Author: NBTC

Coinbase engineering head Erik Reppel offered a glimpse into how artificial intelligence could reshape the economics of the internet, arguing that AI agents may force a shift away from the web’s ad-driven business model. Speaking onstage at Consensus Miami 2026, Reppel, the founder of the x402 payments protocol and head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform, said the internet was originally built around humans interacting with websites, not software interacting with software. “The internet was designed for humans to use,” Reppel said. “We now live in a world where both humans and computers operate and computers operate computers.” Today’s web…

Spencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital, noted that while years ago fintech companies aimed to be bank-like but not banks, this trend has now reversed, with over 20 companies pursuing Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters in 2026. Key Takeaways: Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart notes over 20 crypto firms now seek OCC charters to integrate with banks. Securing 1 federal OCC charter gives firms like Ripple credibility to attract serious institutional capital. Next, 20+ OCC-chartered crypto firms, like Coinbase, will unlock large banks and sovereign wealth funds. The End of the Decentralized Fantasy: Why Crypto Firms…

Core Scientific (CORZ) reported a $347.2 million first-quarter loss even as revenue rose to $115.2 million, as the former bitcoin mining heavyweight sold 2,385 bitcoin for $208.3 million and wrote down $266.5 million of mining-related assets. The company said the bitcoin sales were used to fund capital expenditures and other cash needs, extending a pattern of miners selling BTC to fund AI data centers. The company also closed a $3.3 billion offering of 7.75% senior secured notes, proceeds it plans to use for data center development and to repay a $1 billion term loan facility. The bond sale was aimed…

The crypto industry may have fundamentally misunderstood the metaverse, according to Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu, who argues that the next phase of virtual economies would arrive not through VR headsets or immersive digital worlds, but through fleets of AI agents transacting across blockchain networks behind the scenes. Siu said the metaverse maybe coming to us rather than being a place that humans go to, during his keynote at Consensus Miami 2026. For Animoca, this marked a distinct pivot from the pandemic-era vision of the metaverse it once championed, in which users were expected to spend increasing amounts of their…

A first-of-its-kind municipal bond backed by bitcoin is moving closer to issuance after receiving a sub-investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service, marking a major step in the convergence of digital assets and traditional public finance. The proposed $100 million issuance, structured by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA), earned a Ba2 rating — two notches below investment grade, according to Bloomberg reporting. If completed, the deal would represent the first municipal bond backed by bitcoin collateral, opening a potential new pathway for institutional capital to access the asset class through regulated fixed-income markets. Under the proposed structure, bond payments…

Spotting early market signals is a textbook risk management strategy. Looking at the broader market, now feels like the kind of moment where that approach matters. Despite recent weekly strength, most assets are still trading over 30% below their pre-October crash levels, and prices are now pushing straight into major resistance, making the next few sessions especially important. Ethereum [$ETH] is a solid example. Even after rallying nearly 20% over the past sixty days, price still hasn’t reclaimed its Q1 highs. Instead, $ETH is approaching the key $2.5k psychological resistance, where sell pressure is already building, a clear early signal…

Anthropic just made Elon Musk’s SpaceX a key supplier to its AI ambitions, and the timing is hard to miss. The Claude maker said Wednesday it had signed a deal to tap all of the compute capacity at SpaceX’s Colossus 1 data center, locking in access to more than 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs within the month. The agreement directly expands what Anthropic can serve to Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers, with Claude Opus API rate limits raised significantly and Claude Code’s five-hour rate limits doubled for Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, all effective Wednesday. The Colossus 1 deal is…

Schwyz, Switzerland — The Hashgraph Association (THA) is opening the doors to distributed ledger expertise for business professionals with the launch of its Foundation in Hedera Hashgraph for Business Professionals course. For the first 1,000 registrants, enrollment is free. — THA, a Swiss non-profit dedicated to accelerating enterprise adoption of the Hedera network, supports global businesses through grants, education, ecosystem development, and strategic partnerships. With the Hedera network processing more than $10 billion in real-world asset settlements last year and enterprises like FedEx joining the Hedera Governing Council, the demand for professionals who understand distributed ledger technology has never been…

XWIN Research Japan, a Japan-based research firm, pointed to a notable supply structure in the Bitcoin ($BTC) market, indicating a clear divergence between large investors and institutional buyers. According to the company, while the Bitcoin price appears stuck around the $70,000 level, a weak market structure is evident on the surface. In particular, the Exchange Whale Ratio metric, prominent in on-chain data, reveals increased activity by large investors in exchanges and strengthening short-term selling pressure. This aligns with a picture where the market is struggling to produce an upward breakout. However, more in-depth analyses indicate a significant shift in market…

Ethereum ($ETH) is recording increased whale attention, with large investors accumulating the asset as it attempts to break past long-term resistance. On-chain data indicates that Ethereum whales bought over 140,000 $ETH worth approximately $322 million in just 96 hours, according to Santiment insights shared by cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez on May 3. According to the data, whale-held Ethereum balances have steadily climbed in recent days, with $ETH holdings rising from around 13.83 million coins at the start of the period to nearly 13.98 million $ETH by May 3. Ethereum whale transactions. Source: Alli Martinez/ Santiment The buying spree comes as…