Author: NBTC

In recent years, Brazil has seen a significant increase in cryptocurrency usage, evidenced by the proliferation of Bitcoin ATMs nationwide. This increase reflects Brazilians’ growing acceptance of digital assets and a shift toward innovative financial technologies. CoinATMRadar data shows nine Bitcoin ATMs in Brazil’s largest cities, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis, São Bernardo do Campo, and Bauru. This represents a significant increase from just four ATMs in 2021, demonstrating the rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies by Brazilians. The proliferation of these machines facilitates Bitcoin buying and selling, offering convenience and accessibility often lacking in traditional banking. Coin Cloud is…

Germany’s DekaBank has scored a major win, bagging a crypto custody license from BaFin, the country’s financial watchdog, and the European Central Bank (ECB). The license was granted under the Banking Act (KWG) and DekaBank will be joining Commerzbank as one of the only traditional German banks to operate in this space. But let’s not get too excited—this is Germany, after all, where regulation is the order of the day, and every action is measured. While BaFin has granted crypto custody licenses to 11 other firms, most of those have gone to crypto-native companies, like the digital asset custody arm…

Sonic SVM, the first Layer-2 (L2) solution on Solana (SOL), has announced a new token airdrop to reward Solayer users who delegate to Sonic’s Actively Validated Service (AVS), according to the information shared with Finbold on Thursday, December 12. The airdrop will target users who have delegated SOL or eligible Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to Sonic AVS via Solayer. All qualifying delegations — including not only SOL stakers, but also users of Solayer-powered protocols such as Adrastea — will be captured in a snapshot occurring ahead of Sonic’s Token Generation Event (TGE) scheduled for Q1 2025. Chris Zhu, Chief Executive…

Bitcoin (BTC) exceeded $100,000 in the morning hours, marking a historic moment, and the rise is expected to continue. While there are different price predictions for BTC at this point, on-chain data platform IntoTheBlock stated that Bitcoin’s cycle top is expected to be between $130,000 and $190,000. IntoTheBlock, in a post from the X account, stated that Bitcoin has exceeded $100,000 and said that the rise could potentially continue due to Bitcoin’s limited supply and significant interest from large investors. However, IntoTheBlock analysts noted that historically, returns have steadily declined after each halving cycle and announced their predictions. Analysts say…

SpaceX uses stablecoins to dodge foreign exchange risks, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said in the All-In podcast on Friday. Foreign exchange risk refers to the risk of losses that could arise from drastic fluctuations in a currency. For example, if a U.S. company has customers in Brazil that pay in Real (BRL), the company could stand to lose money when converting to U.S. dollars. Using stablecoins as a hedge According to Palihapitiya, SpaceX collects payments from all customers of Starlink in “long-tail countries,” and converts them to stablecoins. Starlink, which is wholly owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides…

Solana developers recently approved the first block increase in the blockchain’s history, signaling a commitment to maintaining network operability and scalability in preparation for the chain’s future demand. Solana Devs Pass Symbolic Block Limit Increase, Aim for Further Expansion Solana, one of the top blockchain projects in the cryptocurrency industry, has recently passed the first proposal tackling the issue of the block limit, kicking off what Solana Foundation’s Head of Staking Ben Hawkins called “the scaling wars.” The measure was proposed in Solana Improvement Document (SIMD) 0207, which suggested an increase of 2 million units, going from 48 million to…

Cleanspark targets 50 EH/s in first six months of 2025. The Bitcoin miner reached 37.5 EH/s in 2024, exceeding the projected hashrate amid expansion efforts. Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark has surpassed its 2024 operating hashrate target of 37 exahashes per second, hitting the key milestone amid expansion efforts in the US. On Dec. 23, the Nasdaq-listed BTC miner announced it achieved 37.5 EH/s, surpassing its 2024 guidance of reaching 37 EH/s. The Bitcoin miner hit its guidance for the year amid a jump in fleet efficiency, which reached 17.7 Joules per Terahash (J/Th), which now sees the firm target 50…

While the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has surpassed the critical level of $ 100,000, there is no full consensus in the market. While some analysts expect a pullback or a sideways movement from here, some analysts expect the rise to continue. At this point, Nick Forster, founder of decentralized options protocol Derive, said that he does not expect BTC to move sideways around $ 100,000 for a long time. Forster said that breaking the $100,000 psychological price barrier would attract more interest and push the price higher. “I don’t think we’re likely to see much consolidation around 100,000. I expect…

The past seven days have seen dynamic activity in the NFT market, with leading collections showcasing varied performances. Azuki remained at the top of NFT sales over the past seven days, with $2.24 million in total sales despite a 31.49% decline in weekly performance. The collection recorded 51 transactions and 33 buyers, marking a significant 45.90% drop in buyers. Pudgy Penguins followed closely in second place, achieving $1.77 million in sales. Despite a 21.89% decrease, this collection saw 29 transactions and 24 buyers. Azuki Elementals ranked third with $1.24 million in sales, reflecting a 38.90% decline. With 182 transactions and…

The stablecoin market went from promising to explosive in 2024. It started the year with a market cap of around $135 billion. By December, that number shot past $200 billion—a more than 50% increase. And since the November elections, it’s grown another 15%. But don’t think for a second this momentum is slowing down. With a pro-crypto administration set to take the reins and Congress inching toward a long-awaited regulatory framework, 2025 is set to be even better for stablecoins. The thing is USDC and USDT are becoming the backbone of the global financial ecosystem. They’re completely changing how people…