Bancor Smart Tokens Provide Solution to The Issue of Liquidity 675

There are many facets to the notion of liquidity. Liquidity may be defined as the ability to convert an asset into cash readily on demand. If this definition seems myopic, you can see it as an asset that can be sold or bought at its fair price. Therefore, liquidity signifies that there are no premiums or discounts attached to an asset when selling or buying it. This makes it easy to enter and exit the asset at will.

For any tradable asset, liquidity is paramount. Liquid markets are smoother and deeper when compared to illiquid markets, which can put traders in a place from which it may be difficult to navigate out. For instance, Bitcoin has experienced significant growth within nine years of its existence. In 2009, there were only 50 Bitcoins but today, there are over 13,000,000 bitcoins in circulation. Virtual currencies or cryptocurrencies have witnessed waves of illiquidity. What are the factors that influence liquidity?

  • Exchanges: The increasing number of cryptocurrency exchanges has provided opportunities for more individuals to trade in cryptocurrency. The increase in volume and frequency of trading has contributed to enhancing liquidity.
  • Acceptance: The acceptance of cryptocurrencies at online shops, brick and mortar stores, bookings, etc. has contributed to its usability while reducing its volatility. Coins become more liquid when frequently used as a means of payment.
  • Regulations: Both direct and indirect regulations have played a crucial role. The position of cryptocurrency in each country is different – banned in certain areas, allowed in others, while in dispute elsewhere. Because of the increasing presence of cryptocurrency in the form of exchanges, ATMs, casinos, transactions in shops, financings, etc. these clarified regulations will continue to influence liquidity.
  • Awareness: Many people are practically unaware of what cryptocurrency is all about and how it works. In the midst of these are prospective investors, buyers, and traders of digital coins. Lack of clear guidelines by relevant authorities and limited knowledge has limited engagement to devotees to this moment, but as this changes, so will liquidity via increased volume and acceptance.

Then, How can one technically solve the issue of liquidity facing cryptocurrency? Below we will explore a solution provided by Bancor for addressing the challenges of liquidity faced by cryptocurrencies, conventional tokens, and community currencies. According to Bancor, the issue of liquidity can be addressed through the use of Smart Tokens, by programming tokens to be autonomously convertible for other tokens within the same network. This is achieved through the use of Connectors, which are modules in a token’s smart contract that hold balances of other tokens they are connected to.

What is the Bancor Protocol Smart Token all about?

Let’s begin with the Bancor Protocol which is the standard for what Bancor calls Smart Tokens. The method is as follows: A Smart Token is programmed with one or more connectors, which are modules in their smart contracts. Each connector holds a balance of another connected, the connected token, which can be deposited by the Smart Token creator. These balances are used by the Bancor Formula to calculate the exact price of a Smart Token in any of its connected tokens. The Smart Token can be bought and sold by depositing or withdrawing the calculated amount from its connector balances. For example, if a Smart Token has one connector which holds a balance of Ethereum, that Smart Token can be bought by sending Ethereum to the Smart Token’s contract, or sold by sending Smart Tokens back to the contract and receiving the corresponding amount of Ethereum in return.

If you haven’t heard of smart contracts, these are computer programs which run on the blockchain, meaning they are unchangeable as long as the underlying blockchain is operational. In the case of tokens, smart contracts allow for the programming of certain features, issuing policies and other attributes, directly into the token’s governing software. Bancor uses this ability to program Smart Tokens to buy and sell themselves from users, in exchange for any of their connected tokens, at an algorithmically calculated rate according to the open-source Bancor Formula. This allows Smart Tokens to be plugged into a network architecture, and continuously liquid to every other token in the network, according to a mathematical price which balances buy and sell volumes in the network (more on the formula below.)

The Bancor Protocol recommends a new solution to the issue of liquidity for cryptocurrencies by using an asynchronous price-discovery model, which is enabled by these balances holding Smart Tokens. The most unique characteristic of this solution is the fact that you can buy or sell Smart Tokens anytime, directly through their smart contracts (Bancor also offers a simple Web App user interface) without the need for an exchange or even matching buyers and sellers, as has been the case for decades. Does this sound like crypto magic to you? Let’s explain how it works.

  • Firstly it’s important to understand that Smart Tokens are money that themselves hold money, in their connector balances. What this means is that the smart contract that operates the Smart Token owns a minimum of one other token balance. This is the Smart Token’s initial liquidity “plug in” to the network, and from where the Smart Token can withdraw other tokens to sellers, and collect other tokens from buyers.
  • Secondly, the supply of a Smart Token can be dynamic, and handled by its smart contract directly. When a Smart Token is purchased by sending one of its connected tokens to the smart contract, these tokens are added to the connector balance and new Smart Token units are created and sent to the buyer. This means that a Smart Token’s supply is growing as demand for it is growing. Thankfully, so is its connector balance, so as you’ll see below, its price is also increasing. This means that increased supply does not mean inflation or dilution for Smart Token holders, since price is a factor of demand, not constrained by a traditional fixed supply. Similarly, when a Smart Token is sold, it is simply sent back to its smart contract, which withdraws the corresponding amount of connected tokens from the connector balance and returns them to the seller, and the sold Smart Token units are destroyed and removed from circulation. Price however, is still decreasing, thanks to the Bancor Formula which takes this decreased connector balance into account. You can liken this mechanism to when tokens are issued by initial coin offering smart contracts in exchange for other tokens like Ether.
  • Thirdly, is the realization that Smart Tokens calculate their own prices vis-a-vis other tokens they are connected to. This is according to the Bancor Formula which holds the ratio constant between a Smart Token’s total market cap, and its connector balance. As buys and sells add and subtract tokens from the connector balances, the price of a Smart Token will fluctuate to keep this ratio, configured by a Smart Token’s creator (and called the weight), constant. This ensures that buy and sell volumes strive for equilibrium, as a Smart Token’s price is rising when it is being bought, and falling when it is beind sold. Just as you’d expect with supply and demand principles, only here the supply can adapt to the demand, and price is calculated as a mathematical function between the Smart Token and its real-time connector balances. .

One may be thinking if all of this functionality is required, given the fact that price discovery and liquidity is already obtained via trading activity in traditional exchanges. Is there a reason for a different solution? The answer to this question is yes. This is because exchanges can be seen as “matchmakers” between individuals or parties with different wants. A particular trade comprises of two opposing transactions, one where each party is selling what the other party wants to buy. The situation where a particular party needs to find another party with opposite wants is the sole reason why currencies and other assets face liquidity risk. With this constraint, it is impossible for smaller scale currencies, such as loyalty points, community currencies, and other relevant credits, as examples, to become consistently liquid.

Additionally, people who provide liquidity such as market makers and traders are logically looking for ways to take full advantage of profits. This connotes that liquidity comes at a price or cost with the current exchange solution, allocating value to middlemen. This is why BancorSmart Tokens are unique, allowing currencies to enjoy automated and continuous liquidity, and with no added fees. The contribution or partaking of market makers and traders in their convertability isn’t compulsory, but optional for both parties. In fact, Smart Tokens may be regarded as a token with a built-in not-for-profit automated market maker for itself, being operated by its open-source smart contract.

A Bit About the Bancor Token Generation

This decentralized liquidity network Blockchain project raised approximately $153 million in Ether within three hours. Bancor was one of the most successful token launches of 2017. The token generation event took place on June 12, 2017, attracting more than 390,000 contributions in Ether, a world record in the market at the time.

Bancor’s BNT is the Bancor Network Token. According to the company, in the next two years, there will be a host of new features available to Smart Tokens, including security upgrades such as delegated account recovery, the ability to purchase them with a credit card, enabling communities without a token to easily create one without technical knowledge, and moving to a fully decentralized backend and front-end architecture, as well as taking the liquidity network completely cross-blockchain. Finally, we will see the launch of Bancor Grants, helping local communities build capacity towards launching and maintaining a local Smart Token for their economy or network, and subsidizing the BNT needed for qualifying communities to connect to the Bancor Network (via their Smart Token’s connector balance, which will be held in BNT.) Since launch, Bancor has activated their token, launched and activated Relay Tokens for over 20 ERC20 tokens which are now convertible via the Bancor Network, launched their Web App on desktop and mobile, and deployed a portable widget to enable users to convert Smart Token’s from anywhere on the Internet. This attribute alone safeguards users and enables them to convert their tokens remotely and in a decentralized fashion.

BNT holds Ether (ETH) as its connected token, making it possible to convert any token within the Bancor Network into ETH, instantaneously and without the need for matching buyers and sellers. This is groundbreaking in the blockchain world, with Bancor pioneering an autonomous technology that a technical solution for instant liquidity and eventually also the instant creation of intrinsically liquid cryptocurrencies.

What are the Benefits of Bancor Smart Tokens?

Smart Tokens bring about several benefits when compared to the traditional token model, which include:

  • No Extra Fees: Unlike the traditional token and exchange models, the only compulsory fee that is paid for converting Smart Tokens is the blockchain platform fee, which in the case of Ethereum is known as gas.
  • Continuous Liquidity: Because selling and buying are carried out through smart contracts, you can always convert Smart Tokens from/to their connected tokens, regardless of the volume of trading done.
  • Foreseeable Price Changes: The Bancor Smart Token allows for the pre-calculation of price changes according to transaction size, since each transaction itself will result in a change to the current price by adding to or subtracting from connector balances. This price predictability leads to relatively more stable prices.
  • No Spread: The same price is calculated for buying and selling Smart Tokens since the calculation of these prices is done formulaically by the non-profit smart contract, not by other buyer and seller offers, traditionally known as an order book.

In Conclusion

Bancor has discovered a way out of the historic challenge of liquidity without needing a counterparty to buy or sell a token. This is attainable through a smart contract, currently on the Ethereum network, which keeps a balance in another connected token at all times, and uses a simple formula to continuously recalculate the exact rate at which a Smart Token is convertible for any of its connected tokens, and as such, for any other token in the network. This innovation replaces traditional labor-based solutions, in the form of market makers and exchanges, both for-profit actors, with a technical solution, in the form of a non-profit smart contract that will always buy and sell Smart Tokens thanks to their built-in liquidity mechanism. This autonomous solution could offer a step-function improvement in efficiency, decentralization, accessibility, transparency, and stability for the emerging cryptocurrency economy – if Bancor can pull it off

 

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Cloud Storage Security Announces the Official Launch of DataDefender, a Novel DSPM Platform Focused on Data Stored in the Cloud 1159

Prevent unintended exposure of sensitive data stored in the cloud, from innocent misconfigurations and internal saboteurs, to thwarting the most sophisticated malicious attacks.

Cloud Storage Security, an innovative start-up focused on securing data in the cloud, announces the immediate availability of its new DSPM platform, DataDefender. DataDefender delivers highly accurate classification of data stored in the cloud to identify and locate the most sensitive data, and provides continuous, real-time monitoring of all activities associated with data access to prevent unintended data exposure.

Common attack vectors to access sensitive data are the compromise of resources set with public access, deliberate acts of sabotage by inside personnel who have broad systems access, and of course external breaches by bad actors, like ransomware attacks. As cloud storage continues to scale, security teams struggle to answer basic questions about their data without digging through logs. Knowledge about what data exists, who has accessed it, and whether sensitive data has been exposed are often unavailable until something goes wrong.

Cloud Storage Security has developed a unique, AI-assisted approach to data classification that prioritizes actions to secure the riskiest data assets. This superior method of tagging sensitive data minimizes the possibility of false-negatives which would leave truly sensitive data unidentified, as well as false-positives resulting in misleading security alerts. Data classification schemes include industry standards like PII, HIPAA and GDPR; custom templates aligned to industries like finance and healthcare; and proprietary customer configurations. DataDefender also supports compliance tracking and audit requirements for common frameworks like SOC2 and PCI DSS.

“DataDefender accurately identifies and classifies data stored in the cloud, and alerts cloud engineers and security professionals where that data exists, including in cloud storage assets configured with public access,” stated Aaron Newman, CEO of Cloud Storage Security. “Data leaks generally occur either because sensitive data unknowingly resides in publicly accessible storage resources, or because of innocent misconfigurations and security holes related to access control. Serious data breaches may also result from malicious and intentional behavior by bad actors. All of these risks are monitored and significantly mitigated with DataDefender” Newman added.

DataDefender is a tool of choice to detect and thwart both data infiltration and exfiltration for cloud storage. It uses proprietary threat signatures – AI-based multi-stage attack detection – to find misconfigurations, and raise visibility to more than 10,000 potential paths for data compromise. DataDefender adds breadth to the covered data storage estate by addressing live cloud data stores as well as storage repositories that are archived.

Cloud Storage Security’s research division, Casmer Labs, focuses on threat intelligence and research concerning cloud computing, especially the storage layer in the cloud, and drives product innovation for DataDefender.

“Data exfiltration and unauthorized access due to the lack of basic security hygiene across multiple data stores, in combination, lead to drastically lowered security postures. DataDefender incorporates AI-assisted data classification combined with observed attacks to provide actionable security insights that also enable the detection of more complex, multi-stage attack chains.” stated Anirban Chowdhuri, Cloud Storage Security CTO.

DataDefender initially supports the AWS environment with plans to expand to Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and popular code repositories like GitHub. DataDefender’s evolution will make it a leading solution with a sharp focus on securing access to data with context, residing in multiple cloud platforms and hybrid enterprise environments.

DataDefender is immediately available for deployment.

About Cloud Storage Security:

Cloud Storage Security (CSS) was founded to help organizations secure the data they store in the cloud. In 2020, as many businesses accelerated their move to the cloud, our team introduced Antivirus for Amazon S3, an in-tenant, multi-engine malware scanning solution designed to answer a common question: “How do I protect my data in cloud storage?” The goal was simple: provide an effective, easy-to-use way to reduce risk without disrupting existing workflows.

As customers’ environments grew and their data needs became more complex, they looked for broader visibility and control across their cloud storage systems. We are now formally introducing DataDefender, a DSPM that offers inventory, classification, activity monitoring, threat detection, and configuration checks. Together, our products give organizations practical, reliable tools to strengthen data security in the cloud while keeping deployment and management straightforward.

About Casmer Labs:

Casmer Labs is a division of Cloud Storage Security focused on threat intelligence and research concerning cloud computing, especially the storage layer in the cloud.

Casmer Labs provides threat intelligence, security education, trend reports, and other information important to modern organizations. We provide this information free of charge and aim to educate the public and reduce the frequency of cyberattacks across all industries. The Casmer Labs team is composed of engineering, product, support, and dedicated threat research personnel.

PipBack Launches Futures Prop Firm Hub With Live Discounts and Trader Tools 1360

PipBack is an all-in-one futures prop firm hub built for traders who want better data, lower evaluation costs, and less guesswork. The platform combines live prop firm discounts, a recommendation tool, an evaluation calculator, a platform status monitor, and a full trading dashboard to help users choose the right firm, plan evaluations, track performance, and stay ahead of rule changes.

Prop firm trading has a cost problem. Not just the evaluation fees themselves, which add up fast, but the invisible costs: the wrong firm for your trading strategy, a rule change you didn’t hear about, a failed evaluation you could have planned better for on paper first. PipBack was built to close every one of those gaps.

Among the highest discounts for all futures prop firms, PipBack offers traders all tools a futures trader needs to get funded:

Complete Prop Firm Dashboard
An all-in-one control panel that tracks the full prop firm journey from evaluations to payouts. It follows all accounts, performance metrics like ROI, pass rate, payouts, and trading activity in one place, so traders can manage multiple evaluations and see real P&L without relying on spreadsheets.

Prop Firm Recommendation Tool
A filtering engine that helps traders choose the right prop firm based on platform, country, TrustPilot score, and firm history, narrowing the list to firms that actually fit their trading strategy.

Evaluation Calculator
A probability-based calculator that estimates pass probability, expected attempts, time to funding, and total cost before money is spent, using inputs such as win rate, RR, trade frequency, drawdown, and profit target.

Platform Status Monitor
A real-time monitoring system for platform outages and issues across major trading platforms, often alerting traders before firms officially confirm something is wrong.

Informed Trading Community
A Discord community that delivers real-time updates on rule changes, discounts, platform issues, and firm developments, acting as an early-warning system and shared information hub.

Highest Discounts In The Futures Prop Firm Industry

PipBack is partnered with the biggest futures prop firms in the industry. Our discounts are all easily accessible through a single code: PIP. This includes discounts with the following prop firms:

  • Apex Trader Funding: 80% off
  • AquaFutures: 50% off
  • BlueGuardian Futures: 50% off
  • DayTraders: 50% off
  • Elite Trader Funding: 50% off
  • Lucid Trading: 35% off
  • TakeProfitTrader: 40% off
  • Tradeify: 30% off
  • TradeDay: 20% off
  • FundedNext Futures: 5% off
  • MyFundedFutures: Discounts vary with every new campaign
  • Goat Funded Futures: 30% off

Instead of searching through X posts, Reddit threads, Discord servers, or expired affiliate pages, traders can find everything in one place on the offers page: https://pipback.com/offers/.

Your Entire Prop Firm Journey In One Place

PipBack recently launched its Futures Control Panel, a trading dashboard built to track every stage of prop firm activity. It is organized into three tabs: Journey, Insights, and Routine.

Journey: Keeping Track Of All Your Evaluations

The Journey tab organizes every evaluation by status: Planned, In Progress, Funded, and Failed. Each evaluation appears as a card that moves through these stages, giving an immediate overview of the firm, account size, purchase date, total evaluation cost, and payouts summary.

For traders who prefer a more traditional layout, the dashboard can switch between Kanban and List view. Adding a new evaluation takes one click, and from there the panel maintains a live record from purchase through payout. For anyone running multiple accounts across multiple firms, this removes a huge amount of manual tracking and makes the full evaluation history easy to follow.

Insights: Your Performance Across the Entire Evaluation Journey

The Insights tab pulls all evaluation data into one performance view, filterable by firm and time period.

At the KPI level, it tracks seven core metrics:

  • Average Time To Outcome
  • Total Invested
  • Total Payouts
  • ROI
  • Net Profit
  • Active Evaluations
  • Pass Rate, with strict and broad breakdowns

Together, these metrics show the real P&L of the trader’s full prop firm journey, something many traders otherwise only have in a spreadsheet.

Below that, the dashboard visualizes performance over time with charts for:

  • Attempts Over Time
  • Pass vs Fail Over Time
  • Invested vs Payouts Over Time

These become especially useful once a trader has several months of data. If capital invested keeps rising while payouts and pass rate do not improve, the problem becomes obvious quickly instead of being buried across separate accounts and firms.

The lower section adds deeper outcome analysis across six more charts:

  • Fail Reasons
  • Outcomes by Firm
  • Outcomes by Account Size
  • Cumulative Net Profit/Loss
  • Monthly Net Amounts
  • Quarterly Net Profitability

There is also a Financial Calendar, which maps expenses and payouts onto a weekly or monthly calendar. Evaluation purchases, activations, and resets appear as expenses, while payouts appear as earnings. Each day is color-coded by net position, and summarized totals for expenses, earnings, and net P&L are shown for the selected period.

Routine: Making A Pre-Session Plan

The Routine tab focuses on trading process and is organized into Pre-session, Journal, and Calendar.

In Pre-session Planning, traders build a structured plan around “Today’s Plan.” They select which evaluation accounts they will trade that day, then assign assets to each account. This makes it easier to separate different account objectives, for example treating one account conservatively while taking a more aggressive approach on another.

Two features sit alongside this daily planning workflow:

Stop Trading Time lets the trader set a cutoff time with a browser push notification. When the stop time is reached, PipBack sends an alert to end the session. The notification can be snoozed for 10 minutes or marked as done. These events are logged in the Journal, making it easier to identify whether discipline issues and overtrading correlate with poor performance.

Today’s Key Events provides a live economic calendar filtered by impact level such as High, Medium, or Low, with optional 10-minute pre-event alerts so major data releases or Fed announcements do not catch traders off guard.

After the session, traders can write a recap that feeds directly into the Journal tab, creating a consistent post-session record of what happened, whether the plan was followed, and what should carry into the next day. Since consistency is often an explicit evaluation rule, this kind of record matters more than most traders realize.

The Calendar then brings planned trading days, journal entries, and P&L into one view, adding structure to the routine instead of leaving it as a flat list of notes.

The Tools: Turning Guesswork Into Math

Prop Firm Recommendation Tool

Choosing the wrong prop firm is one of the easiest ways to waste money on evaluations that do not actually fit your trading. PipBack’s recommendation tool solves that with a short questionnaire based on platform compatibility, country of residence, minimum TrustPilot score, and years of operation.

Supported platforms include TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Sierra Chart, Quantower, ProjectX, and more. Country filtering is built in as well, which matters in a market where eligibility restrictions can vary heavily by region.

The end result is simple: a filtered list of firms that actually match the trader’s goals and constraints.

Evaluation Calculator

The Evaluation Calculator helps traders assess an evaluation before paying for it. Inputs include strategy variables such as win rate, average risk-to-reward, trades per month, and risk per trade, along with evaluation structure details like one-phase, two-phase, or instant funding, profit targets, drawdown type, drawdown percentage, and whether the fee is refunded on first payout.

From there, the calculator produces probability-weighted projections, including:

  • Pass Probability
  • Expected Attempts
  • 90% Attempts
  • Expected Trades to Funded
  • Expected Cost (Gross)
  • 90% Budget
  • Break-Even on Funded
  • Expected Months to Funded

This turns evaluation planning from guesswork into math. A trader looking at a $150 evaluation with a 55% win rate and 1:1.5 R can see whether the setup is likely to pass in one attempt or whether the real budget should account for several tries.

Platform Status Monitor

Prop firms do not always acknowledge platform problems immediately, and during an evaluation that delay matters. PipBack’s Platform Status Monitor tracks real-time operational status across the platforms commonly used in futures prop trading.

Coverage includes:

  • Critical Infrastructure: CQG, ProjectX, R Trader Pro, R|Trader, Rithmic, Tradovate
  • Major Retail Platforms: BookMap, MotiveWave, NinjaTrader, Quantower, TradingView
  • Specialized / Orderflow: ATAS, Deepcharts, DeepMap, Jigsaw Trading, volbook, volsys, Volumetrica

Traders can view recent outage reports for each platform, open dedicated detail pages, and report issues themselves to warn others. In a space where downtime can directly affect an active evaluation, having faster visibility is critical.

The Intelligence Center: PipBack’s Discord Community

PipBack’s Discord serves as a real-time information channel for futures prop trading. Its tracking system monitors the prop firm landscape for developments that firms do not always communicate clearly or quickly, including:

  • Rule changes such as evaluation requirements, trailing drawdown adjustments, and consistency rules
  • Payout structure changes such as withdrawal timing, payout caps, or profit split changes
  • Discount windows including flash sales and limited-time campaigns
  • Country restrictions and eligibility changes
  • Broader prop firm news

One example was a backend adjustment at Lucid Trading that was picked up before it became widely recognized: they reduced the number of payout requests required on LucidFlex before a funded account moves to live capital.

That kind of change matters because it directly affects trader planning. Sometimes traders want to delay live capital for as long as possible, and sometimes they need to adjust quickly to new terms. The value is not just in the information itself, but in getting it while action can still be taken.

Beyond updates, the Discord also adds a community layer through strategy discussions, shared experiences, and general futures trading conversation.

How Everything Fits Together

Most platforms in this space solve only one problem. Affiliate sites push discount codes. Comparison blogs review firms. Traders then piece together the rest with spreadsheets, Discord servers, and scattered notes.

PipBack brings the full process together in one place: helping traders choose the right firm, lower evaluation costs, estimate pass probability, track results, monitor platform issues, stay ahead of rule changes, and maintain a consistent trading routine.

For traders using multiple evaluations, that creates something most never fully build on their own: a complete record of prop trading activity, money spent, payouts received, and the analytics needed to understand what the data is actually saying.

For anyone who treats futures prop trading as a repeatable process rather than a one-shot bet, PipBack turns what would otherwise require several tools, constant monitoring, and a spreadsheet that eventually gets abandoned into one all-in-one futures prop firm hub.

PipBack is free to use. Sign up at pipback.com.

About PipBack

PipBack is an all-in-one intelligence hub for futures prop firm traders. Built by ex-prop firm owners, PipBack helps traders compare futures prop firms, track live discount codes, understand evaluation rules, and use tools such as a recommendation flow, evaluation calculator, and trader dashboard. The platform is designed to help traders reduce evaluation costs, choose the right firm faster, and manage their prop firm journey in one place.

BestEx Research Launches Curator, a Dark Algorithm Designed to Move Beyond Aggregation and Systematically Address the Cost Gaps of Dark Execution 1278

Curator applies a layered, venue-specific framework to protect execution quality against drivers of cost, both measurable and invisible, in an increasingly complex dark landscape

BestEx Research Group LLC, an independent provider of high-performance algorithmic execution and measurement solutions for institutions trading equities and futures, today announced the launch of Curator, a dark execution algorithm designed to improve execution quality by applying a research-backed, systematic approach to filtering toxic interactions in alternative trading systems (ATSs).

As off-exchange trading volumes have surged, so has the complexity and toxicity of the ATS landscape. While most execution algorithms are engineered to access the broadest set of dark venues, it is critical to optimize the terms on which they engage them as well. The order types, segmentation options, and default settings that govern each ATS interaction vary significantly across venues and, without rigorous, venue-specific analysis, this can expose traders to information leakage and adverse selection that erode execution quality. For some common behaviors, the cost of that exposure is measurable, but for others it is entirely unknown to the trader.

Curator was developed to address these challenges directly, curating liquidity based on market structure expertise and model-based intelligence. The algorithm applies settings derived from deep study of ATS-N filings, employs data-driven segmentation selection to determine where counterparty filtering is beneficial, balances and optimizes taking and providing behavior based on each tactic’s structural exposure to adverse selection, and can deploy real-time signals to identify optimal conditions for engagement. For conditional orders, Curator applies proprietary order placement methodology to limit information leaked by each interaction—whether executed and faded—while maximizing hit rate simultaneously. Each of these capabilities is calibrated to client urgency and applied on a venue-by-venue basis, reflecting BestEx Research’s finding that no single approach is effective across all venues and conditions.

“Most algorithms can reach most ATSs, but few are built to optimize how exactly they use them. Curator is an expression of what we believe algorithmic execution should be—grounded in rigorous research to uncover and correct what is actually costing our clients in their execution,” said Hitesh Mittal, Founder and CEO of BestEx Research. “Our ambition is to bring this level of rigor to every dimension of execution, and Curator represents that commitment applied to one of the most complex and consequential areas of market structure.”

Clients can access BestEx Research’s complete research-backed dark liquidity playbook, detailing the market structure analysis and quantitative framework detailed above that underlies Curator’s design.

For more information about BestEx Research’s high-performance, multi-asset execution algorithms, visit bestexresearch.com.

About BestEx Research

BestEx Research Group LLC is a provider of sophisticated execution algorithms for equities and global futures aimed at reducing trading costs for buy-side managers. The firm’s cloud-based Algorithm Management System (AMS) combines its execution algorithms with a user-friendly dashboard, transaction cost analysis, customization, and automation in the industry’s first multi-asset, independent algorithmic execution platform. BestEx Research also offers sell-side firms a seamless, customizable trading solution for their clients with no coding required. For more information on BestEx Research’s mission and products, or to request a product demo, visit www.bestexresearch.com.

Niobium Introduces The Fog, a New Encrypted Cloud Platform for Private AI and Data Processing 1586

The first cloud infrastructure built from the ground up for complete data privacy; early access now open with public launch targeted for late Q2 2026

Niobium, a leader in hardware acceleration for fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), today introduced The Fog, a private cloud infrastructure platform that enables organizations to run applications and AI workloads on data that remains encrypted at all times, even during computation. Like fog, nothing inside can be seen from the outside. Decryption keys remain exclusively with the data owner, and Niobium has no access to customer data at any stage of computation. The platform is now available in private beta, with a public launch targeted for late Q2 2026.

The Fog redefines what organizations can do with their most sensitive and valuable data. Backed by FHE, which is mathematically proven to keep data private, The Fog enables organizations to use sensitive data without exposing it, addressing a longstanding challenge in cloud computing. This architecture enables full use of regulated data sets, secure collaboration across partners, and private AI and ML applications.

“For too long, organizations have had to accept data exposure as the cost of doing business in the cloud,” said Kevin Yoder, CEO of Niobium. “The Fog eliminates that tradeoff. We’re building a cloud platform where data can be used without ever being revealed. Our goal is to make encrypted computing practical, scalable, and accessible to the teams that need it most.”

The Fog is a self-service encrypted cloud platform that allows developers and enterprises to provision servers and custom hardware, deploy FHE applications, and run production workloads without sharing decryption keys with any third party, including Niobium. Users manage every aspect through a unified cloud portal, simplifying access to encrypted compute infrastructure.

To lead the cloud infrastructure buildout, Niobium has appointed Rob Sherrard as Head of Cloud.

“Encrypted compute is the next platform shift, and we’re building the infrastructure that makes it not just possible, but inevitable,” said Sherrard. “Inside The Fog, computation happens entirely under encryption. Owners hold the keys, the fog never lifts, and the work still gets done.”

FPGA Performance Today, ASIC Acceleration Ahead

The Fog is designed to address the two primary barriers that have historically limited FHE adoption: performance and usability.

The Fog launches on the mistic Core FPGA accelerator, delivering up to 2x faster FHE performance than any GPU or accelerator currently on the market.

Niobium is also developing a purpose-built ASIC in partnership with SEMIFIVE and Samsung Foundry. The ASIC will deliver significantly higher performance while remaining fully software-compatible with applications built on The Fog today, allowing early users to transition seamlessly as new hardware becomes available.

First FHE Applications

The Fog will also launch with a library of pre-built FHE applications designed to demonstrate real-world encrypted compute use cases and to lower barriers to adoption. Initial applications include:

  • Encrypted Semantic Search (Secure RAG): Query sensitive data by meaning rather than exact match, protecting both the query and the underlying dataset throughout.
  • Federated Learning: Train models across distributed, encrypted datasets without centralizing or exposing the underlying data.
  • Machine Learning Classification (e.g. Network Intrusion Detection): Analyze encrypted data to identify patterns and threats without exposing underlying information.

Additional template applications are in development.

Developer Access and Ecosystem

The Fog is backed by a complete software ecosystem designed to make FHE accessible to developers without a background in cryptography. The stack includes a compiler, SDK, template applications, documentation, and a single pane of glass for managing hardware, applications, and workloads. Together, they turn FHE into a practical engineering tool.

Private beta access to The Fog is available now. Early access participants receive:

  • Early access to the mistic Core FPGA accelerator hardware
  • First access to new platform features, applications, and performance updates ahead of public launch
  • Direct engagement with the Niobium engineering and cryptography team

Developers and organizations interested in early access can sign up and get more information at niobium.co. The Fog is targeting a Q2 2026 public launch.

About Niobium

Niobium is building the first dedicated hardware platform designed to advance fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) into commercial applications. FHE keeps data encrypted even during computation, mathematically guaranteeing privacy. Niobium’s accelerator hardware and The Fog encrypted cloud platform give developers and enterprises the tools to compute on sensitive data without ever exposing it. Niobium is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. More information is available at niobium.co.

Dual Launches to Open Enterprise-Proven Web3 Infrastructure Powering the Programmable Economy 1505

Today at ETHCC[9] in Cannes, Dual launches as the new identity for a platform that has already powered large-scale tokenized applications for global enterprises.

Built on nearly a decade of production deployments, Dual opens previously enterprise-focused infrastructure to a broader ecosystem of developers, teams, and partners, enabling the creation and operation of programmable assets across real-world and digital environments.

Reeve Collins, co-founder of Dual and co-founder and former CEO of Tether, said: “We built Tether to tokenize the dollar. It became a $185 billion asset. Dual is built to make everything else programmable. Hundreds of trillions in assets that can now carry their own rules, identity, and logic. That’s the programmable economy.”

From Proven Enterprise Infrastructure to Open Access

Since introducing programmable “smart” tokens in 2017, the platform behind Dual has supported more than 50 million deployed tokens and facilitated one of the largest onboardings of users into Web3, with over 11.5 million unique wallets created.

Through enterprise partnership with Smart Media Technologies, Dual technology powers tokenized programs for global brands including Visa, PepsiCo, Unilever, and the Olympic Games.

Lukas Fluri, co-founder and CEO of Dual, said: “The next wave of the internet will be driven by programmable assets and autonomous systems. Dual takes what has already been proven at enterprise scale and makes it accessible to anyone building the next generation of applications.”

Infrastructure for the Programmable Economy

Dual provides a unified platform for issuing, verifying, and orchestrating programmable assets across real-world ecosystems.

Rather than requiring teams to build complex blockchain infrastructure from scratch, Dual offers a streamlined development environment with prebuilt modules and standardized components. This allows developers to focus on application logic while relying on proven systems for security, execution, and scalability.

The result is a faster and more reliable path from concept to production, particularly for complex tokenization use cases that require high performance and reliability at scale.

These include:

  • Real-world asset tokenization
  • Loyalty and rewards systems
  • Digital product passports
  • Certifications and compliance
  • Emerging agent-driven applications

By simplifying how tokenized systems are built and deployed, Dual expands access to a category that has historically required deep technical expertise.

Built for Developers and AI Agents

A key aspect of Dual is its support for AI-driven development.

Because applications are composed using secure, production-tested modules, AI agents can interact directly with the protocol to create and manage programmable assets without writing raw smart contract code. This approach reduces risk while enabling a more reliable way to build tokenized systems.

While AI-assisted development is becoming more common, building secure tokenized applications has remained complex and error-prone. Dual addresses this by providing a controlled framework where both developers and AI agents can operate safely.

This expands access beyond highly specialized teams and enables a broader ecosystem of builders to develop programmable applications.

The DUAL Token

The DUAL token serves as the economic layer of the network, powering protocol usage, network fees, staking, and governance.

As activity increases across the platform, the token becomes directly tied to how the network operates, aligning usage with participation.

The DUAL token launches on Kraken on March 31 and is also available on decentralized exchanges, providing access across both centralized and on-chain markets.

About Dual

Dual is a protocol for issuing, verifying, and orchestrating tokenized programmable assets across real-world ecosystems. It provides enterprise-grade infrastructure for building scalable tokenized applications, now open to developers, teams, and partners globally.

Learn more at https://dual.org.

Nium Launches Dual-Network Stablecoin Card Issuance Platform Enabling Businesses to Spend Digital Dollars at Hundreds of Millions of Merchant Locations Worldwide 1390

Nium delivers the first enterprise platform spanning both Visa and Mastercard, backed by 40+ regulatory licenses across 190+ countries – requiring no new infrastructure to build.

Nium, the global infrastructure leader for real-time cross-border payments and card issuance, today launched its stablecoin card issuance platform. The solution enables companies holding stablecoins to issue spending cards on both the Visa and Mastercard networks through a single API integration, allowing stablecoins to be used at hundreds of millions of merchant locations globally.

Stablecoins have crossed the threshold from experiment to infrastructure. With regulatory frameworks advancing in the US, EU, and across Asia Pacific, and an estimated $200 billion in stablecoins now in circulation, enterprises are no longer asking whether to hold digital dollars – they are asking how to put them to work. Designed to be complementary to existing systems, Nium’s platform extends the utility of stablecoins by connecting them to established payments network infrastructure – bringing the acceptance, reliability, and safeguards that businesses and consumers already trust. Businesses will be able to convert stablecoin balances into real spending power through seamless crypto to fiat conversion at the point of sale at hundreds of millions merchant locations worldwide, without building new infrastructure or navigating a fragmented web of network agreements, banking sponsors, and compliance filings.

“Stablecoins have proven they can move money. We are now proving they can power commerce at enterprise scale. Every business we speak to that holds stablecoins wants the same thing: a simple, compliant way to deploy those balances without building the infrastructure themselves. Today, Nium delivers exactly that – on both major payments networks, in every major market, through one integration,” said Prajit Nanu, CEO and Founder of Nium.

One platform. Established networks. Trusted, global reach.

Businesses connect to Nium via a single API and can immediately:

  • Issue stablecoin-funded cards globally. Enable card-based spending via the Visa and Mastercard networks, leveraging their established global acceptance, security, and consumer protections.
  • Enable stablecoin settlement options where supported. Reduce multi-step fiat conversion chains and operational friction while maintaining compliance with applicable regulatory, network and market requirements.
  • Spend and disburse through one partner. Card issuance paired with Nium’s 190+ country payout network, enabling companies to deploy stablecoin balances via cards and payouts without managing separate provider relationships.

Nium has reduced time-to-market for stablecoin card programs from months of custom infrastructure work to days. The platform handles chain-of-conversion complexity, cross-border settlement constraints, and card network compliance in a single managed layer, replacing what would otherwise require multiple vendor relationships and fragmented integrations.

“We are building at the intersection of stablecoins, AI, and programmable money because we believe the next generation of payments will be faster, smarter, and built on digital currencies. Today’s launch is the opening move. We want to ensure our customers are positioned for what comes next,” added Prajit Nanu.

Built on the infrastructure that already moves the world’s money

Nium’s stablecoin card platform is a native extension of infrastructure that already issues 38 million card tokens annually for banks, fintechs, and enterprises worldwide – with the network relationships, regulatory coverage, and settlement rails that would take years to build independently.

Unmatched network foundation. With principal memberships across Visa and Mastercard, Nium’s customers are positioned to benefit from future stablecoin opportunities as the category matures.
Compliant issuance at scale. Nium’s own regulatory licenses in 40+ countries remove the dependency on third-party banking intermediaries that add cost and slow time-to-market.

About Nium

Nium provides global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, founded on the mission to deliver the global money movement infrastructure of tomorrow, today. Its platform enables banks, fintechs, and enterprises to collect, convert, and disburse funds instantly across borders. Its payout network supports 100 currencies and spans 190+ countries, over 100 of which are in real-time. Funds can be disbursed to accounts, wallets, and cards, and collected locally in 40 markets.

As a principal card issuer on Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and UATP, Nium issues over 38 million card tokens every year. It holds regulatory licenses and authorizations in more than 40 countries, enabling seamless onboarding, rapid integration, and compliance – independent of geography. Nium is backed by leading investors including Visa, Riverwood Capital, Tribe Capital, and NewView Capital. The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore. For more information, visit www.nium.com.