Early Riders | Open Range Weekly | 12.07.25
Bitcoin dipped nearly 4% on the week, to a market capitalization of $1.76T.
Early Riders Media
Michael, Brian, and special guest Mark Yusko, break down Bitcoin’s market cycle, institutional flows, and the macro forces shaping the next phase of adoption on this week's podcast.
You can find all our episodes on our podcast website as well as listen on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Industry & Institutional Updates
Coinbase revealed major banks are running stablecoin custody and trading pilots.
Bank of America endorsed a 4% crypto allocation across its wealth-management portfolios.
Nasdaq ISE upsized its IBIT options limits by 4x to allow significantly larger institutional positions.
BlackRock confirmed its bitcoin ETFs are now the firm’s top revenue-generating product line.
Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement program across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
IREN plans to raise up to $2.3B via convertible notes, to refinance its existing debt.
Vanguard opened its brokerage platform to Bitcoin ETFs, reversing years of resistance and giving millions of retirement investors direct access to BTC exposure.
Strategy announced the establishment of a $1.44B USD cash reserve while updating FY2025 guidance, signaling a shift toward balance-sheet conservatism and capital discipline.
DMND opened applications from all miners this week for their Stratum V2 pool.
Regulatory Updates
Texas kicked off its long-awaited state Bitcoin Reserve with a reported $5 million purchase of BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
Japan’s FSA moved to mandate crypto-asset reserve requirements for exchanges and custodians, strengthening investor protections in a major G7 market.
SEC Commissioner Atkins argued that clearer SEC authority is needed to support U.S. crypto innovation heading into 2026, signaling potential shifts in market-structure rulemaking.
CFTC enabled spot-crypto contracts to begin trading on U.S. regulated futures exchanges, marking a major step toward a fully regulated U.S. spot crypto market.
UK Parliament formalized digital assets as a legally recognized third category of personal property under the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, granting enforceable ownership rights for crypto holders.
What We’re Watching
Nearly $7B of transaction volume across 11 publicly announced bitcoin infrastructure deals have occurred in 2025 year-to-date. Both bitcoin infrastructure and traditional finance investors are rushing and paying outsized premiums to acquire and invest in bitcoin, and broader crypto infrastructure businesses that are delivering differentiated value propositions as industry notoriety continues to grow across the traditional finance investor landscape.
Onramp and Early Riders have partnered to deliver a state of the industry presentation on December 17th, with additional insights gleaned from our state of the industry survey. Register your interest here to receive an invite to the December 17th round table discussion.
Chart of the Week
The total United States' net interest nears $1T, which is larger than the total national defense budget.
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