Author: NBTC

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has accused former custody partner Etana and its CEO, Dion Brandon Russell, of misappropriating more than $25 million in client funds, according to a second amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Colorado on Monday. The crypto exchange alleges that Etana Custody, which is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, operated a “Ponzi-like” scheme in which custodial assets were commingled, spent on operating expenses and risky investments, and falsely reported as intact to clients. The Wyoming-based firm said it entrusted Etana with hundreds of millions of dollars over several years as…

Those who rushed into bitcoin over the past two years are now heading for the exits and it’s not a great sign for the market. Public companies, once seen as long-term holders, are increasingly selling bitcoin as prolonged price weakness weighs on balance sheets and strategic plans. Take Empery Digital (EMPD), which announced on Wednesday that it sold 370 $BTC at an average price of $66,632, generating $24.7 million, leaving the company with 2,989 $BTC. The firm used part of the proceeds to repay its outstanding term loan fully and also released approximately 1,800 $BTC that had previously been held…

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has taken to the X social media network to opine that the future of financial transactions will be dominated not by humans, but by autonomous AI programs. “Very soon, there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions,” Armstrong stated. He pinpointed a critical friction point in traditional finance that makes this inevitability a massive catalyst for digital assets: “They can’t open a bank account, but they can own a crypto wallet. Think about it.” Legacy financial institutions require government-issued identification, proof of address, and rigorous Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance. Cryptocurrencies, on…

World Foundation, the non-profit entity behind the biometric identity verification protocol formerly known as Worldcoin, disclosed today that its subsidiary completed the sale of around $65 million in $WLD tokens through a series of over-the-counter deals with four counterparties over the past week. Based on the disclosed average price, World Assets, Ltd., the unit responsible for token issuance and distribution, sold approximately 239 million $WLD tokens. 1/ World Assets, Ltd. has now closed a series of OTC sales for a total of $65,000,000 with four counterparties over the past week, the first of which settled on March 20, 2026. —…

US crypto lobby group Blockchain Association has thrown its support behind the US Federal Reserve’s proposal to codify the removal of “reputation risk” from its supervision of banks, which has been used in the past to debank crypto companies. In a letter sent Monday in response to the Fed’s request for comment, Ashok Pinto, the group’s executive vice president of legal and government relations, said reputation risk, which was removed as a component of examination programs in June 2025, should be made a formal rule. “The Blockchain Association strongly encourages the Board to move expeditiously to finalize and codify the…

Binance is launching a user-controlled withdrawal lock aimed at a threat the crypto industry has spent the past year reckoning with: physical coercion of holders, otherwise known as the so-called wrench attacks. The feature, “Withdraw Protection,” lets users freeze their own account against onchain withdrawals for one to seven days, the exchange said Monday. A stricter “lockdown” mode disables early unlocking entirely. Binance’s press release says the lock cannot be overridden by the exchange. In an interview with CoinDesk, the exchange’s Chief Security Officer Jimmy Su said the company built the feature in response to patterns it observed in the…

UAE Innovation City, the UAE’s AI-powered free zone in Ras Al Khaimah, has launched what it calls the first blockchain enabled digital business identity system, where each registered business in the freezone will receive a sovereign cryptographically verified identity built on IOPn blockchain, the OPN Chain. Innovation City, and IOPn are moving companies towards the 21st century by making them live entities on a blockchain and not on paper, PDF, or database, but rather on an immutable, soul bound digital asset. The benefit is less reliance on centralized intermediaries and more certainty in verifications, aligned with UAE’s national strategy of…

As Bitcoin ($BTC) continues to be adopted by many countries, a US organization has proposed Bitcoin to Taiwan, which is facing competition from China. BPI said Taiwan should adopt $BTC as a reserve asset against a potential conflict with China. The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) stated in a recent report that Taiwan should consider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset to prepare for a potential war with China. BPI argued that in the event of a Chinese blockade or full-scale invasion of Taiwan, Bitcoin would be the only fully accessible and usable reserve asset. BPI researcher Jacob Langenkamp noted that…

US President Donald Trump, in statements regarding the ongoing conflict with Iran, said the war could be short. Trump described the operation against Iran as a “short-term operation,” while claiming the US had made significant progress in military operations. In his statement, Trump said the military campaign against Iran was progressing faster than expected, adding, “This will be a short-term operation.” Claiming that the US had achieved significant success in its operations, Trump stated, “So far, so good. We’ve really accomplished something significant.” The US President also claimed that Iran’s drone and missile capabilities had been targeted and largely neutralized.…

Ripple was mentioned during a recent U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing, bringing blockchain-based payments into focus at the policy level. During the session “Innovation at the Speed of Markets,” Representative Sam Liccardo questioned Randall Guynn, Director at the Federal Reserve Division of Supervision and Regulation, on whether they are moving quickly enough to modernize payment systems, citing Ripple as a real-world example of faster and cheaper transaction technology. Lawmakers Push for Faster Payment Systems The discussion focused on improving the Automated Clearing House ($ACH) network, which handles payroll, bill payments, and business transfers across the U.S. Liccardo pointed to…