Author: NBTC

The debate over the value of Layer-1 blockchains flared up this week. Alliance DAO co-founder Qiao Wang said most L1 tokens don’t have lasting strengths. Meanwhile, Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi released a long essay arguing that smart-contract chains will hold long-term value. Their exchange shows a divide between investors bullish on crypto’s growth and those who think the hype exceeds the fundamentals. L1s Have “No Moat” and Are Becoming Commodities Qiao Wang responded to Qureshi’s essay by explaining why he finds it hard to hold L1 tokens for the long run. His issue is not traditional valuation metrics but rather his…

Good Morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.A ruble-backed stablecoin tied to a sanctioned Russian defense bank somehow ended up sponsoring Singapore’s biggest crypto event, creating a compliance headache that exposed how easily financial sanctions blur across jurisdictions. On Friday morning, former White House Crypto Policy Director Bo Hines took to the stage at Token2049 to extol the virtues of Tether – his new…

DeAgentAI, a decentralized network that enables AI agents to operate autonomously on blockchain networks, today announced a strategic partnership with HyperGPT, a decentralized AI ecosystem that empowers Web3 developers and users with advanced AI tools. The collaboration facilitated the integration of DeAgentAI’s multi-chain infrastructure into HyperGPT’s platform to enable HyperGPT to build AI agent capabilities for asset trading, routing, seamless settlement, and automated cross-chain operations in the multi-chain Web3 landscape. Launched in 2023, HyperGPT is an AI-powered decentralized platform that allows users to buy, sell, transact, and trade AI applications and decrease transaction costs by increasing transparency. It is a…

The stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act, which was enacted in July, will trigger an exodus of deposits from traditional bank accounts into higher-yield stablecoins, according to the co-founder of Multicoin Capital. “The GENIUS Bill is the beginning of the end for banks’ ability to rip off their retail depositors with minimal interest,” Multicoin Capital’s co-founder and managing partner, Tushar Jain, posted to X on Saturday. “Post Genius Bill, I expect the big tech giants with mega distribution (Meta, Google, Apple, etc) to start competing with banks for retail deposits,” Jain added, arguing that they would offer better stablecoin yields with a better…

Investors are turning to safe-haven assets, such as Bitcoin and gold, as the US national debt is nearing a record-breaking $38 trillion. America’s national debt, currently $37.9 trillion, is rising by $69,890 per second — or nearly $4.2 million per minute — over the last year, according to the US Congress Joint Economic Committee’s (JEC) debt dashboard. That equates to a staggering $6 billion per day —larger than the gross domestic product of over 30 countries, according to data from Worldometer. Change in America’s national debt over the last 12 months, measured in certain time intervals. Source: US Congress Joint…

While the stablecoin market has blown past the $300 billion milestone, it didn’t stop there. Over the past week alone, the sector puffed up by another $6.155 billion. From Tether to PYUSD: Stablecoin Giants Drive a $302B Liquidity Wave Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, 2025, the fiat-pegged token economy fattened up by more than 2%, with another $6.155 billion worth of stablecoins entering circulation. As of Sunday, the sector’s total value hovered at $302.879 billion, according to defillama.com’s stablecoin stats. Tether’s USDT remains the heavyweight champ, claiming more than 58% of that pie with a hefty $177.018 billion market…

On Friday — and over the past week — publicly traded bitcoin miners shrugged off the prior week’s funk and piled on a run of solid gains. Of the ten largest miners by market cap, all of them spent the last seven days comfortably swimming in green. Bitcoin Miners Erupt in Weekly Rally Across that same stretch, bitcoin logged an 8% climb against the U.S. dollar, and that momentum spilled straight into the mining sector. U.S. equities, not to be outdone, fired up their own blistering run, closing the week on the upside. The leaders of the miner pack came…

Crypto markets may be distracted by the U.S. government shutdown in the coming week. With key data from the world’s largest economy not being published, traders may find difficulty in identifying big-picture catalysts for their positions. While the shutdown means new exchange-traded funds won’t be approved in the U.S., across the Atlantic U.K. retail investors will gain access to crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) for the first time in four years. The Financial Conduct Authority rescinded a ban in August, saying the market had evolved and such products had become better understood. Within the crypto industry, Hedera is upgrading its mainet…

The Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty is projected to increase during the next difficulty adjustment scheduled for December 11, as hashprice, a critical metric that measures expected miner profitability per unit of computing power, sits at record lows. Bitcoin’s next mining difficulty adjustment is expected to occur at block 927,360 at about 12:09:34 AM UTC, marginally increasing the difficulty from 149.30 trillion to 149.80 trillion, according to CoinWarz. The most recent adjustment, which occurred on Thursday, decreased the difficulty from 152.2 trillion to 149.3 trillion, resulting in an average blocktime of about 9.97 minutes at the time of this writing, slightly…

China Financial Leasing plans $11.1M raise to develop AI-crypto investment platform, sending Hong Kong shares up 25% amid investor excitement. Hong Kong-listed firm merges AI with crypto investment, aiming to build next-gen digital asset platform covering BTC, ETH, NFTs, DeFi, and more. Hong Kong-listed China Financial Leasing Group is making waves with its plan to raise $11.1 million to develop a combined cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI) investment platform. The announcement has fueled investor excitement, sending the company’s shares soaring 25% on Monday, reflecting strong confidence in its digital asset ambitions. Raising Funds Through Strategic Share Placement According to the…