Author: NBTC

AxLabs has launched Ax402, a payment gateway that allows AI agents to pay for goods and services on a per-request basis. It is aimed at enabling AI agents to purchase access to data, content, and tools using tokens, without the hassle of maintaining things like accounts, subscriptions, and checkout pages. Ax402 is built on x402, an open protocol that repurposes the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code as the trigger for machine-to-machine payments. The 402 code was reserved in the 1990s for future payment use cases but has sat dormant since. The x402 protocol was originally created by Coinbase and…

Bitcoin’s latest rally pushed it to a two-week high above $63,000 over the weekend before cooling off. According to market data from CoinGecko, Bitcoin briefly touched nearly $63,900 during the US holiday weekend before retreating toward $63,200 on Monday, holding on to most of its weekly gains after rising more than 5% over the past seven days. The weekend advance was driven by a combination of weaker-than-expected US economic data, renewed demand through spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and a wave of short liquidations that accelerated the move higher. Fresh optimism emerged after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported…

A significant amount of the liquidity that users contribute to decentralized exchanges isn’t really being used to speed up trades, according to a recent report by Dune. To put things in perspective, concentrated liquidity was created to increase the capital efficiency of decentralized exchanges. This was done by enabling liquidity providers (LPs) to distribute funds within particular price ranges where trading is most likely to take place. However, the study discovered that during the first half of 2026, an average of 29.4% of liquidity was outside the range of active trading. Thanks to the same, no trading fees were generated.…

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has partnered with Galaxy Digital on a referral program that enables eligible clients to lend cryptocurrency in exchange for shares of spot crypto ETPs, including the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust. The offering is intended to help clients integrate digital assets into traditional investment portfolios more efficiently. Through the arrangement, Morgan Stanley will educate clients about digital assets and connect interested investors with Galaxy. The program provides a regulated pathway for converting crypto holdings into investment products that can be held alongside other portfolio assets. Clients participating in the program can lend cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether,…

Zcash core developer announced that the Zcash testnet will be updated for the Ironwood upgrade tomorrow. Shielded Labs also confirmed that Zcash’s Ironwood upgrade is moving as per the plan, as security is its “primary concern.” Ironwood upgrade will introduce a new shielded pool in order to fix a major counterfeiting bug found inside the Orchard shielded pool. In the latest post shared on X (formerly Twitter), core Zcash developer Dev has revealed that the Zcash testnet is being updated for the Ironwood upgrade tomorrow. According to a post shared on X, the update has two independently developed consensus implementations,…

President Donald Trump has strengthened support for a new UK-US stablecoin framework as the Senate races to advance the CLARITY Act despite growing opposition from banking groups over its stablecoin provisions. According to a joint statement released through the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future, the United Kingdom and the United States have agreed that properly regulated stablecoins can improve cross-border payments, financial market infrastructure, and competition while providing businesses with more consistent regulatory treatment across both jurisdictions. UK and US have aligned on core stablecoin standards Created in September 2025, the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future…

Binance is not the first to bring up the idea of a super app. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his platform envisioned eventually becoming a “super app” in 2023, like Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat, currently the largest in such app the world with 1.4 billion users. In 2025, Armstrong reiterated Coinbase’s long-term goal to be a financial super app, offering crypto alongside many other financial services. Jan’s comments come as banks and payment firms increasingly embrace stablecoins as settlement infrastructure rather than simply a crypto trading tool and financial institutions expand their digital asset strategies. Binance, Jan said, has…

Cronos, an EVM-compatible L1 chain, launched $EURC, $USDC, and the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) of the U.S.-based fintech entity Circle. The rollout denotes a notable landmark for the network as it readies for the Cronos app’s upcoming debut. As Cronos disclosed in its official announcement, it is the earliest blockchain ecosystem to unveil all 3 Circle-backed products at the same time. The respective integration is poised to deliver consumers, institutions, and developers with seamless access to fully compliant stablecoin infrastructure. Native $USDC is live on @CronosNetworkRegulated. Backed 1:1.The foundation the Cronos app runs on, so deposits just work.https://t.co/Gb0kwNYEO4 — Cronos…

Cryptocurrency options trading platform BIT (formerly Matrixport) has projected that Bitcoin’s implied volatility (IV) could decline below the 30% threshold this summer, a development that historically has favored sellers of options contracts. The forecast, shared by the platform’s research team, draws on observed patterns from the summers of 2023 and 2025, when BTC implied volatility similarly dipped below that level. Historical Patterns and Market Mechanics Implied volatility is a key metric in options pricing, reflecting the market’s expectation of future price fluctuations. When IV falls, options premiums—the price buyers pay for contracts—also tend to decrease. BIT’s analysis indicates that if…

Uniswap has officially submitted three governance proposals for protocol fee activation across several chains and different versions of the DEX. The first fee proposal will be for versions 2 (V2) and 3 (V3) on the Robinhood chain. The new Ethereum L2 debuted this month, attracting several DEXes, including Uniswap. About 10 days after launch, Uniswap crossed $1B in trading volume – ultimately showing its growing traction. Similarly, the project seeks to activate fees on V4 across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Robinhood, BNB Chain, Polygon and Optimism. Hayden Adams, Uniswap’s CEO, added that a third fee proposal for remaining V4 chains will…