Author: NBTC

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz once again poured cold water on $XRP community members chasing easy money as he openly stated that the very idea of treating memecoins as a serious investment instrument feels simply distasteful to him. The trigger for the public rejection was a proposal from one of the users on X. Schwartz was repeatedly urged to become the face and chief ambassador of the FUZZY project. On one hand, he does not want to suppress genuine community activity. On the other hand, he is simply afraid of becoming an unwilling promotional shield for hidden scammers who could…

The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to rewrite the rulebook on how companies go public. It’s the most ambitious overhaul of IPO disclosure requirements in roughly 20 years, and it could reshape the pipeline for startups, tech firms, and yes, digital asset companies looking to list on US exchanges. SEC Chair Paul Atkins is pushing for a framework where disclosure obligations are calibrated to “financial materiality” and scaled to the size and maturity of the company going public. What’s actually changing The current IPO disclosure thresholds haven’t been updated since 2005. That means a company with $10 million in…

Coinbase is not at all concerned with the increasing competition from Wall Street giants or other traditional financial institutions, the crypto exchange’s head of Policy for Europe told CoinDesk on Friday. “We have always said that a rising tide lifts all ships,” said Katie Harries, adding that Coinbase is “not at all” worried about the increasing involvement of financial institutions in the United States and around the world in crypto. The company recently posted a loss of $1.49 per share, compared with analyst expectations for a $0.27 profit. Also in the first week of May, Coinbase announced a 14% workforce…

Open Transaction Layer (OTL) officially launched as a new industry initiative focused on creating shared standards for on-chain finance. The project aims to simplify how financial companies, wallets, and blockchain platforms interact with each other across different networks and jurisdictions. Among the founding partners are Fireblocks, Checkout.com, MetaMask, Robinhood, MoonPay, and WalletConnect, along with blockchain organizations including Stellar Development Foundation, Solana Foundation, and Polygon. The alliance also includes trading firms, banks, payment companies, and infrastructure providers. The project introduces a modular framework built on existing standards such as W3C DIDs, ISO 20022, and IVMS101. OTL organizes them into one structure…

Despite recent years bringing overwhelming optimism for the cryptocurrency market as the latest ‘crypto winter’ ended, digital assets found mainstream appeal, and a friendly U.S. administration, Bitcoin ($BTC) ended up underperforming stocks in the last 12 months. Specifically, while the benchmark S&P 500 index soared 26.98% from 5,921 to 7,519 across the previous 52 weeks, $BTC declined 30.35% from $108,927 to $75,867 for an overall underperformance of roughly 56%. S&P 500 and Bitcoin price 12-month charts. Source: Google Additionally and perhaps more worryingly, 2026 has seen Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies move and consolidate lower while stocks appear to only…

Ethereum has dropped below $2,000, and a recent market analysis highlighted the ideal time to start buying the current dip. The Santiment analysis identified possible reactions to this drop among retail traders, each providing a different timeline for DCAing or gaining fresh exposure to Ethereum (ETH). The outlook focuses on their behavior amid the dip and playing contrarian to it. Key Points Ethereum fell below the psychological $2,000 price level for the first time since March 29th. Santiment has analyzed two different ways that market traders react to such a dip. In the first case, FUD dominates market sentiments, signaling…

India just made it significantly harder to bring silver into the country. Starting May 16, 2026, high-purity silver bars, those with 99.9% purity or higher, have been reclassified from “Free” to “Restricted” under the country’s trade policy. The practical effect: more than 90% of silver imports now require a government-issued license. The move, implemented by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), is part of a broader effort to stem foreign exchange outflows at a time when the rupee is under pressure from geopolitical turmoil and rising energy costs. What actually changed The restriction targets silver bars classified under ITC…

Institutional exposure to $XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continues to grow. New regulatory filings show that major Wall Street firms are now holding positions across several spot $XRP ETF products. Community figure Chad Steingraber shared a list of institutional investors with $XRP ETF exposure, led by banking giant Goldman Sachs. According to the shared data, most institutional $XRP ETF holders remain unknown because only firms managing more than $100 million in qualifying securities are required to disclose holdings through quarterly Form 13F filings. Still, the available filings already show growing participation from some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Key Points…

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to update its regulatory frameworks to integrate “digital assets and innovative technology into traditional financial services and payment systems” in an executive order signed Tuesday. According to the document, the U.S. should foster financial technology services into its existing payment and financial services rails. “It is therefore the policy of the United States to streamline regulatory processes, reduce unnecessary barriers to entry, and encourage collaboration between fintech firms, federally regulated financial institutions, and Federal financial regulators,” the order said. The order directed the heads of financial regulators to review their existing rules…

A new report from Keyrock, a global crypto investment group leading in market making, asset management, OTC, and options trading for digital assets, finds that artificial intelligence (AI) agents have settled more than $73 million across approximately 176 million transactions since May 2025, while four competing payment architectures have taken shape, backed by some of the largest companies in technology. Key Takeaways: Keyrock’s May 2026 report found AI agents settled $73M across 176M transactions in just 12 months, with 98.6% in $USDC. Coinbase and Stripe each span 5 of 6 payment stack layers, while incumbents deployed over $8B in acquisitions.…