Author: Kryptonews

Art Basel Qatar’s first edition doesn’t unfold in a convention center or a sealed-off fairground. Instead, it is embedded directly into the newly built Msheireb Downtown Doha. The fair spans two venues—the M7 building and the Doha Design District—set roughly two blocks apart, close enough that walking between the two doesn’t feel like a chore. M7 is framed as a working hub rather than a neutral exhibition shell. It is designed to support designers from concept to market, with infrastructure meant to encourage collaboration, production, and sustainability across fashion and design.  A short walk away, the Doha Design District offers…

Aave founder Stani Kulechov has snapped up a £22 million ($30 million) mansion in London’s Notting Hill, sealing one of the most expensive residential deals of the past year in a luxury housing market under pressure from higher taxes and weaker demand. Key Takeaways: Aave founder Stani Kulechov bought a £22 million Notting Hill mansion, one of London’s priciest home deals of the past year. The purchase came at a discount amid weaker demand in the city’s luxury property market amid higher taxes. The deal comes as Kulechov remains a central and controversial figure in Aave’s governance. Property filings show…

Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USDt expanded to a record $187.3 billion market capitalization in the fourth quarter of 2025, even as the broader crypto market slid following October’s liquidation cascade.According to its latest quarterly report, the USDt (USDT) market cap grew by $12.4 billion in Q4. Data shows that USDt has been widening its dominance while competitors retreated. After the major liquidation event on Oct. 10, the market cap of Circle’s USDC (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin, fluctuated throughout the rest of Q4 but closed the period largely unchanged. Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe, ranked third among stablecoins at CoinMarketCap, dropped by 57%.…

Bitcoin clawed its way back above $71,000 on Thursday after a sharp selloff earlier in the day dragged prices briefly below the $70,000 mark, mirroring tentative stabilization across global markets.The move came as a broader rout in technology stocks showed signs of fatigue. Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 edged higher after two bruising sessions that erased the index’s gains for the year, while European stocks steadied and Asian markets trimmed losses.Bitcoin had fallen as much as 7% over the previous 24 hours as investors reduced risk across assets tied to growth and leverage. The slide coincided with renewed pressure…

Payy has announced a privacy-enabled Ethereum layer 2 that it claims will make on-chain financial activity effectively “invisible” to the public eye. Summary Payy has launched a privacy-enabled Ethereum layer 2 that makes ERC-20 transfers from wallets like MetaMask private by default. The network functions by routing transactions through private ERC-20 pools. Payy, which operates a privacy-focused wallet and a Visa-powered crypto card, said in a Wednesday X post that its layer 2 network can now be integrated into MetaMask, and it will make ERC-20 transfers private by default without making any smart contract changes. “In the past, privacy always…

Crypto project Payy, which operates a privacy-focused wallet alongside a crypto banking card, has launched an Ethereum layer-2 network designed to support private ERC-20 transfers.In an announcement via X on Wednesday, Payy said users can add the network as a custom chain in MetaMask and that ERC-20 transfers made on it are routed through privacy pools by default with “no smart contract changes required.” Payy said the two core user types on its network would be institutions and fintech firms seeking to bring financial flows onchain while limiting public transaction traceability and crypto natives seeking to use privacy tools without “juggling…

The Layer 1 blockchain sector recorded only 0.46% gains in February 2026, while Bitcoin dominance stayed strong at 59.07%. The CMC Altcoin Season Index remains at 29 out of 100, signaling that capital is not rotating into altcoins on a broad scale. The total crypto market value is holding near $2.97 trillion as investors stay defensive ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve rate decision. The contrast across sectors is clear. Perp DEX tokens jumped 14.94% in a single day. The Hyperliquid Ecosystem rose 11.27%. Individual names such as HYPE, PUMP, and OWL delivered gains ranging from 22% to 28%. At…

The creator of Incognito Market, the online black market that used cryptocurrency as its primary payment rail, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after blockchain transaction analysis cited by US authorities linked him to the platform.The Justice Department said on Wednesday that a Manhattan court gave Rui-Siang Lin three decades behind bars for owning and operating Incognito, which sold $105 million worth of illicit narcotics between its launch in October 2020 and its closure in March 2024.Lin, who pleaded guilty to his role in December 2024, was sentenced for conspiring to distribute narcotics, money laundering, and conspiring to…

Rumors have been swirling about London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery, especially after ARTnews reported on Tuesday that the gallery had pulled out at the last minute from a coveted spot at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar, which kicked off Tuesday in Doha.  Now, ARTnews can confirm that the gallery has entered administration—the UK equivalent to bankrupcy proceedings—and is closed to the public. The gallery was founded in London’s Mayfair neighborhood in 1995.  “Stephen Friedman Gallery commenced the administration process on 2 February 2026 to allow for an orderly review of its financial position,” the gallery told ARTnews in an emailed statement…

The Coinbase Premium Gap, a metric used to estimate demand for Bitcoin from institutional investors relative to retail investors, has fallen to its lowest level in over a year — signaling a potential sell-off by professional investors, according to an analyst. The Coinbase Premium is the price difference between Coinbase’s BTC/USD pair and Binance’s BTC/USDT pair.When it turns negative to this extent, it means that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase Advanced Trade (formerly known as Coinbase Pro) — a platform mainly used by professionals, institutions and high-net-worth individual accounts — is lower than on Binance, a platform accessible to…