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 (462)

MARKETS

Variational Raises $50M to Build Real-World Asset Perpetuals

Variational raised $50M led by Dragonfly to build real-world asset perpetuals on chain, predicting RWA perps will become DeFi's largest contract class.

05/21/2026

MARKETS

Zcash Leads Privacy Coin Rally as ZK-Proof Tokens Draw Fresh Interest

Zcash climbed 12.7% in 24 hours to $656 on May 21, 2026, leading a privacy-coin and ZK-proof token rally as speculative demand rotates.

05/21/2026

LEARN

What Hyperliquid Actually Is

Most cryptocurrency exchanges that offer perpetual futures require you to hand over your funds first. Hyperliquid does not. The platform has grown into a $13 billion market-cap network by running…

05/21/2026

MARKETS

Bonfida’s 81% Rally Puts Solana Name Service Back in Focus

Bonfida's FIDA token surged 81% in 24 hours to May 20, hitting $0.038 with $169M in trading volume as Solana name service activity picked up.

05/20/2026

RESEARCH

What Hyperliquid Actually Is And Why The Architecture Matters

Hyperliquid (HYPE) has done something no decentralized exchange managed in the previous decade of trying: it built a fully onchain order book that processes trades at speeds competitive with centralized…

05/20/2026

MARKETS

Circle Co-Founder Raises $30M for AI-Native Bank Catena Labs

Circle co-founder Sean Neville closed a $30M Series A for Catena Labs, a startup building banking tools designed specifically for AI agents.

05/20/2026

MARKETS

Zcash Climbs as Privacy Coin Demand Revives

Zcash trades near $579 with $465M in daily volume, reclaiming a top-15 market cap rank as demand for privacy-focused cryptocurrency assets builds in 2026.

05/20/2026

MARKETS

JPMorgan Says Weak Network Activity Will Keep Ethereum Lagging Bitcoin

JPMorgan says Ethereum and altcoins may keep trailing Bitcoin unless on-chain network activity picks up significantly, per a new research note.

05/20/2026

MARKETS

Venice Token Surges 16% as Privacy-Focused AI Infrastructure Draws Attention

Venice Token gained 16% in 24 hours to May 19, reaching $17.07 with $98M in volume as privacy-focused AI inference draws fresh cryptocurrency interest.

05/19/2026

LEARN

What “Financial Privacy” Actually Means On A Blockchain

Financial privacy in cryptocurrency is more contested than most people realize. Three projects have built serious technical reputations in this space: Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), and Zano (ZANO). Each promises…

05/19/2026

MARKETS

Lighter Emerges as a New on-Chain Derivatives Venue With $130 Million in Daily Volume

Lighter's LIT token gained 6% on May 19, 2026, as the on-chain derivatives exchange generated significant volume and entered CoinGecko's trending list at rank.

05/19/2026

MARKETS

Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU Token Climbs as NFT-Native Tokens Stage a May Recovery

Pudgy Penguins' PENGU token gained 4.9% in 24 hours to May 19, 2026, trading at $0.0086 with $89 million in volume as NFT-native tokens recovered.

05/19/2026

MARKETS

Bitcoin ETF Outflows Hit $649 Million in a Single Day as Investors Rotate Into XRP and Solana

Bitcoin spot ETFs shed $649M on May 18 in their worst single-day outflow since January.

05/19/2026

MARKETS

Zano Climbs 3.9% as Privacy Blockchain Finds Footing in a Maturing Market

Zano gained 3.9% in 24 hours to May 19 as the privacy-focused blockchain draws renewed interest amid broader appetite for confidential transaction protocols in.

05/19/2026

MARKETS

ONDO and the Institutions: How Real-World Asset Tokenization Became Crypto’s Institutional Gateway

*[Note: ONDO already covered in Story 2. Replacing with the next strongest uncovered feature candidate.]*

05/19/2026