The Kingdom of Bhutan has tapped Ethereum to store the national identities of its roughly 800,000 citizens, leveraging the network’s immutability and decentralization. The South Asian nation of Bhutan is migrating its self-sovereign ID system to Ethereum from Polygon, allowing its nearly 800,000 residents to verify their identities and access government services. The integration with Ethereum has been completed, while the migration of all resident credentials is expected to finish by the first quarter of 2026, according to Ethereum Foundation President Aya Miyaguchi, who joined Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin at the launch ceremony with Bhutan’s prime minister, Tshering Tobgay, and crown prince, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuk. “It’s deeply inspiring to see a nation commit to empowering its citizens with self-sovereign identity,” Miyaguchi posted to X on Monday, adding that the Ethereum integration was a world-first. Read more
Friday’s flash crash reduced short-term risk appetite but did not affect Bitcoin’s long-term potential, possibly delaying a new all-time high by weeks or even months. Key takeaways: Bitcoin’s resilience after Friday’s $19 billion flash crash shows long-term demand remains strong despite short-term risk aversion. Derivatives traders remain cautious, with arbitrage opportunities and negative funding rates signaling heightened counterparty risk. Read more
A massive Bitcoin short placed minutes before US President Donald Trump announced tariffs with China on Friday has raised questions about insider trading. Garrett Jin, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange BitForex, has denied many of the claims levied against him by a pseudonymous online sleuth that involved shorting the market. In a Monday X post, Jin said he had “no connection with the Trump family,” denying allegations of insider trading after crypto researcher Eye claimed he controlled a wallet address used by a whale to short Bitcoin (BTC). The wallet was used to open a short position less than an hour before US President Donald Trump announced “a tariff of 100% on China” on Friday, likely contributing to the price of the cryptocurrency dropping significantly. Read more