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Crypto lender Ledn Inc. has sold $188 million in securitized bonds backed by Bitcoin-linked loans, marking a first-of-its-kind deal in the asset-backed debt market. The transaction includes two bond tranches, according to Bloomberg, one of which received an investment-grade rating and priced at a spread of 335 basis points over the benchmark rate, according to people familiar with the matter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. served as the sole structuring agent and bookrunner. The bonds are secured by a pool of more than 5,400 consumer loans issued by Ledn, where borrowers used their Bitcoin holdings as collateral, according to an S&P…

Bitcoin is on course to print its fifth consecutive weekly loss, which would mark the first such streak since March to May 2022, when bitcoin went down for nine consecutive weeks.As of Thursday Asia time, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is already down roughly 3% on the week, below $67,000, according to CoinDesk market data, and leaving it vulnerable to another weekly red close. Macro pressures are adding to the technical weakness. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has amassed its largest concentration of air power in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion. While Washington…

A new tool from OpenAI evaluates AI agents’ ability to identify, patch, or exploit smart contract vulnerabilities.Researchers found that agents are better at exploiting vulnerabilities than finding or patching them.The release comes just days after a bug in AI-generated code cost Moonwell users nearly $2.7 million in crypto.OpenAI and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm on Wednesday released a tool that evaluates AI agents’ ability to identify, patch, or exploit smart contract vulnerabilities. The tool, EVMbench, draws from 120 vulnerabilities identified over 40 prior smart contract audits, as well as “vulnerability scenarios” drawn from audits of Paradigm’s forthcoming Tempo blockchain. The…

The Ethereum Foundation has announced it is targeting faster transactions, smarter wallets, better cross-chain transactions and quantum security measures as its “protocol priorities” in 2026.In a statement published on Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation outlined several goals, including continuing to scale the gas limit — the maximum amount of computational work a block can handle — “toward and beyond” 100 million, which has been a major topic of discussion among the Ethereum community in 2025.  Source: Ethereum FoundationSome Ethereum community members anticipate that the gas limit will increase significantly this year. In November 2025, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano said that the…

Arizona moved closer this week to setting up a public reserve of cryptocurrency after lawmakers pushed a bill forward that names XRP among the tokens that could be held. The push came after a committee vote that cleared one of the early hurdles for Senate Bill SB1649, and the mention of XRP has already drawn attention from traders and public officials who track crypto policy. Committee Vote Moves Bill Forward According to reports, the measure won a 4–2 vote on February 16 and now heads toward the next steps in the chamber where it started. The vote came in a…

The positive sentiment reflects strong and meaningful activity from the XRP community, despite the bears dominating the broader market. The crypto market may be in a bear season now, but some assets are in the spotlight, thanks to their strong communities. One such cryptocurrency is XRP, the native asset of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), otherwise known as the Ripple Network. Recent data from the asset management giant Grayscale ranked XRP as the second-most-discussed asset in the platform’s community, after bitcoin (BTC). This reflects strong and meaningful activity from the XRP community. The Second Most Talked-About Asset According to a voiceover…

Executives at Coinbase used a recent company ‘AMA’ call to address growing scrutiny around Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, defending the firm’s dominant role as a custodian and pushing back against claims that spot Bitcoin ETFs are backed by “paper Bitcoin” rather than real assets. Responding to a question from Bloomberg’s James Seyffart, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company holds a commanding share of the U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETF custody market, estimating Coinbase’s share at more than 80%. He framed that concentration as a competitive advantage rather than a risk. “We do have pretty dominant market share in terms of custody for…

tl;dr: Ethereum Protocol Studies returns for 2026 with new content tracks in cryptography, lean consensus and zkEVM, plus a new self-paced learning platform. The program kicks off February 23rd. Visit epf.wiki to get started. Ethereum Protocol Studies (EPS) is back. Since launching as a 10-week study group ahead of EPF5, EPS has grown into the primary educational on-ramp for anyone looking to understand Ethereum’s core protocol. Hundreds of participants have used the program to go from general Ethereum familiarity to reading specs, navigating client codebases, and contributing to protocol development. This year’s program expands in both depth and format. EPS…

Two of Abu Dhabi’s major investment firms increased their exposure to bitcoin BTC$67,899.01 in the fourth quarter of 2025, buying into BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF as the market fell, according to recent regulatory filings.Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign wealth fund backed by the Abu Dhabi government, added nearly four million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) between October and December, bringing its total holdings to 12.7 million shares. The move came as bitcoin fell roughly 23% during the quarter.Mubadala made its first purchases in IBIT in late 2024 and has been adding since.Al Warda Investments, another Abu Dhabi-based investment…

The US state of Nevada has sued Kalshi after the prediction market company lost its court challenge to stop the state’s regulator from taking action over its sports prediction markets.The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday denied Kalshi’s bid to stop Nevada’s gaming regulator from taking action on its sports event contracts, removing a block on the regulator launching a civil suit against the company.After the decision, the Nevada Gaming Control Board promptly filed a civil enforcement action in state court against Kalshi, which it said sought to block the company “from offering unlicensed wagering in…