) DAO contributors BGD Labs and Flashbots among others. Chainlink SVR’s initial focus is DeFi lending protocols, according to Chainlink. It’s one of the solutions looking…

2024 by any measure has been an extremely rewarding year for U.S. stock investors. Also, it has been a year dominated with big investment themes including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the growing demand for electrical power in the U.S., the reassertion of Bitcoin and Crypto, the increasing usage of GLP-1 drugs and the rebuilding of U.S. infrastructure. As the year comes to an end, we want to look ahead to some of the possible major investment themes for 2025. These themes are from the research work by William O’Neil + Co.’s experienced equity analysts. Some of the themes are new and…

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – DECEMBER 21: Oleksandr Usyk punches Tyson Fury during the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC … [+] and WBO Undisputed World Heavyweight titles’ fight (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)Getty Images Oleksandr Usyk successfully defended his IBF, WBA, and WBC heavyweight championships with a unanimous decision win over Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday. All three judges scored the fight 116-112. The unofficial A.I. judge scored it even wider for Usyk at 118-112. Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was the unofficial judge for DAZN, though he wasn’t present at the event. He scored the fight closer, but…

As many as 1 million taxpayers will receive a “special” year-end gift from the IRS as the agency deposits pandemic-era stimulus checks worth a total of $2.4 billion directly in their bank accounts. The automatic deposits will be issued “later this month” and should arrive “in most cases” by late January 2025, the agency said. They will be paid to eligible taxpayers who did not claim the 2021 recovery rebate credit on their tax return for themselves and their dependents, worth up to $1,400 per individual. “Looking at our internal data, we realized that 1 million taxpayers overlooked claiming this…

Hyperliquid Labs, the team behind HYPE’s $28 billion FDV token, refuted claims that North Korean hackers had infiltrated its layer-1 protocol. Hyperliquid Labs (HYPE) shared an announcement debunking any links between whale activity and a possible exploit masterminded by hackers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Per a message published on the project’s Discord server, “no vulnerabilities have been shared by any party,” and white hats are welcome to submit bug reports as part of a “generous bug bounty program. On Dec. 23, a HYPE whale sold 1 million tokens amid speculation that North Korean hackers actively traded on…