Author: NBTC

In brief A Seoul court sentenced Delio chief executive Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years for fraud and for registering as a virtual asset provider using false documents, according to local media. The court ruled evidence seized from Delio’s server host was unlawfully obtained, voiding the primary charge covering 2,800 victims and 250 billion won. He was convicted instead on fallback charges covering roughly 1,100 victims and 70 billion won, about $49 million. The Seoul Southern District Court has sentenced Delio chief executive Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years in prison over the collapse of the South Korean crypto deposit platform, five…

Binance has overtaken CME Group in Bitcoin futures open interest for the first time since late 2023, holding roughly 148,500 $BTC against CME’s 102,840. The reversal unwinds two years of institutional dominance narrative and raises questions about whether traditional finance is retreating from crypto derivatives or simply relocating. For two years, a single chart told the story of Bitcoin’s institutional coming of age. CME Group, the Chicago exchange where pension funds, sovereign wealth managers, and hedge funds trade everything from corn to crude oil, held more Bitcoin futures open interest than any venue on Earth. That lead over Binance, the…

“When volatility is cheap, traders can build directional positions and hedges at relatively low cost. If the market then moves through a level with concentrated positioning, dealer hedging can accelerate the move,” Adam Haeems, head of asset management at Tesseract Group, which manages $500 million in client assets, said in an email. “The practical implication is that low volatility should not be mistaken for low risk. It is a reason to be careful with leverage, particularly when trading volumes and market depth are subdued.” For now, $BTC remains choppy below $65,000 with some green shoots. According to Paul Howard, a…

Defillama TVL data at about 10:30 a.m. EDT on Aug. 20 showed $83.216 billion parked across DeFi protocols, sharply higher from the previous day. Spot DEX volume hit $10.886 billion, while decentralized perpetual futures platforms churned through $36.72 billion. The stablecoin market stood at $301.502 billion, much lower than 2026 highs. $10 Billion Barrier Finally Breaks The DEX print matters because Aug. 20 marked the first daily break above $10 billion since the first week of June. Trading had gone quiet through much of the summer as cryptocurrency prices chopped sideways, speculative appetite dried up, and liquidity disappeared across plenty…

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has reacted with apparent amusement to recent comments from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin about incorporating UTXO-style concepts into Ethereum’s future scaling architecture. The reaction followed Buterin’s acknowledgment that Bitcoin developers pioneered several ideas that are now influencing Ethereum’s proposed approach. Buterin credited Bitcoin developers for concepts such as Utreexo while explaining that Ethereum is exploring a model that could combine UTXO-style state with dynamic state and its existing account-based architecture. Hoskinson Responds With a Laughing Reaction Hoskinson responded to the report with a facepalm-to-laugh GIF. Although he did not directly mention Cardano or Ethereum, his reaction…

Prediction market traders are signaling that Micron (NASDAQ: MU) is likely to finish July above $1,100 despite the stock’s recent pullback from record highs. Data from Polymarket shows traders assigning the highest probability to Micron closing above $1,340 by July 31. The $1,340 threshold carried a 14% probability, the highest among the listed price levels. The next most likely outcome was a close above $1,120 at 13%, while the $1,140, $1,160, $1,180, $1,200, $1,260, and $1,280 levels each carried a 10% probability. Traders assigned a 9% chance of Micron finishing above $1,240 and an 8% probability of ending the month…

The founder of Cap, a Franklin Templeton-backed stablecoin protocol, apologized for cutting a promised user reward to $4.2 million from the roughly $12 million the project had committed to in February, and denied accusations that he directed funds to a wallet linked to his former employer. Cap said in a post on X on Friday that its “Stabledrop,” a reward paid in the project’s dollar-pegged cUSD rather than in its $CAP governance token, would total $4.2 million. The company had planned to fund the reward through a token sale targeting a $250 million valuation and an offering of 10% of…

A U.S. pro-cryptocurrency political action committee has been accused of using fabricated news headlines to attack a Democratic candidate in Florida’s primary election, according to a report by the Miami Herald. Protect Progress, a super PAC linked to the crypto industry, reportedly misquoted three Miami Herald articles in advertisements targeting Oliver Gilbert, a candidate in Florida’s 24th Congressional District. The ads falsely portrayed Gilbert as supporting President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, the newspaper said. What Happened The Miami Herald reported that Protect Progress created fake headlines styled after its own news articles, then used them in digital ads against…

Blockstream has launched Blockstream Swaps in beta testing after noncustodial swap provider Boltz suspended its services following months of automated probing and several exploits. Blockstream said in an Aug. 10 announcement that the in-house service is already being tested with select participants, with development now being accelerated after Boltz stopped processing swaps on Aug. 3. The Bitcoin infrastructure company said the product was under development before the shutdown and is intended to add another option for users moving funds between Bitcoin, Lightning and Liquid. Boltz said its suspension followed a steady increase in automated, AI-assisted attempts to probe its infrastructure,…

A Bitcoin breakout attempt briefly pushed price above $65,000 on Aug. 5, but failed to sustain the move, even as Fed funds futures put the odds of a September rate hike at 57.4% as of Aug. 5, down from 80.5% a week earlier. Brent crude fell more than 5% on Aug. 4, settling near $79 on hopes of a Hormuz de-escalation deal. Lower hike odds and cheaper oil usually ease two of the macro pressures that have capped crypto all year. Bitcoin has held inside the same $62,000 to $68,000 range for weeks, and Friday’s July jobs report is the…