Author: NBTC

Shiba Inu’s layer-2 blockchain solution, Shibarium, has reached a new milestone, surpassing 11 million total blocks, indicating the network’s steady growth since inception. According to Shibariumscan, the total block count has reached 11,015,436, indicating continuous activity in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. However, this milestone comes with a surprising twist: daily transactions on the Shibarium network have declined since the start of the week. Since May 12, daily transactions have dropped from 4.21 million to just 2.76 million in the last 24 hours, indicating a decline in activity. The drop, however, coincides with a broader decline in crypto prices this week,…

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of encrypted messaging platform Telegram, confirmed that France’s foreign intelligence service asked him to ban conservative Romanian voices ahead of the May 2025 presidential election, citing terrorism and child safety concerns. He refused. “They met with me—allegedly to fight terrorism and child porn,” Durov wrote on X on Monday. Durov claims the latter subject “was never even mentioned,” adding that the intelligence agency engaged in manipulative tactics, despite having other intentions. “Their main focus was always geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,” Durov claimed.  The Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), France’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly sought…

Guatemala’s largest bank, Banco Industrial, has adopted blockchain firm SukuPay’s stablecoin rails for customers to send remittances from the U.S. SukuPay will allow Guatemalans to receive funds from the U.S. for a flat 99 cent fee using only a phone number within their Banco National mobile app Zigi, according to an emailed announcement on Wednesday. “This integration marks the first time a crypto-native protocol has gone live at this depth inside a top-tier Latin American retail bank,” SukuPay said in the announcement. SukuPay’s developer Suku unveiled the payment tool in April 2024 as a way of allowing cross-border money transfers…

Ethereum (ETH), which has been upsetting its investors with its weak performance against Bitcoin (BTC) for a long time, has experienced a big rise in recent weeks. While ETH’s rise increased bullish expectations, option investors also switched to bull mode. According to Coindesk, option traders have turned to a bullish call spread strategy and expect Ethereum to reach $6,000 by the end of the year. According to Deribit data, institutional investors are aiming to make maximum profits if Ethereum reaches $6,000 by the end of the year by buying $3,500 call options and selling $6,000 call options. Both options expire…

NEW YORK — The city of New York is launching a digital assets advisory council to bring fintech jobs into the Big Apple, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. New York City is “open for business, he said at the start of a summit hosted at the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion. The council will be composed of individuals from the industry, with a chair to be announced in the coming weeks. “We want to use technology of tomorrow to better serve New Yorkers today,” Adams said in his opening remarks. “We have experts right here, and they are going to…

Leading global crypto exchange LBank has suspended registration for new users from the UAE and also limited its services for existing customers in the region. This move is due to ongoing regulatory adjustments as LBank works to secure a key operational license from Dubai’s authorities. LBank Seeks Dubai VARA License, Temporarily Adjusts UAE Crypto Services In its latest public notice, the cryptocurrency exchange notified the public that it is processing the acquisition of the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license under the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). LBank stated that this licensing process requires the exchange to suspend certain…

Ethereum is showing renewed strength as both technical and on-chain indicators align for a potential breakout. One big reason for this optimism is the jump in Ethereum’s Realized Cap since the Pectra upgrade went live earlier this month; this key metric surged by $3.8 billion. Data from Glassnode (also highlighted on their X account) shows the Realized Cap rose from $240.8 billion on May 7 to $244.6 billion by May 19, a notable 1.6% increase. Importantly, this rise also breaks a three-month downtrend that began in February. Such a shift in market momentum often indicates fresh capital is flowing back…

SG Forge, the crypto and blockchain-dedicated arm of Société Générale, one of Europe’s largest financial institutions, will soon launch a dollar-backed stablecoin on Ethereum, The Big Whale reported Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. The move would make Société Générale the first global banking group to issue a dollar stablecoin on a public blockchain. According to the report, SG Forge also plans to expand the stablecoin to other networks, including Solana, after the initial launch. As of now, no major global banking group has yet widely issued a US dollar stablecoin on a public blockchain. JPMorgan Chase has…

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. Continuing a string of recent hires, Jito Foundation has appointed Nick Almond as its head of governance, Lightspeed has learned exclusively. An academic by training, Almond comes to Jito following a stint as CEO of the DAO-focused R&D shop Factory Labs. In comments shared with me, Almond said he hopes to steer Jito’s DAO clear of some common pitfalls that have befallen these organizations by “cautiously expanding” what the DAO tries to do. Jito is Solana’s most important infrastructure project. Its Jito-Solana client, which adds revenue-boosting MEV…

A multi-year war between XRP promoters and Bitcoin maximalists has boiled over into another public fight between Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Senator Cynthia Lummis, chair of the Senate’s Digital Assets Subcommittee. Yesterday, Garlinghouse admitted that Lummis canceled and refused to reschedule their meeting in Washington, DC. Garlinghouse was on Capitol Hill to advocate for XRP-friendly stablecoins and market structure bills. Lummis, on the other hand, prefers bitcoin (BTC) and other stablecoins that compete with Ripple’s RLUSD. The incident wasn’t merely a logistical hiccup. Underlying ideological and financial tensions have famously divided the Ripple and Bitcoin communities for years. Garlinghouse…