Author: NBTC

Conservative activist Laura Loomer ignited social media Wednesday with a viral post claiming that there’s a “massive and well-funded” effort to persuade President Donald Trump to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX. The allegation spread rapidly across X, riling up partisans who saw back-room corruption or another conspiracy in search of evidence. “There is a massive and well funded lobby effort to get this criminal pardoned,” Loomer wrote on X. “He’s going to pretend like he was a victim of Joe Biden and the Democrats after he funded all of the left’s…

Kraken has expanded its U.S. presence with the $100 million purchase of Small Exchange, a derivatives platform licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Summary Kraken buys CFTC-licensed Small Exchange for $100M to expand in the U.S. The deal enables Kraken to offer regulated crypto derivatives onshore. It builds on earlier acquisitions like NinjaTrader and Crypto Facilities. The deal marks a key milestone in Kraken’s plan to build a fully regulated trading network, combining crypto and traditional derivatives within one U.S.-based framework. According to Kraken’s Oct. 16 press release, the exchange’s acquisition from IG Group gives Kraken a Designated Contract…

Bitcoin mining crossed the zetahash threshold in September as the network averaged 1.034 ZH/s, and hashprice fell below $47 per PH per second. According to a new report by The MinerMag, the step up in difficulty coincided with miners’ equity values nearly doubling since August to about $90 billion by October 15, while BTC fell 3.7 percent over the same period. The sector’s center of gravity has shifted toward balance sheet capacity, convertible debt, and high-performance computing contracts. Record difficulty has squeezed operating margins, and power costs have remained pinned near fixed-rate agreements. According to the report, listed operators’ combined…

BNY and the National Bank of Canada went live this week with EquiLend’s 1Source platform, joining the blockchain-based system designed to eliminate manual trade reconciliations in the securities finance industry. The company that offers stock lending said a global broker-dealer will begin trading on the platform soon, with several other firms close to signing on. BNY and the National Bank of Canada are now executing securities lending transactions through the distributed ledger, which maintains a synchronized record of trades between counterparties. The industry currently spends roughly $100 million annually on reconciliation teams and fixing settlement breaks, according to estimates from…

Brevis’ Pico Prism achieves 99.6% real-time Ethereum block proving, cutting hardware costs by 50%. Vitalik Buterin praises the breakthrough as a key step for faster, scalable Ethereum and ZK-EVM adoption. The system enables cheaper, faster verification, higher gas limits, and more decentralized network participation. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has voiced excitement over a major technical breakthrough from Brevis. On Twitter, he said: “Excited to see @brevis_zk’s Pico Prism entering the ZK-EVM proving arena! An important step forward in ZK-EVM proving speed and diversity.” And he’s right to be impressed – Brevis’s Pico Prism is moving Ethereum closer to real-time block…

Good Morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets: In the lead-up to Seoul’s Korea Blockchain Week, discussions about a Korean Won stablecoin were among the leading narratives. The idea carries political weight, positioning local currencies as digital alternatives to the U.S. dollar. However, despite the enthusiasm, most Asian currencies are hindered by capital controls that render them unsuitable for global circulation. That leaves the Hong Kong dollar as the region’s only truly usable stablecoin base. In Korea, a bill to legalize stablecoins is making its way through the country’s legislative bodies. Lawmakers are clear that the initiative is…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the establishment of a municipal digital assets and blockchain office in a bid to cement his crypto agenda in the final months of his term. In a Tuesday notice from the mayor’s office, Adams said he had used an executive order under his authority to create the Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology. Moises Rendon, who has worked as a digital assets and blockchain policy adviser for New York City since April 2024, will head the newly established office. “Our city has always been the center of innovation, and we’re embracing the…

OKX, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced its delisting. Accordingly, OKX announced today that six altcoins have been delisted. OKX announced that it will delist trading pairs that do not meet its criteria on October 23, 2025. According to the announcement, OKX will delist spot trading pairs for six altcoins: SLERF, ALPHA, BADGER, OAS, MLN, and AIDOGE. OKX advised its users to manage their assets and cancel open orders in advance to avoid potential losses. To maintain a robust spot trading environment, we continuously monitor the performance of all listed trading pairs and regularly review their listing eligibility.…

Fetch.ai, the earliest Web3 LLM, has collaborated with Minima, a prominent blockchain platform for scalability, security, and decentralization. The partnership is aimed at combining the on-chain data and agentic AI. As Fetch.ai pointed out in its exclusive announcement on X, the collaboration merges Minia’s Integritas mechanism with the ASI, One ecosystem of Fetch.ai. This remarkable synergy underscores a crucial development in advancing agentic AI and blockchain integrity to enhance security and accessibility for users. https://t.co/QOn9ToA9gw — Fetch.ai (@Fetch_ai) October 15, 2025 Fetch.ai and Minima Collaborate to Combine Blockchain Data Verification and AI Agents Fetch.ai’s partnership with Minima brings together ASI:…

OpenSea’s highly anticipated SEA token is coming in Q1 2026, the NFT marketplace turned broader token trading platform announced on Friday.  The firm first shared its token plans in February, but withheld key details like the launch date and token allocations. Now users know the token is coming soon, and that the community will receive 50% of the eventual SEA supply.  The platform kicked off its final phase of pre-token rewards on September 15, allowing users to open the first set of reward treasure chests on Thursday.  “Integrating SEA into OpenSea will be the opportunity to show the world our…