Author: NBTC

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, a member of the US Senate Banking Committee and one of the most prominent proponents for addressing digital asset market structure in Congress, said she wants to take the next step in advancing the bill sometime next week. Speaking at the Blockchain Association Policy Summit on Tuesday, Lummis said she anticipated that the markup hearing for the Responsible Financial Innovation Act — the Banking Committee’s version of market structure — would happen before Congress broke for the holidays. The senator said the crypto industry “was getting a little concerned” about the progress of the bill, adding…

Key Takeaways S&P Global entered a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to boost its enterprise AI strategy. S&P will unify its proprietary data on BigQuery to deliver faster, deeper AI-ready insights, and expand agentic capabilities. S&P Global has signed a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to strengthen its enterprise artificial intelligence strategy. The collaboration focuses on advancing S&P Global’s enterprise-wide transformations in agentic AI, data distribution, and workflow automation. The deal will unify S&P’s proprietary data on BigQuery for faster, AI-ready insights and expand customer-facing agentic tools on Gemini Enterprise, including integrations that let users interact directly with S&P data.…

As real-world asset (RWA) tokenization surges, the crypto industry is entering unfamiliar territory, bringing traditional equities, private credit, and commercial paper onchain and uncovering potential critical risks along the way. Marcin Kaźmierczak, co-founder of oracle provider RedStone, says a risk is potentially being overlooked: the weekend gap, where crypto trades 24/7, while Wall Street does not. In traditional finance, if disaster strikes a company over the weekend, the market is closed and then the stock “gaps down” when the opening bell rings on Monday. Meanwhile, in the crypto market, trading never stops. As more stocks are brought onchain, the gap…

Jonathan Gould, the Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), said this week that cryptocurrency companies seeking federal bank charters should be evaluated under the same standards as traditional banks. During a blockchain conference held on Monday, December 8, Gould noted that while some of these applicants, either in the digital or fintech sector, might appear to provide unique services for a national trust bank, he emphasized that custody and safekeeping services have been conducted electronically for several years. Therefore, with this argument in place, Gould asserted that there was no…

Blockchain game builders are increasingly prioritizing fundamentals and infrastructure over token-fuelled growth cycles, with stablecoin adoption emerging as one of the top three catalysts for the first time, according to the latest report from the Blockchain Gaming Alliance (BGA). On Wednesday, the BGA published its 2025 State of the Industry Report, which shows a shift in what builders believe will drive success in blockchain gaming. According to the report, the top three growth drivers were high-quality game launches (29.5%), revenue-driven business models (27.5%) and stablecoin adoption in payments (27.3%). The findings suggest the industry is stepping back from speculative cycles…

Tether, the company behind the $186 billion USDT stablecoin, is moving further beyond its crypto roots with a privacy-focused health and wellness app. On Wednesday, the firm rolled out QVAC Health, built on its AI development platform and designed to bring control to users tracking their fitness, nutrition and biometric data across devices. The app lets users monitor their health data — like step counters, sleep trackers, workout apps — and keep them offline and encrypted on their personal devices without passing through commercial servers or being harvested for advertising, the firm said. “QVAC Health reflects the company’s commitment to…

As global markets continue to absorb the prospect of new U.S. trade barriers, central bank officials in Europe and Asia warn that the volatility they create in the bond markets could expose another hidden risk. Similar to Lehman Brothers’ 2008 debacle, which triggered a $600 billion money-market fund run, forced the sale of commercial paper, and froze global credit markets, some central bank officials believe a stablecoin run could unleash a far larger, instantaneous fire sale of U.S. Treasuries. While only time will tell if such a large-scale contagion will happen again, some recent events have shown a glimpse of…

In the case of Terraform Labs and Terra (LUNA) founder Do Kwon, who is accused of defrauding investors, U.S. federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer requested a series of critical questions from the parties before a hearing on Thursday. According to court documents, before Kwon’s sentence can be announced, uncertainties regarding the applicability of the sentence and the involvement of victims in the process must be resolved. Judge Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York asked six questions, seeking clarification on issues such as whether Kwon could avoid sentencing if extradited, whether the victims would be willing to testify, and…

Financial technology firm Superstate has rolled out a new way for US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-registered public companies to raise capital directly onchain. Through its Direct Issuance Programs (DIPs), any issuer registered with the SEC can now offer new shares on Ethereum and Solana, with investors paying in stablecoins and receiving tokenized shares instantly at real‑time market prices, according to a Wednesday announcement from Superstate shared with Cointelegraph. Jim Hiltner, co-founder and head of business development at Superstate, told Cointelegraph, “The regulatory ability to directly issue registered shares isn’t new. What is new is that issuers can now conduct…

Cryptocurrency investment giant Grayscale is launching XRP and Dogecoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) tomorrow. While the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shared its approval for the XRP ETF in its announcement dated November 21, it also gave the green light to the DOGE ETF in a separate notice published on the same day. Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated that the Dogecoin ETF could see up to $11 million in volume on its first day of trading, according to X. Balchunas also stated that the Grayscale Chainlink Trust could be approved “probably…