UNI Token Rallies as Voting Begins on Unification Proposal

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🟣 UNI rallies as Uniswap voting begins on major token burn

• 📉 CryptoQuant warns bitcoin demand boom is fading

• 🚨 What you can learn from a user loses $50 million in an address poisoning attack

• 💳 Klarna raises institutional funding using USDC via Coinbase

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UNI Token Rallies as Voting Begins on UNIfication Proposal

Uniswap's native token UNI has surged after voting commenced on the "Unification" proposal, which includes burning 100 million UNI tokens from the treasury.

UNI rallied 32% from an intraday low of $4.87 to highs near $6.35 as voting kicked off on Friday, before dropping to $6.21 by Monday morning.

The onchain vote, which runs until Dec. 25, has seen strong support, with over 62 million UNI tokens in favor and just 741 UNI against, surpassing the 40 million quorum required.

The proposal was put forth by the Uniswap Foundation in November. It activates protocol fees on trading volume, directing a portion, along with Unichain sequencer fees, to a UNI token burn mechanism for deflationary pressure.

A retroactive burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury, which is roughly 16% of circulating supply, compensates for fees not collected since launch, while Protocol Fee Discount Auctions (PFDA) and v4 aggregator hooks capture additional value like MEV.

Bitcoin’s Demand Boom is Fading: CryptoQuant

Bitcoin’s choppy price action in recent weeks might be a sign that the bull market has run its course, with analysts at onchain research firm CryptoQuant noting that bitcoin demand has decisively slowed.

“Bitcoin’s demand boom is fading. This cycle ran on three spot demand waves, and the latest one looks like it’s rolling over,” said CryptoQuant.

According to analysts, three major spot demand waves fueled bitcoin's rally since 2023: the U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launching, the U.S. presidential election outcome, and bitcoin treasury companies. Now, analysts say these catalysts have largely played out, removing key price support as incremental demand fades.

CryptoQuant’s potential downside targets for bitcoin include intermediate support at $70,000 and a realized price bottom around $56,000. Still, the implied 55% correction from recent highs would be the smallest on record for a bear market.

As of Sunday evening, bitcoin was trading at $88,913, relatively flat over 24 hours, but down 29% since its all-time high of $126,198 in October.

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Users Loses $50 Million in Address Poisoning Attack

A large crypto holder lost around $50 million in an “address poisoning” scam on Friday, marking one of the biggest onchain losses of 2025.

Address poisoning attackers generate wallet addresses that visually resemble a target’s legitimate address, relying on the fact that users only check the beginning and end of the address. They “poison” the victim’s history by sending tiny transactions from these fake addresses, hoping the victim later copies the wrong one when making a large transfer.

In this case, the victim withdrew around $50 million of USDT from Binance and first sent a test transfer of 50 USDT to the correct recipient wallet. An attacker then sent a tiny “dust” transaction from a lookalike wallet address that shared the same first few and last few characters as the real one, so it appeared legitimate in the victim’s transaction history.

When sending the main transfer, the victim copied this poisoned address from history instead of the real one, accidentally sending 49,999,950 USDT to the attacker.

The victim broadcast an onchain message demanding the return of 98% of the funds within 48 hours and threatening civil and criminal action with international law enforcement.

According to onchain analyst Specter, the attacker has already begun depositing funds in crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

Klarna Taps Coinbase for USDC-Based Institutional Funding

Buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna has announced a new partnership with Coinbase that lets it raise short‑term funding from institutional investors using the Circle-issued USDC stablecoin, adding crypto-based capital to its existing funding mix of deposits, loans, and commercial paper.

Klarna will receive funding from institutions in USDC using Coinbase’s digital asset infrastructure as the rails for these transactions. The USDC channel will sit alongside Klarna’s traditional sources of capital rather than replacing them, broadening how it finances its lending and BNPL activities.

Using stablecoins gives Klarna direct access to a new pool of institutional investors that prefer blockchain-based, dollar-like assets for speed and efficient settlement.

“This is an exciting first step into a new way to raise funding,” said Klarna CFO Niclas Neglén.

Last month, Klarna launched its own U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, as its entry into crypto, built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain. KlarnaUSD is scheduled to go live on Tempo’s mainnet in 2026.

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• 🤝 Bipartisan House lawmakers unveiled a draft crypto tax framework that would exempt small stablecoin payments from capital gains taxes and allow a temporary deferral on staking and mining taxes, aiming to reduce friction for everyday crypto use.

• 🔥 Aave Labs triggered backlash inside the Aave DAO after pushing a brand-ownership proposal to a vote without the author’s consent, with critics accusing the firm of bypassing governance norms and forcing a rushed decision amid unresolved community debate.

• 🚫 The SEC finalized settlements with three former FTX insiders, including Caroline Ellison, barring them from serving as company officers for up to a decade and effectively closing the agency’s remaining enforcement cases tied to the exchange’s collapse.

• 🔌 The Federal Reserve moved closer to creating a lighter “payment account” that could give crypto firms access to its payment systems without full banking privileges, while drawing internal pushback over safeguards against financial crime.

• 🏙️ Hong Kong’s insurance regulator plans to let insurers invest in cryptocurrencies and major infrastructure projects under proposed rules that would heavily penalize crypto risk, aim to steer private capital into government-priority developments, and go out for public consultation next year.

• ⛏️ Tether-backed Northern Data sold its bitcoin mining unit for up to $200 million to companies controlled by Tether’s own top executives, a related-party transaction that surfaced through filings despite not being formally disclosed at the time.

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