Author: NBTC

European institutions are strengthening their focus on inclusive finance as the digital euro app becomes a key tool for future payments across the euro area. ECB and ONCE Foundation sign accessibility-focused agreement Accessibility and inclusion as core design principles Beyond minimum legal standards and market practice Digital financial inclusion and user-friendly features Insights from vulnerable consumers and onboarding needs Regulatory alignment and non-remunerated cooperation ECB and ONCE Foundation sign accessibility-focused agreement The European Central Bank (ECB) and the ONCE Foundation for Cooperation and Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities have signed a collaboration agreement to ensure the digital euro app…

On some Ethereum L2s, bots now burn over half the gas just searching for MEV, and they don’t pay proportionally for it. That’s a scaling and market-fairness problem rooted in market structure. The privacy conversation in crypto has finally escaped the “anonymous money” framing that dominated the last cycle. In early 2026, the urgency is economic and rooted in immediate financial realities. The industry faces a structural problem: on-chain transparency generates extractable value at massive scale, and that extraction has grown into a scaling bottleneck rather than remaining a purely philosophical concern. Flashbots has documented how MEV-related “search spam” can…

Table of Contents A Gated Trading Venue Built for Regulated InstitutionsHow Does the XRPL Permissioned DEX Actually Work?Why Does This Matter for Banks and Traditional Finance?What Are the Three Upgrades Working Together?What Is the $XRP Ledger?What Does This Mean for Retail $XRP Users?ConclusionResourcesFrequently Asked Questions A Gated Trading Venue Built for Regulated Institutions The $XRP Ledger’s Permissioned DEX, activated under amendment XLS-81, is a members-only version of XRPL’s built-in decentralized exchange. Unlike the network’s standard open order book, where anyone with a wallet can place and fill trades, this upgrade lets designated administrators control exactly who is allowed to participate.…

The digital finance strategy of Europe is transitioning to practice and Stellar has recently passed a significant technical milestone. The Stellar network transactions are now validated and accepted in the system of Unified Digital Ledger in Europe. Consequently, the Stellar-based activity is technically compatible with the digital financial infrastructure adopted by the continent. This update emerged via the social media but its consequences are far-reaching than just a single post. It is an indicator of the way Europe is gradually choosing what blockchain rails may run within its controlled financial future. What Europe’s Unified Digital Ledger Actually Represents Apparently, the…

Spot Ethereum ($ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are facing immense selling pressure, having recorded four consecutive weeks of net outflows. Over that stretch, between January 17 and February 13, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs have shed roughly $1.26 billion worth of the cryptocurrency, according to historical data accessible on SoSoValueat press time, February 17. If redemptions continue this week, the market will thus log a fifth straight week of outflows, a streak not seen since spring 2025, when institutional flows ended up in the red for two months straight between late February and late April. The signs that outflows might continue are…

South Korea is ramping up financial watchdog technology, with fresh AI tools and hardware upgrades designed to tighten fss crypto oversight across domestic trading platforms. FSS expands AI infrastructure with additional H100 capacity VISTA upgrades target deeper manipulation and account patterns AI-driven market surveillance scales with rising risk reports Strategic roadmap for automated crypto enforcement FSS expands AI infrastructure with additional H100 capacity The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) expanded its internal AI infrastructure for 2024 after securing a new budget for hardware. The authority allocated funds to acquire an additional Nvidia H100 unit to reinforce its existing GPU cluster and…

Cryptocurrency is again swept in an atmosphere of speculation. This time however, the focus has gone on Wintermute, which is a big liquidity provider, as people have alleged that it is selling off big volumes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. On-chain data cited by Arkham Intelligence show that there have been large wallet transfers across large exchanges. Consequently, some of the traders feel that this practice is causing current price weaknesses. The case, however, might be not as simple as that.. 🚨 BREAKINGWINTERMUTE IS NON-STOP DUMPING MILLIONS IN $BTC AND $ETH TO LIQUIDATE LONGS AHEAD OF TRUMP’S ECONOMY ANNOUNCEMENT!IS THIS EVEN…

Energy giants rarely make quiet moves. They make statements. Engie just made one that could redefine how utilities treat excess power. The French energy major announced plans to convert surplus electricity from its massive Brazil solar plant into Bitcoin mining revenue. Investors reacted instantly, pushing ENGIY shares to a 52 week high. The decision centers on using curtailed electricity that would otherwise go unused. Instead of wasting clean power, Engie plans to channel it into data centers dedicated to crypto operations. This strategy blends renewable innovation with digital asset economics. It also positions solar powered Bitcoin mining as a serious…

Base, the Ethereum Layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase, has seen its total value locked (TVL) fall by $1.4 billion in the past few weeks. The decline comes as public debate over the chain’s strategy and product direction intensifies. Base TVL Slides as Builders, Critics, & Coinbase Leadership Clash Over the Chain’s Direction Base TVL has dropped from about $5.3 billion in January to roughly $3.9 billion as of this writing. Base TVL. Source: DefiLlama The drop matters because TVL remains one of the most closely watched indicators of capital activity and developer confidence in blockchain ecosystems. However, TVL fluctuations are…

The digital assets advocacy group Stand With Crypto grew by 675,000 online signups last year, reaching about 2.6 million in the U.S. as the country heads toward its 2026 congressional elections. The group has been deploying its members into political letter-writing campaigns to support U.S. crypto legislation, totaling 925,000 in 2025 and more than a million emails since its founding, according to a Thursday report shared with CoinDesk. It now has chapters in every state, the group said, and it’s organized four fly-ins to Washington to directly engage in policy efforts. In October, it announced it had coordinated 250,000 letters…