Author: NBTC

KuCoin has appointed former London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) executive Sabina Liu to lead its European business, tasking her with steering the exchange’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) expansion from Vienna after securing a crypto asset service provider license in Austria. Liu, who will serve as managing director of KuCoin EU, previously ran KuCoin’s institutional business and also spent more than a decade at the LSEG working with global investment banks and cross-border trading clients, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. MiCA “guardrails” over growth at all costs Liu told Cointelegraph that securing a MiCA license was a…

Pharos has officially stated that it has a number of high-profile security partners in anticipation of its upcoming mainnet launch. This move is an indication that institutional-grade security and operational resilience are central to Pharos, making it a finance prepared Layer 1, which can be used in RealFi applications. Through partnership with well-known international cloud providers and leading companies in Web3 security, Pharos will develop a complex security system at infrastructure, audit, and monitoring levels, as well as incident response. Pharos is proud to announce key security partners ahead of the Mainnet launch!🔐 @alibaba_cloud and @awscloud provide enterprise-grade cloud security…

The U.S. Department of Justice highlighted three high-profile fraud cases where cryptocurrency played a material role in its 2025 Year in Review, released Thursday, noting heightened enforcement as digital assets become embedded in traditional fraud schemes. The cases emerged from a record-breaking year where prosecutors charged 265 defendants with an aggregate intended fraud loss exceeding $16 billion, more than double last year’s total, according to the DOJ’s Criminal Division Fraud Section report. America First means zero tolerance for fraud! The Fraud Section’s 2025 Year in Review details aggressive actions @TheJusticeDept has taken against fraud at every level. https://t.co/N5S1r4VjoG — Criminal…

Circle launched StableFX, an initiative to transform the $10 trillion daily foreign exchange (FX) market by enabling 24/7 on-chain currency conversion using stablecoins. The platform, unveiled in November 2025 on Circle’s Arc blockchain, promises to eliminate long-standing FX bottlenecks, such as prefunding requirements, delayed settlement, and fragmented trading venues. Circle Launches StableFX to Modernize Global FX Circle’s StableFX allows institutions to trade stablecoin pairs like $USDC/EURC via Request-for-Quote (RFQ) execution from multiple liquidity providers. FX has long been constrained by prefunding, cut-off times, and fragmented venues.StableFX brings currency conversion onchain with familiar RFQ execution and always-on settlement using stablecoins.In 2025,…

Solv Protocol, the largest on-chain Bitcoin asset manager overseeing over $1bn in assets, is excited to announce a major architecture upgrade for SolvBTC, cementing its Bitcoin ($BTC) mainnet execution layer to FROST. FROST is a threshold signature scheme pioneered by the Zcash community that makes institution-grade multisignature security independently to the Bitcoin network itself. The main purpose of this up-gradation is to ensure the security and governance to Bitcoin without any amendments in the network. For seamless and successful operation, this upgrade brings SolvBTC’s Bitcoin execution model from Solv’s Staking Abstraction Layer (SAL), launched to standardize Bitcoin staking into a…

Changpeng Zhao, the entrepreneur behind Binance and one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency world, has delivered a bold vision of how digital assets could help society adapt to a future shaped by artificial intelligence and automation. In an X post, CZ argued that as AI takes on a growing share of traditional work, blockchain‑based technologies such as cryptocurrency, tokenization, and decentralized finance will become essential components of a new global economic system. CZ insists that artificial intelligence is already transforming industries from customer service to logistics, and that this will require new forms of economic infrastructure to…

29 crypto-associated actions were resolved last year, and among them, 7 cases were resolved under Atkins’ administration. The principal at Cornerstone Research stated that enforcement actions taken under Chair Atkins show a transformation in the approach of the SEC over digital-asset oversight. The securities regulators from the United States unlocked far fewer crypto-associated enforcement actions in the last year. A Cornerstone Research report also highlighted a sharp move in priorities after Trump’s government made Paul Atkins the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report mentioned that the SEC has led around 13 crypto-associated actions last year, a…

Vietnam has opened a five-year crypto exchange licensing pilot in an effort to develop a domestic crypto exchange industry. Techcombank and its securities arm, Techcom Securities (TCBS), are the first to submit an application. Both meet the minimum charter capital requirement of 10 trillion dong (approx. $400 million) and are primarily backed by institutional shareholders. There are also roughly eight other Vietnamese securities firms and banks that have expressed interest in submitting an application. But the government only plans to license a small initial group of five crypto platforms. On January 26, Vietnamese lawmaker Hai Nam Nguyen stressed the importance…

Bella Protocol has formed a new strategic partnership with PinGoAI which is a big step towards its endeavor to improve AI-powered products throughout its ecosystem. The collaboration combines the decentralized finance infrastructure of Bella with the decentralized physical infrastructure network, or DePIN, of PinGoAI, which is developed on The Open Network. Bella will use the distributed computing capabilities of PinGoAI to enhance the speed and efficiency of its AI-driven tools and make them smarter. 🚀 New collab: Bella × @PinGoAIPinGo is pioneering AI + DePIN on $TON, and we’re excited to leverage their immense computing power to level up Bella’s…

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – January 2026. In a landmark announcement that could reshape the intersection of blockchain and traditional finance, CertiK founder Ronghui Gu revealed plans for an initial public offering. This strategic move aims to position the Web3 security pioneer as the first publicly listed company in its sector. Consequently, the development signals a pivotal moment for institutional acceptance of decentralized technology. The announcement, made during an interview with CBS at the World Economic Forum, underscores a growing trend of blockchain infrastructure firms seeking mainstream validation. CertiK IPO Plans Signal Web3 Maturation Ronghui Gu detailed the IPO ambitions for his…