Author: NBTC

Russians have started inquiring about pension payments using cryptocurrency, the country’s state-run social security fund has admitted. The agency reported this week on the requests for information received throughout the past year, and crypto was among the main topics listed. Russian citizens want to know if they can have a crypto pension People in the Russian Federation are increasingly interested in finding out if getting their pensions paid in cryptocurrency is a viable option. That’s according to Russia’s Pension and Social Insurance Fund (SFR), which took to Telegram on Saturday to share the more unusual inquiries it received in 2025.…

An Australian executive who pleaded guilty to selling sensitive cyber tools to a Russian broker was paid in crypto under contracts promising millions more, placing crypto at the center of a case prosecutors say endangered Five Eyes intelligence capabilities. Prosecutors alleged Peter Williams, an Australian national and U.S. resident, sold eight protected cyber-exploit components, including zero-day capabilities, to a Russia-based broker known to do business with the Russian government. The tools were developed for use by the U.S. intelligence community and shared with Five Eyes partners, a signals intelligence alliance that includes the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, and New…

Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced on its official website that it will be removing certain margin trading pairs from its platform. Accordingly, as of February 26th at 09:00, 10 cross margin and 9 isolated margin trading pairs will be delisted. The pairs to be removed from cross margin trading include $POL/$USDC, ALCX/$USDT, SAPIEN/$USDC, $PNUT/$USDC, ARKM/$USDC, BROCCOLI714/$USDC, OPEN/$USDC, $CKB/$USDC, HOLO/$USDC, and $FIL/$BTC. In the isolated margin category, the following trading pairs will be delisted: $POL/$USDC, ALCX/$USDT, SAPIEN/$USDC, $PNUT/$USDC, ARKM/$USDC, OPEN/$USDC, $CKB/$USDC, HOLO/$USDC, and $FIL/$BTC. The delisting decision is believed to have been made as a result of…

Bitcoin miner IREN has made a huge shift in its strategy. Over the past year, the company invested $800 million in artificial intelligence (AI) data center infrastructure. This amount exceeds what IREN spent in three years expanding its Bitcoin mining operations. Analysts and financial reports cited by TheEnergyMag confirm this significant move. LATEST: ⚡ Bitcoin miner IREN deployed $800 million into AI data center infrastructure in one year, exceeding what it spent across three years expanding its $BTC mining operations, according to TheEnergyMag. pic.twitter.com/rHJ42Q0RC6 — CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) February 13, 2026 Pivot Driven by Declining Mining Margins The decision comes as…

DFlow’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) has officially been launched, marking a significant milestone where Artificial Intelligence meets Decentralized Finance. The MCP was created to be a universal tool for trading that can be used by AI agents on the Solana and will change the way that automated entities operate with on-chain liquidity in the future. AI models are advancing beyond just simple chat interfaces, they’re transitioning towards “agentic” behaviors; this means they will be able to autonomously perform tasks through artificial intelligence. This evolution creates an increased demand for comprehensive production-ready financial tools for AI-driven commerce. DFlow has released a…

FOCIL EIP-7805 shifts from research into direct planning for the upcoming Hegota fork. Buterin says FOCIL with EIP-8141 lets smart wallets and privacy txs land in 1-2 slots. With 17 random includers in each slot, security proofs cut censorship odds below 0.01%. Ethereum developers have advanced Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, known as EIP-7805, as a core consensus upgrade for the upcoming Hegota fork. The proposal moves toward implementation planning after contributor Soispoke.eth said the feature had been “SFI’d,” signaling internal alignment. The development places censorship resistance and transaction inclusion guarantees at the center of Ethereum’s next upgrade cycle. FOCIL (EIP-7805)…

Tokenized real-world assets reached $19.72 billion on Jan. 9, the closest the market has come to the $20 billion threshold. That figure measures distributed assets, which are tokens that circulate on-chain and can be transferred between user wallets. As a result, it excludes another $19.78 billion in active private credit loans, which are tracked as represented assets on-chain for recordkeeping but don’t enable open transfers. The distributed RWA market splits into three segments. US Treasuries and money market funds dominate, accounting for $8.86 billion in on-chain collateral. Tokenized commodities, led by gold, sit near $4 billion. The remainder, consisting of…

If Congress fails to pass the CLAIRITY Act, Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long says controversy tied to President Donald Trump’s family will share part of the blame. Speaking at ETH Denver on Wednesday, Long said Trump-associated meme coins and other crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial, have made it more difficult to secure bipartisan backing for the bill, which would define how digital assets are regulated in the U.S. and clarify the roles of federal agencies. “It created controversy,” Long told Decrypt. “Lummis herself has said it made her job harder,” she said, referring to efforts by Wyoming Senator Cynthia…

Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies, made critical statements about the future of the industry, the energy war between Bitcoin and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the major changes in the mining world during a broadcast he participated in. Fred Thiel, one of the leading figures in the Bitcoin mining and data center infrastructure industry, painted a striking picture of Bitcoin’s future. According to Thiel, the next big move in the market will not only be price-driven but will also be shaped by energy and computing power capacity. Thiel noted that access…

$BNB Chain has introduced a new privacy feature for its ecosystem. On February 23, the network confirmed that zERC20 has officially launched zBN. It is a privacy-preserving version of $BNB. The tool allows users to hide sender details, receiver information, balances and transaction history while still using $BNB normally. zBNB by @zERC20io is now live, enabling privacy-preserving transfers for the $BNB Chain ecosystem!With zBNB, users can keep transaction histories and account balances private when sending, holding and using assets on $BNB Chain.Note: This post is for informational purposes only… https://t.co/q3Is0BL2Oo — $BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) February 23, 2026 The update was…