Author: NBTC

Argentine exchange Ripio is leaning into local currency stablecoins and tokenized bonds as CEO Sebastián Serrano braces for what he expects to be a “lateralized” or down year for crypto in 2026 — but a decade-long boom for stablecoins. Founded in 2013, Ripio has shifted from a pure retail exchange into a B2B infrastructure provider serving banks, fintechs, and big platforms like Mercado Libre (Latin America’s answer to Amazon). The exchange now offers its own dollar stablecoin, Criptodólar (UXD), and a new range of local fiat-backed stablecoins, including the Argentine peso‑pegged wARS, the Brazilian real-pegged wBRL, the Mexican peso-pegged wMXN…

Six US senators have challenged Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for shutting down the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) cryptocurrency enforcement team in April last year while holding substantial amounts of cryptocurrency at the time. Blanche disbanded the DOJ’s national cryptocurrency enforcement team in April 2025, just months after Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president following a pro-crypto campaign. The task force was created in 2022 under the Joe Biden administration and led major investigations, including the probe into Binance and its founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating US anti-money-laundering laws. Blanche argued at the…

Key Notes IG Group has received the go-ahead to acquire Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve. Per the deal, Independent Reserve leadership will remain with the bigger firm. More crypto services are now planned for Singapore, Australia, and the UAE this year. The IG Group Independent Reserve acquisition reached a key milestone on Jan. 30 after regulatory clearance in Singapore. The London-based trading firm confirmed it has fully taken over the Australian crypto exchange. Notably, this set the stage for a wider regulated crypto offering across several major markets later this year. Independent Reserve Acquisition Gains Regulatory Backing As reported by…

Commercial bank money is likely to become fully digital in the future, alongside central bank money, according to Fabio Panetta, the governor of Italy’s central bank, Banca d’Italia. Panetta made the remarks on Wednesday while addressing the executive committee of Italy’s banking association. According to a report by Reuters, Panetta said both digital commercial bank money and central bank money would continue to anchor the monetary system, while stablecoins would only play a complementary role. He added that the stability of stablecoins ultimately depends on their peg to traditional currencies, limiting their ability to function independently in the financial system.…

This morning, Binance announced a $1 billion purchase of bitcoin ($BTC) from its SAFU fund. Unfortunately, the swap from its stablecoin reserves did little to repair confidence from catastrophic liquidations that originated on the exchange during the October 10, 2025 crypto crash. On that date, Donald Trump threatened China with an unprecedented, 100% import tariff rate. Investors duly panicked. As a result, $BTC tanked 14% while smaller digital assets experienced even worse sell-offs. At its worst moment, the native coin of Cosmos’ blockchain traded 99.99% lower on Binance. Rumors (which Binance never confirmed) circulated that the exchange or one of…

Ethereum institutional demand has started showing visible cracks as U.S. investor activity slows across major trading platforms. The Coinbase premium index has flipped deeply negative, signaling reduced buying interest from American institutions. Market watchers now question whether this shift reflects temporary caution or a deeper change in $ETH positioning. Institutional flows often guide broader market direction, especially during uncertain macro conditions. When U.S. investors step back, Ethereum price momentum usually struggles to hold strength. The current trend suggests a meaningful change in how large players approach $ETH exposure. This development arrives during a sensitive phase for the crypto market. Ethereum…

The cash-and-carry arbitrage that used to be a goldmine for big desks is now barely hanging on. This was the play where companies would buy Bitcoin on the spot market and short it on the futures side, locking in the price difference as profit. For a while, it was the go-to move. But that’s not the case anymore. The trade is getting crushed by low yields, tighter spreads, and shrinking interest from U.S. institutions. Bitcoin futures open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has dropped below Binance for the first time since 2023. Wall Street used to favor CME…

The co-founder and board of crypto infrastructure platform Cere Network have been hit with a $100 million lawsuit claiming they undertook a pump-and-dump scheme that stole millions of dollars from investors. In a lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court on Tuesday, Vivian Liu, who said she worked for and invested in the company, claimed Cere co-founder Fred Jin, his brother, his wife, and the company’s board stole $41 million from investors. According to the lawsuit, Jin promised ahead of a public token launch for the platform in November 2021 that he and early Cere investors could not sell…

DraftKings has announced that it will enable crypto-to-cash deposits in four states across the United States. In its statement, the betting platform said it will roll out a new feature that will allow all users in the US to use digital assets converted to cash to fund their online betting accounts. The statement was corroborated at a Massachusetts Gaming Commission (GMC) meeting this week. The meeting was headed by the Chief of the Division of Sports Wagering, Carrie Torrisi, who mentioned that DraftKings has been given the all clear to introduce the new deposit source in the four states over…

Vitalik Buterin said he no longer agrees with his 2017 tweet that downplayed the need for users to personally verify Ethereum end-to-end. This week, he argued the network should treat self-hosted verification as a non-negotiable escape hatch as its architecture gets lighter and more modular. Buterin’s original position grew out of a design debate over whether a blockchain should commit to state on chain or treat state as “implied,” reconstructable only by replaying ordered transactions. Ethereum’s approach, putting a state root in each block header and supporting Merkle-style proofs, lets a user prove a specific balance, contract code, or storage…