Author: NBTC

State Street, a Boston-based custody bank with $49 trillion in assets under its watch, is pushing deeper into digital assets by joining JPMorgan’s blockchain-based tokenized asset platform Digital Debt Service as the first third-party custodian. The first transaction State Street anchored was a $100 million tokenized commercial paper issuance by the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), a Singapore-based banking group, according to a Thursday press release. State Street Investment Management, the bank’s asset management arm, purchased the debt. J.P. Morgan Securities acted as placement agent. The move comes as traditional finance heavyweights and global banks are getting increasingly involved in tokenization…

Metaplanet, a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company, has been upgraded from a small-cap to a mid-cap stock in index provider FTSE Russell’s September 2025 Semi-Annual Review, bumping it up for inclusion in the flagship FTSE Japan Index. The index provider updates and rebalances the indices quarterly, and following Metaplanet’s strong Q2 performance, added it to the FTSE Japan Index, a stock market index of mid-cap and large-cap companies listed on Japanese exchanges. Metaplanet’s inclusion in the FTSE Japan Index means it is automatically added to the FTSE All-World Index of the largest publicly-listed companies by market capitalization in each geographic region.…

A Chinese court sentenced a defendant to 3.5 years for facilitating cryptocurrency transactions involving stolen funds. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court case represents China’s tightening enforcement against suspicious digital asset activities. Court Establishes New Precedent for Crypto-Related Money Laundering In August 2024, the defendant, who appears as Liu in the press report, knowingly sold USDT tokens to someone else in exchange for 200,000 yuan, $27,850 in cash. The court determined Liu was aware that the money came from fraud victims. Authorities could not trace where the illicit funds ultimately went. Liu’s conviction marks a significant legal precedent in…

Plume is the first permissionless, full-stack blockchain purpose-built for real-world asset finance (RWAfi), featuring native DeFi integration. Backed by a global network of financial institutions and service providers, Plume has quickly emerged as the leading RWA ecosystem, with the largest base of active wallet holders and over 200 projects building on its network. Now, Plume is making its next big move with the listing of its native token, $PLUME, on Binance. To celebrate, Binance has allocated 150,000,000 $PLUME (1.5% of total supply) for its HODLer Airdrop, rewarding loyal users and early supporters of the ecosystem. The Binance HODLer Airdrops program…

Jackson Hole, Wy. — Bitcoin miners have long been defined by the boom-and-bust rhythm of the four-year halving cycle. But the game has now changed, according to some of the industry’s most prominent executives at the SALT conference in Jackson Hole earlier this week. The rise of exchange-traded funds, surging demand for power, and the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping infrastructure needs mean that miners must find ways to diversify or risk being left behind. “We used to come here and talk about hash rate,” said Matt Schultz, CEO of Cleanspark. “Now we’re talking about how to monetize megawatts.”…

Artificial intelligence and quantum computing are moving from theory into reality, and the tools that protect our data are being put to the test. In response, Asphere and QuStream have joined forces to build a blockchain that’s meant to stand up to the next wave of cryptographic threats, not someday, but from day one. The two companies are developing QuStream as a Polkadot Rollup, which means it will plug into the Polkadot ecosystem for interoperability while bringing its own quantum-focused defenses to the table. Asphere will supply its Rollup-as-a-Service know-how and handle the heavy lifting: blockchain engineering and implementation, running…

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on Thursday appealed to the leaders of the U.S. and UK, after the UK imposed sanctions on Kyrgyz crypto networks it said were being used by Russia to evade Western restrictions. The UK on Wednesday targeted eight individuals and entities, including four Kyrgyz firms, accused of facilitating sanctions evasion through cryptocurrency transactions. SANCTIONED: financial and cryptocurrency networks funnelling money to the Kremlin ⬇️https://t.co/y8wWmogtHI — Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) August 20, 2025 “There is no need to politicize the economy,” Japarov told state news agency Kabar. Kyrgyzstan’s role in Russia’s sanctions evasion strategy has become…

Crypto.com Custody, the institutional-grade custody arm of Crypto.com, is giving staked crypto a new job: collateral. The service now allows eligible clients to use staked assets, including $CRO, $ETH and $SOL, as margin collateral when trading products on the Crypto.com Exchange, while those assets continue to earn yield in secure custody. The move effectively doubles the utility of yield-bearing positions, letting institutions and high-net-worth clients keep earning from staking while unlocking additional trading capacity. Staked assets remain held in Crypto.com Custody’s hardened storage environment, which the company highlights as an end-to-end solution built with safety and compliance at its core.…

RWA Inc. has teamed up with Online+ by Ice Open Network. Online+ is the upcoming decentralized social network powered by Ice Open Network (ION). The partnership looks to bridge the gap between investors, creators, and fans as part of one of the largest creator-driven communities in the Web3 space. New partnership announcement!We’re excited to partner with Online+, the soon-to-launch decentralized social network built by @ice_blockchain, a fast, privacy-focused Layer-1 blockchain empowering scalable and secure Web3 experiences.With 1500+ content creators already onboard… pic.twitter.com/jqJthprk7F — RWA Inc. (@RWA_Inc_) August 21, 2025 Online+ will launch on ION, a privacy-enabled Layer-1 blockchain, and already…

Houdini Swap, a non-custodial DEX aggregator, today announced a strategic collaboration with SushiSwap, a multi-chain decentralized exchange. This partnership led to the integration of SushiSwap into Houdini Swap’s network, spearheading a new trend in the DEX (decentralized exchange sector). This coalition is set to provide Houdini Swap with some of the most competitive transaction routing for native assets in the DeFi market. Houdini is a cross-chain liquidity aggregator that allows crypto users to trade and transact across any chain with optional privacy features. On the other hand, SushiSwap is a DEX providing several features, including yield farming, asset transfer, and…