Author: NBTC

The highest level of margin utilization by US traders in history has, unfortunately, led to historic underperformance in crypto prices as speculators re-learned timeless wisdom: leverage works both ways. After spending 2025 through January 2026 building their largest leveraged positions in history, bets on digital assets have unraveled with unnerving speed. In January 2026, US margin debt had surged to a record $1.28 trillion — its ninth consecutive monthly increase and a 50% rise from April 2025. That financial leverage added bids to crypto assets which made new all-time highs in May, July, August, and October 2025. Then, despite investors…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Crypto perpetual futures have largely developed offshore because of the U.S. reluctance to pursue industry regulations, said U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig, and his agency will soon provide guidance on how that business should be handled. Such derivatives contracts, which don’t expire and are often associated with leverage, have been an area of high interest to the industry. U.S. exchange Kraken, for instance, recently announced a move into perpetual futures for tokenized stocks for non-U.S. users. Selig’s agency is “working towards getting professional futures, true professional futures here in the U.S. within the next…

Robinhood is expanding into wealth management by launching its “Robinhood Advisor Network.” This marks a shift toward serving higher-net-worth clients through a marketplace model. Rather than building an in-house advisory unit, the company is connecting eligible users with independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs). The structure signals a clear focus on affluent clients. The service will initially target Robinhood users with at least $250,000 in investable assets, while participating advisory firms must manage at least $500 million in assets under management and operate on the TradePMR platform. [#highlighted-links#] Building on the TradePMR Acquisition The launch builds on Robinhood’s acquisition of TradePMR,…

Network News AXIOM EMPLOYEE ACCUSED OF ALLEGEDLY INSIDER TRAINING BY ZACHXBT: Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said a senior employee at onchain trading platform Axiom Exchange allegedly abused internal access to user data to track private wallets and potentially trade memecoins using inside information. In a thread posted to X, ZachXBT said Broox Bauer, a New York-based senior business development employee at Axiom, used internal dashboards to look up sensitive user information — including linked wallet addresses — and shared that data with a small group that mapped trades of prominent crypto influencers. Axiom, founded in 2024 by Mist and Cal and…

A significant development has occurred in the cryptocurrency market, indicating increased liquidity and onchain activity. According to data shared by decentralized finance (DeFi) analyst Patrick Scott, the total value of the stablecoin market has reached an all-time high, surpassing $312 billion. The data was obtained from the DeFi data platform DeFiLlama. This increase in stablecoin market capitalization indicates an acceleration of new capital inflows into the crypto ecosystem. According to analysts, since stablecoins are one of the primary liquidity tools used by investors when trading in the crypto market, increases in market capitalization are generally associated with increased trading volume…

A renowned developer on X, Ameen Soleimani, has criticized the reluctance of Ethereum to implement the Poseidon precompile. In an update shared recently, Soleimani expressed concerns over Ethereum’s hesitation to implement this hash function, which is necessary for efficient zk proofs. Insight into Poseidon precompile delays According to Soleimani, this same function has been on other blockchains such as Solana, Starknet and Stellar since 2020-2022. He criticized the Ethereum community for always talking about “privacy by default” but refusing to make the required technical upgrade that would guarantee it. Soleimani insists that the key element, which is the zkEVM feature,…

xAI is planning to repay $3 billion of high yield bonds early in a move that would significantly reduce debt ahead of a potential public listing of SpaceX, according to a Bloomberg report. The company intends to redeem the bonds at roughly 117 cents on the dollar, a notable premium given the securities were issued in June with a structure indicating they would remain outstanding for at least two years. The bonds, which carry a 12.5 percent coupon, were sold at par and have rallied in recent weeks. Pricing data shows they climbed about three points Monday to nearly 117…

Brazil’s central bank will force licensed crypto exchanges to prove asset sufficiency daily from Jan. 1, 2027. Summary Brazil’s central bank will require daily asset sufficiency reports from licensed crypto exchanges starting Jan. 1, 2027 New rules mandate full segregation of client and platform assets, plus on‑balance‑sheet recognition of crypto under a dedicated accounting manual The announcement comes as major assets like $BTC and $ETH trade lower amid broader risk‑off sentiment in crypto markets Brazil’s central bank has introduced a new regulatory framework that will require all licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms in the country to submit daily reports proving they…

Blockchains and artificial intelligence are complementary technologies, according to crypto asset manager Grayscale, even as markets have recently treated them as part of the same trade. Zach Pandl, Grayscale’s head of research, said that while disruptive technologies tend to produce clear winners and losers, the relationship between AI and blockchain is more symbiotic than competitive. Rapid AI adoption is expected to reward some industries, such as chipmakers, while pressuring others, including segments of professional services. “Although crypto valuations have been tightly correlated with the drawdown in software stocks, we think blockchains and AI are complementary from a fundamental standpoint,” he…

Ethereum trades near a decisive inflection point as price compresses beneath stubborn resistance while broader structural signals remain constructive. The market has rebounded sharply from winter lows, yet traders now confront a consolidation phase that could define the next multi-week move. Bullish Structure Faces Immediate Test $ETH staged an impulsive rally from roughly $1,800 to above $2,100 in recent sessions. Consequently, momentum flipped decisively after weeks of lower lows. Price now holds above the 20, 50, 100, and 200 EMAs, which cluster beneath current levels and reinforce bullish structure. However, resistance between $2,070 and $2,075 continues to cap advances. Sellers…