Author: NBTC

Ethereum developers are moving forward with a protocol change aimed at strengthening censorship resistance, as discussions around the upcoming Hegota upgrade place Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists at the center of the agenda. The proposal, known as FOCIL or EIP-7805, has been marked for Specification Freeze Included status and is expected to headline the consensus-layer changes in the Hegota fork, which follows the planned Glamsterdam upgrade. FOCIL Targets Inclusion Guarantees FOCIL introduces a mechanism that allows multiple randomly selected actors per slot to enforce transaction inclusion. Under the design, 17 participants, including the block proposer and designated includers, are selected at…

About a year ago, Nikolay Denisenko, a former lead backend engineer at European fintech firm Revolut, began to formalize a process whereby “special customers” of his new crypto payments app, Brighty, could use their digital assets to buy real estate. Since then, demand has exploded. Brighty has brokered over 100 deals so far for wealthy customers of the Lithuania-licensed platform, enabling them to buy apartments with crypto, with many more in the pipeline. Residential real estate purchases are mostly made in destinations such as the UK, France, Malta, Cyprus, and Andorra, Denisenko said. “We have between 100 and 150 wealthy…

More progress was made but no compromise deal has yet emerged after a meeting hosted by the White House on Thursday to bring crypto insiders and bankers to the table again on U.S. digital assets legislation, according to crypto insiders who attended. “Today’s constructive meeting at the White House reflects the importance of focused working engagement,” said Ji Kim, the CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, who has been a regular participant in the talks. “The conversation built upon previous meetings to establish a framework that serves American consumers while reinforcing U.S. competitiveness,” he said, adding that there will…

Spain’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bit2Me, moved 5.3 billion euros (around $6.24 billion) in trading volume in 2025, an eightfold jump since 2023, as it shifted from a consumer-facing platform to backend infrastructure for banks and law enforcement. That volume was accompanied by growth in business-to-business revenue, which jumped from 18% of the total in 2023 to 27% in 2025. Crypto-backed loans, a relatively new offering, rose 672% in a single year, with the company’s CFO, Pablo Casadio, saying he sees the crypto industry entering a financial infrastructure phase that the company is taking advantage of, given its backing. The exchange,…

Crypto built the plumbing, but it still hasn’t built the products. This was a common theme at the annual Ethereum development conference $ETH Denver last week, as attendees attempted to shift the focus away from a continually down market and to building better Web3 products. Two prominent voices at the event, $ETH Denver founder John Paller and Aztec Foundation founder Zachary Williamson, delivered a blunt assessment of why blockchain has yet to win over mainstream users. “When you look at what we’ve accomplished in 10 years, we have built an amazing amount of technology and architecture and scaffolding and plumbing…

Kelp’s Liquid restaking token rsETH has now officially gone live on the Mantle network, which is a significant advancement towards spreading the use of restaked $ETH across chains. The launch presents new users with lending, borrowing, and liquidity prospects in the expanding decentralized finance infrastructure in Mantle. rsETH is now live on @Mantle_Official 🌱Our LRT expands to Mantle’s growing DeFi ecosystem, with exciting opportunities across lending and liquidity.🧵 pic.twitter.com/KoJS4sPNzd — Kelp (@KelpDAO) February 19, 2026 Kelp DAO, the developers of rsETH, announced the launch pointing out Mantle as one of the major expansion markets. Bringing rsETH to Mantle gives users…

Ethereum price today trades near $1,954, trading flat in the past 4 hours as the token consolidates inside a tightening symmetrical triangle pattern. The move comes as Bitwise senior research associate Max Shannon warns $ETH could crash 22% to $1,500, while analysts dispute claims that 50% of supply is staked. Analyst Warns Of 22% Drop To $1,500 As Worst Streak Looms According to Max Shannon, senior research associate at Bitwise, Ethereum price risks crashing 22% to hit $1,500 as it tracks toward its worst losing streak in history. If the second-largest cryptocurrency continues falling in March, it would approach the…

São Paulo-based cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin (MB), one of Latin America’s largest trading platforms, released a report outlining six major trends it expects to define the crypto market in 2026. The report identifies a major expansion in stablecoins, tokenization, altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and AI-driven trading as key forces shaping the next phase of the industry. Bitcoin to gold ratio changes MB estimates that bitcoin $BTC$90,566.73 could reach 14% of gold’s market capitalization by the end of 2026. That ratio is currently at 5.65%, meaning that, all else equal, the price of bitcoin would more than double. The report cites…

Limited stablecoin rewards are favored by the White House, and if bankers sign off, they’ll be in the next draft of the crypto market structure bill, according to two people familiar with the negotiation. At a Thursday working session meant to secure common ground on stablecoin rewards between banks and the crypto industry, the White House made it clear that certain rewards programs were going to stay in the next draft of the crypto market structure bill, the people said. Representatives of Wall Street banks that attended the meeting actively worked on that language, and the White House will put…

Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced its support for the network upgrade and hard fork process on the Shentu ($CTK) network. According to a statement from the exchange, deposit and withdrawal operations for tokens on the Shentu ($CTK) network will be temporarily suspended as of February 25, 2026, at 3:00 PM. This step was taken to protect user experience and manage the technical transition process smoothly. The network upgrade and hard fork are expected to occur at block height 28,124,200, around 4:00 PM on February 25, 2026. Binance stated that it will handle all necessary technical…