Author: NBTC

Fitch Ratings revised its US economic growth forecasts upwards for 2025 and 2026, while stating that it expects the Fed to make two interest rate cuts in the first half of 2026. The organization also stated that the unemployment rate is likely to remain stable at 4.6 percent this year. Fitch has updated its growth projections, taking into account economic data delayed due to the government shutdown at the end of last year. Accordingly, the forecast for US gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2025 has been raised from 1.8 percent to 2.1 percent. The growth expectation for 2026 has…

Poland’s president vetoed a second bill meant to align the country’s crypto rules with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework, deepening uncertainty for local platforms as a key transition deadline approaches. President Karol Nawrocki declined to sign Bill 2064 last week, marking the second veto of proposed legislation to implement the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the president’s office said Thursday. Nawrocki vetoed a similar measure in December and described Bill 2064 as “practically identical” to the original Bill 1424 vetoed previously. The veto followed an announcement by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), warning that Poland…

Tether’s $USDT, the world’s largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin, is heading for its steepest monthly decline in years as large holders step up redemptions, according to blockchain data. The circulating supply of USDt ($USDT) fell by about $1.5 billion so far in February, following an $1.2 billion decrease in January, according to Artemis Analytics data reported by Bloomberg. This puts $USDT on track for the biggest monthly drop in three years, weeks after the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022. The $USDT supply logged a $2 billion decrease in December 2022 after the collapse of FTX and its 150…

MARA Holdings shares jumped 17% after the bitcoin mining firm announced Thursday a partnership with Starwood Capital Group to build large data centers across its existing U.S. sites. The agreement will convert select MARA locations, many of which were originally developed for Bitcoin mining, into facilities serving enterprise cloud and artificial intelligence customers. Starwood, which manages more than $125 billion of assets, will lead design, construction and tenant sourcing through its data center arm, Starwood Digital Ventures. The partners expect to deliver about 1 gigawatt of computing capacity in the near term, with plans to scale beyond 2.5 gigawatts over…

ChainAware.ai has declared a strategic collaboration with AGNT Hub to provide advanced on-chain intelligence and blockchain security software to users directly on X. The partnership unveils AGNT Connect, a browser extension that is meant to redesign X into a single Web3 experience, allowing one to access decentralized tools and analytics in the social feed effortlessly. https://t.co/tODxqMTUfI x @agnt_hub 🚀We’re excited to team up with AGNT Hub, bringing the $100B Mini App trend from Telegram to X with AGNT Connect, a browser extension that transforms X into a unified Web3 interface for 300K+ subscribers and 40K+ daily active users.By… pic.twitter.com/Q0xephbDm0 —…

Ventuals, a protocol that lets users trade tokenized exposure to private and pre-IPO companies, has crossed $200 million in cumulative trading volume less than three months after launch, according to a Feb. 11 X post from the platform’s co-founder, Alvin Hsia. The milestone was reached just 17 days after cumulative volume first hit $100 million, on Jan. 24, a level that took the platform 73 days to achieve, Hsia noted. Ventuals trading volume over time. Source: Loris.Tools On-chain data from LorisTools, which tracks activity across Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 products, shows cumulative volume on Ventuals has climbed past $215 million by press…

Congress races to finalize US crypto market rules as Trump-backed bill nears passage, splitting SEC–CFTC powers and setting deadlines on exchanges and stablecoins. Summary Trump says crypto market structure bill S. 3755/H.R. 3633 could pass soon, cementing a split between SEC and CFTC oversight with a 180-day exchange registration window.​ Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees must reconcile their drafts before a Feb. 28 White House stablecoin framework deadline, after a narrow 12–11 committee vote.​ The bill would give CFTC primacy over Bitcoin and Ethereum, mandate joint CFTC–SEC rulemaking within 18 months, and comes amid calls to probe Trump-linked token $WLFI.…

In a new milestone, the x402 facilitator is now live on the $XRP Ledger, allowing AI agents to be able to pay for services using $XRP and $RLUSD with no need for API key or accounts. x402 refers to the open standard for machine-native payments. It works in this way: when an agent requests a resource, the server responds with HTTP 402 “Payment Required,” and the agent pays instantly. The XRPL x402 facilitator handles the verification and settlement on-chain, allowing for real utility to flow through the ledger. The x402 facilitator is now live on the XRPL.AI agents can now…

Since December, the DeFi sector’s largest protocol has been wrestling with an existential question, pitting Aave Labs against the DAO: who owns Aave? What began as a discussion over swap fees rapidly escalated into an existential debate about ownership of the Aave brand, as well as the rights to monetize it. Yesterday, Aave Labs published a “temperature check” entitled “Aave Will Win Framework” on the Aave governance forum. Their headline is “100% of product revenue to the Aave DAO,” but the post, which runs to almost 4,000 words, doesn’t end there. Read more: Aave brand dispute rumbles on as founder…

Ethereum price today trades near $1,997, up 0.35% in the past 24 hours as the token consolidates in a tight range after recovering from the $1,588 February low. The move comes as BlackRock filed an amended S-1 for its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, revealing an 18% cut of staking rewards split between the sponsor and prime execution agent. BlackRock Reveals 18% Staking Fee Structure BlackRock’s amended S-1 filing for its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust shows the fund will take 18% of all staking rewards earned by the ETF. Coinbase, serving as both custodian and prime execution agent, will split…