Author: NBTC

Hong Kong investment group Avenir snapped up another 3.4 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) during the first quarter, bringing its holdings of the fund to nearly $700 million, according to a U.S. regulatory filing published Thursday—further evidence that spot Bitcoin ETFs are gaining traction among financial institutions.  Avenir held 14.7 million IBIT shares worth $688 million as of March 31, according to its filing,. That marks a 30% increase from the firm’s IBIT holdings for the fourth quarter of 2024. IBIT represents about 86% of Avenir’s portfolio, according to investment research platform Fintel.  The firm made…

POPCAT, ZBCN, and AVA top LunarCrush’s Altrank list due to strong price action and social engagement. PENGU, HAEDAL, and PNUT are just a few of the meme coins and utility tokens on the rise. Rising interest in gaming, content, and metaverse platforms has driven VRA, VOXEL, and BMT. LunarCrush’s latest Altrank update for May 3, 2025, highlights a sharp rise in lesser-known and meme-based tokens. The list is dominated by POPCAT, ZBCN, and AVA in the top three positions, thanks to intense social engagement and relative price strength in relation to Bitcoin. TOP 10 COINS BY LUNARCRUSH ALTRANK$POPCAT $ZBCN $AVA…

In a historical moment in which artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving towards increasingly autonomous, interoperable, and verifiable levels, Hedera takes a decisive step with the launch of AI Studio. That is, an open-source suite designed to build intelligent and reliable AI applications on a large scale. This modular toolkit represents a turning point for developers and companies that wish to integrate AI with the blockchain in a simple, transparent, and secure way. A modular toolkit for the artificial intelligence (AI) of the future thanks to Hedera The key components of AI Studio A strategic collaboration for the future of…

In a recent move, 900 BTC, valued at nearly $93.8 million, was transferred from major crypto exchange Binance to an unknown wallet. According to blockchain data tracker Whale Alert, “900 BTC (93,786,226 USD) transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet.” This transaction has attracted attention in the crypto community, prompting speculation on the motivations behind the move. While the exact reasons for this transfer remain unknown, large transactions of this nature are often indicative of a few possibilities. Withdrawals from exchanges may signify buying, while deposits may signal intent to sell; the move might be accumulation by a whale or…

Key Takeaways Ethereum’s price surged nearly 50% to over $2,700 after the Pectra upgrade. Abraxas Capital acquired 211,030 ETH valued at approximately $477 million post-upgrade. Ethereum rallied nearly 50% to over $2,700 after the Pectra upgrade and is now around 6% below what it held when Eric Trump publicly promoted the asset, TradingView data shows. The president’s son voiced bullish sentiment toward Ethereum in a Feb. 3 post, tweeting, “In my opinion, it’s a great time to add $ETH. You can thank me later.” He later edited the statement to remove the last sentence. His post came on the heels…

Stocks inched higher today, despite concerns over lower retail spending and escalating retail prices. U.S. stocks edged up on Thursday, May 15, even amid negative retail indicators. The Dow Jones was trading at 42,191, up 140 points or 0.33%. The S&P 500 rose 18.75 points, or 0.32%, to 5,911. Meanwhile, the tech-focused Nasdaq was nearly flat at 19,140 points, down just 8 points or 0.04%. You might also like: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq wobble as stocks rally cools Stocks were weighed by retail sales figures released on the same day. Notably, growth in retail sales slowed dramatically in April. Sales…

Cratos tops gainers with a 27% surge, leading a rally in fan and DeFi tokens. Fan tokens like ATM and ACM post double-digit gains driven by Binance activity. Mid-cap DeFi assets show strong growth, with STPT and ABT leading in market value. Cratos (CRTS) emerged as the day’s top-performing digital asset on May 4, 2025, registering a 27% price increase according to data published by Phoenix Group. The token rose to $0.00040, lifting its market capitalization to $24.6 million. CRTS led a broader rally that included fan tokens and decentralized finance (DeFi) assets, many of which posted double-digit gains. The…

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has received interest from 96 companies for its first Tokenization Regulatory Sandbox. This initiative, based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) enables firms to test tokenized financial instruments within a controlled regulatory environment, as detailed in their press release. The DFSA, the independent regulator of the DIFC, launched the Tokenization Regulatory Sandbox as part of its Innovation Testing Licence (ITL) program, which aims to balance support for technological innovation with investor protection and market stability. Related: First Government to Accept Crypto Payments: Dubai Rolls Out New System Tokenization, which involves the digital representation…

ADA’s Charles Hoskinson wants crypto’s tribal warfare to end, and he’s prepared to drop tokens on 37 million wallets across eight different blockchains to make peace. “Every Consensus, there’s a new token… running around saying, ‘my thing is better than your thing,'” Hoskinson said on stage at Consensus 2025 in Toronto. “The Nash equilibria is competitive, not cooperative.” Using Midnight’s upcoming airdrop, called Glacier Drop, for Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain that’s currently under construction, Hoskinson thinks he can do his part to bring peace to the crypto galaxy. Glacier Drop was first teased in late 2024, Hoskinson revealed key new details…

Bitlayer, a bitcoin Layer 2 based on the BitVM paradigm, and Sui blockchain have teamed up to make bitcoin (BTC) more useful in the Sui ecosystem. The collaboration involves Sui integrating Bitlayer’s BitVM bridge to launch Peg-BTC (YBTC), a Bitcoin-backed token, on its platform, according to an exclusive announcement shared with CoinDesk. It allows bitcoin holders to transfer their BTC into Sui via the BitVM bridge. The bridged version, Peg-BTC, can then be used within Sui’s DeFi ecosystem to earn additional yields. “Bitcoin’s dominance as a store of value is unmatched, but its utility in DeFi remains untapped. By integrating…