Author: NBTC

Mastercard beat earnings with $4.35 EPS as quarterly profit rose to $3.9 billion, putting card spending, network fees, and its crypto plan back in front of investors. Mastercard (NYSE: MA), the world’s second-largest debit and credit card company, posted a 14% profit rise as more people paid with cards. Global purchase volume increased 10% on a local currency basis to $759 billion. U.S. purchase volume rose 9% to $268 billion from a year earlier. The quarter also landed with stronger consumer data. A global survey showed U.S. consumer sentiment rose sharply in the first quarter as optimism over the economy…

Major Wall Street investors poured $500 million into Ripple in 2025 — a figure that reflects just how embedded $XRP has become in the company’s financial backbone, and why analysts say Ripple has little reason to walk away from it. A newly circulated academic paper, published in Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, argues that $XRP’s role in Ripple’s cross-border payment network makes abandonment not just unlikely, but structurally difficult. The paper was brought to wider attention by $XRP community researcher SMQKE. The Case Against Cutting Ties Ripple Payments — formerly known as RippleNet — uses $XRP as a…

An obscure figure, believed to have actually run the recently failed European exchange Zondacrypto, is now reportedly hiding in Dubai. Direct losses from the crash of the coin trading platform, one of the largest in its region, approach $100 million, but the total is likely higher. Zondacrypto’s real boss identified in Poland The chief executive of the Polish-rooted exchange Zondacrypto, which suffered a spectacular collapse last month, has been merely a figurehead. That’s according to publications in Poland, where the Estonia-licensed platform was the leading trading venue for digital assets until just a few weeks ago. Its CEO, Przemysław Kral,…

Decentralized prediction market platform Myriad has selected Chainlink (LINK) as its official oracle infrastructure, marking a significant step toward real-time settlement capabilities for crypto-based forecasting markets. The integration, first reported by Decrypt, will initially support prediction markets tied to Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), Binance Coin ($BNB), and Solana ($SOL), with plans to expand into real-world asset (RWA) markets in future phases. Why Oracle Infrastructure Matters for Prediction Markets Prediction markets rely on accurate, tamper-proof external data to settle outcomes fairly. Without a reliable oracle, a platform cannot determine which outcome occurred in a verifiable way. By adopting Chainlink’s decentralized oracle…

The Royal Government of Bhutan, which became one of the first sovereign Bitcoin miners by using surplus hydroelectric power, has moved 643 $BTC worth over $45 million to external wallets over the past two days, according to Arkham Intel data. Bhutan once held more than 13,000 $BTC and now appears to be systematically converting its digital reserves into capital. Bitcoin traded at $66,500 at press time, down 4% in the last 24 hours, per TradingView. Despite recent Bitcoin sales, Druk Holdings, the investment arm of the Bhutanese government, still holds 4,329 $BTC, worth more than $290 million. This keeps Bhutan…

Ethereum is trading above $2,300 once again after adding 1% to its value in the last 24 hours. The leading altcoin briefly dropped to the $2,200 level as the broader crypto market recorded losses. However, technical indicators suggest that $ETH could rally higher in the near term, with the $2,500 psychological level a target. JPMorgan files to launch another Ethereum-based tokenized Treasury fund $ETH is up 1% and is now trading above $2,300. The positive performance comes after JPMorgan filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday to launch the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money…

As mega-cap stocks, led by giants such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), have been dominating finance narratives, small-cap companies have, on average, actually been outperforming their bigger peers in 2026. Specifically, the benchmark S&P500 equity market index rose 4.05% this year from 6,858 on January 2 to nearly 7,136 at the latest close on April 29. Simultaneously, the Russell 2000 – comprised of the smallest 2,000 of America’s 3,000 biggest public companies – rallied 9.22% from 2,508 to over 2,739 in 2026. Russell 2000 and S&P500 index YTD performance. Source: Google One trait of the index tracking the smaller 2,000 U.S.…

Bybit has expanded its perpetual contracts offerings this week, adding 7 new TradiFi assets, including $USDT-quoted perpetual contracts with 10x leverage. The new Bybit TradiFi perpetual contracts listings include Oracle (ORCL), Nvidia (NVDA), Circle (CRCL), Invesco (QQQ), and iShares (EWJ & EWY). Bybit now allows traders to build portfolios including AI-infrastructure and digital assets giants, as well as ETFs covering Asian markets. The exchange has been adding new tickers to its $USDT-quoted perpetual contracts (with up to 10x leverage) each week since mid-April. The latest addition brings the total number of perpetual contracts available to 20 U.S. stocks, 3 commodities…

Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer and operator Canaan Inc. has reported the production of 90 Bitcoin during the month of April. According to a press release distributed via PR Newswire, the company’s total cryptocurrency holdings now stand at 1,826 Bitcoin and 3,952 Ether. Production Details and Holdings Breakdown The 90 $BTC mined in April represents a continuation of Canaan’s operational output from its mining facilities. The company’s total digital asset portfolio, valued at current market rates, underscores its dual role as both a hardware supplier and a direct participant in the Bitcoin network. The Ether holdings add a layer of diversification…

NeoIgnite is now operating as a Labs studio on Neo N3, building and launching standalone consumer-facing products for the ecosystem. The project team, which now describes itself as “the umbrella Labs identity” behind its releases, has shipped two TestNet applications in the span of nine days: NeoMeme, a meme token launchpad, on May 3, and AgentPay N3, a payment system for autonomous AI agents, on May 11. The Labs model follows a pivot from NeoIgnite’s earlier direction. The project first appeared in 2025 with plans for a treasury-backed token built around bNEO. That concept became unviable after NeoBurger announced its…