Author: NBTC

A new analysis from Coin Metrics, authored by Senior Research Associate Tanay Ved, finds that January’s record $8 trillion in adjusted stablecoin transfer volume was largely driven by $USDC activity on Base, with much of the spike tied to decentralized finance ( DeFi) mechanics rather than payments. Tanay Ved of Coin Metrics Breaks Down $USDC’s $5.3T Month on Base Coin Metrics reported that adjusted stablecoin transfer volume reached a record $8 trillion in January 2026, with the bulk of growth concentrated in $USDC on Base. The report, titled “The Curious Case of $USDC on Base,” and authored by Tanay Ved,…

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF) has urged the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority to adopt a narrow, functional definition of “control” as it finalizes new rules for crypto asset activities. The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group argued that regulatory obligations should hinge on whether an entity has unilateral authority over user funds or transactions, not merely whether it developed or contributed to a decentralized protocol, in a response to an FCA consultation paper shared exclusively with CoinDesk. “Control should be the determinative factor” of regulatory scope, DEF said, warning that software developers could otherwise be swept into intermediary-style obligations despite lacking custody…

In the summer of 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, known as the DAO, became the defining crisis of Ethereum’s early years. A smart contract exploit siphoned millions of dollars’ worth of ether ($ETH) from that initial project, and the community’s response — a contentious hard fork to recover those funds, splintered the original chain from the current one, leaving the old chain behind, known as Ethereum Classic. The DAO was once the largest crowdfunding effort in crypto’s history, but faded into a cautionary tale of governance, security, and the limits of “code is law.” Now, nearly a decade later, that…

Anthropic is reportedly gearing up for a new funding round that aims to raise about $10 billion at a valuation of roughly $350 billion. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, with GIC and Coatue Management leading the round. In September, Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation, meaning the new round would nearly double its price. The core product remains Claude, an AI chatbot already backed by Amazon and Google. The move confirms that large capital is still chasing top-tier AI, even at extreme prices. FTX’s Old Bet Turns Massive On Paper FTX bought…

An exchange on social media between attorney and $XRP supporter Bill Morgan and former SEC attorney Marc Fagel has once again brought the spotlight back to a long-running question in the crypto industry: Did regulators unintentionally shape the winners and losers of the crypto market? The debate began when Fagel criticized crypto industry narratives, prompting Morgan to respond with a strong argument that regulatory decisions, especially who regulators chose to investigate and who they did not, may have helped create a market where a small number of cryptocurrencies dominate most of the total market value. The Argument Over Selective Enforcement…

An exchange on social media between attorney and $XRP supporter Bill Morgan and former SEC attorney Marc Fagel has once again brought the spotlight back to a long-running question in the crypto industry: Did regulators unintentionally shape the winners and losers of the crypto market? The debate began when Fagel criticized crypto industry narratives, prompting Morgan to respond with a strong argument that regulatory decisions, especially who regulators chose to investigate and who they did not, may have helped create a market where a small number of cryptocurrencies dominate most of the total market value. The Argument Over Selective Enforcement…

After Polymarket quietly ended a substantial penalty on liquidity-removing ‘taker’ orders, quantitative traders (quants) lamented an end to their gravy train. For highly sophisticated market makers, that 500-millisecond quote-adjustment period granted them a superpower over slower traders. Unfortunately for them, Polymarket has ended its time incentive. Unsurprisingly, the money spigot used to flow from Polymarket and Kalshi advertising short-term binary options on the price of bitcoin ($BTC) to everyday speculators. Read more: Maduro Polymarket bet raises insider trading concerns The exchanges feature 5 and 15 minute betting markets on the price of bitcoin ($BTC). On their respective homepages, they place…

Robinhood’s blockchain initiative has hit an early development milestone, with its Robinhood Chain testnet processing more than four million transactions within its first week of launch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev announced on X. Summary Robinhood Chain processed over 4 million transactions in its first week, with CEO Vlad Tenev highlighting growing developer activity on the Ethereum Layer-2 network focused on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and on-chain finance. While some X users called the milestone “seriously impressive,” others cautioned that testnet figures can be vanity metrics and questioned whether activity reflects real external development or internal stress testing. The blockchain push…

The Ethereum interest of institutions has just hit a new level. BlackRock has also officially started purchasing $ETH in its future Ethereum staking ETF, indicating that the largest asset manager in the world is about to invest capital in on-chain yield strategies. The fund according to the recent filings is planning to stake up to 95 percent of its $ETH holdings under normal market conditions. This action is an indication of an even greater commitment than passive exposure. Rather, BlackRock is making Ethereum an institutional yield investment. BlackRock Filing According to a recent SEC report, BlackRock has begun to seed…

The United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for December on Friday at 13:30 GMT. The US Dollar (USD) will likely experience heightened volatility as the employment report could provide key clues about how the Federal Reserve (Fed) will approach policy-making in the new year. What to Expect From the Next Nonfarm Payrolls Report? Economists expect Nonfarm Payrolls to rise by 60,000 in December following the 64,000 increase recorded in November. In this period, the Unemployment Rate is seen edging lower to 4.5% from 4.6%, while the annual wage inflation, as measured…