Author: NBTC

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. Earlier this week, Blockworks first reported that pump.fun has plans to raise $1 billion at a $4 billion valuation via a token sale. The potential b-nut would add to a likely already sizable war chest for the memecoin launchpad, which has generated over $700 million in revenue since launching last year. Some have speculated that the fresh funds could go toward the rollout of a pump.fun blockchain, which would capture some of the trading fees that currently go to Solana. In this week’s Lightspeed podcast roundup, Helius…

Shiba Inu’s layer 2 platform, Shibarium, has seen a 7,154% surge, gaining market attention. Shibarium daily transactions increased by 7,154% in just five days, from 63,820 on June 4 to 4.63 million on June 9. Shibarium transactions flatlined in late May to early June, as profit-taking and macroeconomic uncertainty triggered declines on the market, causing investor optimism to wane. The recent surge in daily transactions suggests a comeback, which is reflected in other Shibarium measures. According to the most recent count, the Shibarium network has processed 1,221,075,772 transactions. Total blocks have surpassed 11 million, with the most recent count of…

OpenAI is contesting a federal court order requiring it to preserve all user data, including deleted chats, as part of a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times. “We strongly believe this is an overreach by The New York Times. We’re continuing to appeal this order so we can keep putting your trust and privacy first,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said in a statement. The decision stems from a May 13 order to “preserve and segregate all output log data that would otherwise be deleted on a going forward basis until further order of the Court.” The New York…

Blazpay, an advanced crypto payment platform, has commenced an exclusive collaboration with ManusPay, an AI-driven crypto payment entity. The partnership aims to deliver streamlined, AI-led cryptocurrency payments. The platform disclosed this development in a recent post shared on its official X account. We’re excited to announce our partnership with @ManusPay – an AI-powered crypto payment stack built to lower the barriers to using and integrating crypto payments. 💸🤝From frictionless transactions to seamless integrations, Blazpay x ManusPay are building the future of… pic.twitter.com/24ZMaG10nA — Blazpay (@blazpaylabs) June 3, 2025 Blazpay Joins Forces with ManusPay to Advance Crypto Payments with AI Integration…

At block height 901,152 on Friday, the Bitcoin network logged its 12th difficulty adjustment of the year, slipping a slight 0.45%, which lowered the difficulty to 126.41 trillion. The next day, Saturday, miners pushed the network’s computational power to yet another peak, eclipsing the previous high recorded last month. Difficulty Drops, Hashrate Soars, but Miners Still Feel the Heat On June 14, 2025, Bitcoin’s hashrate carved out a fresh milestone, hitting a peak of 946 exahash per second (EH/s) based on the seven-day simple moving average (SMA). The prior all-time high (ATH) was set on May 31, when the network…

Bitcoin has faced significant pressure recently, with the price falling below $108,000 after struggling to maintain $110,000 as a support level. This drop follows broader market factors, including the rise in the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) to 2.4%. Despite these challenges, investor sentiment remains bullish, which could fuel a price recovery. Bitcoin Has The Investors’ Backing Bitcoin’s market sentiment is still dominated by optimism, as exchange net positions show consistent outflows throughout the month. Despite failing to breach the $110,000 barrier, investors continue to add to their BTC holdings, expecting further price gains. This buying pressure signals confidence in…

World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency project that lists Donald Trump as its “chief crypto advocate” and his sons, Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, as “Web3 ambassadors,” passed a governance vote exactly six months ago to launch an AAVE instance. The AAVE instance was going to be important for the lending and borrowing functions that World Liberty Financial advertised during the token sale. However, half a year since the governance vote passed, the instance hasn’t yet been launched. Read more: Who is behind World Liberty Financial, Trump’s new crypto? This governance vote is one of only two governance votes that WLFI…

Ethereum has maintained a central role in the development and execution of smart contracts since its launch. However, sudden innovation across competing blockchain platforms and Layer-2 (L2) solutions is beginning to reshape the competitive landscape. With platforms like Solana and Avalanche introducing alternative models and L2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism scaling transaction capacity, Ethereum’s lead is no longer uncontested. These developments are raising questions about whether Ethereum can continue to dominate the smart contract network. Ethereum’s Smart Contracts Ethereum’s infrastructure allows developers to deploy smart contracts, self-executing programs that perform actions once coded conditions are met. These contracts…

Today, four members of Congress, led by Thomas Massie, have introduced a bill to initiate the first comprehensive audit of America’s gold reserves. The Gold Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 3795) requires a full assay, inventory, and audit of all United States gold holdings for decades. The four congress members are Reps. Thomas Massie, Troy Nehls, Addison McDowell, and Warren Davidson. According to Thomas Massie, “Americans deserve transparency and accountability from the institutions that underpin our currency.” H.R. 3795 will also require a full accounting of all purchases, sales, loans, pledges, leases, swaps, and other encumbrances of America’s gold that happened…

Ripple stablecoin (RLUSD) has recorded an uptick in its activity, as volume soared by over 52% in the last 24 hours. This uptick comes despite Ripple Treasury not minting new RLUSD since April 25, 2025, when 11,500,000 tokens were minted. RLUSD volume spikes signal rising market demand According to CoinMarketCap data, Ripple stablecoin volume has soared by 57.75% to $52.48 million as of press time. This increase suggests growing demand from market participants and liquidity for RLUSD. It could have been triggered by investors looking to acquire assets on the broader crypto market. An increase in RLUSD transactions could positively…