Author: NBTC

Scaling has been a structural challenge since its earliest years, as every cycle of adoption – ICOs, DeFi, NFTs – exposed the same constraint: a surge in activity mechanically led to gas fee spikes, deteriorating accessibility for end-users. During peak congestion cycles in 2021 and 2022, average transaction fees briefly pushed above $200. At those levels, Ethereum was not a global settlement network; it was a network for whales. Retail users were priced out. Simple token transfers became luxury transactions. Ethereum could not scale execution on its base layer without eroding the very property it sought to preserve: decentralization. The…

US spot $XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their first net outflow day since launch, with about $40.8 million exiting the products on Wednesday, ending a multi-week streak of uninterrupted inflows. SoSoValue data shows that the pullback marked the first daily reversal after $XRP ($XRP) ETFs had steadily accumulated assets since mid-November 2025. The outflow day also followed a strong start to the year, with the funds logging consecutive inflow days, pushing their cumulative net inflows to $1.2 billion. The red day coincided with heavy selling pressure across major crypto-linked ETFs. Farside Investors data shows that spot Bitcoin ($BTC) ETFs posted…

Virginia is progressing the bill to regulate cryptocurrency ATM kiosks across the state. According to reports, the legislation has passed both the state Senate and House and has now been moved to the governor’s desk. If signed, the bill would create rules for operators and add a new layer of consumer protection against scams. In addition, the legislation is expected to include other licensing and reporting requirements that would help residents carry out transactions safely across Virginia. The legislation will also prevent operators of the kiosk from marketing them as ATMs or using language that recognizes them as ATMs. Other…

Modern Treasury, a payments operations software provider that helps companies manage and reconcile money movement, has introduced an integrated payment service provider (PSP) that supports both traditional fiat rails and stablecoins. On Wednesday, the company announced that it has added stablecoin settlement to the same infrastructure that businesses already use for ACH transfers, wire payments and real-time payment networks. At launch, the platform supports Global Dollar (USDG), Pax Dollar (USDP) and $USDC ($USDC), with USDt (USDT) expected to be added in the future. Modern Treasure acquired stablecoin and fiat payment platform Beam in October. The company has partnered with Paxos…

Starknet developer StarkWare has integrated EY’s Nightfall privacy protocol to let institutions run private payments and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on public Ethereum-aligned rails, targeting banks and corporates that need confidentiality without giving up auditability. In a Tuesday release shared with Cointelegraph, StarkWare positioned the move as a way for enterprises to use a shared, open layer-2 rather than closed, bank-only networks, while working with a Big Four firm that already audits many of the organizations it wants to onboard. The integration brings Nightfall, an open-source zero-knowledge (ZK) privacy layer built by EY, that lets transactions be verified without revealing…

Hyperliquid’s HIP-6 proposal advances permissionless token launches via continuous clearing auctions for projects to raise funds and discover fair prices. The proposal makes Hyperliquid a protocol where users can can launch, price and trade tokens entirely onchain. The Hyperliquid community is pushing a new improvement proposal that allows teams to raise money on-chain through continuous clearing auctions. Known as HIP-6, the new proposal is built around HIP-1, which introduced permissionless token deployment and HIP-2, which offers automated liquidity, known in the ecosystem as Hyperliquidity. However, the network lacks a direct way to combine a price discovery mechanism and capital raising.…

TL;DR Nearly 20,000 Ethereum worth $40 million have been withdrawn from major exchanges, signaling strong conviction among top traders. Exchange reserves continue to shrink, tightening liquidity and favoring long-term holding strategies. Binance data shows over 75% of top traders hold long positions, while funding rates indicate leveraged demand remains elevated, reflecting deliberate positioning rather than short-term speculation. Approximately 19,820 Ethereum valued at $40.14 million were withdrawn from Binance and OKX by a major whale, adding to an earlier purchase of 60,784 $ETH worth $126 million. These movements suggest strategic capital deployment rather than opportunistic trading, emphasizing structured exposure. At the…

President Donald Trump’s revived push to acquire Greenland is no longer confined to diplomatic cables and political headlines. It is now being actively priced by crypto-native markets, where traders are turning geopolitical uncertainty into tradable probabilities, well before any deal materializes. Trump’s Greenland Gambit Is Turning Into a Crypto Trade On-chain prediction platform Polymarket shows that the question “Will Trump acquire Greenland before 2027?” is currently priced at around 15%, with nearly $3 million in total volume committed to the outcome. Bids for Trump to Acquire Greenland before 2027. Source: Polymarket While the odds remain low, the activity itself is…

Mark Moran may be fresh to politics, but the former reality TV contestant and Wall Street banker is confident that his path to Washington runs through Solana’s trenches. That’s because the 34-year-old, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Mark Warner in Virginia’s Democratic primary, recently embraced a meme coin as a way to elevate his campaign. Moran described the endeavor to Decrypt as an attempt to innovate and appeal to crypto-native voters. But he acknowledged that his promotion of the token on social media accounts and his campaign website invites scrutiny from regulators—and potentially his competitors. “When you think about a…

Coinbase has now expanded its lending services to include some of the market’s most popular altcoins. The new feature makes it possible for U.S. customers to borrow against their holdings without triggering a taxable event or losing their market position. XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Litecoin (LTC) are among the supported coins. Users can borrow up to $100,000 in $USDC, the second-largest cryptocurrency. Instant liquidity The new feature is designed for speed and efficiency. Users will get “instant” liquidity with the help of their coins. This crypto-backed facility allows investors to access cash (via the $USDC stablecoin) immediately while…