Author: NBTC

According to Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, approximately 10% of the global hashing power has been turned off in recent days. This is likely to be a direct response to the market downturn that has squeezed profit margins for miners. “Hash power follows price reasonably closely,” Todd explained on X (formerly Twitter). A major difficulty drop Recent data shows that there has been a significant “miner capitulation” event over the last 90 days. It has culminated in a sharp drop in difficulty to 125.86 T. On Nov. 11, for comparison, difficulty sat at a local high of 155.97 T. The…

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has moved 14,000 $ETH out of his wallets and has sent $500,000 to his Kanro charity, according to on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. Buterin said last week that he would be withdrawing $44.7 million worth of his own funds to support the Ethereum Foundation as it enters a period of “mild austerity.” At the time, he moved the funds from one of his Gnosis wallets to another of his wallets. The $44.7 million transaction was executed on Friday, but the total value of his $ETH holdings didn’t materially change until this week when he converted 13,217…

MicroStrategy director Carl Rickertsen purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock, according to a Jan. 12 filing with the SEC. Summary MicroStrategy director Carl Rickertsen purchased 5,000 shares, marking his first insider buy since July 2022 after a period of only selling. The move follows MicroStrategy’s avoidance of MSCI index removal and reflects confidence in the company, which provides leveraged Bitcoin exposure. The stock’s performance remains closely tied to Bitcoin’s price, and the company currently holds 687,410 BTC. The filing indicates Rickertsen made the purchase on an open or private market. According to Insider Screener, the transaction marks his first…

The authorities in Kyrgyzstan have updated the country’s digital-asset legislation to add specific terms for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins and regulate mining by state-controlled entities. The changes come after recent reports unveiled that the European Union is preparing to up the sanctions pressure on the Central Asia nation. The latter has been accused of helping Russia to circumvent Western restrictions, including through domestic crypto platforms, a locally issued ruble-pegged stablecoin, and its banking system. President takes control over issuing cryptocurrencies in Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov has signed a bill amending the law “On Virtual Assets” to better regulate the country’s…

An analysis by Coinglass comparing perpetual decentralized exchange (perp DEX) data has sparked fierce debate and, in the process, highlighted rifts within the crypto derivatives sector. The study exposed marked discrepancies in trading volumes, open interest, and liquidations across Hyperliquid, Aster, and Lighter. Users are left asking what qualifies as genuine trading activity on these platforms. Coinglass Data Sparks Debate Over Authentic Trading on Perpetual DEXs Coinglass is facing backlash after publishing a comparison of perp DEXs, questioning whether reported trading volumes across parts of the sector reflect genuine market activity. A 24-hour snapshot comparing Hyperliquid, Aster, and Lighter shows…

Bitcoin’s $BTC$68,894.78 mining difficulty dropped by around 11%, its largest decline since China’s 2021 crackdown on the industry, after a sharp decline in hashrate triggered by plunging prices and widespread winter storm-related outages in the U.S. Mining difficulty, which determines how hard it is to find new Bitcoin blocks, adjusts roughly every two weeks to maintain a 10-minute block interval on the network. The latest change brought the metric down from over 141.6 trillion to about 125.86 trillion, according to Blockchain.com data, signaling a steep drop in the number of active machines securing the network. The decline follows a series…

Access Protocol, a popular decentralized monetization and subscription platform, has collaborated with ANT.FUN, a Solana-based DEX. The partnership attempts to onboard additional consumers into the robust creator economy via smooth staking-based subscriptions. As Access Protocol’s X announcement points out, the collaboration establishes an integration between its Access Hub and ANT.FUN’s protocol. Hence, this development attempts to streamline the way consumers back creators while generating rewards. We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with @ant_fun_trade, a top-tier rising DEX and a Top 10 Solana DApp by revenue! 🐜💙This collaboration brings more users into the sustainable creator economy, allowing them to…

Ethereum’s L2s are not doing too well. Data from L2Beat shows that prominent L2s like Arbitrum and Base handle around 90% of the total Ethereum scaling traffic, while the smaller or newer ones struggle with low engagement. According to data from L2Beat, which tracks about 136 projects, only about 27 projects currently record a daily average of 1.00 UOPS (User Operations per Second) or higher. This means about 109 projects are currently recording less than 1 UOPS. So while the total scaling factor for the ecosystem is high at nearly 97x, the throughput can be attributed to a small group…

YZi Labs has escalated its public dispute with BNC’s board by questioning the independence of a former director, who is accused of being linked to the company’s asset manager, 10X Capital. This disclosure comes amid allegations that the group is engaging in entrenchment and attempting to silence investor voices. Former BNC Director Linked to 10X Capital In its latest statement shared on X, YZi Labs emphasized that transparency is “non-negotiable,” as it highlighted what it described as undisclosed ties between an “independent” director at BNC and 10X Capital. At the center of the claims is Russell Read, who recently stepped…

The United Kingdom’s House of Lords heard critical views on stablecoins Wednesday, with witnesses claiming that tokens were mainly “on- and off-ramps into crypto,” rather than the future of money. The House of Lords held a public session as part of its new inquiry into how stablecoins should be regulated in the country, gathering evidence on their role in payments, banking and financial stability. The Financial Services Regulation Committee (FSRC) grilled witnesses on stablecoins’ competition with banks, cross‑border use, illicit finance risks and their treatment under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. They heard contrasting…