Author: NBTC

Kyrgyzstan is moving quickly to build a state-backed crypto economy, rapidly becoming the Switzerland of crypto. The government has already launched two stablecoins, built a national gold vault, and brought former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao into its policy circle. One stablecoin, USDKG, is backed by physical gold bought by the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance. The government reportedly allocated around $100 million to purchase gold reserves for the project. Recently, USDKG was also listed on Hong Kong-based digital asset platform OSL, expanding access to regulated crypto infrastructure across one of Asia’s largest financial hubs. A second token, KGST, is linked to…

Stellar (@StellarOrg) set a new record for its DeFi ecosystem, with total value locked (TVL) reaching roughly $242 million on May 30, 2026, the highest level the network has ever posted. That is a notable marker for a chain better known for moving money than for parking it in smart contracts. The milestone caps a steady climb through 2025 and 2026. Stellar’s TVL surpassed prior ceilings in the $196 million to $206 million range before the late-May breakout. Most of that growth traces back to real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and a maturing lending market built on Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract…

But even as the crypto industry was shown details of the bill that will clock in at hundreds of pages, Democratic lawmakers hadn’t yet seen the draft, the text of which was posted at Punchbowl News. The Senate is expected to need at least 10 Democrats to approve the final bill before it can become law, because of the chamber’s requirement for 60 yes votes on most legislation, and many of them already didn’t like what they were hearing on the ethics section. The overall bill text is reflective of work in two relevant Senate committees — Banking and Agriculture…

Falcon Card Lets Users Spend $USDf Online and in Stores With a $0 Annual Fee Falcon Finance has launched a payment card aimed at turning tokenized assets into practical spending power, extending its decentralized finance platform beyond lending and yield generation. The Falcon Card allows eligible users to spend $USDf online, in stores and through supported mobile wallets, where available. Users can mint $USDf by depositing approved collateral on Falcon or acquire the synthetic dollar through secondary markets before transferring it to the card. The company said the product is available to verified users across more than 90 supported jurisdictions.…

The Rule Nobody Votes On Bitcoin has no manager setting mining difficulty with its math, hard-coded into the protocol such that every 2,016 blocks, the network compares how long that batch of blocks actually took to mine against the 20,160-minute (two-week) target implied by the 10-minute-per-block design. If miners found those blocks faster than schedule, difficulty rises for the next stretch. If they found them slower, difficulty falls. Nodes calculate the new value independently from the same block timestamps, so there’s nothing to negotiate (i.e., a node that disagreed with the math would simply be on a different chain). The…

The most popular blockchain explorer on the network, BSCScan, is scheduled to undergo maintenance on July 22, which may cause brief disruptions for $BNB Chain users. The official announcement states that maintenance will start at 6:00 AM UTC and run for three to four hours. What to use instead? Traders, developers, analysts, and anybody else depending on real-time blockchain data may be impacted during this time if portions of the website and API infrastructure go down. Several substitutes can offer comparable functionality during the outage for users who require continuous access to on-chain data. OKX Explorer – A multi-chain blockchain…

A Challenge Built Over a Decade The puzzle did not begin as the massive bounty system it is today. Its earliest verified onchain origin is a Jan. 15, 2015, transaction that funded 256 outputs with rewards scaling from 0.001 $BTC to 0.256 $BTC, totaling 32.896 $BTC. A Bitcointalk thread opened Dec. 28, 2015, under the title “ Bitcoin puzzle transaction ~32 $BTC prize to who solves it” marked the first major public discussion of the challenge. A simulated flow chart using mempool.space visuals of the original Bitcoin Puzzle Challenge transfer that occurred on Jan. 15, 2015. The entire batch payment…

In the past few hours, Ethereum investor Machi (@machibigbrother) faced liquidation, prompting a critical sale of his Bored Ape $NFT. To raise funds for his $ETH long position, he sold Bored Ape #6801 for 8.61 $ETH, incurring a significant loss of 14.89 $ETH, or approximately $28,000. This development underscores the pressures some investors face in the current crypto environment. Breaking It Down The broader crypto market is showcasing mixed signals with Ethereum at the center of investor focus. Machi’s forced sale not only emphasizes individual investor challenges but also reflects on Ethereum’s market dynamics as it continues to experience fluctuating…

On-chain activity shifted in the past month, as liquidity flowed into tokenized stocks. The total value locked in stock trading rose by around 60%, breaking above $1.6B. Traders rushed to tokenized stocks, while the crypto market stagnated. At the same time, stocks offered more active gains, driven by demand for AI components. Tokenized stocks are seen as one of the promising products that may replace standard tokens. In May 2025, tokenized stocks only amounted to around $30M and were mostly an experimental asset class. A year later, tokenized stocks have entered everyday trading, and some are used for DeFi lending.…

New provisions limiting the ability of presidents and other federal officials to profit from digital assets have been added to the CLARITY Act, a bill under consideration in the US Senate that includes comprehensive regulations targeting the cryptocurrency market. According to updated draft legislation obtained by CNBC, US presidents, federal officials, and certain public officials will not be able to issue cryptocurrencies or other digital assets, or sponsor such projects. Senate Republicans, in an update to the CLARITY Act on Wednesday, included the first legal limits on how US presidents can earn income from the cryptocurrency sector. Related News Flash…