Author: NBTC

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has reminded digital asset firms that they have less than two months to lodge an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license application or risk falling foul of the country’s financial services laws. Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don’t!) The regulator said today (Monday) that providers offering services tied to digital asset financial products must decide whether they need a new AFS license, or a variation to an existing one, and apply by June 30, 2026. After that date, ASIC’s sector-wide no-action position falls away, exposing unlicensed…

Bitcoin’s first-quarter slump capped an unusual run: nearly six months of underperformance against U.S. equities, a stretch that has no precedent. “That’s never happened,” said Mark Connors, founder of Risk Dimensions, pointing to data showing bitcoin lagging stocks consistently since early October. The trend has raised fresh questions about whether the asset is behaving more like a risk trade than a hedge. Bitcoin fell roughly 22% in the first quarter of 2026, following a 25% decline during the final three months of 2025. Over a similar period, the S&P 500 declined far less, leaving a wide performance gap. Connors said…

Japanese markets reopened after the Golden Week holidays to a powerful AI-driven rally on Thursday, with SoftBank stock soaring as investors rushed to catch up with gains already seen across global technology stocks. Shares in the Japanese investment group jumped 16.4% on Thursday, according to market commentary, after a long holiday stretch in which US tech names kept surging, and Asian AI stocks stayed bid. The move was powered by a simple but explosive story: Masayoshi Son’s biggest bet yet, a cumulative $64.6 billion commitment to OpenAI. That equals about 13% of the company, which suddenly looked less like a…

Key takeaways Beliefs, rather than motivation, are the key drivers of perseverance. Dieting can be viewed as a pseudo-religious belief system. Quitting is the primary reason people fail to achieve their goals. Viewing beliefs as tools rather than truths can enhance personal growth. Misunderstandings between beliefs and facts can lead to interpersonal and geopolitical conflicts. Arguing both sides of an issue is essential for a balanced opinion. Facts are objective truths, independent of personal beliefs. Beliefs are convictions open to revision based on new evidence. Unexamined limiting beliefs can increase personal suffering and demotivation. Beliefs can significantly shape our perception…

The final stablecoin yield language in the CLARITY Act is now public, and it draws a clear line: crypto platforms can no longer offer passive, bank-style returns just for holding stablecoins. Rewards tied to actual on-chain activity, like payments or transfers, remain permitted. Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) finalized the compromise text on Friday evening, ending months of back-and-forth that had stalled the broader Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Punchbowl News first reported the agreement and the text was also shared on X. The final rewards text in the CLARITY Act is now public.We’ve been clear throughout…

Bitcoin closed March with a modest gain after a volatile session, swinging between $65,926 and $68,517 before settling above $67,500. Market Volatility and Geopolitical Catalysts On the final day of March, bitcoin navigated another volatile session, oscillating between $66,200 and a peak just around $68,500 before retracing to sub-$66,000 levels during the morning session. As has been the case recently, bitcoin’s price action remains tethered to geopolitical developments in the Middle East; headlines suggesting a potential ceasefire have fueled intermittent rallies, while threats of escalation continue to exert downward pressure. Since Monday of last week, market sentiment has been particularly…

RootData’s new map shows 30 core Web3 partners plugging custody, trading, wallets, and infra into Hyperliquid’s L1 as it pushes toward an on-chain liquidity OS. RootData’s latest ecosystem map shows Hyperliquid positioning itself as a performant L1 “optimized from the ground up” to run a full on-chain financial system, with user‑built applications plugging into native components like its orderbook perpetuals DEX. How Hyperliquid’s partner network is structured At the funding and settlement layer, Hyperliquid has integrated with major stablecoin issuers—Circle (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Ethena’s synthetic dollar stack—to ensure that its derivatives and DeFi rails are natively dollarized. Under the…

Pantera says the tokenization market has grown to $321 billion, but remains structurally immature. Its Tokenization Progress Index found most tokenized assets still operate as wrappers around traditional financial products. Pantera says tokenization is growing fast, but not yet becoming the financial redesign many in crypto expected. Most tokenized assets are still wrappers The crypto asset manager analyzed 542 tokenized assets across 11 asset classes using its Tokenization Progress Index, a framework that scores issuance, transferability and composability from 1 to 5. The average score was just 2.04. That matters. According to Pantera, roughly 77.6% of tracked assets sit in…

The average number of transactions per ledger on the $XRP Ledger (XRPL) is nearing levels last seen during major bull markets. ​As of March 24, the average number of transactions per ledger was approaching 200, according to Vet, an XRPL validator on the network’s default Unique Node List (dUNL). This level has historically coincided with major $XRP bull runs, most notably during the 2020 bull market and again in Q4 2024. ​ ​The upsurge in transactions per ledger has been building over the past few months. In late 2025, the figure bottomed out and has since been gradually increasing, bringing…

According to Certik’s Stefan Muehlbauer, the recent indictment of an Army sergeant for using nonpublic information to bet on Polymarket establishes a precedent: misappropriating government or corporate data now carries the same legal weight as Wall Street securities fraud. Key Takeaways: The DOJ charged Army Sgt. Van Dyke for using classified data to net over $400,000 on Polymarket. Stefan Muehlbauer notes that the case subjects decentralized platforms to the Commodity Exchange Act. A June 8, 2026, hearing will clarify legal standards for prediction market participants and operators. The End of the ‘Safe Zone’ An expert said recent indictments by the…