Author: NBTC

NBTC

NBTC is the editorial account for NBTC News, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, exchanges, mining, regulation and digital asset markets. The editorial team focuses on clear sourcing, timely updates and practical context for crypto readers.

ENS DAO Votes to Seat New Security Council Weeks After Founder Blocked Renewal

The $ENS DAO is voting to install a new Security Council, moving to restore the emergency veto that protects the naming protocol after its co-founder blocked an earlier renewal last month. Nick Johnson, who goes by nick.eth, filed the executable proposal on Sunday and moved it to an onchain vote the same day on Tally. As of Monday the measure had 712,320 $ENS votes in favor, zero against and 66,730 abstaining, clearing the majority-support bar and sitting at 779,050 votes toward the DAO's 1 million-token quorum. Voting closes around July 20. The proposal hands the DAO's only backstop against malicious…

AltcoinsAug 20

Trump Targets Cybercrime as Crypto Theft Drives 30% of Losses

Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum targeting foreign cybercrime networks. The White House says crypto theft represents about 30% of reported cybercrime losses. Vetted private companies can support government-led cyber operations against transnational criminal organizations. President Donald Trump has signed a new National Security Presidential Memorandum aimed at foreign criminal organizations behind cyber-enabled attacks, placing crypto theft among the financial crimes driving pressure on U.S. authorities. The White House says Americans lost nearly $21 billion to cybercrime last year. The measure gives federal agencies broader authority to coordinate cyber operations against transnational criminal organizations operating abroad. It also creates…

LegalAug 20

Aster Launches $10K Perpetual Futures Contest for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Unitree Pre-IPO Contracts

Aster, a cryptocurrency derivatives platform, has announced a perpetual futures trading competition centered on three private company contracts: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Unitree. The event, which began at 4:00 a.m. UTC today, runs through 11:59 p.m. UTC on Aug. 24, offering a total prize pool of $10,000 in ASTER tokens. Competition Structure and Eligibility The contest covers the UNITREE/$USDT, ANTHROPIC/$USDT, and OPENAI/$USDT trading pairs. Prize money is split evenly between two categories: trading volume and realized PnL, with $5,000 allocated to each. Rankings are based on combined trading results across all three products, and participants can win in both categories. In…

ExchangesAug 20

Coinbase's Base Is Betting Big on AI Agents With $100K Startup Accelerator

In brief The Base accelerator plans to select 10 startups for its eight-week Batches 004 accelerator. Each selected team will receive a $100,000 investment from the Base Ecosystem Fund. The program is targeting startups building AI agents, trading, payments, and financing products. The team behind Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, is narrowing its startup accelerator to 10 teams for its latest cohort, with each selected company receiving a $100,000 investment upfront, Coinbase announced on Wednesday. Applications for Base Batches 004 are open through September 9, Coinbase said. The eight-week virtual program will conclude with a Demo Day in New York…

BlockchainAug 20

Circuit, DaLand Give Credit Unions a Direct Path to Bitcoin

Credit unions now have a production-ready path to offer Bitcoin and other digital asset services without relying on outside platforms after DaLand CUSO and Circuit, an 80-member credit union collaborative, announced that Circuit’s Digital Asset Initiative has moved into implementation. The program grants participating institutions access to DaLand’s CODE Engine and Coin2Core technology, which integrates digital asset capabilities directly into core banking systems from Corelation KeyStone, Fiserv DNA, and Jack Henry Symitar. Under what DaLand calls a “Hybrid Custody” model, credit unions retain custody, member relationships, and data rather than routing customers to third-party crypto platforms. Three credit unions are…

BitcoinAug 20

Ethereum Foundation Funds WEBCAT Work for Wallet and App Front-End Checks

The Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security initiative has announced a grant allocation to the Freedom of the Press Foundation to support work on WEBCAT, an open-source project designed to help browsers verify website code against a signed manifest. According to the Foundation’s Aug. 5 announcement, the funding is intended to support a verification library that Ethereum wallets can integrate, along with Chromium-browser research, implementation support, an independent audit and proposed standardization work. Focus on front-end integrity The Foundation described a gap between encrypted website connections and verification that the code delivered by a site matches code approved by its developers.…

EthereumAug 20

Wall Street trims expectations ahead of earnings

Barclays analyst Benjamin Budish estimates Coinbase processed roughly $152 billion of trading volume during the quarter, well below the Street's expectation of about $178 billion. He expects adjusted EBITDA to come in roughly 3% below consensus, pointing to weaker blockchain rewards and institutional trading revenue. Clear Street's Owen Lau also lowered estimates, projecting approximately $160 billion in trading volume and $301 million in adjusted EBITDA after weaker-than-expected retail activity. Benchmark's Mark Palmer similarly reduced his EBITDA forecast to $377 million, while Compass Point expects revenue to slightly miss consensus but believes EBITDA will be roughly in line with expectations. Coinbase…

RegulationAug 20

Cash Cat ($CASHCAT) Top Rival MemeToro Advances With BNB AI Agents and Prediction Markets, How to Buy Presale Crypto $MT

$CASHCAT has become one of the biggest memecoin stories of July 2026. After launching on Robinhood Chain shortly after the network went live, the token produced life-changing returns for some early buyers while helping push the chain into the spotlight. As traders search for the next project before public listings, attention is gradually shifting toward presales. Among them, MemeToro ($MT) is gaining interest by combining AI-powered token creation, prediction markets, and SocialFi on $BNB Chain rather than relying on a single viral meme. $CASHCAT Shows How Fast Memecoin Narratives Can Grow The success of $CASHCAT highlights how quickly attention can…

AltcoinsAug 20

Kalshi ordered to halt most prediction market contracts in Washington

A Washington state court has ordered prediction market platform Kalshi to halt most of its event contracts in the state after finding that the company likely violated state gambling and consumer protection laws. The final order from King County Superior Court Judge John McHale bars Kalshi from offering, accepting or facilitating contracts tied to sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, technology, science and markets based on whether public figures mention specific words. Kalshi must implement geofencing based on users’ IP addresses and residency by Aug. 19, followed by a multi source geofencing system by Sept. 2. The company could face penalties…

LegalAug 20

Gnosis Chain to Abandon Its Validator Set and Settle to Ethereum

Gnosis Chain is transitioning from a standalone Layer 1 to an Ethereum-settled rollup and retiring its independent validator set, according to an announcement from Gnosis Chain and a proposal published on GnosisDAO's governance forum. For $GNO stakers, the approved direction would unlock roughly 350,000 $GNO when the validator set is sunset and end the treasury-funded staking subsidy. For users and developers, xDAI would remain the gas token, while addresses, balances and contract state would continue without migration to a new chain. The proposal's main technical promise is atomic access from Gnosis to Ethereum contracts and liquidity. But that synchronous composability…

BlockchainAug 20