Author: WebDesk

The CFTC is escalating its defense of exclusive authority over U.S. commodity derivatives and prediction markets as legal battles threaten to redraw regulatory lines and restrict access to event contracts nationwide. Prediction Markets Challenge State Authority as Appeals Court Weighs Federal Derivatives Control Prediction markets are at the center of a growing legal dispute over […] Credit: Source link

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…

James Ding Feb 18, 2026 20:38 Harvey’s BigLaw Bench Global doubles benchmark size, testing AI legal capabilities across jurisdictions as model scores hit 90% on core tasks. Harvey AI released BigLaw Bench: Global on February 18, more than doubling its public benchmark dataset with new evaluations for UK, Australia, and Spanish legal systems. The expansion marks the first major update since Harvey announced plans to scale BLB fivefold earlier this month.The timing matters. Leading foundation models now hit roughly 90% on BLB’s core legal tasks—up from around 60% in 2024. But Harvey’s internal…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure The OTHERS D chart, which tracks the crypto market cap excluding the top 10 cryptocurrencies, is showing signs of a rotation away from Bitcoin and other large market cap cryptos. After months of Bitcoin holding relative strength, new technical analysis is implying that the balance could tilt in favor of the altcoin market very soon. Biweekly Breakout Signals Shift In Momentum Technical analysis of the crypto market capitalization is showing a developing shift in capital flows, particularly into altcoins outside the top 10 by total market value.…

Felix Pinkston Feb 18, 2026 20:03 New Anthropic research shows Claude Code autonomy nearly doubled in 3 months, with experienced users granting more independence while maintaining oversight. AI agents are working independently for significantly longer periods as users develop trust in their capabilities, according to new research from Anthropic published February 18, 2026. The study, which analyzed millions of human-agent interactions, found that the longest-running Claude Code sessions nearly doubled from under 25 minutes to over 45 minutes between October 2025 and January 2026.The findings arrive as Anthropic rides a wave of investor…

All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has surged 27% in the past day as anticipation built up ahead of the World Liberty Forum today at Mar-a-Lago. The invite-only forum will include over 300 of the leading voices in crypto, finance and technology, from Nasdaq and NYSE heads to Goldman Sachs and Franklin Templeton. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto project linked to President Donald Trump and his family, recorded over 25% in gains over the past day to hit a two-week high. The price rally was sparked…

Alvin Lang Feb 18, 2026 19:08 Stellar (XLM) argues its consensus protocol offers regulated issuers clearer accountability than PoS networks, pointing to $650M in tokenized assets as validation. Stellar (XLM) has published a pointed critique of Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanisms, arguing that features marketed as strengths—economic security and financial incentives—create operational liabilities for regulated financial institutions.The timing isn’t coincidental. With XLM trading at $0.17 and CME Group adding Stellar futures in January, the network is making a direct pitch to institutional players weighing their blockchain infrastructure options.The Core Argument Against PoSStellar’s critique centers on…

FutureBit launched the Apollo III today, a new home Bitcoin mining system combining a high-performance miner and a full Bitcoin node in a single desktop device. The system is built around next-generation 3nm American-designed ASICs and a custom in-house controller, marking the first U.S.-engineered Bitcoin ASIC paired with a domestically built hardware platform in a consumer desktop form factor, according to a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine. The Apollo III continues FutureBit’s mission to decentralize hash power through low-power, individual-focused systems. Founder John Stefanopoulos highlighted the device’s role in strengthening Bitcoin decentralization, referencing the company’s 2024 milestone of mining a…

Darius Baruo Feb 18, 2026 18:31 NVIDIA and Nebius benchmarks show GPU fractioning achieves 86% user capacity on 0.5 GPU allocation, enabling 3x more concurrent users for mixed AI workloads. NVIDIA’s Run:ai platform can deliver 77% of full GPU throughput using just half the hardware allocation, according to joint benchmarking with cloud provider Nebius released February 18. The results demonstrate that enterprises running large language model inference can dramatically expand capacity without proportional GPU investment.The tests, conducted on clusters with 64 NVIDIA H100 NVL GPUs and 32 NVIDIA HGX B200 GPUs, showed fractional…

Federal complaint draws parallels to DOJ’s recent crypto enforcement wave, cites ties to convicted market manipulator GotbitBrad Bao, the co-founder and former CEO of electric scooter company Lime, has been named as a defendant in a federal racketeering lawsuit that plaintiffs describe as “one of the largest crypto frauds in history.”The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:26-cv-00857), invokes the same federal RICO statute that prosecutors have used to dismantle organized crime syndicates and, more recently, to pursue cryptocurrency fraudsters.Plaintiffs Goopal Digital Limited and Vivian Liu are seeking $100 million in compensatory…