Author: NBTC

Moody’s Ratings assigned its highest money market fund assessment to Fidelity International’s new tokenized liquidity fund on May 13, 2026, placing a top-tier Aaa-mf grade on the USD Digital Liquidity Fund SP, a digitally native vehicle designed for institutional investors. Key Takeaways: Moody’s assigned an Aaa-mf assessment to Fidelity International’s USD Digital Liquidity Fund on May 13, 2026. The fund, managed by $FIL Investments International, targets institutional investors with $34.5B in MMF AUM. The Ethereum-based tokenized fund plans to expand to ZKsync, with 24/7 redemptions subject to liquidity. Fidelity’s Tokenized Money Market Fund Earns Top Moody’s Grade The fund is…

In a reply to an X user, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz reiterated his outlook for $XRP’s future prices and other digital assets, maintaining that he has been clear all along. An X user had indirectly claimed that Schwartz, one of $XRP’s co-creators, privately doubted its long-term price potential. Schwartz pushed back on this speculation, saying he has been consistently very clear about what his beliefs are for the future prices of $XRP and other digital assets. I’ve been consistently very clear about what my beliefs are for the future prices of $XRP and other digital assets. — David ‘JoelKatz’…

According to the Central Bank of Russia, domestic assets related to cryptocurrency instruments remained nearly unchanged for the last six months, remaining close to 3.8 billion rubles ($44 million), per the agency’s Financial Stability Review released on June 1. For a country that legalized crypto mining in 2024 and is now building a full regulatory framework, the stagnation points for muted retail appetite could limit Russia’s role as a demand driver in global crypto markets. This number holds significance even outside of Russia since the Russian government has used cryptocurrencies to facilitate circumvention of sanctions and engaged the State Duma…

US users of PayPal can now make purchases across China using the QR-code merchant network of WeChat Pay, according to an announcement made by Tencent Financial Technology on Wednesday. The company said the service will initially be available for US PayPal users and will later be rolled out in phases to PayPal users in other markets. Tencent links TenPay Global with PayPal World According to a social media post cited by Tencent Financial Technology, vice president Daniel Hong said Tencent’s cross-border payment platform, TenPay Global, has now been connected to PayPal World. The integration is expected to allow PayPal users…

When Zero Network announced it was shutting down last month, the reaction across crypto was weary: Another Ethereum layer-2 just bit the dust. The closure joined a growing list of struggling rollups and came amid renewed debate about whether Ethereum’s sprawling layer-2 ecosystem has become too crowded. At the same time, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has urged developers to rethink the network’s long-term scaling roadmap, while several major projects have shifted away from marketing themselves as general-purpose blockchains and toward more focused applications in payments, stablecoins and tokenized assets. To many observers, the developments have revived a familiar question: Has…

Rather than wait for the regulatory environment to shape itself, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has gotten directly involved in funding AI technology, lobbying for the rules, and helping choose the people who write them. On the same day that reports surfaced that a16z had become the largest donor in the 2026 U.S. midterm election cycle, AI defense technology Anduril also revealed that it received billions in investments from the firm. $115 million in political donations from a16z Andreessen Horowitz’s checkbook (a16z) has been busy as one of the largest political donors of the 2026 midterms, also confirmed a massive investment into…

Ripple Middle East Limited has been incorporated as a company within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The license granted by the DFSA allows for the provision of monetary services, investment management, and custody of crypto tokens. The DIFC legal framework is based on English common law and requires strict compliance controls and prevention of money laundering. The recent approval of the license in Dubai’s DIFC for Ripple heated up the debate on $XRP’s regulatory status and its integration into traditional financial systems. The company’s regional subsidiary finalized its incorporation process in this strategic economic zone, granting it authorization to…

The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has introduced a provision in the annual defense authorization bill that would prohibit military personnel and Department of Defense employees from betting on prediction markets using non-public information, according to a report from CNN. The measure comes in direct response to the recent indictment of a U.S. special forces member who placed a large wager on the prediction platform Polymarket shortly before a military operation targeting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. New Rules Target Non-Public Information The proposed language, embedded within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), extends beyond classified intelligence. It explicitly bars the…

Travala, the cryptocurrency-native travel booking platform, has launched a new protocol that enables artificial intelligence agents to search, book, and pay for hotel accommodations autonomously. The Travala Travel MCP, built on the Base blockchain, introduces a direct payment pipeline that bypasses traditional credit card networks and reduces transaction costs to roughly one cent per booking. How the protocol works The Travala Travel MCP leverages the x402 payment standard, a framework designed for microtransactions on Base. This allows AI agents to initiate and complete hotel bookings using $USDC without incurring gas fees. Settlement is near-instantaneous, a significant departure from conventional online…

So, it turns out “decentralization” is just a word we use to feel superior until someone offers us a 75% pump and 6x lower fees. Last month, when the Arbitrum Security Council pulled an emergency “freeze” on $71M in exploited ETH, the community acted like the sky was falling. Criticism was high and on socials we saw people screaming, for instance it was a “governance crisis,” a “betrayal of trustless code,” and a red flag for the entire L2 ecosystem. But fast forward to this week, and Pavel Durov announces Telegram is basically annexing the $TON blockchain and replacing the…