Author：Too young
The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Happy Wednesday! Ethereum is set for its second major upgrade of the year, with Fusaka scheduled to activate at around 4:49 p.m. ET.
In today's newsletter, the UK passes a law officially recognizing crypto as property, Firelight launches an XRP staking protocol on Flare, shares in the Trump brothers' American Bitcoin plunge 40%, plus more.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's X Money searches for a "payments platform" tech lead, and Solana is eager to help.
P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!
UK passes law officially recognizing crypto as third kind of property
The UK now legally recognizes digital assets as a third category of property after the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent from King Charles III.
- The reform, which passed both houses of Parliament without amendment, confirms that assets like bitcoin and stablecoins carry property rights distinct from physical objects or contractual claims.
- "A third category of property now exists and it finally gives legal protection to the sats you hold," Bitcoin Policy UK CEO Susie Ward said.
- The advocacy group's Chief Policy Officer, Freddie New, also welcomed the passage, calling it possibly "the biggest change in English property law" since the Middle Ages.
- Blockchain industry trade association CryptoUK said codifying crypto as property strengthens legal pathways for proving ownership, recovering stolen assets, and handling insolvency or estate cases.
- The change follows a 2023 recommendation from the Law Commission, and formalizes what UK courts had been doing through case-by-case judgments.
Firelight launches XRP staking protocol on Flare
Firelight Finance has launched an XRP staking protocol on Flare that issues stXRP, a liquid restaking-style token designed to power a DeFi insurance model once rewards are activated in the next rollout phase.
- Users can bridge XRP via FAssets, deposit Flare wrapped XRP (FXRP), and mint stXRP today as a liquid receipt token, though rewards will only begin if DeFi protocols adopt Firelight's onchain insurance system and pay fees for coverage.
- Firelight's design borrows from restaking concepts but changes how it's applied by focusing on XRP's lower cost of capital and targeting a single high-conviction use case: insurance cover for top-tier DeFi protocols, Chief Strategy Officer Connor Sullivan told The Block.
- The team said it is in active talks with protocols to integrate the cover model, with fee revenue intended to flow to XRP stakers when full insurance functionality goes live in early 2026.
Trump brothers' American Bitcoin plunges after token lockup expires
American Bitcoin, the bitcoin mining and treasury firm co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., saw its stock price sink nearly 40% on Tuesday as investors sold newly unlocked pre-merger private placement shares.
- Eric Trump said the selloff was expected due to the lockup expiration, allowing early investors to cash in on their profits for the first time, but pledged to hold on to his own shares.
- The company recently posted strong Q3 results and expanded its bitcoin treasury to roughly 4,090 BTC, yet the stock has still fallen 76.5% from its September peak.
- ABTC's slump tracks a broader decline in crypto-linked equities, with analysts warning of additional share unlocks ahead in 2026.
IREN refuels balance sheet with $3.6 billion financing as AI-cloud buildout accelerates
IREN moved to overhaul its capital structure on Wednesday, lining up more than $1.6 billion in equity financing and pricing $2 billion in new convertible notes amid its AI-cloud expansion plans.
- The company is using most of the equity proceeds to retire 2029 and 2030 convertibles, removing a major dilution overhang and replacing them with higher-premium notes due 2032 and 2033.
- The refinancing follows recent concerns from JPMorgan, which projected IREN would need to spend over $9 billion in the next year to scale GPU capacity and data centers for its $9.7 billion Microsoft deal.
- IREN shares traded around $43.95 on Wednesday, up 6.9% on the day and slightly above recent two-month lows, as investors digested the large but balance-sheet-strengthening financing package.
Binance appoints co-founder Yi He as new co-CEO alongside Richard Teng
Binance appointed co-founder Yi He as its new co-CEO alongside Richard Teng on Wednesday in the crypto exchange's biggest leadership shake-up since Changpeng "CZ" Zhao was forced to step down in 2023.
- Yi He previously held the role of Chief Customer Service Officer at Binance and has been involved in the company's operations for over eight years since its formation in 2017.
- Zhao publicly endorsed the move on X, saying Yi He should have led Binance from day one.
- Yi He and Zhao have known each other since at least their OKCoin days, becoming both business and life partners and having children together.
In the next 24 hours
- U.S. jobless claims figures are due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
- U.S. FOMC member Michelle Bowman will speak at 12 p.m.
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