Author: NBTC

Demystifying RWA Tokenization and Illiquidity Commercial maritime shipping has for centuries remained one of global finance’s most capital-intensive and exclusive asset classes. With single dry bulk carriers or container ships costing anywhere from $30 million to over $100 million, vessel ownership has traditionally been restricted to institutional funds, state syndicates, and legacy shipping dynasties. Saeed Bin Saleh Al-Marri, CEO of Ethra Invest and Ethra Ship, is attempting to dismantle those barriers by pairing real-world asset (RWA) tokenization with conservative private equity discipline. By bridging decentralized finance (DeFi) with the physical realities of global trade, Al-Marri is pioneering a roadmap for…

Shiba Inu has missed out on what could have been its first appearance in a U.S.-listed spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). This comes after T. Rowe Price launched its long-awaited Active Crypto ETF without including the meme coin among the supported assets. For months, the Shiba Inu community anticipated $SHIB’s inclusion in the fund. During the ETF’s initial filing in October 2025, the $1.89 trillion asset manager revealed plans to hold between five and 15 digital assets. At the time, $SHIB appeared on the list of cryptocurrencies that met the fund’s eligibility standards, fueling optimism that it would become one…

Bitcoin is consolidating near the mid-$60,000s as technical charts place $69,000-$70,000 as the key bullish reclaim zone and roughly $57,000 as critical downside support. A break above resistance could improve $BTC’s weekly structure, while renewed weakness toward $57,000 would strengthen the risk of a deeper bear-market move toward lower support levels. Bitcoin Repeats Prior Bear-Market Pattern as $57K Becomes Critical Support Gum (@gumsays) argues that Bitcoin is tracking a pattern similar to its previous bear-market cycle, with $BTC falling below a major monthly moving average and then struggling to reclaim it. The chart suggests that failure to hold the $57,000…

AMRO Economists Argue American AI Dominance Might Cement Stablecoin Popularity Two economists from the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) suggest that the winner in the artificial intelligence (AI) race will not be the nation with the most powerful model, but the nation that manages to establish the currency that these models – and the infrastructure around them- will be based upon. Chengxu Fu and Xiaguo Huang recently proposed that a reinforced economic loop with energy for AI datacenters, AI infrastructure, and the cost of AI use itself priced in U.S. dollars could lead to increased dominance of the U.S. dollar…

Crypto trader Ansem has questioned whether token buybacks can create lasting value on their own, pointing to the wide valuation gap between Hyperliquid’s $HYPE and Pump.fun’s $PUMP. In a July 17 X post, he argued that both businesses generate large revenues and regularly repurchase their tokens, yet the market values them very differently. According to Ansem’s figures, Hyperliquid generates about $800 million in annualized revenue and carries a fully diluted valuation near $65 billion. Pump.fun, by comparison, generates roughly $440 million in annualized revenue while $PUMP trades at an FDV of about $1.4 billion. He said the contrast challenges the…

For those who haven’t followed the BIP-110 fight, it is essentially a proposed change to Bitcoin’s rules that would restrict how much non-financial data, such as images or files, users can embed in the blockchain. Supporters argue the restriction would curb what they call “spam” that consumes block space and steer the protocol back toward its original job of moving money. So far, support remains scarce, with less than 50 blocks left before mandatory signaling begins at block 961632, in less than eight hours from now at 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Signaling sits at just 2.6% at press time.…

As is known, the US Federal Reserve (FED) announced its eagerly awaited July decision and, as expected, kept the policy interest rate unchanged. However, some FED members opposed the decision to keep it unchanged. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack was one of these members. Speaking to Reuters, Beth Hammack explained why she advocates for interest rate increases. Hammack stated that inflation was likely to remain high and not spontaneously fall to the 2 percent target, and therefore he voted in favor of raising interest rates at the July meeting. Hammack pointed out that prolonged high inflation and delays in tackling…

$XRP settles transactions in three to five seconds, while Bitcoin usually takes about ten minutes to confirm one. The gap comes down to one design choice: $XRP does not use mining. Its ledger relies on trusted validator nodes that agree on transactions through voting, skipping the energy-heavy computation Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work system requires. How Does Bitcoin’s Proof-Of-Work System Slow Things Down? Bitcoin, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, uses Proof-of-Work (PoW). Miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle, and whoever solves it first adds the next block. The puzzle is intentionally hard, and that difficulty protects the network from…

Paul Sztorc, the developer behind the Drivechain proposal and BIP 300, announced the change in an Aug. 7 update. ECX is a new blockchain that copies Bitcoin’s full transaction history at a set block height, crediting nearly every Bitcoin holder (minus some of Satoshi’s coins) with an equal amount of ECX. Bitcoin’s own network is not altered by the process. Sztorc Breaks the Launch Into Three Steps Under the plan, an “alpha” version of ECX activates Aug. 23 at block 963648. A “beta” version follows Sept. 20 at block 967,680. The permanent, full release is set for Oct. 31 at…

TD Cowen has maintained its $260 price target and buy rating on Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), according to a recent report. The firm highlighted that the company’s primary focus is on restoring its preferred stock (STRC) to par value, a move that could signal confidence in its capital structure. Strategic Focus on Preferred Stock The report, cited by The Block, indicates that Strategy is prioritizing the recovery of its STRC preferred shares. This focus comes despite the company posting a significant net loss of $8.22 billion in the second quarter. The preferred stock, which trades on Nasdaq, has been under pressure,…