Author: NBTC

In the summer of 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, known as the DAO, became the defining crisis of Ethereum’s early years. A smart contract exploit siphoned millions of dollars’ worth of ether ($ETH) from that initial project, and the community’s response — a contentious hard fork to recover those funds, splintered the original chain from the current one, leaving the old chain behind, known as Ethereum Classic. The DAO was once the largest crowdfunding effort in crypto’s history, but faded into a cautionary tale of governance, security, and the limits of “code is law.” Now, nearly a decade later, that…

Anthropic is reportedly gearing up for a new funding round that aims to raise about $10 billion at a valuation of roughly $350 billion. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, with GIC and Coatue Management leading the round. In September, Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation, meaning the new round would nearly double its price. The core product remains Claude, an AI chatbot already backed by Amazon and Google. The move confirms that large capital is still chasing top-tier AI, even at extreme prices. FTX’s Old Bet Turns Massive On Paper FTX bought…

An exchange on social media between attorney and $XRP supporter Bill Morgan and former SEC attorney Marc Fagel has once again brought the spotlight back to a long-running question in the crypto industry: Did regulators unintentionally shape the winners and losers of the crypto market? The debate began when Fagel criticized crypto industry narratives, prompting Morgan to respond with a strong argument that regulatory decisions, especially who regulators chose to investigate and who they did not, may have helped create a market where a small number of cryptocurrencies dominate most of the total market value. The Argument Over Selective Enforcement…

An exchange on social media between attorney and $XRP supporter Bill Morgan and former SEC attorney Marc Fagel has once again brought the spotlight back to a long-running question in the crypto industry: Did regulators unintentionally shape the winners and losers of the crypto market? The debate began when Fagel criticized crypto industry narratives, prompting Morgan to respond with a strong argument that regulatory decisions, especially who regulators chose to investigate and who they did not, may have helped create a market where a small number of cryptocurrencies dominate most of the total market value. The Argument Over Selective Enforcement…

After Polymarket quietly ended a substantial penalty on liquidity-removing ‘taker’ orders, quantitative traders (quants) lamented an end to their gravy train. For highly sophisticated market makers, that 500-millisecond quote-adjustment period granted them a superpower over slower traders. Unfortunately for them, Polymarket has ended its time incentive. Unsurprisingly, the money spigot used to flow from Polymarket and Kalshi advertising short-term binary options on the price of bitcoin ($BTC) to everyday speculators. Read more: Maduro Polymarket bet raises insider trading concerns The exchanges feature 5 and 15 minute betting markets on the price of bitcoin ($BTC). On their respective homepages, they place…

Robinhood’s blockchain initiative has hit an early development milestone, with its Robinhood Chain testnet processing more than four million transactions within its first week of launch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev announced on X. Summary Robinhood Chain processed over 4 million transactions in its first week, with CEO Vlad Tenev highlighting growing developer activity on the Ethereum Layer-2 network focused on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and on-chain finance. While some X users called the milestone “seriously impressive,” others cautioned that testnet figures can be vanity metrics and questioned whether activity reflects real external development or internal stress testing. The blockchain push…

The Ethereum interest of institutions has just hit a new level. BlackRock has also officially started purchasing $ETH in its future Ethereum staking ETF, indicating that the largest asset manager in the world is about to invest capital in on-chain yield strategies. The fund according to the recent filings is planning to stake up to 95 percent of its $ETH holdings under normal market conditions. This action is an indication of an even greater commitment than passive exposure. Rather, BlackRock is making Ethereum an institutional yield investment. BlackRock Filing According to a recent SEC report, BlackRock has begun to seed…

The United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for December on Friday at 13:30 GMT. The US Dollar (USD) will likely experience heightened volatility as the employment report could provide key clues about how the Federal Reserve (Fed) will approach policy-making in the new year. What to Expect From the Next Nonfarm Payrolls Report? Economists expect Nonfarm Payrolls to rise by 60,000 in December following the 64,000 increase recorded in November. In this period, the Unemployment Rate is seen edging lower to 4.5% from 4.6%, while the annual wage inflation, as measured…

Crypto investors in the Netherlands could face changes to their tax bills after lawmakers in the House of Representatives approved reforms that will alter how the country’s existing levy on investment assets is calculated. The idea of paying tax on unrealized profits has sparked anger among crypto circles, with critics arguing it could force holders to liquidate assets to meet tax obligations. Some users on social media described it as “beyond insane” as volatility in token prices could leave investors with tax bills on gains that later evaporate. The fact that the Netherlands has agreed that 36% unrealized gains tax…

Cryptocurrency exchanges will have to set up a subsidiary in Russia and abide by its laws to be allowed to work there, the country’s monetary authority has made that clear. The statement comes amid fears that Russian authorities are planning to cut off access to global trading platforms for digital assets as soon as they regulate the domestic market this year. Moscow to license crypto exchanges if they establish a presence in Russia Foreign-based providers of crypto-related services will be permitted to operate in the Russian economy through locally registered subsidiaries, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has indicated. The…