Author: NBTC

An executive at Meta has denied accusations that it can access WhatsApp chats after plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Meta on Friday, maintaining that the messaging app’s end-to-end encryption feature keeps messages secure as promised. In an X post on Monday, Meta communications director Andy Stone said: “Any claim that people’s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd,” while referring to the lawsuit as a “frivolous work of fiction.” Source: Andy Stone The lawsuit was filed in a US district court in San Francisco, California, on Friday by a group of WhatsApp users based in countries such…

AI and decentralized technology are transforming the landscape of multinational corporations; it is clearer than ever that social responsibility requires a new strategic partnership to drive it. As an example, FLock.io has recently become an AI strategic partner in the Blockchain for Good Alliance, which is a globally recognized nonprofit initiative created by One of the Largest Cryptocurrency Exchanges in the world, ByBit. These two organizations represent a fundamental shift in the way emerging technologies are employed to create positive impact. From Blockchain to AI Improved Social Good The Blockchain for Good Alliance has made a significant enhancement of its…

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly reversed a nearly decade-old stance, signaling a major shift in thinking about blockchain self-sovereignty. In a recent post on X (Twitter), Buterin said he no longer agrees with his 2017 assertion that full self-validation by users was a “weird mountain man fantasy.” Why Vitalik Buterin Is Rethinking Ethereum’s Self-Verification Assumptions The statement, he explained, reflects both advances in cryptography and the lessons learned from real-world network failures. Back in 2017, Buterin debated blockchain theorist Ian Grigg over whether blockchains should commit to state on-chain. Grigg argued that blockchains could log transaction order without storing…

Republican Senator Roger Marshall has reportedly agreed to hold back on pushing an amendment aimed at credit card swipe fees when the Senate Agriculture Committee marks up a major crypto bill next week. Marshall filed an amendment to the committee’s version of a crypto market structure bill last week that would force companies to compete on swipe fees, but later privately agreed not to add the provision, Politico reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The Senate Agriculture Committee was expected to mark up the bill on Thursday, but pushed the meeting to Tuesday, Feb. 3, as…

WisdomTree is expanding its tokenization efforts to Solana, adding the blockchain to the list of networks supporting its real-world asset (RWA) products. The New York–based asset manager, best known for its exchange-traded funds, said Wednesday that both institutional and retail investors will be able to mint, trade and hold its full suite of tokenized funds on Solana through the WisdomTree Connect and WisdomTree Prime platforms. The move is part of WisdomTree’s broader multichain strategy and comes as asset managers look to bring traditional financial products onchain to meet growing interest in tokenized money market funds, equities and fixed-income products. “Bringing…

Token Terminal, a Web3 analytics platform, has reported that active loans on Ethereum-based lending protocols have surpassed $28 billion. Active loans measure the value of assets currently borrowed and accruing interest across platforms like Aave, Compound, Morpho, and others on Ethereum. Ethereum runs away with lending lead According to Token Terminal, Ethereum has remained the dominant venue for onchain lending & borrowing, with its 10x lead to runner-up networks. Source: @tokenterminal via X/Twitter. “Active loans across lending platforms on @ethereum recently surpassed $28 billion, up ~10x from January 2023 lows,” a Token Terminal post reads. Unlike deposits, active loans highlight…

Money keeps flowing into cryptocurrency companies even as President Donald Trump’s policies shake up financial markets around the world. During the third week of January alone, investors put $362 million into 14 different crypto startups. That brings this year’s total past $1 billion, according to numbers from DeFiLlama. Early-stage investors hold steady The steady funding comes at a time when Trump’s trade threats have sent shockwaves through stock markets and other traditional investments. But people who invest in new companies say that kind of day-to-day market drama doesn’t really affect their decisions. “The ‘Sell America’ trade we are seeing is…

Australia’s financial watchdog secured a court victory against financial services company BPS Financial Pty Ltd (BPS), with the Federal Court ordering the company to pay 14 million Australian dollars ($9.3 million) in penalties over the promotion and operation of its Qoin Wallet product. The ruling follows years of legal action brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which accused BPS of running an unlicensed financial services business while making misleading claims about its crypto-linked payment product. In a Tuesday news release, the regulator said BPS promoted the Qoin Wallet as a non-cash payment facility tied to its Qoin…

Ethereum extended its pullback as sellers held control, with key support and resistance zones in focus. Notably, Ethereum ($ETH) has traded lower over the past 24 hours, falling about 2.9% to roughly $2,858. This came after spending much of the day drifting near the $2,787–$2,943 area. The intraday structure shows a clear “step-down” sequence, followed by a rebound that recovered part of the losses and lifted price back toward the mid-$2,800s. The pullback also came as precious metals such as gold and silver have been surging, drawing fresh attention to traditional risk hedges in the current macro backdrop. The performance…

The Chief of Google DeepMind has called out a bubble-like pattern in the AI sector. The AI-specific crypto market has declined. More factors have likely contributed to its plummet. Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind Chief, has flagged the appearance of a ‘bubble-like’ pattern in parts of the AI industry. His statement comes after Microsoft’s chief flagged a similar concern if the adoption does not widen in the future. AI tokens have reacted with a decline in their values, possibly due to many more factors on a macro level. Google DeepMind Chief on AI Sector The CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis,…