Author: NBTC

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said she is prepared to support higher interest rates if US inflation fails to come down, a change that can pressure crypto and other high-risk investments. Cook was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, saying that while some disinflationary forces are in play, she is “prepared to act” if disinflation stalls. “As I have described, inflation is too high, and I consider the risks to the inflation side of the dual mandate higher than the risks to the employment side at this point,” said Cook. “As such, I am prepared…

Ripple has launched its UDAX accelerator program in Brazil, expanding its effort to connect universities, researchers, and developers with the $XRP Ledger ecosystem. The program is designed to support academic research, grants, and developer activity around XRPL applications. For Ripple, Brazil is a natural market to target. The country has an active fintech sector, a growing digital payments market, and a history of serious institutional interest in blockchain infrastructure. The important point is that this is an ecosystem development story, not a direct $XRP price catalyst. UDAX may help bring more builders and research into the $XRP Ledger over time.…

Time is running out to get a vote on the long-awaited crypto Clarity Act, though bipartisan work is intensifying with the White House reviewing the latest draft behind closed doors, according to reports. Senator Thom Tillis said that bipartisan language drafted and sent to the White House last week is currently being reviewed by the White House. “We’ve got people working with White House right now…they’re going through some of the lines right now,” he was quoted and first reported by Punchbowl News Senior Reporter Brendan Pendersen. Senate Majority Leader John Thune declined to file cloture on the crypto market…

MetaMask has officially launched Agent Wallet, a self custodial wallet that allows AI agents to execute onchain transactions while operating within rules established by the user. Your agent finally gets its own wallet. MetaMask Agent Wallet is now live for everyone. pic.twitter.com/F81PZ7etxv — MetaMask 🦊 (@MetaMask) August 6, 2026 The wallet lets users connect AI frameworks including Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, OpenCode, and Cursor. Agents can then monitor markets, prepare transactions, and execute trades through MetaMask’s command line interface. Users can establish daily spending limits, allowlisted protocols, and risk preferences before granting an agent permission to transact. MetaMask…

During the current summer lull, as Bitcoin’s endless chop within the $60,000–$66,000 range cuts down sellers and buyers in both directions, increasingly unconventional methods and assessments are being used to analyze the current situation. One such approach, based on Bollinger Bands on the quarterly chart by TradingView, has revealed that Bitcoin may have already established the macro bottom of the current cycle — and may have done so on the very first day of Q3 2026, at $57,735. Paradoxically, this hidden pattern has gone unnoticed by most market participants, who remain focused on the exhausting short-term price fluctuations. Summer low…

This week, several of the largest hedge funds on Wall Street were targeted in a wave of attempted cyberattacks, which reportedly include Point72 Asset Management, Citadel, Two Sigma Investments and Millennium Management. Attackers are said to have used voice phishing, or vishing, to manipulate employees into giving up their username and password credentials or allowing access to internal systems. This is a reminder of the ever-increasing danger posed by AI-assisted social engineering to financial institutions. Even though there were overwhelming news headlines, there hasn’t been any major impact on the crypto markets. Traders are just observing how the attacks unfold,…

Chainlink is shifting the economics of its BUILD program toward commercial fee agreements, a move that could make $LINK’s utility more closely tied to paid oracle and infrastructure services. The update follows the final BUILD rewards claims ending July 7, 2026. Under the new direction, participating projects are expected to move toward commercial agreements with fees paid in $LINK or other liquid tokens. That matters because $LINK investors have long watched one question closely: how does Chainlink’s adoption translate into token utility? This does not mean immediate price impact. It does not mean every Chainlink integration suddenly creates direct $LINK…

South Korea’s government is preparing to formally classify virtual assets, including Bitcoin, acquired through donations or criminal forfeiture as state property, and in principle, auction them off immediately after acquisition, according to a report from Chosun Biz. The move, announced on Aug. 6 as part of a broader overhaul of the state asset management system, signals a more structured approach to handling digital assets that come into state hands. As of April, the central government held approximately 78 billion won ($56.3 million) in virtual assets, a figure that underscores the growing scale of crypto-related seizures and donations in the country.…

$USD1, the dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial, has surpassed $50 billion in cumulative trading volume on Binance roughly a year after its debut, according to on-chain analyst Darkfost. The milestone reflects growing adoption of the token, though the analyst cautioned that the figures should be interpreted carefully. Institutional Settlement Skews Issuance Data Darkfost noted that a $2 billion institutional settlement transaction tied to Binance’s investment in the project accounted for a significant share of new issuance, potentially distorting the raw numbers. Despite this, weekly trading volume for $USD1 on Binance has remained steady between $750 million and over…

Synchronized CME and Treasury observations from Aug. 7 put Bitcoin futures carry above government debt, undercutting a comparison that is circulated across crypto markets. Analyst Marc Baumann put annualized Bitcoin futures basis near 3% and the two-year Treasury yield at 3.8%, saying the crypto spread had trailed the government benchmark for 157 consecutive days. The official Treasury curve recorded the two-year par yield at 4.19% on Aug. 7 and 4.25% on Aug. 10. A matched-date calculation using the Aug. 7 CME settlement bulletin and the 4 p.m. ET New York Bitcoin benchmark of $64,880 produced three gross annualized readings above…