Author: NBTC
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, is officially the US Commerce Secretary after a 16-12 Senate Commerce Committee vote on Wednesday. Known for his deep ties to crypto and Wall Street, Howard’s new job comes with a lot of moving pieces: the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, and all regulatory power over tech infrastructure. His confirmation is a massive win for President Trump’s administration, which is pushing to bring crypto innovation back to the US and create a national Bitcoin reserve. Anti-crypto Elizabeth Warren demands answers over…
MetaMask has introduced a new feature that allows people to use a selection of tokens to pay gas fees when using MetaMask Swap for smart transactions. Dubbed Gas Station, the innovation addresses a common issue faced by Ethereum users: transactions failing due to insufficient gas fees. Details of the New Update The crypto wallet provider announced the functionality in a February 4 post on X, stating that it will help users avoid transaction failures due to a lack of ETH for gas fees. Such payments are required for processing transactions on the Ethereum network and must traditionally be settled in…
Key Takeaways Russian bailiffs are in the process of transferring Bitcoin from Marat Tambiev to state revenue. The case involves the confiscation of 1,032.1 BTC, marking a significant crypto bribery scandal in Russia. Russian bailiffs are in the process of liquidating more than 1,032 Bitcoin, worth approximately one billion rubles, seized from Marat Tambiev, a former investigator of the Russian Investigative Committee who was convicted in a high-profile crypto bribery case, TASS reported Thursday. Tambiev, who previously served as a chief investigator in the Tver District of Moscow, was found guilty of accepting 1,032 BTC as a bribe to protect…
Ethereum is facing an identity crisis. Its native token, ether (ETH), is underperforming against competitors, and longtime builders are beginning to question whether the chain’s technology is falling behind—and if its community is losing focus. The Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that stewards Ethereum’s development, has been blamed for many of the network’s struggles. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin is spearheading a massive leadership shake-up at the organization, but his central influence over the process has sparked its own controversy. Meanwhile, rival ecosystems like Solana are capitalizing on the uncertainty, attracting top talent and outpacing ETH in the market. Amid this turbulence, a…
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial. Venture capital funding is the most sought-after form of backing amongst founders looking for capital to bootstrap their operations, offering a percentage of equity in exchange. The problem is, despite a few exceptions of funds like Sigma Capital, web3 VC funding is the most difficult to obtain at the early stages of the founder journey. In spite of a slight increase in funding in Q1 of 2024, VC backing for web3 startups continues to decline, dropping by…
DWF Labs, a new-gen crypto market maker and investor, announces its strategic support for teams launching AI agents on NEAR Protocol, a fully sharded, PoS L1 blockchain. NEAR is one of the leading decentralized platforms for AI and ML implementation in Web3. DWF Labs partners with NEAR Protocol for AI agent breakthroughs According to the official announcement, DWF Labs, a leading market making and VC investing firm, has kickstarted a strategic partnership with NEAR Protocol, a major programmable layer-1 blockchain. The collaboration is set to advance the segment of artificial intelligence (AI) agents in Web3. Our special AI agents are…
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, has urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Government Ethics to investigate President Donald Trump’s promotion of his memecoin ‘TRUMP’ for allegedly violating federal laws against soliciting gifts. In the open letter, the advocacy group addressed the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section and the OGE, arguing that Trump’s promotion of the so-called “Trump Meme” token could breach 18 U.S.C. § 201, which prohibits government officials from ‘soliciting gifts’. While federal law allows the president to receive gifts, the guideline still explicitly prohibits solicitation, coercion, or acceptance in exchange for official acts. Public…
Bithumb, one of South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for CertiK (CTK) in order to support an upcoming mainnet upgrade. Bithumb to Temporarily Suspend Deposits and Withdrawals for CertiK (CTK) Due to Network Upgrade This move aims to ensure the stability and security of deposit and withdrawal services throughout the upgrade process. Basic Details of Suspension Affected Entity: CertiK (CTK) Suspension Start: February 6, 2025, 18:00 Rationale: To support CertiK network upgrade and maintain stable deposits and withdrawals in accordance with Article 17 of the Virtual Asset User Protection Law Implementation…
The bitcoin (BTC) market resembles an iceberg at the moment, with the surface revealing a dominance of sellers that paints an overtly bearish sentiment. However, at deeper levels beneath the surface, bargain hunters are quietly waiting to snap up coins and potentially put a floor under prices. On the major spot and perpetual futures exchanges, the uptrend at the quote level, the going market rate, has flipped to a downtrend, indicating more traders are willing to sell at the market price, according to data source Hyblock Capital. The order book depth from quote level (0%) and 1% shows a similar…
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, crashed hard Monday as prospects of a U.S.-led trade war weighed on risk assets. Data shows investors likely bought the dip, snapping up coins at lower prices. According to analytics firm IntoTheBlock, ether worth almost $1 billion left centralized exchanges Monday, the highest single-day net outflow since January 2024. “This indicates traders took advantage of the drop to accumulate ETH,” IntoTheBlock said in a Telegram broadcast. Ether’s price crashed as low as nearly $2,000 on some exchanges as market liquidity deteriorated and dealers scrambled to offload futures. While prices have recovered to $2,800,…