Author: NBTC

Indonesia’s central bank plans to launch the second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial this year, building on the success of the first phase from the first half of the year. The first phase focused on a wholesale CBDC (wCBDC) deployed on distributed ledger technology. The Bank of Indonesia (BI) partnered with local commercial banks and fintech firms, with the focus being mainly on the simple issuance, exchange and redemption of the digital rupiah. The second phase will center on integrating the digital securities ledger. In its payment system blueprint for the next five years, the central…

Bitcoin miners will need to capitulate before BTC can take off on a new rally, according to the popular on-chain analyst Willy Woo. Woo tells his 1.1 million followers on the social media platform X to look for compressions in Bitcoin hash ribbons when thinking about when to buy and hold. “I know it sucks, but BTC is not going to break all-time highs until more pain and boredom plays out. On the bright side, miners are capitulating and when that is through, it nearly always ends in a huge rally.” Source: Willy Woo/X Bitcoin hash ribbons attempt to identify…

Decentralized exchange aggregator OpenOcean has expanded its services to Rootstock, a decentralized finance protocol built on Bitcoin. Why is this important? The integration introduces the first DEX aggregator to Rootstock, a smart contracts network on Bitcoin (BTC) that offers compatibility with Ethereum (ETH). OpenOcean and Rootstock announced the integration in a press release on Aug. 13. Rootstock’s EVM-compatible platform allows OpenOcean users to tap into Ethereum’s crypto economic potential while benefiting from Bitcoin’s security. “This expansion not only aligns with our mission to provide comprehensive, efficient, and user-friendly trading solutions across all of our supported blockchains but also empowers our…

DMarket led the non-fungible tokens (NFT) sales on Monday with US$697,138, according to CryptoSlam data. The Mythos-based NFT collection represents in-game virtual items for popular games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2. It recorded over 26,780 transactions across 3,728 unique buyers and 3,044 sellers. This boosted DMarket’s all-time sales volume to US$485.26 million. The second-ranking collection for the day was Guild of Guardians Heroes, with sales reaching US$575,959. Immutable-based gaming NFT collection saw 1,633 transactions involving 705 unique buyers and 687 sellers. Coming in third, the DogeZuki Collection on the Solana blockchain generated US$408,262 in sales. The collection had 9,385 unique…

Web3 projects raised $1.9 billion during Q1, with funding flowing into the coffers of over 300 ventures, among them DeFi and GameFi apps, launchpads, infrastructure projects and RWA protocols. While deep-pocketed VCs like A16z, Pantera Capital and Galaxy Ventures are responsible for the lion’s share of investments, successful projects are themselves writing checks to fuel innovation in various areas. Web3 Players Invest in Innovation Whether it’s in the form of grant programs, hackathons or traditional equity-based deals, Web3 protocols are taking a proactive approach by allocating a percentage of their resources to bootstrapping promising concepts and talented founders. Take crypto…

Layer-2 network Starknet will open staking on its ecosystem by the end of 2024, the developer firm StarkWare shared on Wednesday. The news was announced at the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels, Belgium, by the company’s CEO Eli Ben-Sasson. Ben-Sasson submitted a Starknet Improvement Proposal to the community which suggests that users can choose whether they would like to become a staker, with rewards for participation to be proportional to the amount of STRK tokens staked. Stakers will have to lock their tokens for a 21-day period before being allowed to withdraw their funds, according to a press release shared…

UAE, Freezone DMCC announced its H1 performance results for 2024, adding 1,023 new members speared by growth in the tech sector, specifically crypto, AI, and gaming. DMCC registered companies now total 25,000 companies. Tech companies spur growth in UAE Freezone DMCC As per the press release, the overall growth of DMCC’s business district was spearheaded by strong results in a number of sectors. DMMC mentions in particular technology, where DMCC registered 226 new companies, including 14 gaming and 9 AI companies. In addition, the DMCC Crypto Center onboarded 64 new companies, including seven Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP), reflecting an…

Circle stablecoin EURC joins USDC, the largest stablecoin on Base, which boasts over $3 billion in circulation as of July 9. The Euro is currently the third largest fiat currency in the world, providing significant growth opportunities in the digital space. Both EURC and USDC are compliant with the new Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, making them the first stablecoins on Base from a global issuer to meet these stringent standards. Jeremy ALLAIRE, Circle’s co-founder and CEO, discussed the future of stablecoins in a recent interview, highlighting the increased competition expected as the EU’s regulatory framework tightens. He emphasized…

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino hints at challenging tech giants with investments in decentralized AI and brain-computer interfaces. Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, seems to want to seize the opportunity in the artificial intelligence race by investing in decentralized technologies and brain-computer interfaces to challenge the dominance of major tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon. In a recent interview with WIRED, Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino discussed the firm’s evolving strategy, which now includes a big push into venture capital. Ardoino disclosed that Tether’s substantial profits, amounting to billions of dollars over the past two years due…

Two major XRP transactions were spotted earlier today. Tracking service Whale Alert revealed that more than 70 million XRP coins have been sent to two major crypto trading platforms. This comes amid a slight recovery of the XRP price after the recent market dump. In the first transfer, an unknown wallet sent about 33.78 million coins to crypto exchange Bitstamp. This transaction was worth around $14.67 million based on the current price of XRP. In the second transfer, another unknown wallet moved around 36.52 million XRP coins to trading platform Bitso. It was estimated to be worth around $15.84 million.…