Western Union, the leading international money transfer service provider, recently released a video in which it noted that the company is “uniquely positioned to connect the cash and digital world.” Western Union’s video explained that the giant money transfer service currently has access to “billions of bank accounts” throughout the world and also works with “over half a million retail agent locations.” This experience will help Western Union add cryptocurrencies as a payment option when and if it is needed, the company's CEO said.

A new Bloomberg report suggest that Tether Ltd may really have $1 for every USDT in circulation. Published a few hours ago, the report indicates that Bloomberg has documents in their possession that “offer more detail than has ever been made public”. The documents were not shared and do not provide a complete overview of Tether’s finances. However, bank statements from four separate months reveal the amount of dollars held in Tether Ltd.’s accounts.

Last week was somewhat of a mixed picture for the crypto industry as the 2018 bear market claimed some more casualties, but also saw some positive developments for the space. $133m stablecoin project Basis announced its closure along with a refund to all investors, while mining giant Bitmain said that it is shutting down its Israeli R & D wing. In more positive news, mobile finance app Revolut - which features crypto services - won an EU banking license, while Swiss exchange Stuttgart Börse revealed plans to launch a crypto trading platform.

On Sunday (December 16th), there had been reports and a video shared on social media which appeared to show Chinese resident, Wong Ching Kit, throwing money off the roof of a building located in Sham Shui Po, an area of Kowtoon, Hong Kong. An update on the incident has now revealed that Kit was arrested after local authorities saw him throwing money. Asian news outlets have confirmed that Kit was taken into police custody on shortly after handing out meal coupons to local community members. The video footage released on Sunday of the 24-year-old had shown him driving around a luxurious Lamborghini sports car while holding a large stack of $500 HKD bills.

Hong Kong’s financial regulator, the Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission (SFC), is reportedly planning to introduce tighter regulations for business activities involving cryptoassets. Although Hong Kong’s authorities have so far taken a fairly lenient approach towards regulating digital assets, the SFC is now looking to more carefully monitor blockchain and crypto-related projects. Specifically, the regulator wants to introduce stricter guidelines for startups planning to launch initial coin offerings (ICOs).

On Saturday (15 December 2018), Jameson Lopp, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Casa, explained who controls Bitcoin Core, or more specifically "who controls the ability to merge code changes into Bitcoin Core’s GitHub repository."