Murtuza Merchant

Consulting Editor

Murtuza is a seasoned finance journalist with extensive experience covering cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He has contributed to Benzinga and Cointelegraph, among other publications, reporting on emerging trends, the regulatory landscape, and more. Find him at @murtuza_merc on Twitter and mmerchant001 on Telegram. Disclosure: Murtuza holds ATOM, AKT, TIA, INJ, and OSMO.

Articles by Murtuza Merchant (463)

MARKETS

Eightco Holdings Discloses $333 Million in Assets Including OpenAI Stake and 11,000 ETH

Eightco Holdings disclosed $333M in total assets including an OpenAI stake, 11,000 ETH, and 283M WLD tokens in a May 7 PR wire release.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

DOJ Antitrust AI Warning

The DOJ antitrust chief warned Thursday that companies must not misuse AI disruption narratives to mislead regulators during merger and acquisition reviews.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

LAB Token Posts $175 Million in Volume as AI-Linked Altcoins Attract Speculative Flow

LAB token ranks 151st by market cap with $175 million in 24-hour volume on May 7. Here's what the project does and what's driving the AI-narrative token.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

MetaComp Completes Tether Gold Proof-of-Concept for Cross-Border Payments

MetaComp has completed a Tether Gold proof-of-concept covering cross-border payments, asset storage, and gold-collateral lending.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Hyperliquid Holds Top 15 by Market Cap as Decentralized Perpetuals Exchange Grows

Hyperliquid holds the 13th spot by market cap as its on-chain perpetuals exchange posts sustained volume growth, challenging centralized derivatives platforms.

05/07/2026

LEARN

What Account Abstraction Actually Means

Every Ethereum (ETH) wallet you have ever used shares one critical flaw: lose the seed phrase and lose everything. A standard Ethereum account has no recovery mechanism, no spending limits,…

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Firo Trends in Privacy Coin Category as Lelantus Spark Protocol Draws Fresh Attention

Firo trends on cryptocurrency charts in May 2026 as its Lelantus Spark privacy protocol draws renewed attention amid the ongoing privacy coin regulatory debate.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

B3 on Base Surges 130% as on-Chain Gaming Layer Posts $337 Million in Volume

B3, a Layer-3 gaming settlement protocol built on Base, surged 130% in 24 hours on May 7, posting $337 million in daily trading volume.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Toncoin Climbs as Telegram’s Blockchain Expands Mini-App Ecosystem and User Reach

Toncoin rose 6% on May 7, 2026, as the TON blockchain continues expanding Telegram's mini-app ecosystem and in-app payment infrastructure across 900 million.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Morgan Stanley Launches Cryptocurrency Trading on E*Trade, Challenging Coinbase’s Retail Lead

Morgan Stanley launched cryptocurrency trading on E*Trade on May 7, 2026, moving into retail crypto and directly competing with Coinbase for everyday investors.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Virtuals Protocol Holds Above $0.95 as AI Agent Token Market Stabilizes After April Selloff

Virtuals Protocol's VIRTUAL token climbed 13% in 24 hours to $0.95 as the AI agent token sector stabilized after a sharp April selloff, with $234M in daily.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

BNY Expands Crypto Custody Into Abu Dhabi With Bitcoin and Ether

BNY, the world's largest custody bank with $59 trillion in assets, has expanded crypto custody services into Abu Dhabi, starting with **Bitcoin**.

05/07/2026

RESEARCH

What Negative Funding Rates Actually Mean For Market Structure

Bitcoin (BTC) is flashing one of its rarest market structure signals in more than ten years. Perpetual futures funding rates have stayed negative for 67 consecutive days, the longest such…

05/07/2026

MARKETS

Notcoin and DOGS Ride a Telegram Token Wave as Mini-App Ecosystem Volume Surges

DOGS surged 53% and Notcoin gained 21% in 24 hours as Telegram ecosystem tokens posted $1.9B in combined volume, tracking a broader TON network rally.

05/07/2026

MARKETS

MegaETH Targets 100,000 Transactions per Second With Real-Time Ethereum Layer-2

MegaETH is a new Ethereum Layer-2 targeting 100,000 TPS with sub-millisecond block times, a MEGA governance token, and specialized node architecture.

05/07/2026