Author: NBTC

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: BTCFi’s Big Problem: 77% of Bitcoin Holders Haven’t Even Tried It, Says Survey Ethereum’s Fusaka Upgrade Passes Holesky Test, Moves Closer To Mainnet DoubleZero Mainnet Goes Live With 22% of Staked SOL on Board Bee Maps Raises $32M to Scale Solana-Powered Decentralized Mapping Network Network News BITCOIN HOLDERS HESITANT TO EXPLORE BTC DEFI : Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi), also known as BTCFi, has been touted as the next wave of innovation for the world’s…

The website tied to Argentinian President Javier Milei’s Viva La Libertad Project, which supposedly provided the utility case for the controversial LIBRA token, has been taken down while millions of dollars from LIBRA-connected wallets continue to move. The Viva La Libertad Project site allowed small Argentinian businesses to apply for funding that would supposedly be raised via profits from the LIBRA token. Milei publicly endorsed the token on February 18 and since then, its market capitalization has crashed 99%. The project is now mired in numerous lawsuits and links to corruption, with investigators working to discover exactly what happened and…

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s interim chief, Caroline Pham, keeps pressing forward on new crypto initiatives as her tenure approaches its conclusion, now seeking to stand up a “CEO Innovation Council” that will include advisory work on crypto policy. She announced a quick-turnaround nomination period that expires Dec. 8, and is asking for suggested names of leaders and ideas for what they should focus on. “The CFTC stands ready to carry out our mission over expanded markets and products, including crypto and digital assets, and ensure our markets remain vibrant and resilient while protecting all participants,” Pham said in…

Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting may indicate that officials are beginning to consider ending the balance sheet reduction plan. The Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points at its last meeting. The minutes of that meeting will be released today at 10:00 PM (UTC+3). The Fed, which reversed the expansionary policies implemented during the pandemic, has been shrinking its balance sheet for a long time, reducing market liquidity. However, according to Citi economists, recent trends in interest rate markets indicate that financing conditions are already tightening. This suggests that the Fed’s balance sheet size may be approaching expected…

The South African Reserve Bank issued its second financial stability report for 2025, identifying digital assets and stablecoins as a new risk as the number of users in the country continues to grow. In a report released on Tuesday, South Africa’s central bank identified “crypto assets and stablecoins” as a new risk for technology-enabled financial innovation. The bank reported that the number of combined users on the country’s three largest crypto exchanges reached 7.8 million as of July, with about $1.5 billion held in custody at the end of 2024. “Due to their exclusively digital – and therefore borderless –…

The minutes of the meeting containing details about the FED’s 25 basis point interest rate cut decision taken last month have been published. Here are all the details you need to know from the minutes: Few officials felt it was advisable not to cut interest rates in September. One participant supported a half-point rate cut at last month’s meeting. Officials noted a slowdown in employment growth and a further increase in the unemployment rate. Most participants argued that there were upside risks to their expectations regarding the inflation outlook. Most officials expect inflation levels to remain high in the near…

For years, prediction market founders and their backers have operated on a simple assumption: Register as a federally regulated designated contract market, plug into the Commodity Exchange Act, and state gambling laws become someone else’s problem. However, a federal court in Nevada has complicated things, shattering this theory with a ruling that says contracts paying out on the outcome of a sporting event are not swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act, meaning they do not fall within the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s federal jurisdiction. In the ruling, Judge Andrew Gordon made clear that this was not just a technical reading…

Shayne Coplan, the founder and CEO of premier prediction market Polymarket, is the youngest self-made billionaire at 27-years-old, according to Bloomberg. Coplan’s ascent comes after Polymarket was valued at $9 billion following a $2 billion investment from the NYSE owner, Intercontinental Exchange, also referred to as ICE. Coplan joins a prestigious list of crypto billionaires, which includes Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Wallets linked to the elusive Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, are valued at $134.5 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence, which would make him the world’s 12th richest person, per the…

A Canadian subsidiary of Bitcoin Depot Inc. was slapped with an $18.47 million arbitration award following a protracted dispute with bankrupt crypto ATM operator Cash Cloud Inc. over alleged hardware and software failures that crippled thousands of machines. The Atlanta-based Bitcoin ATM operator disclosed in a Form 8-K filing on Monday that an arbitral tribunal administered by the Canadian Arbitration Association ruled in favor of Cash Cloud after hearings held between December 2024 and October 2025.  An arbitration award is a legally binding decision issued by a private arbitration panel that typically carries the same enforcement weight as a court…

Liquidity provider and ETF market maker Flow Traders has gone live as an operator on Cap, a protected private credit marketplace built atop the EigenLayer mainnet. The launch provides a “blueprint for how institutional finance comes on-chain,” Sreeram Kannan, Founder and CEO of Eigen Labs, said in a statement shared with Decrypt. As an autonomous verifiable service (AVS) on the EigenLayer network, Cap enables Flow Traders to access EigenLayer’s slashing, redistribution, and unique stake features, bringing institutional capital to the protocol. This illustrates that major firms can interact with decentralized protocols without compromising on accountability and risk management standards, Kannan…