Ethereum R1 is a new donation-funded, tokenless Layer 2 rollup designed to offer a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and governance-minimized scaling solution for Ethereum

The S&P 500 rose 0.63% Thursday, boosted by strong Meta and Microsoft earnings, but futures slipped Friday as investors awaited the April jobs report and weighed Apple and Amazon tariff concerns. Gold fell to $3,235 as easing trade tensions cut safe-haven demand; markets await US jobs data for rate cut signals. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, rose 2.19%, with Bitcoin and Ether up 2.57% and 2.60%, respectively in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is AR, which gained 16.8% following CloneX's successful migration to Arweave, sponsored by ArDrive.

Arweave (AR), founded in 2017, is a decentralized network for permanent data storage, using blockweave and Proof of Access to ensure long-term accessibility. It offers 200-year storage for a one-time fee, incentivized by AR tokens for miners. The system connects blocks efficiently to preserve and retrieve data, aiming to create a lasting digital knowledge repository. CloneX has successfully 

 to Arweave for permanent storage, with the support of ArDrive, which sponsored the migration of 100 GB of data. The process is nearly complete, with only Animus remaining to undergo decentralization.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

 is a new donation-funded, tokenless Layer 2 rollup designed to offer a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and governance-minimized scaling solution for Ethereum. Built on open-source code and the Nethermind Surge stack, it emphasizes credible neutrality, public good funding (with all fees burned after 2030), and infrastructure that remains free from VC control or centralized dependencies.

Yesterday, BTC spot ETFs saw $71.1M in total inflows, with $16M from GBTC and $55.1M from other ETFs.

 $BOOP tokens to active Solana memecoin traders and creators who promote memecoins or Solana dapps on X. To claim, users must connect their Solana wallet or X account and launch a free token. The airdrop arrives in 30 days, but growing the token’s market cap can accelerate the reward.

Beginner

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Ethereum R1 offers a decentralized rollup solution for Ethereum

This article dives into Bitcoin liquid staking protocol Lombard Finance, how LBTC works and how you can stake LBTC through Bybit Web3.

Bitcoin stands as the undisputed giant of the cryptocurrency space, commanding the largest market capitalization. Yet, much of its potential remains untapped, often sitting idle as a store of value rather than actively participating in the thriving 

 ecosystem. Lombard Finance aims to change this narrative by unlocking Bitcoin's utility and integrating it seamlessly into DeFi.

Lombard is built upon Babylon, the innovative Bitcoin staking protocol, and is incubated by Polychain Capital. Lombard’s flagship product, 

 (LST) for BTC. This article explores what Lombard Finance is and how LBTC works, and describes the Lombard ecosystem and how you can stake LBTC through Bybit Web3.

 is a liquid staking protocol that focuses on transforming 

's role in the digital economy. Its core mission is to evolve BTC from simply being a store of value — also viewed as 

 — into a productive asset that actively generates yield and participates within DeFi. Currently, a significant portion of Bitcoin's

 sits idle, lacking the native staking capabilities or cross-chain composability seen with assets such as 

Lombard Finance addresses this shortcoming by building on top of 

, a protocol that supports BTC staking without needing 

 or custodians. Babylon allows Bitcoin's economic weight to secure other 

 (PoS) chains and applications, creating a new yield source for holders. Lombard leverages this foundation to offer LBTC, making staked BTC liquid and usable across the DeFi market.

Lombard’s goal is ambitious: to channel Bitcoin's vast liquidity into DeFi. This could potentially double the ecosystem's 

 (TVL) if even a fraction of available BTC is introduced. Lombard believes this integration will catalyze significant growth and create more sustainable market dynamics by making BTC a core, yield-bearing primitive within DeFi.

Founders and investors of Lombard Finance

Lombard Finance was founded in April 2024 by a team with deep expertise within DeFi, drawing talent from established crypto projects like Polychain, Babylon, Argent, Coinbase and Maple. This collective experience underpins the protocol's design and strategic direction.

The project was notably incubated by Polychain Capital, a prominent crypto investment firm that also led Lombard's $16 million seed funding round (which was 

 in July 2024). This round saw participation from a wide array of significant players in the crypto space — including Babylon, dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, HTX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, Nomad Capital, OKX Ventures and Robot Ventures — thus highlighting broad industry confidence in Lombard's vision. Strategic partnerships and contributions from exchanges like

 and Bitget are further bolstering its distribution and liquidity aggregation efforts.

LBTC is Lombard Finance's flagship product — a liquid staking token (LST) that represents Bitcoin staked through the Babylon protocol. Designed as a universal liquid BTC standard, LBTC is fully backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin, ensuring its value is directly tied to the underlying asset.

The token is yield-bearing, capturing rewards generated from securing PoS networks via Babylon staking. Crucially, LBTC remains liquid, meaning holders can freely use it across various DeFi applications — such as 

 and automated vaults — without sacrificing their underlying staked positions or associated yield.

LBTC is also designed for cross-chain compatibility, natively minted on supported blockchains like Ethereum, Base and Sui and using secure infrastructure [such as 

]. This avoids the risks associated with traditional bridging or wrapping methods, thus aiming to provide a more secure and seamless way to utilize Bitcoin across the multichain DeFi ecosystem.

Lombard Finance simplifies the process of putting Bitcoin to work within DeFi through its LBTC token. The mechanism is designed with security and user experience in mind, leveraging the Babylon protocol and a robust Security Consortium.

The core benefit of LBTC lies in its ability to unlock multiple layers of value simultaneously. Holders earn native yield from Babylon staking, potentially accrue additional rewards (such as Lombard Lux points) and gain access to diverse DeFi yield opportunities, all while maintaining the liquidity of their Bitcoin position. This transforms BTC from a static asset into a dynamic, yield-generating component of the DeFi ecosystem.

Lombard Finance is actively building a wide LBTC ecosystem that already boasts over 75 DeFi integrations. Security is foundational, anchored by the 14-member Security Consortium (including prominent names like Galaxy and OKX Ventures) and validating all critical operations alongside audits and bug bounties.

Core infrastructure relies both on Babylon for staking, and on the Chainlink CCIP for secure cross-chain movement, with EigenLayer integration 

. LBTC integrates with leading DeFi applications across lending platforms (e.g., 

) and automated vaults. The platform supports multiple blockchains (including Ethereum, Base, Sui, BNB Chain) and 

 (L2s), positioning LBTC as a versatile cross-chain asset.

Here's how you can stake BTC on Lombard and use LBTC in DeFi and automated vaults.

Lombard Finance (via its LBTC token) offers a compelling way for Bitcoin holders to put their assets into use, earn yield via Babylon staking and gain exposure to the expansive DeFi ecosystem — all while maintaining liquidity. Incubated by Polychain Capital and supported by a robust consortium and growing partner network, Lombard is positioning LBTC as a secure and versatile liquid Bitcoin standard.

It’s easy to participate in the Lombard ecosystem through 

, you can utilize your Bybit Web3 Seed Phrase Wallet to stake BTC and mint 

, Lombard's vault token that represents deposits in automated yield strategies. This provides you with a seamless gateway to access Bitcoin liquid staking and DeFi yields.

Ready to unlock your Bitcoin's potential? 

Intermediate

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Lombard Finance: Polychain-backed Bitcoin liquid staking protocol

The cryptocurrency market has entered a phase reminiscent of past altcoin seasons, primarily driven by Bitcoin's recent rebound to the $94K–$96K range. 

Altcoin season might have come with reviveding speculation 

The cryptocurrency market has entered a phase reminiscent of past altcoin seasons, primarily driven by Bitcoin's recent rebound to the $94K–$96K range. This resurgence has sparked renewed interest among retail traders, shifting focus from Bitcoin to smaller, more speculative altcoins. The overall market saw a 10% increase in value during the final eight days of April, contrasting with Bitcoin's 7% gain. This trend indicates a growing appetite for risk among investors, particularly in meme coins, which have seen a surge in social media discussions.

However, caution is warranted as elevated crowd enthusiasm often precedes market corrections. Historical patterns suggest that when buzzwords like "altseason" are dominating discussions, it may signal an impending price exhaustion. The current market dynamics reflect a shift toward speculative investments, raising concerns about the sustainability of this enthusiasm.

Bitcoin's bullish sentiment substantially improves

Bitcoin's position as the leading cryptocurrency has remained steady, with discussions around its price fluctuating significantly. Following a period of pessimism, when predictions dipped as low as $10K–$69K, sentiment shifted dramatically with the price recovery. Now, optimistic projections of $100K–$159K are dominating conversations, indicating a reversal in trader sentiment.

Despite Bitcoin's consistent presence in market discussions (approximately 25% of asset topics), the ratio of bullish-to-bearish commentary has grown increasingly favorable. This suggests a growing confidence among traders bolstered by Bitcoin's recent performance. However, it’s essential to monitor whether this bullish sentiment translates into sustained investment, or if it leads to overconfidence that may trigger a market pullback.

Ethere, once a robust contender in the altcoin arena, has struggled to regain retail investor confidence despite recent bullish commentary and promises of innovation from co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Its social media presence has dwindled to about 6–7% of discussions, a significant drop from previous years. This decline highlights the challenges Ethereum faces in re-establishing itself as a go-to investment in a market increasingly dominated by speculative assets.

Conversely, XRP has seen a notable increase in optimism surrounding ETF approvals, with expectations rising to 85%. This shift reflects a broader trend of institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, potentially paving the way for significant capital inflows. Meanwhile, Dogecoin's potential ETF listings have sparked renewed interest, transforming its image from that of a meme coin to a legitimate investment option. The growing dialogue surrounding institutional adoption of Dogecoin and XRP indicates a pivotal moment for these assets, suggesting they may play critical roles in the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.

Advanced

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Bybit x Santiment social sentiment report: Altcoin sentiment recovers despite Bitcoin’s resilience

Bybit Spread Trading allows traders to simultaneously buy and sell two related instruments in order to hedge risk or profit from price discrepancies. Read more.

Whether markets are flying high or wobbling unpredictably, one thing remains true: traders are always looking for smarter ways to 

 and find profit opportunities. That’s where Bybit Spread Trading comes in. This feature is tailor-made for those who want to go beyond basic buy/sell plays and start taking advantage of price discrepancies between related instruments. In this guide, we’ll walk through exactly how Bybit Spread Trading works, why it matters and how you can start using it today, whether you’re 

is a newly launched Bybit feature that allows users to simultaneously buy and sell two related instruments — such as Spot, Perpetual or Expiry contracts with different settlement dates — in order to hedge risk or profit from price discrepancies.

This type of trading strategy is popular among institutional and professional traders because it enables more precise, controlled market exposure. However, with Bybit’s interface, the barrier to entry is significantly lowered, opening the door for individual traders to tap with just a few clicks into a powerful set of tools.

At its core, Spread Trading on Bybit is about executing what’s called a combo trade. This means entering two positions at once: one long, one short. These positions are taken on related instruments, such as a BTC Spot trade and a BTC Perpetual contract, with the idea that their prices will either converge or diverge in a way that benefits your position.

When you place a buy combo, you’re buying the instrument with the longer expiration (the “far leg”) and selling the one that expires sooner (the “near leg”). 

A sell combo is the reverse: selling the far leg and buying the near leg. The profit (or loss) comes from how the spread between these two instruments shifts over time.

For example, if you believe the spread between a Perpetual and a Quarterly Futures contract will widen, you can buy the combo. If the spread increases after your entry, that movement becomes your profit. Bybit calculates your 

 prices automatically, based on the mark prices and your defined “order price,” so there’s no need to manually crunch the numbers.

Perhaps the most important feature here is atomic execution. This ensures both sides of your combo trade are filled together, in equal quantities, or the trade doesn’t go through at all. It removes “leg risk,” which is the danger of getting filled on one side of the trade, but not the other. In volatile markets, that alone can save you from an unwanted mess.

Spread Trading on Bybit currently supports combinations such as Spot and Perpetual, Spot and Expiry, Perpetual and Expiry, or even two Expiry contracts with different dates. This flexibility lets you build strategies that align with different market outlooks — bullish, bearish or neutral.

There’s a strong reason why Spread Trading is a go-to for many experienced traders: it allows for strategic plays that are more sophisticated than just guessing price direction. On Bybit, it’s not only powerful, but also convenient.

First, you get price certainty. Your spread is locked in at the price you specify. There’s no 

 between legs because the entry prices are automatically calculated and matched. You’re trading the spread, not the individual legs.

Secondly, the trading experience is smoother. Instead of placing two separate orders and manually trying to sync them, Bybit handles everything as a single transaction. You don’t have to worry about whether one leg gets filled and the other doesn’t — that risk is eliminated through atomic execution.

Third, this setup is a great hedge against volatility. By taking opposing positions on two related contracts, you reduce exposure to sharp price movements. Your P&L becomes more about the relative performance between contracts, rather than the market direction itself.

There’s also a strong cost advantage. Trading spreads on Bybit is significantly cheaper than doing it manually. You pay only half the trading fees you’d incur if you placed two individual trades on the order book. For high-volume or 

, that translates to meaningful savings over time.

Finally, it unlocks strategy flexibility. Whether you're 

 funding rates between Spot and Perpetual, doing 

 with different Futures contracts or taking advantage of price convergence before expiry, this platform gives you the tools to execute those ideas efficiently.

How to get started with Bybit Spread Trading 

Now that you have a better understanding of how Bybit Spread Trading works, let’s look into how to get started. Please note that you’ll need to have a Bybit account in order to proceed. If you don’t already have one, please check out our 

 for more information on how to create a Bybit account.

: Log in to your Bybit account and hover your cursor over the 

: The available spreads are organized in a grid, with each tile representing a unique combo. Choose your preferred combo to trade.

Tiles with a border around them signify that Spread Trading offers a better price. Hover over a tile for more details, or use the bar at the bottom of the grid to explore more options.

On the order placement page, set up your order with the following parameters:

to place your order. A pop-up window will appear for you to confirm your order details. Then, click on 

Congratulations — you’ve successfully placed an order!

You can view your Spread Trading orders from any trading page (Spread Trading, Spot and Futures), as they all share the same order data.

 to view your active orders. You’ll be able to view the combo, underlying asset, order price and more. 

If you would like to adjust your order parameters, you may click on the pencil icon under 

. To cancel your order, simply click on the order’s corresponding 

to view your completed orders. To view each order’s information on each leg, click on the order’s corresponding 

button. For additional insights, click on 

Spread trading isn’t for everyone — but if you’re someone who enjoys strategic trading, hedging or arbitrage, it’s a tool worth adding to your arsenal. It appeals to traders who are less interested in taking a directional bet, and more focused on capitalizing on inefficiencies in the market.

You don’t have to be a pro trader to benefit, either. The simplified execution and intuitive UI mean even intermediate users can explore advanced strategies without being overwhelmed. As long as you understand how spreads work, and how your P&L is affected by their movement, you’re already halfway there.

More importantly, in times of market uncertainty or low volatility — when price action feels sluggish — spread trading gives you an alternative way to profit. It keeps you in the game — even when momentum plays aren’t cutting it.

Bybit Spread Trading is a powerful tool that combines simplicity with sophistication. Whether you're looking to hedge, save on fees or experiment with 

 strategies, it offers a clean and user-friendly way to do so. With lower risk, lower costs and plenty of flexibility, Bybit Spread Trading is a smart move for any trader looking to level up their game — especially when markets get messy.

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Bybit Spread Trading: Smart strategies for market swings

web3

Altcoins

ANKR is the native crypto token for the Ankr network which is a web3 infrastructure multi-chain platform for developers.

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Web3 is a global movement that has taken the tech space by storm. Following the explosion of 

(PoS) blockchains into the crypto space, there’s been an influx of developers leveraging smart contracts to build 

As the PoS blockchain projects start expanding exponentially, their reliance on nodes simultaneously grows, emphasizing the need for a more effective node infrastructure. Node deployment is expensive and time-consuming, while establishing a staking node is also a complicated and costly process that heightens the barriers to entry. 

The solution lies with Ankr. Its innovative developer and staking node architecture provide the security and incentives necessary for seamless 

 development. Fueled by its core utility token, ANKR, the network has the vision to provide PoS projects with multi-chain tools to build fast, inexpensively and reliably.

Let’s explore the Ankr ecosystem and find out why it’s a crucial player in the advancement of the web3 movement.

The Ankr network is a platform through which web3 projects can connect to a decentralized node infrastructure to build with an advanced suite of tools. 

Ankr simplifies the transition into web3 by providing an ecosystem that combines node infrastructure, 

Founded in 2017 by Chandler Song, Stanley Wu and Ryan Fang, the Ankr network started as a tech company looking to harness idle computing power from data centers around the world.

However, the Ankr platform quickly shifted its focus to providing a decentralized web3 infrastructure as a crypto solution to developers. Ankr has become a critical link to access leading blockchains such as 

Its suite of innovative products includes free RPC services, advanced APIs, gaming SDKs, a multi-chain blockchain explorer and enterprise-grade node solutions.

The Ankr team is on track to fully decentralize its governance and infrastructure for easy and prolific web3 building. Its thriving ecosystem aims to provide ANKR, its native token, with valid use cases as projects embrace blockchain technology through web3 applications.

The Ankr network uses a complex interplay of 

, consensus mechanisms and cryptography to operate its decentralized architecture. Its distributed infrastructure comprises highly available and scalable 

Let’s look under Ankr’s hood to learn more about how it operates.

 — from DeFi and NFTs to the metaverse and 

. Ankr operates a distributed node service so that developers can easily connect to 

The Ankr network uses caching to process RPC requests quickly, saving the protocol resources. By having a decentralized node network, Ankr ensures its users lower 

Its incentivized node economy comprises its own nodes and a steady, self-sustaining supply of independent node providers looking to address the high demand of requests by developers and stakers.

At the heart of Ankr’s node architecture is the load balancer. Once an RPC request is received on Ankr, it’s first sent to the load balancer (which acts as a router) rather than being assigned to random nodes. The load balancer then uses a scoring algorithm that determines the best node to cater to the request.

To ensure node health, the load balancer uses a scoring system to gauge whether nodes are synced to blockchains or behind on blocks. Also, the balancer connects the user to the quickest node, depending on geographical location.

Ankr operates an advanced developer API service. The network’s 

 (APIs) help simplify the process of querying data from various blockchains. These time-saving APIs reduce the number of requests that a developer needs to make by querying multiple chains at once.

Ankr Protocol has debuted three advanced APIs for developers as follows.

This API helps search Ankr’s database for a range of blocks, rather than manually searching for addresses and events using RPCs. Once a blockchain mints a new block, it’s added to a database to provide instant results to queries. The query API is 

 are an integral part of web3. As such, developers require tools that help them to work with NFTs. The Ankr NFT API allows developers to quickly search for information on NFTs across six blockchains connected to the API. Developers can obtain details such as an NFT’s owner, when it was minted, its transaction history and much more.

Using the token API, developers can efficiently search for details about tokens on the 

 blockchains supported by Ankr. They can obtain details such as token account balances, current market value and the existing number of tokens on a particular blockchain.

The Ankr liquid staking service provides integrators and stakers a flexible way to stake and earn from blockchains. Typically, staking involves locking up your tokens for some time, during which they can’t be used. With liquid staking, crypto holders can stake their assets on Ankr and receive liquid staking tokens to access numerous DeFi opportunities.

Liquid staking tokens can be used to provide liquidity on blockchains, and to

from the trading fees. You can also use them to earn farming rewards, as collateral when borrowing, or store them in a vault for compounded yields.

Since Ankr's liquid staking passes the burden of staking to validators on the supported blockchain, it gives you opportunities to do delegated staking on blockchains that don't run on 

 while based on PoS validation, has no native support for delegated staking. With Ankr, you can 

ANKR, the native token for the upgraded Ankr platform is an ERC-20 and BEP-20 token that works on both Ethereum and BNB Chain. The 

 revolves around the creation of a decentralized marketplace to power web3 development. 

The upgrading of the Ankr network to Version 2.0 has expanded the utility of ANKR tokens.

One of the major uses of ANKR coins is to pay network usage fees. Ankr has a 

 for developers that uses a pay-as-you-go model. Users can pay for the plan using "credits" or using ANKR tokens. Those that pay using ANKR tokens receive a discounted rate.

Another use case for ANKR is to provide collateral deposits to become an independent node provider on the network. To be eligible, you need to self-stake 100,000 ANKR tokens per node. Self-staking acts as an insurance policy so that node providers uphold the high uptime requirements of the protocol.

Additionally, ANKR token holders can delegate some of their tokens to node providers and share in the rewards earned.

ANKR tokens can also be used to reward Ankr’s independent node operators around the world. The rewards given are pegged to the amount of traffic that the operator serves. Hence, the best-performing node operator receives the most ANKR tokens.

To ensure that high standards are maintained by independent node providers, regular audits need to be undertaken. Ankr will work to carry out the audits with partners, who will receive ANKR tokens as payment.

Lastly, holding ANKR tokens will give you voting rights on Ankr DAO. By contributing ANKR tokens to a voting contract, token holders will influence the governance of the network.

The token’s use case is summarized below:

Ankr Crypto Price Prediction: Is ANKR a Good Investment?

Ankr’s transition into the provision of a web3 infrastructure is a strategic move for the network. There’s an ever-increasing demand for web3 applications as more people and enterprises embrace the third-generation web movement.

Ankr’s suite of products, including its RPC services and advanced developer APIs, is critical for web3 growth. According to 

, the network’s public RPCs are catering to over 7.2 billion daily requests to blockchains, with the number expected to grow over time.

ANKR coin hit its all-time high price of $0.2252 in March 2021. However, its current price of $0.047 (as of August 18, 2022) shows that the coin is holding on strong despite the prevailing bear market conditions. As the crypto market has shown signs of gradual recovery over the past month, within just two days ANKR’s price saw a small spike from $0.03 to $0.05 on August 12, 2022, underlining investors’ confidence in the project.

Considering the bullish sentiments toward web3-related projects, experts hold an optimistic price prediction for the ANKR token. 

 to cross the 1-cent mark by 2025 and reach a maximum of $0.32 by 2027. In comparison, technical analysis on 

will reach $0.05 in 2023 and $0.09 in 2025.

Please note that this isn’t financial advice. Always do your own research before you invest in any cryptocurrency.

You can buy or sell ANKR on major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bybit. As a customer-focused crypto trading platform, Bybit prioritizes security, privacy, user-friendliness and availability of various trading pairs.

 ANKR/USDT trading pair. To buy ANKR on Bybit’s spot market, follow the simple steps below:

 on Bybit and complete the registration process.

 page. Choose from the options available: 

Once you’ve purchased your USDT, navigate to the

You’ll be directed to the trading terminal where you’ll need to enter 

on the left side of the platform. It usually displays 

 Initiate a trade on the right side of the terminal by entering the amount of ANKR tokens you wish to purchase.

The web3 movement is growing by the day, and Ankr has put a solid infrastructure in place to support blockchains that wish to transition into the third-generation web. As one of the key players in the web3 node service niche, Ankr is experiencing rapid growth. As blockchains and web3 infrastructure expand, and grow increasingly sophisticated, we can expect that more and more blockchains will rely on Ankr to provide efficient, affordable and decentralized node services. 

Ankr Crypto: Facilitating the Web3 Economy

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