Author: Ethan Carter
Ethan is a seasoned cryptocurrency writer with extensive experience contributing to leading U.S.-based blockchain and fintech publications. His work blends in-depth market analysis with accessible explanations, making complex crypto topics understandable for a broad audience. Over the years, he has covered Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, NFTs, and emerging blockchain trends, always with a focus on accuracy and insight. Ethan's articles have appeared on major crypto portals, where his expertise in market trends and investment strategies has earned him a loyal readership.
Dfns, a provider of digital wallet infrastructure partnered with tech giant IBM, has integrated Concordium’s layer-1 (L1) blockchain to introduce an identity-verified Web3 wallet solution.Concordium’s privacy-preserving identity layer is now incorporated into Dfns’ wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) platform, as announced in a joint statement with Cointelegraph on Wednesday.“This integration allows financial institutions and enterprises to quickly deploy compliant, privacy-preserving wallets without the need to build complex identity infrastructure from the ground up,” said Dfns CEO Clarisse Hagège.This development follows Dfns’ recent collaboration with IBM to launch IBM Digital Asset Haven in October, aimed at enabling financial institutions and governments to securely manage…
Babylon Labs has secured $15 million in funding from a16z crypto to enhance the development and scaling of Babylon Trustless BTCVaults. This infrastructure system is designed to enable the use of native bitcoin as collateral across various onchain financial applications, as stated in a blog post by the company on Wednesday.The BABY token on the platform saw a 13% increase following the a16z investment.The funds will be utilized to improve the core technology of BTCVaults and facilitate integration with external applications that depend on verifiable, non-custodial bitcoin collateral, as mentioned by the company.a16z crypto will also lend strategic insights based…
Nike, the footwear giant, has discreetly sold RTFKT, the digital collectibles studio it bought during the height of the NFT boom, as reported by The Oregonian.The deal reportedly occurred in December, though details about the buyer and financial specifics remain undisclosed. This quiet exit comes nearly a year after Nike declared it would shut down its RTFKT subsidiary.Nike has not verified the sale publicly, only stating in a brief comment to The Oregonian that the transaction signifies a fresh chapter for RTFKT and its community. The company emphasized its ongoing investment in digital experiences, including partnerships with gaming platforms.The reported…
Bitcoin BTC$92,783.58 and the broader cryptocurrency market experienced significant selling pressure during the Asian trading session, leading to a decline to approximately $91,530 at 10:00 a.m. UTC from a local high of $93,750 at midnight.This sell-off succeeded a failed attempt to surpass $94,500 on Tuesday, marking the third unsuccessful effort in the last five weeks.The altcoin sector was hit harder than Bitcoin, with PENGU and XRP facing declines of 6.5% and 3.5% respectively since midnight.Bitcoin is currently trading firmly within December’s range, which saw fluctuations between $85,000 and $94,500, even as it extends its downward trend that commenced in October.Wednesday’s…
Lloyds Banking Group, a prominent British lender, proudly announces its achievement in executing the first U.K. gilt purchase utilizing tokenized deposits—blockchain-based representations of traditional fiat currency bank deposits.As the nation’s third-largest bank by market capitalization, Lloyds collaborated with crypto trading platform Archax and the privacy-oriented Canton Network for this government debt acquisition. The term “gilt” alludes to the historical gold-edged certificates.This transaction showcases the transformative potential of tokenization in traditional banking, enabling real-world assets to be converted into digital formats that can be traded, bought, or transferred instantaneously, according to Lloyds’ press release.The operation included Lloyds Bank plc issuing tokenized…
Ethereum and Solana are not only distinguished by scalability challenges but are also increasingly marked by differing visions of the future requirements for blockchain networks.Recent comments from the co-founders of both networks demonstrated two divergent interpretations of “resilience,” stemming from different views on risk, infrastructure, and the future landscape of blockchain adoption.In an X post revisiting Ethereum’s Trustless Manifesto, co-founder Vitalik Buterin defined resilience as a safeguard against catastrophic failures, including political exclusion, infrastructure collapses, developer exits, and financial seizures.Buterin contended that Ethereum was not crafted to prioritize efficiency or convenience, but rather to ensure user sovereignty amidst adverse conditions.“Resilience…
Binance Futures, the derivatives division of the leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is set to launch silver perpetual contracts on Wednesday, allowing participants to make leveraged investments on the expected performance of this notable precious metal in 2025.Perpetual futures contracts, often referred to as “perps,” are financial instruments that enable traders to speculate on the price of an asset without owning it, and they do not have expiration dates. Prices are maintained in alignment with spot markets through funding rates, typically updated every few hours. Their continuous nature, high leverage potential, and round-the-clock availability have led to significant popularity…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that the company’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform is already in “full production,” revealing new details at the CES technology event in Las Vegas regarding hardware that can deliver five times the artificial-intelligence computing power of Nvidia’s previous systems.Rubin is anticipated to launch later this year and is specifically designed for the rapidly growing sector of the AI industry, facilitating outputs from trained models.Huang stated that Rubin’s premier server will feature 72 of Nvidia’s graphics processing units and 36 central processors, which can be connected into larger “pods” containing over 1,000 Rubin chips.A significant focus was…
Bitcoin BTC$92,669.71 traders might consider including the Japanese yen (JPY) in their list of relevant markets, moving past the dollar index, as the link between the cryptocurrency and the yen has reached an all-time high over the past 90 days.The 90-day correlation coefficient between BTC and Pepperstone’s JPY index has increased to 0.86, the highest on record, according to TradingView data.This significant correlation indicates that the two assets have moved closely together, with 73% of BTC’s price fluctuations over the past 90 days reflecting movements in the yen. This 73% figure – known as the coefficient of determination – is…
Ethereum’s scalability received a significant enhancement on Wednesday with the implementation of the second Blob Parameter-Only hard fork, increasing the blob limit from 15 to 21. This is the first of several advancements targeting the scaling of the Ethereum ecosystem by 2026.The second BPO hard fork, effective Wednesday at 1:01:11 UTC, further boosts Ethereum’s data capacity by allowing a greater number of transactions to be aggregated via rollups.Additionally, the BPO hard fork elevated the blob target from 10 to 14, a crucial metric to monitor, as frequently nearing the 21-blob cap may strain node bandwidth and storage capabilities.Each blob unit accommodates…