Author: NBTC

The Bitcoin network experienced a rare two-block reorg on Mar. 23, at block height 941,880. Foundry mined six consecutive blocks, AntPool and ViaBTC briefly extended a competing branch. The chain resolved the fork as designed, following the path with the most hash rate. Bitcoin performed exactly as designed and validated its assumptions. The heuristic nobody labeled The six-confirmation rule is one of the pieces of received wisdom that have traveled so far from their origins that most people who repeat it can’t reconstruct why six is the number. The answer traces back to Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 whitepaper, which modeled finality…

Investors are now eyeing this week’s release of January’s delayed inflation print, following a hot labor report on Wednesday that showed the economy added 130,000 new jobs for the month. The release of fresh U.S. consumer price index data, pushed out due to the government’s partial shutdown and now expected Friday, is forecast to show a reduction from the month prior, down 0.2% from December to 2.5% year-over-year. The inflation metric is “more important than employment data,” Derek Lim, head of research at crypto market-making firm Caladan, told Decrypt. “Lower than expected inflation would increase pressure on the Fed to…

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has implemented another significant regulation targeting the cryptocurrency market. The institution approved new listing criteria for options trading on commodity-based trusts (CBPs) containing multiple crypto assets, as offered by Nasdaq. With this official decision, the option listing framework, which previously applied only to structures containing a single crypto asset, has been expanded. The regulatory process began with Nasdaq’s filing on September 26, 2025, after which the proposal was published in the Federal Register and opened to public comment. During this process, two separate amendments (Amendment No. 1 and No. 2) were submitted, but…

OKX Ventures, the venture capital arm of the global cryptocurrency exchange, has made a strategic investment in STBL, a next-generation stablecoin and yield infrastructure provider. STBL, co-founded by Reeve Collins, who also co-founded Tether, and tokenization pioneer Avtar Sehra, also announced a partnership with Hamilton Lane (HLNE), an alternative-investment management firm, and Securitize, a regulated digital securities issuance firm whose clients include BlackRock (BLK). The plan is to develop a stablecoin backed by real-world assets (RWA) on OKX’s Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain X Layer, the companies said on Thursday. The endeavor features a feeder fund to Hamilton Lane’s Senior Credit Opportunities…

In a landmark announcement from Singapore on March 21, 2025, Binance CEO Richard Teng revealed a staggering milestone for cryptocurrency adoption: over 21 million merchants worldwide now accept Binance Pay. This figure, representing a dramatic surge in the payment service’s network, underscores a pivotal shift in global commerce. Teng’s statement positions cryptocurrency not as a speculative asset, but as a foundational payment method rapidly integrating into the fabric of everyday transactions. Binance Pay Reaches a Critical Mass in Merchant Adoption The announcement from Binance CEO Richard Teng marks a definitive moment for the crypto payment ecosystem. Surpassing 21 million merchants…

Stablecoin issuer Agant won registration as a cryptoasset business with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), marking a regulatory milestone as it prepares to introduce a pound-denominated stablecoin, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The registration, granted under the country’s money laundering regulations, positions the firm to issue GBPA, a fully backed sterling stablecoin designed for institutional use. Stablecoins, digital tokens typically pegged to fiat currencies or other reserve assets, function as the crypto market’s main payment and cross-border settlement rails. The sector is led by Tether’s dollar-pegged USDT, with market capitalization of almost $184 billion, followed by…

In a significant on-chain transaction reported on March 26, 2025, cryptocurrency market-making firm Flowdesk deposited a combined $27.9 million worth of Ethereum ($ETH) and Chainlink ($LINK) to the Binance exchange, triggering immediate analysis from market observers. This substantial Flowdesk deposit, consisting of 6,088 $ETH and 1.62 million $LINK, represents a notable movement of assets from a private wallet to a major trading venue, an action historically associated with preparatory steps for liquidity events. Market analysts and data tracking services like The Data Nerd now scrutinize the potential downstream effects on both the Ethereum and Chainlink ecosystems. Flowdesk Deposit Details and…

Mark Zuckerberg is launching Meta Small Business as a company-wide initiative to support entrepreneurship and accelerate AI adoption, Axios reported Wednesday. The effort, led by Dina Powell McCormick, Meta’s president and vice chairman, and Naomi Gleit, who heads product development, will focus on building tools across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to help small businesses grow and scale more easily in the AI era. “In the AI era, it should be easier than ever for people to build new businesses,” Zuckerberg wrote in an internal post shared with employees. “We want to build the services that enable this.” Meta focuses on…

Solana wants to position itself as the execution layer for “internet capital markets” in Asia, or venues where users can issue, trade, borrow, lend, and settle assets online, 24/7, without needing a traditional exchange, bank or clearing house. At least, that was the position attendees and panelists at Solana’s Accelerate APAC event in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Speakers struck a noticeably institutional tone, with panels and keynotes focused less on hype cycles and more on payments, tokenization and the plumbing needed to onboard traditional finance at the conference, held alongside CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong The day’s agenda reflected that shift.…

In a landmark development for African financial technology, Circle Internet Financial has announced its first major partnership on the continent with Cassava Technologies’ fintech division, bringing $USDC stablecoin payments to millions of users across 30 markets. This strategic collaboration, confirmed by Bloomberg on April 15, 2025, represents a significant milestone in digital currency adoption within one of the world’s fastest-growing economic regions. $USDC’s Strategic Entry into African Markets Circle’s partnership with Cassava Technologies marks a calculated expansion into Africa’s burgeoning digital economy. The collaboration specifically involves Sasai Fintech, Cassava’s financial technology arm, which operates a popular remittance application serving multiple…