Author: NBTC

Derivatives account for the vast majority of crypto trading volumes, but options remain a relatively small corner of the market, dominated by a handful of established venues including Deribit, CME Group and Binance. New entrants are increasingly betting that broader adoption of options will follow the institutionalization of digital assets. The move is the latest step in Kraken’s transformation from a crypto exchange into a broader financial platform offering trading, payments and other digital asset services. Growing the market, not just market share Rather than focusing solely on taking market share from incumbent venues, Theodorou believes the larger opportunity is…

StableChain’s product is Tether’s dollar: gas in $USDT, transfers in $USDT, yield in $USDT. Its native token does none of that, and holders own governance and staking rights over a network whose every cash flow is denominated in someone else’s asset. This is crypto’s value-accrual question in its purest form yet, and it deserves a straight answer. Every blockchain token answers one question with its existence: why does this network need me? Bitcoin’s answer is total; the token is the point. Ethereum’s answer is functional: the token is the fuel and the bond. And the new generation of stablecoin chains…

The first event is BIP-110, also known as the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork, a draft proposal authored by Dathon Ohm and assigned in December 2025. The measure would impose a temporary one-year consensus soft fork on Bitcoin by restricting certain forms of arbitrary data storage in transactions. Supporters describe the proposal as a response to incentives they say expanded after the Ordinals and inscriptions wave that began in 2022. A Temporary Soft Fork With Permanent Stakes BIP-110 is designed to move into a mandatory signaling phase at block 961,632, with that period running through block 963,647. During that window, nodes…

Short Liquidations and ETF Inflows On Monday, ether ($ETH) closed in on the $2,000 threshold after jumping 4.5% amid rising exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows and staking activity. According to Bitstamp data, $ETH peaked at $1,980, an increase of more than $100 from 24 hours earlier, making it one of the day’s top gainers. The surge effectively erased losses $ETH suffered starting July 22, when it fell below the $1,900 threshold. The jump also lifted its market capitalization to $237 billion and pushed its seven-day gains to nearly 6%. While the digital asset’s year-to-date losses remain in double digits, the July…

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies will not diminish the importance of the cryptocurrency sector; on the contrary, digital assets will play a much more critical role in the new era. Speaking on the social media platform X, Armstrong emphasized that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies are not competing technologies, but rather complementary infrastructures. Armstrong stated that artificial intelligence has become one of the most important technological trends of our time, yet the value proposition of cryptocurrencies continues to strengthen. According to the Coinbase CEO, cryptocurrency technology is a kind of general-purpose infrastructure, like…

Sui (SUI), the Layer 1 blockchain, has fully restored normal operations following a mainnet outage that temporarily halted transaction processing. The project confirmed the resolution on its official X account, stating that validators applied a patch to address a bug that emerged during a scheduled network upgrade. What Caused the Outage The disruption began yesterday as validators restarted their nodes to deploy a new binary as part of a long-term fix. During this process, a randomness initialization procedure — required at the start of each epoch — failed to complete. The issue arose because this initialization requires a higher quorum…

The Russian State Duma will consider a bill aimed at creating a comprehensive legal framework for cryptocurrency activities in the country for its second and third readings on July 21. According to TASS, the bill aims to strengthen the fight against illegal transactions and fraud while defining the legal conditions for the use of cryptocurrencies in Russia. The regulation will also create a legal framework for the use of cryptocurrencies in international trade and cross-border transactions. Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma’s Financial Markets Committee, announced at a press conference held at the Rossiya Segodnya Center that the bill…

A prediction made more than a decade ago about closer ties between Bitcoin startups and traditional payment companies increasingly resembles the payments market of 2026. Former Electronic Transactions Association CEO Jason Oxman discussed that possibility in an August 2014 interview with CoinDesk. His comments followed BitPay becoming the first digital currency company to join the payments trade group. Oxman said the association would remain open to new payment technologies without formally backing Bitcoin over other systems. Early Bitcoin partnerships pointed to a wider shift Oxman argued that payment companies ultimately respond to how consumers and merchants choose to transact. He…

Circle has announced a collaboration with OpenZeppelin to develop ChainBench, a benchmark for agent-driven crosschain smart contract generation. This initiative aims to test the robustness of frontier models in writing secure smart contracts. The collaboration was highlighted by crypto commentator @OpenZeppelin on Twitter, indicating a significant step towards improving smart contract security. Breaking It Down The broader crypto market is currently displaying mixed signals, with various assets experiencing a range of price movements. In this context, the development of ChainBench is particularly noteworthy as it seeks to address security concerns surrounding smart contracts, which have been a significant barrier to…

Diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States showed early signs of progress after senior officials from both countries held talks in Switzerland. Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan said the discussions were constructive, as both sides agreed to a 60-day timeline to secure a final deal. Further technical meetings are scheduled to take place at the Burgenstock resort later this week. The optimism surrounding the talks briefly pushed Bitcoin ($BTC) above $64,000, although the asset later gave back some gains and fell below the level. However, tensions between the two countries still linger as the deal was not signed by…