Author: NBTC

Flexa ends a seven-year crypto payments experiment, shutting down its SPEDN app while pivoting toward scalable infrastructure for merchants and partners, signaling a shift from consumer-facing pilots to broader digital asset integration across existing payment systems. Flexa SPEDN Shutdown Crypto Payments Pivot Strategy A digital payments company marked the end of a long-running crypto pilot on social media platform X on March 31, 2026. Flexa confirmed the shutdown of its SPEDN application after seven years of operation. The post highlighted the app’s role in demonstrating real-world digital asset payments. Flexa stated: “As of today, SPEDN has officially been shut down.”…

TRM Labs, a leading blockchain intelligence company that helps financial institutions, crypto businesses, and government agencies detect and mitigate crypto-financial crime, has disclosed its landmark collaboration with Hypernative Labs, a leading real-time Web3 security and risk prevention platform that protects blockchain protocols, applications, and assets from hacks and exploits. 🤝 𝗧𝗥𝗠 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝘀 + 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲What if risk decisions happened before a transaction executes — not after? TRM and @HypernativeLabs are enabling real-time enforcement in the transaction flow. A two-layer system combines:✅ Hypernative’s detection and enforcement… pic.twitter.com/g7pJH0dbWY — TRM Labs (@trmlabs) April 1, 2026 The hidden purpose behind this integration is to…

Arkham Intelligence published a comprehensive breakdown of the largest Ethereum ($ETH) holders in 2026, revealing that staking contracts, exchanges, and financial institutions now control most of the supply. The report draws on on-chain data from the Arkham Intel Platform and covers entities ranging from centralized exchanges to individual pre-sale investors. Staking and Exchanges Control Most $ETH The ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract sits at the top of the list with over 82 million $ETH, valued at approximately $169 billion. That figure represents roughly 66% of the total $ETH supply, locked by validators securing the network. The Beacon contract’s 82M $ETH dominance…

BMO, a North American commercial bank focused on payments, announced a joint project with CME Group, a global derivatives marketplace operator, and Google Cloud, a cloud infrastructure and data services provider. The partners plan to launch tokenized cash and deposit capabilities for institutional clients using a permissioned network based on Google Cloud Universal Ledger. The platform is designed to support continuous financial operations. Clients will be able to convert U.S. dollars into tokenized cash and deposits at any time, without traditional banking cutoffs. The system targets use in margin requirements, trading flows, and settlement between market participants. The tokenized cash…

MiniPay has announced an integration with WalletConnect, which is a big step toward making stablecoin payments a normal component of everyday life. The integration has a feature called WalletConnect Pay. This feature helps people pay merchants directly and easily using stablecoins. MiniPay is integrating with @WalletConnect Pay to add a new acceptance layer for stablecoins in everyday commerce.This helps bring stablecoin utility closer to real-world spending by connecting MiniPay to existing merchant payment infrastructure. It is another step in building… pic.twitter.com/JHZ261l3Z2 — MiniPay (@minipay) March 31, 2026 This change is part of a larger trend in the crypto industry to…

A small aerospace company near Toulouse is about to make financial history. ST Group, which manufactures high-performance composite parts for Airbus and Dassault Aviation, will become the first traditional company in the world to conduct a fully on-chain initial public offering. The listing is set for April 9 on Lise, a French blockchain-powered exchange backed by BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole’s CACEIS, and state investment bank Bpifrance. “ST Group would never have done an IPO on a traditional market. Blockchain technology is the real answer to the structural financing problem for SMEs,” said Lise CEO Mark Kepeneghian. The Regulatory Foundation Before…

From Digital Gold to Digital Dust In early 2022, the world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) was at its absolute zenith. Celebrities were flocking to the space, led by pop icon Justin Bieber, who made headlines by purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) $NFT for a staggering sum. At the time, it was seen as a bold entry into the future of digital art and web3. Fast forward to April 2026, and the landscape has shifted dramatically. The speculative bubble that once valued “cartoon apes” at millions of dollars has largely evaporated, leaving high-profile investors like Bieber with massive “paper”…

Ethereum ($ETH) price trades near $2,055 on April 3, sitting inside an ascending channel on the 8-hour chart that has guided price action since February 24. The channel represents the only bullish structure $ETH has maintained since the early February crash. However, three signals underneath the surface, smart money indecision, a bearish RSI divergence, and a whale pattern that historically failed to prevent corrections, suggest the channel’s survival is increasingly in doubt. Smart Money Mirrors a Pattern That Preceded a 43% Crash The Smart Money Index (SMI), an indicator that tracks informed investor behavior, is currently tied with its signal…

European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Tuesday that the ECB expects by this summer to announce the European standards it will use for a potential digital euro, a step aimed at helping payment providers and merchants prepare their systems ahead of any issuance decision. Cipollone told European Union lawmakers that, once those standards are announced, the ECB will work with market participants so they can begin embedding them into payment terminals and other solutions as soon as possible. Cipollone said finalizing the rulebook would let new terminals and payment apps ship with the necessary rails already…

South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is preparing to list yet another digital asset. According to the official announcement, Venice Token ($VVV) will begin trading on the Korean won (KRW) market. According to information shared by the exchange, deposit and withdrawal operations for the $VVV token will be activated within one hour of the announcement. Trading in the $VVV/KRW pair will begin on April 1, 2026, at 3:00 PM. The initial reference price for the token has been set at 9,840 KRW, and deposits will require 200 block confirmations. It was also emphasized that only transfers made through the Base network…