Binance has announced that its flagship event, Binance Blockchain Week 2026, is coming back to Asia, with all roads leading to Bankgok, Thailand.

The organizers say that the event will be held between November 28 and 29 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. 

Last year, the event was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between December 4 and 5 and saw the debates between CZ and Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff go viral. 

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, and Michael Saylor of Strategy were among the speakers at the event, with Saylor making a case for Bitcoin in his speech. 

There were also conversations that touched on institutional adoption, the place of regulation and AI and crypto, which have been a recurring theme in 2026.

Binance Blockchain Week has been held across various cities across Europe and Asia, with Istanbul, Paris, and Singapore hosting the event in the past.

What is Binance doing in Bangkok, and who will be there?

According to Binance, the event is the pinnacle of more than 1,500 events the company has run worldwide. The organizers are expecting thousands of builders, institutional investors, fintech leaders, and policymakers over the two days. 

The speakers confirmed so far include Teng, his co-CEO, Yi He, along with Eowyn Chen, Binance interim chief marketing officer.

Other speakers on the roster are SB Seker, head of APAC, Binance; Catherine Chen, head of Binance VIP and Institutional; and Thomas Gregory, the company’s vice president of payments and fiat. Early bird tickets are on sale for $19.

Why Thailand, and why this moment?

Thailand put some laws in place to distinguish digital assets and put some restrictions in place; however, it is getting more receptive to digital assets based on recent developments. In February, the country’s cabinet approved a Finance Ministry proposal to expand the assets permitted under the Derivatives Act to include digital assets.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that change would strengthen recognition of crypto as an investment class.

Some analysts believe that the reform could eventually allow futures, options, and other structured contracts tied to digital assets. Separate ETF rules tied to that framework are expected to take effect in the third quarter of the year.

Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic described Thailand’s 2026 to 2028 strategic plan as placing digital assets at the center of its capital market strategy. This is eight years after the country’s original licensing decree created a supervised environment for exchanges and custodians. 

The Finance Ministry has also waived capital gains tax on digital assets traded through licensed platforms until the end of 2029.

In the announcement, SB Seker said, “The most interesting thing happening in Asia isn’t just the scale of adoption, it’s that we’re seeing workable models for how crypto operates under clear regulation.”

Seker added, “Different jurisdictions are moving at different speeds, testing different approaches, and BBW Bangkok 2026 provides a venue to examine what supports consumer protection, market integrity, and infrastructure that works at scale.”

What does the EVOLVE theme reveal about where Binance is taking the business?

The event’s agenda points to Bitcoin’s institutional footprint, stablecoins as payment rails, tokenized stocks, AI integration, and cross-border payments, among others, themes that track products Binance has already shipped this year. This also includes gold and silver options that were recently launched in July through its Abu Dhabi-regulated Nest Exchange. 

Exchanges reportedly processed $1.32 trillion in perpetual futures tied to traditional assets in the first five months of 2026, up from $104.21 billion for all of 2025, and Binance holds the largest share of that volume at 35.9%, according to CoinGecko data.

“This event will showcase how Binance is evolving from a trading platform into a financial superapp connecting both worlds,” Teng said. 

Yi He added that the company’s next wave of adoption, which it calls Road to 3 Billion, depends on products that deliver utility in daily life, whether in cross-border payments, tokenized securities or digital portfolios. 

She added, “At BBW Bangkok 2026, we’ll examine the trends driving adoption and explore what the industry needs to do to make digital assets more accessible, trusted, and relevant to a broader audience—while delivering the sophistication institutional players demand.”

Binance announced that  it will begin offering options contracts on gold and silver.

The largest crypto exchange in the world, which is also now doubling as one of the largest venues for products that have been historically offered in the TradFi domain, added the new option contracts to its roster.

The introduction also comes at a time when precious metals have become the most crowded trade in global markets, giving Binance users a taste of the market right from the same account and balance that they already use for crypto.

The exchange stated that contracts will be settled in USDT and run through Nest Exchange Limited, its regulated trading venue in Abu Dhabi. 

What exactly is Binance launching?

The contracts are European style, which means they can only be exercised at expiry, and no metal changes hands. They settle in USDT instead of the physical metal. 

Retail users can only buy options, and this caps their maximum loss at the premium paid and removes the liquidation risk attached to short positions. Eligible institutional users and approved liquidity providers can also write options, meaning that they can collect premiums upfront in exchange for taking on that risk themselves.

The trading activities will run from Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern to Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern. Binance says that there will be a daily one-hour break, a window that tracks the sessions of the underlying metals markets.

Why is Binance expanding into commodities now?

Users have been trading Binance’s gold and silver perpetual futures since their launch in January 2026. 

Those perpetuals reportedly reached a peak daily volume of $7.77 billion in gold and $7.27 billion in silver. That demand has built alongside a historic run in the metals themselves. 

Shunyet Jan, Binance’s head of exchange and trading, said, “We’ve seen strong demand for our commodity perpetuals since introducing them earlier this year, and commodity options build on that momentum.”

Also, the metals have been on an historic run this year. Gold crossed $5,000 an ounce for the first time in January and rose as high as $5,600. Silver also went up alongside gold, touching its own record above $120 per ounce. 

Jan alluded to this run, stating, “With gold hitting record highs and investors seeking inflation hedges outside traditional equities, Binance’s commodity options offer users additional compliant, crypto-native ways to diversify without leaving the platform.”

However, both metals are now trading below those highs, with gold currently trading at $4,044, while silver is trading around $57 in the commodities market.

Is Binance’s latest offering regulated? 

Nest Exchange operates as a Recognized Investment Exchange (RIE) under the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). This means it requires identity verification for individual and business users, sanctions screening, and ongoing market surveillance. 

Binance says it will be providing education materials and risk disclosures consistent with that regulatory status. 

According to Jan, “Binance is also showing traditional market products can be made more accessible through user-first crypto infrastructure.”

Binance Research’s new report titled “Half-year 2026: Macro & Bitcoin” has shed more light on how the cryptocurrency performed in the first half of the year. The report showed that Bitcoin declined by 32% year-to-date, and it is currently down by over 50% from its all-time high of $126,080, which it hit in October 2025.

The decline was the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization’s third straight quarterly loss. Per the report, the loss coincided with a repricing across global markets that is being referred to as “re-anchoring.” 

This re-anchoring refers to all the following actions: 

• A shift away from central-bank support
• Consumer spending
• Rich valuations toward a tighter Federal Reserve
• AI-driven capital expenditure cycle
• Earnings-led returns 

The report pointed out that Bitcoin absorbed the sharpest hit of any major asset class in that transition, even as its underlying market structure held up better than in prior cycles.

Why is the Fed now Bitcoin’s biggest headwind?

Per Binance Research, the shift in how markets price Federal Reserve policy was one of the biggest drivers of Bitcoin’s slide. 

The implied spread between expected and actual Fed funds rates moved from approximately −230 basis points (bp) in August 2024, when deep cuts were priced in, to around +33 bp by mid-2026. Markets are now reportedly assigning roughly 80% odds of a hike by December. 

The new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh unsettled markets in his debut press conference by focusing on inflation rather than employment, and this caused short-term Treasury yields to go up. That repricing has moved in near-lockstep, inversely, with Bitcoin’s price over the past year.

According to Binance Research, AI hardware investment was responsible for about 40% of the first quarter GDP growth. The report pointed out that it was the first time since 2009 that it surpassed consumers’ contribution.

Meanwhile, US equities kept climbing through the same period; the S&P 500 rose 18.5% over twelve months. 

However, earnings have been driving the advance, as forward price-to-earnings multiples actually compressed from 22x to about 20x.

Binance Research reads current Fed pricing as “too hawkish.”

Japan is also responsible for another pressure point, even though it is relatively less discussed. 

The Bank of Japan’s balance sheet has contracted by ¥125.3 trillion, or 16.4%, from its 2024 peak. It is reportedly the largest such contraction in its history. The yen still touched a 40-year low near 162 yen per dollar in June, even after a rate hike to 1%, a level that came despite record central-bank intervention. 

Binance Research pointed out that Japan is constructive and not complacent as it enters into the second half of the year. It also stated that rate pricing is hawkish and wrote, “the AI capex cycle points to a slowdown rather than a stall, and earnings have replaced multiples as the engine of returns.”

Has Bitcoin entered the final stage of its correction?

Onchain data suggest the market is deep into capitulation territory. By the end of June, around 10.83 million BTC were held at an unrealized loss compared with 9.22 million BTC still in profit. It is the first time losses have outnumbered profits this cycle. 

It was also stated in the report, “Combined with a 50%+ drawdown and 275 days since October 2025 highs, this places BTC within a plausible, though unconfirmed, historical bottoming window into Q4 2026.”

Despite its current state, Bitcoin is still the dominant player in crypto, as it still accounted for 57 to 60% of the market throughout H1. The report stated that this is because it remains the preferred fallback exposure during the sell-off. 

In times when the dominance dipped, the report says that the outflows were either going into stablecoins or out of the market. 

Altcoins were not in season as there was no sustained rotation into them. Cryptopolitan reported that selling reached new peak levels in June. 

How did Bitcoin hold up against other assets?

Bitcoin’s position as a portfolio diversifier was put to the test in the first half of 2026, and it did not perform great. 

BTC underperformed every major asset class in H1, falling around 32% while US equity indices closed the half near record highs and gold ended down about 7%. 

Bitcoin sold off ahead of equities during bouts of macro stress but then failed to participate when stocks staged their AI-led recovery. 

Binance Research says that this is due to Bitcoin’s ETF-era structure, where it trades continuously. This allows it to reprice to shifting rate expectations faster than traditional markets can. 

The report concluded that Bitcoin did not offer the perks of a stable hedge in the first half. It behaved more like a liquidity-sensitive macro asset whose diversification value changes ground depending on the market regime.

Why did Bitcoin’s usual buyers turn into sellers?

The demand channels that powered Bitcoin’s prior rallies reversed in H1. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their first-ever year-to-date net outflow; a record $4.5 billion was pulled out in June alone, over three-quarters of it from BlackRock’s IBIT. 

Corporate treasury buying, meanwhile, became almost entirely dependent on Strategy, whose enterprise valuation fell below the value of its own Bitcoin holdings for the first time, a threshold that made further share issuance dilutive rather than accretive. 

The company disposed of 32 BTC in May, its first sale since 2022, followed by 1,363 BTC in the last days of June, both moves aimed at supporting its reserve and distribution obligations rather than signaling a change in conviction.

Public miners added to the pressure, selling at a record pace as hash price hit an all-time low. That stress has widened the gap between pure-play miners and operators pivoting toward AI and high-performance computing contracts, a shift that is reshaping how miners allocate power, capital, and balance-sheet capacity and one that could reduce their reliance on Bitcoin sales over time, even as it diverts resources away from mining itself.

The report also notes that quantum-computing risk to Bitcoin’s cryptography moved from theoretical research toward concrete migration planning in H1, with draft protocol proposals now circulating, a longer-term diligence item for institutional holders.

Emorya has launched its AI Health Module inside the live app, marking a major product update for the Web3 health and fitness platform as it continues to move beyond its original move-to-earn foundation.

The new module brings AI-powered food scanning into the Emorya app, allowing users to scan meals, analyze what they eat and add calorie intake data directly into their daily health tracking. The feature is now connected to the app’s existing calorie burn system, creating a more complete calorie balance experience where users can compare what they consume against what they burn through activity.

Why Emorya is launching its AI Health Module 

This is an important step for Emorya because it changes the app from a movement-focused rewards platform into a broader health tracking product. Instead of only recording activity, the app can now begin to connect both sides of the daily health equation. 

Users can see calories burned, calories consumed, macronutrient targets and body progress inside one interface, supported by a visual human-body system designed to make the information easier to understand.

Inside the updated experience, users are shown their daily calorie burn progress alongside their calorie intake target. The app also displays macronutrient categories including protein, carbohydrates and fats, while allowing users to update their weight and scan food directly from the same screen. This gives the product a clearer daily use case and brings Emorya closer to the type of health app experience mainstream users already understand.

Emorya is expanding its product foundation

The launch follows a wider rebuild of the Emorya app, which has included a new user interface, improved user experience, better speed, stronger analytics and a more structured product foundation. These updates give the app a cleaner base for the AI module and help move the platform towards a more accessible consumer experience.

For Web3 health apps, that accessibility is becoming increasingly important. Early move-to-earn products often placed the reward mechanism at the center of the user journey, which appealed to crypto-native users but did not always create a simple experience for broader audiences. 

Emorya’s latest update points in a different direction by putting health utility first and allowing the Web3 reward layer to support the product from underneath.

According to Emorya CEO Oliviu Jurjica, the launch of the AI Health Module represents a major milestone in the project’s development.

“It is extremely exciting to see Emorya reach this stage. In the beginning, the app was much simpler, focused mainly on movement tracking and rewarding users for activity. That foundation was important, but the vision was always much bigger.

Over the last phase of development, we have rebuilt the app with a new UI, improved UX, better speed, stronger analytics and more control across the ecosystem. Now, with the AI module approved and live in the app, users can scan their food, analyse what they eat, track calorie intake and compare it live against what they burn through a visual human-body system inside the app.

This changes what Emorya is. It is no longer just a crypto project or a simple move-to-earn app. It is becoming a bridge between Web2 usability, real health utility and Web3 rewards. We are seeing blockchain technology become more abstracted into everyday products, and that gives Emorya a very strong position because the Web3 foundations are already built into the app. As users look for smarter health tools and more rewarding digital experiences, Emorya is ready for that next chapter.”

Is Emorya a health app now?

The launch also gives Emorya a clearer position in the wider health app category. Food scanning, calorie tracking and activity monitoring are already familiar behaviors for many users, but Emorya is combining them with a reward-based model that was built into the platform from the beginning. That gives the app a different route into the market, where users can interact with a familiar health product while also accessing the added value of Web3 participation.

The most important part of the update is that the experience does not need to feel technical. A user does not have to understand blockchain infrastructure to see the benefit of scanning food, checking calorie intake, comparing it with activity and following progress over time. 

That is where Emorya’s mainstream potential becomes more practical. The product can lead with health, fitness and daily habit tracking, while the Web3 layer remains part of the underlying value structure.

With the AI Health Module now live, Emorya has moved into a new phase of product development. The app is no longer only about tracking movement and rewarding activity. It now gives users a more complete way to monitor calories consumed, calories burned and nutrition data in one place, supported by a redesigned interface and a clearer health-focused user journey.

For Emorya, the launch is a product milestone as well as a positioning shift. It gives the project a stronger foundation in the mainstream health app category, while maintaining the Web3 reward structure that made the platform different from the start.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has revealed that a large share of the traders using its newest tokenized stock product had never engaged with equities on the exchange before.

The exchange has spent the past several months building out three separate routes into traditional market exposures, launching pre-IPO exposure through perpetual futures, direct access to US-listed stocks, and bStocks, its tokenized on-chain securities. 

One of the standout figures is that four in ten bStocks users had their first-ever exposure via Binance’s TradFi via the product.

Why are new Binance users choosing the tokenized version first?

Binance’s figures show that 41.5% of bStocks traders had not previously used perpetual futures or direct stock trading on the platform, meaning the token was their first exposure to equities on Binance at all. 

According to the platform, bStock listings grew from 5 to 36 within a month, and combined market capitalization across the tokens reportedly passed $300 million over the same period.

Binance also says that the ease of use on the platform has made it easy for users to make certain moves that may require more steps on traditional platforms. It used SPCX, a recent pre-IPO listing of SpaceX stock on the platform, as a case study, stating that 8.6% of the users who traded its pre-IPO perpetual contract went on to buy the bStock version, as opposed to 0.6% who moved into the direct stock.

What happens once conventional markets close?

Traditional US equities trade on a 24/5 schedule. bStocks trades around the clock every day, and Binance said that difference shows up directly in its volume data. 

During regular US market hours, bStocks and direct stocks split equity-linked volume on Binance almost evenly, with bStocks at 48%. However, it goes up to 58% once the market closes for the day.

The exchange says that reasons for this go beyond extended hours. Each bStock is meant to be backed one-to-one by a share held with a regulated custodian, a claim the exchange says can be checked through its own Proof of Collateral page, and dividends are paid out automatically through a rebasing mechanism it calls the Multiplier. 

Holders can also deploy bStocks in decentralized finance, supplying them to liquidity pools or using them as collateral. Binance cited PancakeSwap liquidity pairs, which show yields ranging from roughly 32% to 228%, and native credit pools offering a steadier 5% to 10%.

Instant, fee-free conversion between a bStock and its underlying share is intended to keep the two priced closely together; however, gaps can still open when conventional markets are shut and on-chain trading continues. 

Binance said a sample of users generated $216 million in trades exploiting these gaps between June 11 and July 8. A small group of systematic traders accounted for most of that volume, even though most individual participants only traded once.

Does Binance’s data reflect a wider industry pattern?

Binance’s own figures suggest its products aren’t being used in isolation, as it pointed out that 58.5% of bStock users also traded perpetual futures or direct stocks in the same window, split across users combining perps and bStocks, all three products together, or direct stocks and bStocks.

Independent data shows tokenized stocks have become the largest real-world-asset (RWA) category by wallet count, with newcomers favoring tokenized equities as their entry point into the RWA market rather than as an add-on. The current distributed value tokenized stocks market is $1.88 billion, with a monthly transfer volume of over $7.6 billion per rwa.xyz data.

Several exchanges have expanded tokenized equity offerings into new markets this year, and clearing infrastructure providers like the DTCC have begun testing tokenized securities settlement, while major exchanges such as Nasdaq and the NYSE have launched their own tokenization initiatives.

Set against that backdrop, Binance’s numbers look less like an isolated marketing claim and more like a snapshot of a shift already underway across the industry.

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For W Group, the investment in Spyker represents more than the acquisition of a stake in an iconic automotive brand. It signals the next phase of the group’s evolution from a fintech and blockchain ecosystem into a diversified international holding company. 

Why W Group acquired stakes in Spyker

By expanding into traditional industries and premium manufacturing, W Group aims to bridge the gap between Web3 technologies and established Web2 businesses, creating a business ecosystem where innovation, digital infrastructure, and real-world assets operate within a single strategic framework.

The investment is intended to support the revival and long-term development of one of Europe’s most historic automotive brands. Founded in 1880, Spyker is renowned for its handcrafted sports cars, aviation-inspired design, and limited-production approach that has made the marque highly sought after by collectors worldwide.

Alongside the investment, W Group and Spyker will launch Spyker Digital, a new technology company focused on developing digital infrastructure and ownership solutions for the premium automotive sector. 

The initiative aims to explore how emerging technologies can enhance customer experience, vehicle ownership, and brand engagement while preserving the exclusivity and craftsmanship that define the Spyker brand.

“For many years, I have been invested in rare automobiles and have always admired Spyker’s unique design language and extraordinary heritage,” said Volodymyr Nosov. “Becoming a co-owner of Spyker is both a personal and strategic investment. Our goal is to preserve everything that makes the brand special while helping it enter a new era of growth, innovation, and global relevance. Spyker Digital will become a synergy of the finest traditions of European engineering and the digital economy, where a sports car is integrated with blockchain products and tokens.”

Spyker shares big plans for future with W Group

Victor Muller, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spyker, welcomed the partnership, describing it as a significant milestone in the company’s return to the global automotive market.

“The enthusiasm we have seen since announcing the new Spyker C8 Preliator XXV confirms that there is strong demand for the return of Spyker,” said Muller. “With Volodymyr Nosov and W Group joining us as partners, we gain not only long-term strategic support, but also access to technologies and expertise that will help us build the next chapter of the Spyker story.”

The investment in Spyker Cars expands W Group’s portfolio beyond fintech and digital assets, adding a premium manufacturing brand with a strong heritage and global recognition. For the W Group of companies, this step is an important part of its long-term strategy to enter traditional non-digital markets. This model of global expansion, in which digital assets and premium physical manufacturing operate within a single technological framework, creates a more multifunctional and resilient business ecosystem.

The road to Pebble Beach

Spyker’s return starts off with the launch of the new Spyker C8 Preliator XXV at The Quail in Carmel, California, on August 14, followed by a display on the Concept Car Lawn of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 16, two of the most prestigious events in the world of automotive luxury.

The technical specifications of the new Spyker C8 Preliator XXV show a significant leap in performance: it boasts 800 bhp from a non-hybrid twin-turbo V8, allowing the car to reach a top speed of 350 km/h (217 mph). 

As the recent wave of layoffs linked to AI adoption and spending that has hit the tech industry continues to dominate headlines, Binance has gone against the grain, adding over 380 roles in an active hiring streak.

According to the firm, 20% of its new hires in 2026 are for AI-specific roles, while existing hires are undergoing internal training to master AI tools and acquire skills. 

How has AI impacted jobs at Binance? 

Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently confirmed that artificial intelligence was the direct reason for 27,645 job cuts in the U.S. in Q1 alone. 

The tech sector in particular was responsible for 52,050 job cuts, representing a 40% increase year-over-year (YoY). Despite this, Binance has announced a significant expansion of its workforce and is currently advertising for more than 380 open positions globally. 

The available positions include roles in engineering, compliance, product development, and specifically, AI research. 20% of the exchange’s hires in 2026 were brought in specifically for AI tech and product development. 

Binance recently referred to AI as a “capability multiplier” in a blog post. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) also suggested that the strongest gains from AI will not come from replacing humans with AI, but rather by augmentation and allowing humans to focus on judgment and strategic thinking.

Other companies like Oracle, Meta (NASDAQ: META), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have all announced job cuts tied to efficiency or AI investment. 

Binance commits to deploying AI ethically at scale

With AI tools being integrated in financial and security operations, oversight has become a critical part of the conversation. 

The ISO/IEC 42001 certification establishes an international standard for an AI Management System (AIMS). Binance secured its certification in late 2025. 

The certification is audited by A-LIGN, and accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board. It requires organizations to maintain “clear rules and real oversight” over their AI systems, making sure that the technology is safe, transparent, and fair.

Binance clarified that its approach is in compliance with the EU AI Act, which requires that social impact and user protection be assessed before advanced systems are deployed. According to the exchange operator, it ensures that before new models like the trading agents being built by its Accelerator Program are deployed, they undergo risk assessments, data protection reviews, and continuous monitoring. 

The company has integrated tools such as SAFUGPT, Hexa, and Clawbot into its daily operations. Hexa functions as a “no-code” platform that allows teams to build AI assistants even without having any programming skills, while Clawbot automates repetitive execution tasks. 

In reports by Binance, Clawbot has reached approximately 72% adoption among staff, while Hexa sits at 57%. It also reported eight different AI training modules in 2026, totaling 28 sessions scheduled across global time zones. During the Clawbot training series, an 87% participation rate was reported.

Binance also pointed to its Weekly “micro-learning” pieces distributed among staff since December 2025 as another route to keeping AI literacy high. 

• Bitcoin Pizza Day highlights Bitcoin’s transformation from a $41 pizza purchase into a major global financial asset.
• Binance compares Bitcoin’s current purchasing power across cities such as Mumbai, Dubai, New York, London, and Tokyo.
• Institutional adoption is accelerating, with ETFs, corporations, and governments now holding millions of BTC globally.

Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer, created history on May 22, 2010, when he spent 10,000 Bitcoin on two pizzas. The trade was valued at about $41(market cap under US$1M) at the time. 

According to Binance, the 10,000 Bitcoins would be valued well over $700m (market cap over US$1.5T) now. In August 2025, when BTC price was at an all-time high of $126k, the coins would be worth more than $1 billion. 

The amount now represents over 22 days of current issuance, given today’s block subsidy of approximately 450 BTC per day.

Major price milestones for Bitcoin have been reached amid dwindling new supply. At Pizza Day, roughly 14% of the total BTC supply had been mined. By the time BTC first traded above US$100 in 2013, this had risen to around 53%.  According to Binance, nearly 80% had been mined by US$10K in November 2017, and over 94% by US$100K in December 2024. 

This illustrates how Bitcoin’s issuance schedule is structurally diminishing.  The supply curve flattens with each halving as daily issuance declines from 7,200 BTC per day during the Pizza Day era to 450 BTC presently and 225 BTC following the anticipated April 2028 halving. The remaining mineable Bitcoin represents a diminishing source of fresh supply versus any future growth in demand, since more than 94% of the total supply is currently in circulation. 

Bitcoin Pizza Day shows global Bitcoin purchasing power after 16 years

To mark Bitcoin Pizza Day 2026, Binance used the initial pizza purchase as a lens to analyze the current crypto economy, highlighting how Bitcoin’s purchasing power has grown across major global cities. The comparison highlights how digital assets now interact with real estate, mobility, and daily consumption at scale, from Mumbai and Dubai to New York, London, and Tokyo. 

Binance said that 10,000 BTC in Mumbai could purchase tens of millions of cups of chai and extensive access to commuter rail systems with thousands of years of journeys. The coins could also have major commercial real estate space in the city’s business districts, 

In Dubai, the same sum could buy more than 12 million shawarmas, hundreds of luxury desert adventures, and dozens of ultra-luxury Palm Jumeira Villas.

The 10,000 BTC could purchase approximately 22 million slices of pizza, over 3,000  of Manhattan studio apartments, and enough subway rides to circle the city for generations.

In London, the same sum could purchase over 8 million pints at London pubs, several Premier League hospitality boxes for every match of the season, and purchase entire rows of townhouses in some boroughs.

Binance further said that the coins could buy millions of sushi plates in Tokyo, purchase thousands of high-speed rail journeys across Japan, and could also purchase entire floors in some central Tokyo apartment buildings.

Institutional adoption drives Bitcoin’s shift toward global infrastructure

Beyond the illustrative analogies, the larger message is that Bitcoin has shifted from novelty to infrastructure. Adoption patterns are increasingly influenced by both institutional involvement and grassroots usage in both established and emerging nations as digital assets continue to become integrated into payments, investment, and remittance flows. 

SB Seker, Head of APAC at Binance, emphasized this evolution, noting, “Bitcoin Pizza Day has become one of crypto’s most celebrated traditions because it captures something essential: innovation happens when someone is willing to try something new, even if it seems impractical at the time. In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz used Bitcoin to buy pizza because he believed digital currency should have use cases, not just sit in a wallet. Today, we are seeing that vision materialize at scale. Stablecoins are processing trillions in monthly volume, and users in markets like India are discovering crypto’s practical applications-from everyday transactions to wealth creation and preservation. Bitcoin Pizza Day celebrates the moment crypto moved from theory to practice, and reminds us that the real work is making that utility accessible to everyone.” 

Binance said that institutions hold about 3.88 million BTC, or 18.5% of the 21 million hard cap. Strategy alone accounts for ~844K BTC, or 4% of total BTC, while public corporations narrowly lead all categories at ~1.24M BTC (5.9%). ETFs trail closely behind with ~1.32M BTC (6.3%), with BlackRock’s IBIT leading at ~811K BTC. An additional ~650K BTC (3.1%) is held by governments.  

The crypto exchange explained that, excluding DeFi and other protocol holdings, pure institutional ownership is approximately 3.5 million BTC, or about one in six BTC. The adoption route is evolving. This is the first cycle in which the marginal buyer is an institution rather than a retailer. Approximately 1.24 million BTC (~US$95.7 billion NAV, ~5.9% of the circulating supply) are now held by 197 listed corporations. In the last 12 months alone, about half of that corporate accumulation occurred. 

• ChangeNow is making its presence felt at the Consensus Miami 2026, living up to its reputation beyond the exhibition floor.
• The ChangeNow team joined 2 consecutive panel discussions organized by NOWNodes at the Miami Beach Convention Center’s “Meet Ups” zone.
• For ChangeNOW, the connection is direct, and the debates on stage are ones their engineers navigate in production every day.

ChangeNow is making its presence felt at the Consensus Miami 2026, living up to its reputation beyond the exhibition floor. The ChangeNow team joined 2 consecutive panel discussions on May 6, organized by NOWNodes at the Miami Beach Convention Center’s “Meet Ups” zone.

The NOWNodes panels aim to provide sharp perspectives on infrastructure resilience, tokenization, and the real-world adoption challenges facing the industry today. NOWNodes is the blockchain node infrastructure, an arm of the NOW ecosystem.

Representing ChangeNOW at both events was Pauline Shangett, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, who moderated the first session in her role as Strategic Advisor to NOWNodes. Worth noting that the NOWNodes panels are only part of Pauline’s schedule at Consensus this year. On May 5, she’s appearing at the Capital Markets Summit for a session on on-chain privacy and identity (11:25 AM), and later that afternoon at “FQ Trust by Design: Building On-Chain Systems People Believe In” (1:20 PM). Further, on May 7, she plans to attend the panel: “The Next Commodity Revolution: RWA Meets Instant Liquidity” at 4:40 PM. 

Three days, five panels, one consistent thread running through them all. The main focus will be on what it actually takes to build systems people trust with their money.

ChangeNow breaks down panel discussion sessions

The session, titled “Trust Under Pressure: Can Tokenized Systems Stay Consistent at Scale?”, starts at 10:35 and lasts until 11:10. Pauline Shangett (the panel moderator) will be leading the conversation alongside an epic lineup. Kwon Park (Global Head of Digital Assets, Crypto.com), Abi Dharshan (Head of Product from Zerion’s founding team), Vidor Gencel (Co-founder and Co-CEO of Solflare), and Philipp Zentner (CEO of LI.FI) are among the most anticipated participants.

The framing was deliberately confrontational. Tokenization isn’t an experiment anymore. There are real users, real assets, real money at stake, and when a system can’t agree on who owns what, that’s not a bug report, it’s a business crisis. The session aims to push panelists away from technical abstractions and toward the uncomfortable specifics: at what point does a data inconsistency become a board-level incident? What’s the actual cost (not theoretical, but quantified) of one major failure?

The second panel is planned right after the first session. “Selling Trust: Can RWA Deliver on the Promise of Mass Adoption?” will take place from 11:15 to 11:45. Samuel Hood Burke (Chief Content Officer at CCN) will moderate the discussion, which will feature panelists from Houdini Swap, TON Foundation, Paxos, and GlobalStake.

The setup doesn’t pretend that RWAs are in a great place. The pitch for tokenized real-world assets (treasuries, real estate, yield-bearing instruments brought on-chain) sounds compelling. But mass adoption hasn’t happened, and the panel is there to figure out why. Is it awareness? Liquidity? Regulation? Or is the industry pitching something users don’t actually want?

Why this matters beyond the conference circuit

NOWNodes organized these panels, but the questions they raised are the industry’s. For ChangeNOW, the connection is direct; the company has spent nearly a decade building infrastructure designed to be fast, private, and consistent at scale, and the debates on stage are ones their engineers navigate in production every day.

The purpose of the NOW ecosystem’s attendance at Consensus Miami this year is not to introduce new products or make announcements. Instead, it’s about taking part in the discussions that will influence the industry’s future.

The sessions will begin at 10:35 AM on May 6 in the Meet Ups area of the Miami Beach Convention Center. These are the types of talks that usually run out of time before they run out of things to say, so it’s worth arriving early if you’re attending Consensus Miami this week.

Interested individuals are reminded to join the discussion to find answers at the forefront of the crypto industry. Meanwhile, those who cannot come at this time can follow ChangeNOW and NOWNodes on social media and stay tuned for a review after the event.

Oobit, a crypto payments platform backed by stablecoin giant Tether, has unveiled Agent Cards, a virtual Visa product that grants AI agents direct, programmable spending authority without requiring human sign-off on individual transactions or exposing corporate card credentials to automated systems.

The launch comes as more businesses deploy AI agents to run core operational workflows, from marketing automation and cloud procurement to software-as-a-service (SaaS) management and advertising, among others.

According to McKinsey’s State of AI 2025 survey, 23% of organizations are already scaling agentic systems within their operations, with a further 39% in the experimental phase. 

However, payments have remained a persistent bottleneck, as companies cannot just hand over their corporate cards to agents, and routing every charge through a human approver undermines the efficiency that automation is supposed to deliver.

As adoption of agentic AI continues to pick up, so too does the urgency of solving the payments problem, and the Oobit Agent Card enters as a timely intervention.

How does Oobit propose to solve the AI payments problem?

Agent Cards allows businesses to issue a dedicated virtual Visa card for each AI agent, funded directly from a USDT stablecoin treasury with no fiat conversion required.

Companies can configure the spend policies at the point of setup and enforce them server-side, meaning an agent cannot override or circumvent them regardless of the instructions it receives.

The agent cards are based on three control mechanisms. 

• The first one is that each agent receives its own card, ensuring that there is no shared card exposure across teams and also allowing for a clean identity and audit trail. 
• The second mechanism is the category-level spend control, which ensures that each agent can only transact with merchant categories relevant to its designated function.
• The third mechanism is the hard transaction cap, which is applied per transaction and per merchant and is enforced server-side with no override path available.

Every transaction, whether approved or declined, is logged in real time alongside a human-readable explanation. This eliminates the pending states and manual reconciliation queues that will slow down finance teams managing automated operations.

What can businesses actually do with Agent Cards?

Oobit has designed the initial launch around two core integration use cases. 

• The first is payments processing, enabling AI agents to manage subscription billing or vendor payouts through Stripe and similar platforms. 
• The second is automated expense reporting, giving finance teams a complete, structured log of spending across all active agents without manual data entry.

Beyond these foundations, the product supports a range of practical applications, such as buying stocks or digital assets within set thresholds, booking travel within approved budgets, or completing purchases in real time when specific price conditions are met. 

Businesses can activate Agent Cards through a five-step setup wizard that, according to the company, brings a card live in under three minutes.

Oobit’s infrastructure is its proof-of-concept 

Oobit is not launching into an untested infrastructure as the company already operates across 150 million merchants in more than 100 countries, and is backed by Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer with more than $140 billion in circulation. 

That pedigree lends credibility to what is, according to the company, the only agent card product purpose-built for businesses whose treasuries are held in stablecoins.

In a statement, Amram Adar, CEO of Oobit, said, “The honest take is that the online world isn’t ready for AI agents to complete complex tasks and pay on behalf of a business or person.”

He added, “Agent Cards is the first move toward giving autonomous financial operations real autonomy, without losing control.”

The product is immediately available to crypto-native businesses running AI agents with stablecoin treasuries, as well as AI-forward companies evaluating stablecoin payments in their financial setup.