Coinbase Update, U.S. Jobs, Bank of Japan: Crypto Week Ahead

The coming week will be dominated by data from the wider economy, with employment and inflation reports in the U.S. and interest-rate decisions in Japan and Europe. Coinbase, the largest publicly traded crypto exchange, announces a system update that is expected to include an in-house prediction market.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, usually released on the first Friday of each month, are scheduled for Tuesday, delayed by the 36-day government shutdown. The figure is one of the most influential measures of the world's largest economy and can influence attitudes to risky investments.

The Bank of Japan is likely to increase its benchmark interest rate for the first time since January. Economists forecast a 25 basis-point raise to 0.75%, the highest in some 30 years. A stronger yen has historically coincided with downward pressure on bitcoin BTC$87,119.29. The Friday decision follows European Central Bank and Bank of England policy statements earlier in the week.

What to Watch

• Crypto
  • Dec. 15, 5 a.m.: Aster ASTER$0.6741 L1 testnet AMA on Discord.
  • Dec. 15, 10 a.m.: Conflux (CFX) AMA on “AI Agents in Web3” on X Spaces.
  • Dec. 16, 2 a.m.: CRO$0.09381 EVM mainnet network upgrade.
  • Dec. 17, 5 p.m.: Coinbase system update (a set of new features for the Coinbase platform, expected to include tokenized stocks and prediction markets) livestream on X.
  • Dec. 18, 12:30 p.m.: BNB Chain BNB$839.46 is hosting an end-of-year AMA on X with former Binance Co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao ("CZ").
• Macro
  • Dec. 15, 8:30 a.m.: Canada Nov. Inflation Rate. Headline YoY (Prev. 2.2%), MoM (Prev. 0.2%). Core YoY (Prev. 2.9%), MoM (Prev. 0.6%).
  • Dec. 15, 9:30 a.m.: Federal Reserve Governor Stephen I. Miran speech ("The Inflation Outlook"). Watch live.
  • Dec. 16, 8:15 a.m.: U.S. ADP Employment Change Weekly Prev. 4.75K.
  • Dec. 16, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Nov. employment data. Nonfarm Payrolls Est. 35K; Unemployment Rate Est. 4.4%; Average Hourly Earnings YoY (Prev. 3.8%).
  • Dec. 16, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global (Flash) U.S. Dec. PMI Composite (Prev. 54.2), Manufacturing (Prev. 52.2), Services (Prev. 54.1).
  • Dec. 17: Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller speech ("Economic Outlook"). Watch live.
  • Dec. 18, 7 a.m.: Bank of England interest-rate decision. Benchmark rate Est. 3.75%.
  • Dec. 18, 8:15 a.m.: European Central Bank interest-rate decision. Benchmark rate Est. 2.15%.
  • Dec. 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Nov. Inflation Rate. (No estimates available)
  • Dec. 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Jobless Claims. Initial (for week ended Dec. 13) (Prev. 236K), Continuing (for week ended Dec. 6) (Prev. 1838K).
  • Dec. 18, 2 p.m.: Argentina Q3 Unemployment Rate (Prev. 7.6%).
  • Dec. 18, 2 p.m.: Mexico central bank interest-rate decision. Benchmark rate (Prev. 7.25%).
  • Dec. 19, 10 a.m.: U.S. Dec. (Final) University of Michigan Survey. Consumer Sentiment Index Est. 53.3; Inflation Expectations Est. 4.1%.
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • Nothing scheduled.

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Sushi DAO is voting to more than triple SUSHI annual emissions from 1.5% to 5% (~14.25M tokens/year) to fund deep liquidity incentives, private capital deals, and the new Blade AMM, targeting $20M in annual revenue. Voting ends Dec. 14.
  • Streamr DAO is voting to incentivize its CEO and CTO with performance-based token grants that mint only if the DATA price hits specific milestones between $0.05 and $1.00. Voting ends Dec. 15.
  • Moons DAO is voting to elect an Ecosystem Growth Officer to manage strategic partnerships and expand the DAO's reach. Voting ends Dec. 16.
  • SSV Network is voting to streamline committee operations (DIP-47) and cap the ETH/SSV fee ratio at 700 (DIP-49). Voting ends Dec. 17.
  • Lido DAO is voting on a transformative package to pivot from a pure staking protocol into a diversified DeFi product suite over the next three years. Voting ends Dec. 19.
  • CoW DAO is voting to dissolve the Sprinter solver bonding pool and return the deposited 500,000 USDC and 1.5M COW to the original funders. Voting ends Dec. 19.
  • Arbitrum DAO is voting to activate the ArbOS 51 upgrade on Jan. 8, introducing a 32M transaction gas limit, dynamic gas targets, and a doubled minimum base fee to enhance network scalability. Voting ends Dec. 19.
  • BNB Chain is voting to reduce the number of consecutive blocks a validator produces to 8 from 16. This adjustment aims to prevent large chain reorganizations and prioritize network stability. Voting ends Dec. 22.
  • The Sandbox DAO is voting to select one of curated artists to create a commissioned NFT artwork for the DAO's collection, awarding the winner an 8,000–12,000 USDC grant from the existing SIP-26 budget. Voting ends Dec. 24.
  • Dec. 18: Celo to host a governance call.
  • Dec. 18: Changelly to host a Web3 Stand Up talk on pumps & dumps.
• Unlocks
  • Dec. 15: CONX$37.59 to unlock 1.61% of its circulating supply worth $21.99 million.
  • Dec. 15: STRK$0.07861 to unlock 5.07% of its circulating supply worth $13.87 million.
  • Dec. 16: ARB$0.1851 to unlock 1.9% of its circulating supply worth $19.88 million.
  • Dec. 20: ZRO$1.2740 to unlock 6.79% of its circulating supply worth $37.28 million.
• Token Launches
  • Dec. 15: NEAR Mobile’s NPRO launches.
  • Dec. 16: Neiro Woofer Pack NFT collection launches in collaboration with OpeanSea.
  • Dec. 17: Binance to delist FIS$0.01748, REI$0.003653, and VOXEL$0.01146.
  • Dec. 18: VSN$0.08394 to undergo its next quarterly burn.

Conferences

• Nothing scheduled.