Author: NBTC

Vancouver may use Bitcoin mining heat to warm the Kitsilano Pool. The Mayor proposes Bitcoin taxes and reserves to strengthen city finances. Public input will guide decisions on pool heating and Bitcoin adoption. Vancouver might soon use Bitcoin mining for more than financial gain. City leaders are considering channeling the heat from mining rigs into the Kitsilano Pool, a beloved public swimming spot. The plan surfaced during the Learning Bitcoin conference, where Mayor Ken Sim joined conversations on weaving Bitcoin into municipal services. Imagine swimmers enjoying warm water powered by digital gold—an idea blending creativity with practicality and stirring excitement…

The Solana ecosystem is taking a leap into hardware with the forthcoming launch of its first handheld gaming console. Play Solana, a project dedicated to building a Web3 gaming device on the Solana blockchain, announced that it will start shipping its Play Solana Gen 1 (PSG1) device on Oct. 6. The device comes with gaming-ready specs, including an octa-core ARM processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and a touch LCD display. It also includes a built-in hardware wallet and fingerprint authentication, allowing users to store crypto assets while playing games. It also launched a limited non-fungible token…

ETH Strategy, a DeFi protocol that mimics corporate treasury operations on-chain, is now deploying its ETH into yield-generating positions through a partnership with Etherfi, a non-custodial liquid staking protocol. According to an Aug. 18 blog announcement, allocations to partners like Etherfi are “intended to generate sustainable ETH-denominated returns as part of the ETH Strategy treasury program.” Users will get on-chain receipt tokens for each position, which act as a live, verifiable “proof of reserves,” ETH Strategy explained. ETH Strategy, which has over 11,000 ETH in its treasury, says the integration is “designed to sit alongside other DeFi venues as we…

The financial world is buzzing with news that the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the third-largest U.S. pension fund, has gained significant CalSTRS Bitcoin exposure. This monumental move involves a $133 million investment through MicroStrategy (MSTR), signaling a pivotal moment for institutional adoption of digital assets. This development, first highlighted by The Bitcoin Historian on X, showcases how even traditional, large-scale investment vehicles are beginning to embrace the evolving financial landscape. Understanding CalSTRS’s Strategic Bitcoin Exposure Many might wonder how a teachers’ pension fund invests in Bitcoin. CalSTRS isn’t directly buying Bitcoin. Instead, they are investing in MicroStrategy (MSTR)…

Pavel Durov, founder of the messaging application Telegram, provided an update regarding his ongoing case in France, and said the criminal investigation against him is “struggling” to find any evidence of wrongdoing. Durov said his arrest by French authorities in August 2024 was “unprecedented” and added that holding a tech executive accountable for the actions of independent users was “legally and logically absurd,” in a Telegram post on Sunday. Durov added: “A year later, the ‘criminal investigation’ against me is still struggling to find anything that I or Telegram did wrong. Our moderation practices align with industry standards, and Telegram…

OKX Expands With $WLFI Pre-Market Perpetuals OKX, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, announced yesterday on its official X account that $WLFI — the native token of World Liberty Financial — is now available for trading on Pre-market Perpetuals. The new listing went live yesterday, August 23, marking a major step for both OKX and World Liberty Financial. Traders can now access: No expiry perpetual contracts Up to 5x leverage A seamless entry into one of the most talked-about DeFi projects of 2025. This comes at a time when traders are actively searching for new opportunities in volatile markets.…

Key takeaways ETH is trading above $4,300, up by less than 1% in the last 24 hours. Investors will focus on Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole later today. Ether remains resilient despite bearish market conditions The cryptocurrency market has been volatile since the start of the week, and more volatility is expected over the next few hours. Traders are bracing for potential volatility ahead of Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium. Bitcoin continues to trade around $113k while Ether is trading above $4,300, up by less than 1% in the last 24 hours. Ether’s…

Stablecoin payments processor Loop Crypto raised a strategic round co-led by VanEck and Fabric Ventures, the firm exclusively told Blockworks. This brings the total funding raised by the firm to $6 million, but the team declined to give specifics on the most recent round. Co-founders Eleni Steinman and Shane van Coller noted that they — like many in crypto — couldn’t have foreseen the rapid rise in stablecoins. For Steinman specifically, Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge earlier this year showed that bigger players “see the value in rebuilding the payment rails and that it’s working…people really are choosing stablecoin payments because…

Major US banks are lobbying the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish national regulatory standards that would override state-imposed rules affecting their operations. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports the banks seek uniform federal guidelines for activities such as lending funds, issuing bonds, offering investment banking services and conducting anti-money laundering (AML) assessments. The goal, according to Reuters’ sources, is to limit the influence that individual states have over these operations. Sources say the push aligns with efforts by the Trump administration to reinforce federal preemption, following a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming…

Terminus, a cutting-edge payment platform, has partnered with Digital Era Bank, a prominent fintech venture that merges traditional banking with DeFi. The key purpose of this partnership is to merge crypto as well as fiat transfers across the globe. The official announcement shared by Terminus on social media discloses that the development seeks to bolster the crypto economy by integrating it with fiat systems. Keeping this in view, the joint effort intends to unlock unique opportunities for businesses and communities to widen digital payment adoption. 💱 Terminus joins forces with Digital Era Bank (DEBC) 🤝In the luminescent haze of 2099,…