On December 22, 2025, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said he wants the company to underpin a new internet layer for global money movement. Since its June 5 IPO, Circle launched the Arc Layer 1, partnered with BlackRock, Visa and AWS, and signed a multiyear Intuit deal. Q3 revenue and reserve income reached $740 million.

In 2025, U.S. auto loan delinquencies climbed to record levels, as borrowers struggled under $1.66 trillion in outstanding car debt and repossessions reached their highest point since the 2008 Great Recession. Although Federal Reserve rate cuts in September and October lowered average refinance rates from 8.35% in January to 7.62% in September, tighter credit standards have left many subprime borrowers unable to benefit. At the same time, the average new vehicle price rose to $48,699 in May, further pressuring households already paying historically high monthly car notes.

On Monday, the People's Bank of China kept the 1‑year loan prime rate at 3.00% and the 5‑year at 3.50%, marking a seventh consecutive meeting without change. November retail and industrial data underwhelmed, and housing indicators fell, while analysts flagged a soft yuan and debated stimulus options.

In November 2023, Binance agreed to a $4.3 billion criminal plea deal with US authorities, but later findings allege the exchange still allowed flagged accounts to process large crypto flows. An investigation into 13 Binance accounts reportedly uncovered $1.7 billion in crypto movements, including $144 million after the plea deal, with links to Iran, Hezbollah and wallets later frozen under anti-terrorism laws. Binance's legal team denies knowingly facilitating criminal activity and says relevant wallets were not designated for terror financing at the time.

Alphabet paused Waymo's driverless ride-hail in San Francisco after a widespread outage left multiple robotaxis immobilized. The blackout began Saturday afternoon, peaked two hours later, and affected about 130,000 customers; roughly 21,000 homes and businesses remained without power at press time. A substation fire caused extensive damage, and no timeline for full repairs was given.

Intel's shares rose 86% in 2025 amid $9 billion from the US government via the CHIPS Act, plus $5 billion from Nvidia and $2 billion from SoftBank, alongside Lip‑Bu Tan's appointment as CEO in March 2025. Entering 2026, the foundry remained loss‑making and lacked a major outside customer, with analysts warning Intel has 12–18 months to secure a 14A client.

On December 21, 2025, Bank of America, Bernstein and Jefferies reaffirmed buy ratings on Nvidia, citing a $500 billion outlook across Blackwell, Rubin and networking through 2026. BofA and Bernstein kept $275 targets, Jefferies set $250. Analysts highlighted early‑2026 Blackwell‑based LLMs, valuation metrics, and pending H200 export licenses to China.

In December 2025, Tencent was reported to be using Datasection's data centers near Osaka and in Sydney to access thousands of Nvidia's latest GPUs under multi‑year contracts, despite U.S. export limits on high‑end chips to China. Datasection's initial batch of 15,000 Blackwell processors and planned deployment of tens of thousands of B300 chips underpin deals exceeding $1.2 billion, while the company faces investor scrutiny, short‑seller criticism, and regulatory sensitivity around its links to Chinese clients and Singapore‑based First Plus Financial Holdings. The firm says its GPU projects are fully compliant with applicable laws and rely on approvals from Nvidia and the U.S. Commerce Department.

On December 21, 2025, Cleveland Fed President Elizabeth Hammack said rates should remain unchanged for months after three meetings cut a total of 0.75 percentage points. She cited inflation risks, noting the 2.7 percent CPI may be closer to 2.9 percent to 3.0 percent, and pointed to tariffs and higher input costs that could lift prices in early 2025.