Author: NBTC

Coinbase has relaunched Direct Deposit in the US, allowing users to route part of their paycheck directly into their Coinbase account and automatically allocate funds into $USDC or crypto assets. The feature is part of Coinbase’s broader push to position the platform as a financial hub that connects income, investing, trading, staking, lending, and spending inside a single account. Coinbase’s app already markets itself as a platform for trading crypto, stocks, prediction markets, derivatives, staking, rewards, and other financial products. Users can enable Direct Deposit through the Coinbase app, generate an account and routing number, and use those details with…

CME Group has officially entered the always-on crypto market. Beginning Friday, CME Bitcoin futures and options now trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week on Globex, CME’s electronic trading platform, with only a 60-minute weekly maintenance pause between 10PM and 11PM UTC each Sunday. While weekend trades will still clear on the next business day, the broader implication is significant as the long-standing CME weekend gap has effectively disappeared. For years, the Friday close through Sunday reopen created one of bitcoin’s most recognizable structural inefficiencies. Traders routinely positioned around “gap fills,” exploiting the disconnect between CME’s limited trading…

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols built for crypto assets are increasingly retooling themselves for Wall Street, and VanEck’s tokenized Treasury fund arriving on lending platform Euler is the latest example of that shift. Securitize (CEPT), issuer and tokenization specialist behind VanEck’s VBILL Treasury fund, said Thursday that the product is now live on Euler lending markets. The move allows investors to use tokenized U.S. Treasuries as collateral to borrow and deploy liquidity elsewhere onchain while maintaining compliance limits tied to the asset. The move highlights how DeFi protocols are evolving as institutional investors push deeper into tokenized finance. Platforms that once…

More than 20 leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were delisted in April, with a significant number failing to survive even a full year on the market, according to data shared by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on social media platform X. Short Lifespans for Crypto-Focused Products Among the closures were several cryptocurrency-related products that launched with considerable fanfare but struggled to attract sustained investor interest. Direxion’s 2x Long Crypto Industry ETF, trading under the ticker LMBO, was delisted after just 0.68 years on the market. Its counterpart, the 1x Short Crypto Industry ETF (REKT), lasted only 0.67 years. Both…

Sui blockchain has attracted attention with its unique tokenomics, particularly with a hard cap of 10 billion tokens and a novel built-in mechanism called the Storage Fund. This fund operates at the heart of the network, providing incentives and sustainability both for current users and for future validators of the ecosystem. What is the Storage Fund and how does it work? On the Sui network, every transaction that adds data to the chain incurs a storage fee charged to the user. Instead of being paid directly to validators, these fees are deposited into the protocol-level Storage Fund. The primary aim…

DeFi security is back in the headlines after OpenZeppelin’s founder, Manuel Aráoz, claimed that the entire sector is unsafe. The issue has now sharply divided the community. Stani Kulechov, the founder of leading DeFi lending protocol Aave, is the latest figure to dismiss Aráoz’s comment. He said, Not a good take. DeFi infra today is materially more resilient than in prior cycles (partially also thanks to AI). Earlier in the week, Aráoz said he considers “all of DeFi unsafe,” citing the improving offensive capabilities of AI-powered cybersecurity agents that can swiftly crack smart contracts and protocols. According to him, the…

Enterprise blockchain firm Ripple has secured the 16th spot on the 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50, a prestigious annual ranking of cutting-edge venture-backed companies. The controversial company has been recognized for “bringing blockchain into real-world finance.” The fledgling sector is currently entering its “disrupter era.” The vast majority of the companies are based in the US, with 23 of the 50 companies being in California. The 2026 list welcomes 22 new entrants. “Vibe coding” and prediction markets have become the emergent themes. AI dominance A cursory glance at the Disruptor 50 list will be sufficient to see the absolute dominance of…

A crypto PAC affiliated with Fairshake has poured $5 million into a Texas congressional runoff ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Protect Progress, an affiliate of the crypto-backed Fairshake PAC, spent $5 million supporting Democratic challenger Christian Menefee in Tuesday’s Texas 18th District runoff and a further $2.8 million opposing incumbent Al Green, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Fairshake reported $193 million cash on hand heading into 2026. The Kalshi prediction market gave Menefee a 91% probability of winning, with Polymarket at a similar figure. Total betting volume on the parallel Texas Republican Senate race between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn…

Bitcoin trended downward on Wednesday, dropping beneath the $75,000 threshold to trade at $74,570 at the time of writing. This slide erased nearly 3% of its weekly value and dragged its market capitalization back below $1.5 trillion. Key Takeaways: Bitcoin fell below $75K on May 27 as Glassnode flagged fading exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows. Bitstamp data showed BTC dropped 3% weekly, wiping out $115.3M in leveraged longs. Polymarket traders priced U.S.-Iran deal odds at 30% ahead of the May 31 deadline. Onchain Metrics Signal Fading Momentum For the second consecutive day, bitcoin trended downward, slipping below the $75,000 threshold even…

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been hit by recent criticism and negative commentary following a $20 billion drop in total value locked (TVL) and $1.1 billion lost to hacks like the $292 million Kelp DAO bridge exploit. DeFi isn’t safe anymore because AI is becoming ‘superhuman’ at hacking, former OpenZeppelin CTO and co-founder Manuel Aráoz said this week. “DeFi is dead,” said one commentator on X recently. Andrew Forson, president of DeFi Technologies, has an entirely opposite view and a bit of criticism of his own: “DeFi is way more than those protocols that have been hacked,” Forson said…