Author: NBTC
Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF in the digital asset space, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, and his defense attorney, Marc Mukasey, told the court that the disgraced crypto entrepreneur is “misunderstood” and wasn’t driven by predation or malice. According to the speech posted by Inner City Press on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Mukasey said that Bankman-Fried did not want to “inflict pain on anyone in any way” and made “decisions with math in his head, not malice in his heart,” while adding: “He’s an awkward math nerd. He’s into veganism. He has an…
An astonishing and historic transfer of wealth among the world’s super rich is accelerating, according to a new report. More than 1,000 billionaires are moving an estimated $5.2 trillion to their brethren at an increasing pace, says Swiss banking giant UBS in its latest “Billionaire Ambitions” report. The transfer, which is expected to last for the next 20 to 30 years, already has the heirs of billionaires gaining stature, with new billionaires acquiring more wealth through inheritance than entrepreneurship for the first time on record. “Why does this matter? Because this coming generation has fresh views about business, investment and…
Cardano, a Layer-1 smart contract network that aims to provide security, scalability and sustainability to decentralized applications, has achieved a historic milestone with the launch of Mehen’s USDM, a fiat-backed stablecoin. The Mehen token (USDM) is a digital store of value token issued by Mehen Finance that is 1:1 convertible to U.S. dollars. USDM, as a Cardano-native token, can be transferred on the Cardano blockchain without the need for additional smart contracts. In a tweet announcing the arrival of the USDM stablecoin on Cardano, Mehen stated that institutional customers will immediately begin the onboarding process, which might take one-two days.…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has unveiled COSMIC, a centralized digital platform aimed at enhancing collaboration among financial institutions (FIs) to tackle money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing on a global scale. The launch of COSMIC marks a significant milestone in Singapore’s commitment to combat financial crimes effectively. The platform, developed in collaboration with six major commercial banks in Singapore – DBS, OCBC, UOB, Citibank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank, aims to facilitate the seamless sharing of customer information among FIs. COSMIC operates under the framework provided by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 and accompanying subsidiary…
Goldman Sachs predicts that pension funds could sell an estimated $32 billion in stocks by the end of the quarter to rebalance their portfolios. This comes as stocks are poised to complete another strong quarter. Jinze, a former analyst at Binance Research, weighed in on the situation, highlighting its potential impact on the Bitcoin Spot ETF market. “The impact of quarter-end rebalancing by large funds became evident as stocks that had previously made big gains faced selling pressure,” Jinze said. According to Jinze, the quarter-end rebalancing could create significant demand for the Bitcoin ETF, which only launched in January. Jinze…
Etherfi’s liquid restaking platform recently faced backlash regarding its airdrop distribution after reports emerged that Justin Sun would get a substantial part of the tokens. On March 16, EtherFi revealed that the first phase of its airdrop will release 6% of the total token supply. ETHFI will have a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of 115.2 million. Criticism Trails EtherFi Airdrop Distribution Ether.Fi outlined several criteria to determine eligibility for their airdrop, including holding eETH, referring friends to the protocol, or participating in the Early Adopter Program. Upon closer examination, community members swiftly discerned…
Binance executive Nadeem Anjarwalla absconded from Nigerian custody in February after his arrest. At the time, he was detained along with American colleague Tigran Gambaryan on accusations of misconduct related to the exchange. In a Sunday interview with a local media outlet, a retired Nigerian official characterized Anjarwalla’s escape as “embarrassing.” He further deemed the incident as indicative of systemic shortcomings within the country’s security personnel. Dr. Seyi Adetayo, a retired Principal Staff Officer from the Department of State Services, attributed the security lapse to the presence of individuals with potentially fraudulent or criminal intent within the department. He emphasized…
Bitcoin ETFs are finally making a comeback, with net outflows turning into inflows thanks to the market recovery. After a period of consistent outflows, a change is here, signaling a potential trend change for Bitcoin. According to SoSoValue’s latest data, the Bitcoin spot ETFs have received a substantial net inflow of $15.7 million, disrupting a five-day sequence of net outflows. In stark contrast, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) experienced a single-day net outflow of $350 million. Leading the charge in this influx is Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF (FBTC), which alone accounted for a remarkable $261 million in net inflows. Not far behind…
Tinkoff Bank, one of Russia’s biggest banking players, has won a license to issue and sell “digital financial assets” (DFAs) in the country. Interfax reported that the Central Bank added Tinkoff to its official list of approved DFA operators on March 28. Tinkoff Bank Readies DFA Offerings Tinkoff’s move comes weeks after its biggest rival, Sberbank, launched a DFA trading platform. The Sberbank platform may eventually allow its customers access to certain types of NFTs. The Central Bank launched its DFA register in February 2022, when it granted approval to the Atomyze platform. Atomyze makes use of the Hyperledger Fabric…
The decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto project Solana (SOL) has experienced a significant surge in investor interest, propelling the native token to rally to new heights, with meme coins launching on the platform also garnering significant attention. Amidst this surge in interest, on-chain data indicates that the Solana network is currently experiencing severe congestion, with significant implications for transaction processing and network performance. In particular, data shared on X (formerly Twitter) on March 17 by Dagnum_PI pointed out that the average ping time on the Solana network is reported to be between 20-40 seconds, indicating delays in communication between nodes. The…