Author: NBTC

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether invested $20 million in Argentine neobank Ualá, taking an equity stake in a financial platform with more than 11 million customers across Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. The investment was part of Ualá’s $197 million funding round announced in March, led by Allianz X at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation. Tether was initially mentioned in Ualá’s announcement, and only later on unveiled the $20 million investment figure. Given the headline valuation, the investment should represent a rough 0.6% stake in the neobank’s post-money equity though the terms may differ. Ualá offers accounts, cards, lending and investments to…

Fetch.ai is set to transform digital economies through autonomous agents capable of discovering and transacting independently. Their recent collaboration with Skyfire aims to establish a seamless payment infrastructure, crucial for the functioning of these agents in real-world scenarios. This integration promises enhanced security, making AI agents active participants in economic activities rather than mere assistants. For more details, see the official announcement here. Breaking It Down Fetch.ai’s mission is to create a decentralized digital economy where intelligent agents autonomously discover, connect, and transact on behalf of users and organizations. The integration with Skyfire introduces a robust payment protocol that allows…

It was reported as the end of an era in crypto. The centralized exchange Arthur Hayes helped found in 2014, BitMEX, officially announced that it will be shutting down after 11 years of operation. The exchange pioneered the 100x-leverage perpetual swap, and perpetual markets eventually became the dominant crypto derivatives product. BitMart, another centralized exchange that had been in the top 10 exchanges but fell lower down the pecking order, also announced the closure of its trading platform. The last time a major CEX closed was during the FTX implosion in November 2022. Instead of leading to a deeper crypto…

In brief A solo miner solved Bitcoin block 960,804 overnight, taking a reward worth close to $200,000. The payout was 3.16 $BTC, the 3.125 $BTC subsidy plus 0.03 $BTC in fees from 4,243 transactions. It was the 317th solo block found through CKPool. A solo Bitcoin miner solved block 960,804 at 02:11 UTC on Monday, netting a reward worth about $200,000. The block paid 3.15689830 $BTC, made up of the 3.125 $BTC subsidy and 0.032 $BTC in fees from the 4,243 transactions it carried. It was the 317th solo block found through CKPool, the pseudonymous developer known as Dr -ck…

The recent price uptick in the cryptocurrency market has given some traders, including Andrew Tate, wings. Despite his rather unsuccessful history with futures trading, the British-American social media personality and businessman has opened another major long, according to data shared by Lookonchain. The analysts at the monitoring resource have counted 107 times in which Tate has been liquidated in the past. His new bitcoin long position is for 57.36 $BTC, worth around $3.76 million. However, the potential liquidation price is close by, at $65,216. The cryptocurrency currently trades around $65,500, and if it dips by just $300, Tate would need…

POAP, the proof-of-attendance protocol known for issuing digital badges to event participants, is shutting down its service, according to a report from The Block. The project had previously announced in March that it would halt new services and maintain only its existing system. The decision marks the end of a notable experiment in the $NFT space, where POAP tokens became a popular way to commemorate conference attendance, virtual meetups, and community events. Background and Timeline POAP, which stands for Proof of Attendance Protocol, gained traction during the crypto and $NFT boom of 2021–2022. The protocol allowed event organizers to mint…

Unlike in most of the world, Indian crypto traders face unique challenges due to government laws and a highly restrictive tax environment. As such, it’s easy to make a mistake or two if you’re not informed about all the crypto happenings in the country. However, some are costlier than others, and any Indian crypto trader should pay special attention to the following mistakes. Ignoring India’s Crypto Tax Rules This is likely the biggest mistake one can make, as since 2022, India has imposed a 30% tax on any profits made from virtual digital assets (VDAs), which include cryptocurrencies. Additionally, a…

New research into automated trading on Solana found a nearly threefold difference in positive wrapped SOL outcomes inside one small group of bots. Transactions that invoked HumidiFi, which the paper classifies as a proprietary automated market maker, recorded a positive WSOL balance change about 62.3% of the time. Other transactions in the same 12-address group did so at a 21.01% rate. The comparison covered 244,733 HumidiFi-invoking transactions, including 152,502 with a positive WSOL balance change, and 218,678 other transactions, including 45,949 with a positive change. The rate ratio was about 2.97. The edge appeared in one narrow cluster The ASE…

Russian authorities have placed Telegram founder Pavel Durov on an international wanted list as they escalate a criminal case accusing him of facilitating terrorist activity. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and issued an international warrant for his arrest, local news agency Interfax reported. The FSB alleged that Telegram failed to remove channels, chats and bots that Ukrainian intelligence services, terrorist groups and extremist organizations used to coordinate attacks, recruit operatives and conduct cyber fraud. The development follows reports in February that Russian authorities had opened a criminal case…

Kalshi Settled a $3.3M Spotify Market Minutes After a Fraud Warning Kalshi was warned that streaming data underlying one of its Spotify prediction markets appeared to be manipulated before the exchange settled more than $3.3 million in contracts, according to correspondence published Sunday by trader Caleb Davies. The June market asked which artists would reach No. 1 on Spotify’s daily U.S. chart and recorded $3,320,917 in trading volume. Davies lost $4,500 on the settlement, published the exchange himself as a bylined opinion piece, and is identified as “The Whistleblower” in a Netflix documentary on prediction markets. The underlying manipulation was…