U.S. regulators are moving ahead with crypto oversight after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, issuing a joint SEC-CFTC interpretation on six tokens and approving listings of 3-times leveraged ETFs. Bitcoin recovered to around $86,000 on a weekly close, while XRP drew attention ahead of Evernode’s Nasdaq debut. In South Korea, the government plans tighter monitoring of cross-border digital-asset transfers, and financial firms are accelerating partnerships ahead of a tokenised securities regime due in February.

BlackRock said the spread of artificial intelligence agents could increase demand for cryptocurrencies, as software rather than retail investors may become a major source of demand. It said card networks and ACH systems are built around human onboarding, are inefficient for micro-payments and can be slow to settle. It highlighted blockchain-based payment rails as suited to high-frequency, sub-cent machine-to-machine transactions, while distinguishing stablecoins for daily payments and bitcoin for long-term value storage.