Author: NBTC

Mastercard (MA) is considering making a strategic investment in blockchain infrastructure firm Zerohash after acquisition talks collapsed when the crypto company opted to remain independent, according to a person familiar with the matter. Fortune reported in October that the payment processor was in late stage talks to buy Zerohash, and could pay as much as $2 billion for the firm, which provides custody, settlement and fiat on-/off-ramps so that fintech companies and brokerages can offer digital assets without building the plumbing themselves. Those talks have ended, according to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is…

Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is plotting a move into the crypto neobank sector with a new product that lets customers hold and move fiat currencies like U.S. dollars and euros. The “MyBank” service will go live in February, subject to regulatory approval, and will allow users to send and receive 18 fiat currencies using International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs), Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing the firm’s CEO Ben Zhou. Crypto neobanks has helped digital asset firms separate themselves from traditional financial platforms (TradFi) with services such as payments. Various crypto neobanks are currently competing for dominance,…

Solayer unveiled a $35 million ecosystem fund to back blockchain applications built on its infiniSVM network, targeting projects that require real-time execution and can generate sustainable revenue. The capital comes from Solayer Labs and the Solayer Foundation. The fund will support early and growth-stage teams building on infiniSVM, a layer-1 blockchain compatible with Solana’s tooling but designed for faster execution and near-instant settlement. Solayer said the network has demonstrated throughput above 330,000 transactions per second and finality of roughly 400 milliseconds. “We’re solving for real-time behavior, immediate, guaranteed settlement and low latency,” said Joshua Sum, Solayer’s chief product officer, in…

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, has launched a safety awareness campaign in Kenya, where local communities were taught road safety with digital security education. Binance’s Africa regional team met with local motorcycle taxi operators during Data Privacy Week on Wednesday to distribute helmets and reflective gear. Riders also received guidance on road discipline while learning about encryption, multi-factor authentication, withdrawal controls, and continuous monitoring systems. Binance compares road traffic to digital asset market frenzy According to the trading platform’s Africa Regional Operations officers, digital protection is relatable to taxi driving because busy roads are as dangerous…

Gold’s blistering 70% rally in a year — its strongest performance in nearly half a century — sent demand for exposure to the metal soaring. As institutional and retail investors alike sought havens during periods of rising geopolitical tensions and new tariff threats, one corner of the market stood out: tokenized gold. Gold-backed tokens like XAUT$4,755.29 and Paxos Gold (PAXG) posted explosive growth last year, surpassing the trading volume of most traditional gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to a report by crypto exchange CEX.io. Tokenized gold trading reached $178 billion in 2025, with $126 billion of that in the last…

Bybit sent out several transactions of XAUT tokens, underscoring rising demand for tokenized gold. A whale accumulated a growing XAUT portfolio valued at over $7M. Bybit became part of the increasing demand for Tether’s tokenized gold, XAUT. The exchange’s hot wallet started sending out XAUT transactions in the past day, leading to a whale address accumulating tokenized gold. The recent shift in narratives led crypto investors to switch to metals. Since XAUT is the most easily available token, it has found renewed demand and trading volumes. The whale’s portfolio rose to $6.95M after the recent records of gold on traditional…

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio issued a stark warning for the global economy amid US President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and seemingly unpredictable economic policies for the country. Speaking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Dalio said the monetary order was “breaking down,” warning of a change in behavior of how central banks handled fiat. According to the hedge fund manager, both fiat holders and “those who need it” were concerned about each other, creating a “big issue” down the line. “Fiat currencies and debt as a storehold…

Strategy, SharpLink Gaming, and MARA Holdings took a dive with the rest of the crypto equities category as Bitcoin dipped below $90,000 on Tuesday morning. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has been hovering between the $90,000 and $91,000 marks after having lost 2.5% since this time yesterday, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko. The price of Bitcoin dropped as low as $89,929 on Tuesday before rebounding to $90,535 as of this writing. Bitcoin trading volume has gained 14% in the past day, rising to $68.6 billion, according to blockchain analytics platform CoinGlass. Most U.S. institutions—including the New York Stock…

Online entertainment has scaled faster than the financial infrastructure supporting it. Platforms now serve global audiences in real time, yet many still rely on banking rails built for slower, domestic commerce. That mismatch has become harder to ignore as user expectations around instant access and transparency continue to rise. For operators, the friction is structural. Payment delays, rejected transactions, and limited banking relationships constrain growth and complicate cash management. These pressures are pushing both users and investors to look more closely at blockchain-based payment rails as a practical alternative rather than a speculative side story. Payment Demand Shifts Online Traditional…

In a landmark move for both the insurance and digital asset industries, Delaware Life Insurance Company has unveiled a pioneering fixed indexed annuity product with direct exposure to Bitcoin. This strategic development, confirmed by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, leverages BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, to bridge the gap between conventional retirement planning and the evolving cryptocurrency market. The launch, announced in Wilmington, Delaware, in early 2025, signals a significant maturation in the integration of digital assets into regulated financial frameworks. Understanding the Bitcoin-Linked Annuity Structure Delaware Life’s new product represents a sophisticated fusion of traditional insurance mechanisms and modern…