Author: NBTC

While centralized exchanges scramble for market share in derivatives, KuCoin is steadily building its payment rails. On Thursday, KuCoin Pay introduced a new product, KuCoin Gift Card, an enterprise-grade gift card solution designed to let businesses transact using stablecoins, as reported in the original announcement. The product targets corporate clients looking for a digital-first way to manage gift card issuance and distribution. Instead of relying on traditional banking rails or fiat settlement, companies can leverage stablecoins to fund and distribute gift cards. The move signals KuCoin’s intent to diversify beyond its exchange business into the infrastructure layer that connects crypto…

Katie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies and a certified market technician (CMT) known for her technical analysis in financial markets, discussed the current technical picture of Bitcoin on the Coinage program. Stockton stated that the long-term downtrend in BTC has reached its exhaustion point and that there are strong signals of a lasting bottom forming in the market. Stockton stated that they examined technical indicators across multiple timeframes and argued that Bitcoin had reached a clear oversold condition on monthly charts. He also noted an upward movement in long-term momentum indicators, highlighting the importance of the price hovering near previously…

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the network’s roadmap, originally set out in 2023, has changed significantly, with quantum security, user privacy, native rollups, and a leaner protocol architecture becoming priority areas in this new era. Buterin stated that he compared the 2023 Ethereum roadmap with the current “Strawmap” and found that while a significant portion of the core goals remained the same, the order of some topics had changed, and some technologies had been replaced with better alternatives. Accordingly, security against quantum computers gained higher priority, while VDFs and some EVM improvements were relegated to the background. The replacement…

As BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) cryptocurrency portfolio increased by over $3.7 billion since early July to date, on-chain data suggests its investors could potentially be rotating capital from Bitcoin ($BTC) to its altcoin fund. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) has recorded a holding-decline of 3,710 $BTC, down from 743,190 Bitcoin on July 1, 2026, to about 749,480 coins on August 6, according to data from Arkham Intelligence. On the other hand, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) has registered an increase of 196,340 Ethereum ($ETH) during the same period. BlackRock crypto portfolio. Source: Arkham Intelligence As such, BlackRock’s ETHA…

Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz has named the only reason he would be willing to come out of retirement. The chief architect of the $XRP Ledger (XRPL), who retired on Jan. 1, 2026, wrote directly that his comeback would depend not on money or the scale of the task, but on one specific person — Nik Bougalis. A bridge to the past: Who is Nik Bougalis? For the Ripple ecosystem, Bougalis is a cult figure whose history is directly intertwined with the company’s earliest steps. As only the eighth employee on staff, he spent nearly a decade leading the key…

Labour Defence Secretary Wes Streeting reportedly received £37,000 ($50,000) from a Labour-supporting think tank whose founder was gifted $610,000 by notorious crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried. The Telegraph reports that David Lawrence, founder of the Labour for the Long Term (LLT) think tank, was gifted the sum by Bankman-Fried in June 2022. This gift was made one month before his think tank donated £30,000 ($40,300) to Streeting, who used the funds to pay for policy advisor Dr. Thomas Gardiner. A year later, LLT would donate another £7,000 ($9,400) to Streeting. Lawrence reportedly created his think tank’s website on June 20 and…

Uphold Launches $XRP-Backed Visa Card That Turns Crypto Into Everyday Spending Power Uphold is giving $XRP holders a new way to unlock the value of their holdings without selling a single token. Through its newly launched Exa Credit Card, users can now borrow against their $XRP, turning their crypto into spending power while keeping ownership of their assets. Introduced by Uphold U.S. President Nancy Beaton, the Exa Credit Card is powered by Exactly Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform. Eligible users in select U.S. states can use their $XRP as collateral to access a line of credit, then spend…

Strategy’s U.S. dollar reserve has reached $4.65 billion, up from $3.75 billion two weeks earlier. It has also sold almost 7,000 $BTC since late June 2026. Many are wondering why a company built around accumulating Bitcoin would choose to hold billions of dollars in fiat. More importantly, should other Bitcoin businesses do the same? Strategy holds cash because it’s in a very unique position Strategy increasingly operates as an issuer of Digital Credit: preferred securities backed economically by an enormous Bitcoin balance sheet. These instruments create fixed dollar dividends obligations. Bitcoin produces no cash flow. Strategy’s software business produces far…

Spritehood has sold 42,956 paid NFTs on Robinhood Chain in about 53 minutes, generating nearly $1.28 million for Pudgy Penguins co-founder Cole Villemain. Spritehood $NFT sale reached $1.28 million The Defiant reported that Villemain launched Spritehood on Aug. 11 after previously being removed from the founding team of Pudgy Penguins, with the paid portion of the sale selling out in less than one hour. On-chain analyst 0xlaplaced calculated that the mint generated about $1.2829 million, or approximately 684.28 $ETH, based on the price of Ether during the sale. The final total came in well above an earlier estimate of roughly…

The Ethereum price prediction is turning into an $ETH/$BTC story as much as a price story. The ratio just touched 0.0296, its best 30-day run in months, closing in on a level $ETH hasn’t held since last year, while spot $ETH ETFs quietly logged a fifth straight week of inflows. $ETH itself is stuck at $1,923.55, pressing the same descending trendline that’s rejected price twice this month, with $2,042 on the table if it finally breaks and $1,837 the fallback if it doesn’t. $ETH Price Analysis: Pressing the Descending Trendline as SAR Flips the Key Test $ETH Price Action (Source:…