CryptoPotato CT3 Announces Dedicated Storage Contracts to Expand Decentralized Storage Infrastructure
[PRESS RELEASE – London, United Kingdom, July 15th, 2026]

CT3 today announced the transition of its decentralized storage infrastructure to a dedicated Storage Contracts model designed to support continued platform growth, improve infrastructure scalability, and expand storage capacity as demand increases.

The transition follows rapid growth across the CT3 ecosystem, with more than 180,000 unique users having used the platform and more than 500,000 uploads completed. Each upload is linked to an NFT access key, allowing platform activity and network usage to be independently verified on-chain.

Continued growth in demand for ct-3.cloud services has increased pressure on the existing infrastructure. Processing all new uploads through a single main collection and one smart contract may reduce scaling flexibility and make storage capacity more difficult to manage as network activity expands.

Under the new architecture, new uploads will be distributed across dedicated Storage Contracts rather than a single main contract. Each Storage Contract is linked to a fixed amount of storage capacity and operates as an independent infrastructure segment with its own capacity, utilization level, and on-chain statistics.

The new model is intended to distribute workloads across multiple smart contracts, improve the transparency and measurement of resource utilization, and support the deployment of additional storage capacity as demand grows. Participants may finance the deployment of new Storage Contracts and the addition of storage capacity. The allocated capacity is used to store files uploaded through ct-3.cloud, while the resulting profit is shared between CT3 and the participant who financed the infrastructure expansion.

Infrastructure Segmentation

Previously, CT3 keys were issued primarily through the main collection and a single contract flow. As the platform expanded, this model became less flexible for handling different categories of data.

Storage Contracts divide the infrastructure into separate segments. Each segment:

* operates through its own smart contract;
* is linked to a specific amount of storage capacity;
* can serve a particular category of files;
* allows capacity utilization and workload to be measured independently;
* reduces pressure on the main NFT key issuance process.

This separation makes the infrastructure more resilient and allows individual areas of the platform to scale without rebuilding the entire system.

How the Allocated Storage Capacity is Used

Each Storage Contract is linked to a defined amount of capacity within the CT3 network. Once activated, the corresponding storage space is supplied by network nodes and used to store data uploaded through ct-3.cloud.

The allocated capacity may be used for:

* standard user files;
* corporate archives;
* automatic backups;
* long-term datasets;
* future CT3 products and applications.

Larger contracts can accommodate heavier files and more substantial flows of corporate or backup data. This allows the network to direct workloads to infrastructure segments with sufficient available capacity.

Storage Contract Economics


The commercial model behind Storage Contracts is based on the real use of CT3 infrastructure. The platform acquires storage capacity from node operators and provides it to ct-3.cloud customers at the ma[...]

rket price of the storage service.


A participant finances the deployment of a new Storage Contract and the expansion of the network’s available capacity. Once launched, this capacity is used to store personal and corporate data, while the generated profit is distributed between the investor and CT3.

The financial performance of each contract depends on two main factors:

* the actual utilization of the allocated capacity;
* the margin between the cost of acquiring storage capacity and the price charged to end users.

Storage Contracts therefore allow participants to take part in the growth of CT3 infrastructure and potentially earn income linked to real demand for storage services. The more actively the allocated capacity is used, the greater the contract’s potential result.

On-chain transparency

The operation of each Storage Contract can be verified through the blockchain. Files stored within the allocated capacity are represented by NFT keys containing storage-related metadata.

The combined size of the files associated with these keys can be compared with the utilization figure displayed for the contract. Through the smart contract address, an investor can verify issued NFTs, collection activity, and the actual use of the capacity they helped finance.

This model makes it possible to independently verify:

* the number of keys created;
* the volume of stored data;
* utilization of the allocated capacity;
* activity within a specific Storage Contract;
* the relationship between infrastructure usage and profit generation.

For ct-3.cloud users, the experience remains unchanged: both existing and new NFT keys continue to be supported, and the transition to the new architecture requires no additional action.

About CT3

CT3 is developing a decentralized data storage infrastructure that combines independent nodes, the ct-3.cloud interface, NFT access keys, and blockchain verification.

Users upload files through ct-3.cloud, after which the data is distributed across network nodes. An NFT key is created for every stored object, confirming access rights and containing the relevant storage metadata.

Within this model, nodes provide physical storage capacity, CT3 manages data distribution and access, while individual and corporate users generate demand for storage services.

As the number of users and uploads increases, the network must continuously expand its available capacity. At certain times, demand growth may outpace the addition of new capacity from node operators. Storage Contracts allow CT3 to add new resources in a structured way and allocate them to specific areas of use.

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CryptoPotato Is Wrapped Bitcoin Flashing a Bullish Signal? Exchange Outflows Hit Six-Week High
326 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) tokens on Ethereum were withdrawn from exchanges in a single day. According to fresh data shared by Santiment, this is the largest net exchange outflow since early June.

This transfer of coins has reduced the amount of WBTC immediately available on trading platforms.

Exchange Outflow

The latest outflows come as Bitcoin continues to trade through a “risk-heavy stretch.” Even as the crypto asset briefly climbed to $65,000 on Wednesday, market pressure from geopolitical tensions and ETF flow swings persists, Santiment stated in its findings. The large exchange withdrawals, however, could potentially serve as a positive signal for the broader crypto market recovery. The analytics platform added,


“Wrapped Bitcoin’s 6-week high exchange outflows provide more good news to crypto’s rebound “


Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) was launched in 2019 following a joint initiative by BitGo, Kyber Network, and Ren. It remains the largest tokenized version of Bitcoin, with a market capitalization of about $7.6 billion. Coinbase entered the space with cbBTC in 2024, which has grown to nearly $6 billion in market value. This space has become increasingly competitive in 2026.

Last month, stablecoin issuer Circle expanded the market by launching cirBTC on Ethereum.

Recovery Near?

As for Bitcoin’s price, the crypto asset moved higher after the latest US inflation report came in cooler than expected. Consumer prices fell 0.4% in June, bringing annual inflation to 3.5%. Economists had expected a 0.2% monthly decline and a 3.8% annual rate.

Meanwhile, Bitfinex analysts said that the asset is approaching what has historically been the final stage of its typical bear market period. According to the report, the BTC often spends five to six months trading below the Short-Term Holder Realized Price before entering a broader recovery. With July being identified as the fifth month of the current cycle, analysts believe the market could be closing in on a significant rebound.

They still warned that history alone does not guarantee a recovery. While July has traditionally been a favorable month for Bitcoin, broader macroeconomic conditions will also play a crucial role.

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CryptoPotato Pi Network’s PI Finally Rebounds as Bitcoin (BTC) Eyes $65K: Market Watch
Bitcoin’s price was positively impacted by the lower-than-expected US CPI numbers for June and pumped to a three-week peak of $65,000 before it was stopped.

Most altcoins have turned green as well, with ETH climbing toward $1,900. ZEC, CC, LINK, and HYPE have marked big gains daily.

BTC Flies After CPI Numbers

After the intense volatility experienced at the start of the previous business week following Strategy’s biggest BTC sale to date and the broken ceasefire between the US and Iran, bitcoin began its gradual recovery on Wednesday from a then-low at $61,600. The bulls managed to help it rebound to $64,000 during the weekend, where it spent most of its time trading sideways.

However, the quickly intensifying and worsening situation in the Middle East took its toll on Monday morning, and the asset fell below $62,000 once again. All eyes then turned to the US CPI numbers for June, which were scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.

The general expectations showed a significant decline from the May record, but the actual data was even lower, with just a 3.5% increase. Although this number might be more misleading than it sounds, BTC’s price reacted with an immediate surge to just over $65,000 earlier today, which became a three-week peak.

It has retreated to $64,500 as of press time, but its market cap has climbed to almost $1.3 trillion. Its dominance over the alts remains stagnant at 56.7% on CG.
BTCUSD July 15. Source: TradingView
PI Finally Bounces

Pi Network’s native token was the poorest performer over the past couple of days, charting consecutive all-time lows. The latest came yesterday morning at just over $0.07. However, that key support provided the necessary assistance for the asset to bounce hard in the past day. PI now stands with a major 16% daily surge and trades above $0.085.

PUMP is the other double-digit gainer, surging by 14% to $0.0166. ZEC has risen the most from the larger caps, adding 9% of value and trading above $550. CC follows suit, while LINK and HYPE are up by around 5% each.

Ethereum has also posted a similar gain, and now trades above $1,870. BNB, XRP, SOL, and RAIN have marked more modest gains.

The total crypto market cap has increased by over $60 billion in a day and now sits at $2.280 trillion.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview July 15. Source: QuantifyCrypto
 

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CryptoPotato Binance XRP Reserves at Lowest Since February as Ripple Price Defends Key Support
Binance’s XRP reserves have fallen to about 2.61 billion tokens, their lowest level since February, and the balance has held there since the start of July.

And even though the Ripple token had been sliding toward $1.06 while those reserves were draining out, it reversed course in the last 24 hours, gaining over 3% in that period.

Exchange Reserves Shrink as Selling Pressure Lingers

According to CryptoQuant contributor Arab Chain, there have been no meaningful inflows to replenish Binance’s XRP stockpile in recent months, which is why the reserve figure has held near its February 2026 low instead of climbing back.

A falling exchange balance can be considered a bullish signal since it is often taken to mean that investors are moving their stash into private wallets instead of preparing to sell. That signal took a while to show up in price, with Arab Chain noting that XRP had been falling to around $1.06 while reserves were emptying out, suggesting that liquidity, trading activity and investor sentiment were outweighing the effect of declining exchange supply.

In another market update, the same analysts pointed to the Binance CVD Confirmation Score, which blends price with Cumulative Volume Delta to track whether buy or sell orders are winning out in the spot market. That CVD reading is at -6.93 million, meaning that sell orders have outweighed buys as XRP fell from above $2.00 earlier this year toward the $1.07 area.

Meanwhile, the 30-day Price-CVD Confirmation Score is holding near 0.84, a figure Arab Chain says, while reasonably healthy, still falls short of confirming a genuine shift in buying demand. According to them, only a sustained move into positive CVD territory alongside a stronger confirmation score would point to a real reversal in buying interest.

As noted earlier, XRP’s price action has nevertheless improved modestly, with data from CoinGecko at the time of writing showing the asset trading around $1.11 after gaining about 3.7% in 24 hours, having oscillated between $1.07 and $1.12 during that period. However, the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is still down 7% over the past month and more than 61% across one year, despite daily trading volume jumping 31% higher than the previous day to hit $1.26 billion.

Analysts Divided On Where XRP Heads Next

Such is the state of XRP that market watchers are split on what comes next. For example, popular trader Diana has pointed to $1.08 as the level to watch and warned that losing it could send XRP toward the $0.90-$0.93 zone before one last flush to the $0.87 macro support. Fellow analyst CasiTrades holds a similar technical view but frames it as the tail end of a yearlong correction, telling followers on X that a drop toward $0.87 would “finish off the correction we’ve spent the last year building.”

But others are looking past the near-term chop, with one of them, Crypto Patel, arguing that XRP is tracing a pattern that has historically come right before rallies of more than 1,000%. On his part, crypto investor Celal Kucuker pointed to a 500% monthly gain two years ago as a reason not to dismiss $7 by the end of the year.

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CryptoPotato Trump’s New Iran Strategy Revealed: Will Bitcoin Pay the Price Again?
Bitcoin’s price charted impressive gains on Tuesday and Wednesday after the lower-than-expected US CPI numbers for June, spiking to a multi-week peak of $65,000.

However, this progress is in danger again due to the quickly escalating tension in the Middle East, especially since many reports outlined US President Donald Trump’s new attack strategy against Iran.

New Attack Strategy Revealed

The two sides sat in a fragile ceasefire for weeks but failed to reach a decisive deal to permanently end the conflict. Instead, the attacks resumed last week; Trump said the memorandum of understanding is over, and they have launched strikes against each other almost daily since then.

According to multiple reports, the POTUS held a meeting in the Situation Room on Tuesday to discuss a “massive offense” against the Middle Eastern country. Some of the details that went public include:

1. The meeting was attended by Vice President JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Steve Witkoff, and other senior officials
2. The new attack strategy will involve strikes with a wider scope than the current ones, which are mostly focused on the region around the Strait of Hormuz.
3. Axios reported that one of the major conclusions of the meeting focused on new plans for “devastating strikes on strategic targets in Iran.”

Moreover, the report claimed that Trump claimed Iran should “better make a deal” or they are “not going to have anything left.” The good news in all of this could come from this particular sentence, as the POTUS has made similar threats in the past, which actually preceded major de-escalations.

Is BTC in Danger Again?

The timing of these new reported plans for mass attacks couldn’t come at a worse time for bitcoin. The primary cryptocurrency has finally shown some strength following a major macro reversal. The CPI data for June showed much lower inflation than expected, which could mean less chance for the US Fed to increase interest rates.

Bitcoin reacted with an immediate price pump that drove it to a multi-month peak at $65,000 after it slumped below $58,000 for the first time in almost two years on July 1. New negative developments on the war front have long harmed its trend reversal, as attacks typically lead to a BTC crash and a surge in oil prices.

Consequently, there’s a real threat that bitcoin can erase the recent gains if the US follows through on its plan and Iran starts to retaliate against many nations in the region as it did in the past.

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CryptoPotato BNB Chain Completes 36th Quarterly Token Burn, Marks Third Burn of 2026
[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, July 15th, 2026]

15th of July: The BNB Chain Foundation has officially announced the successful completion of the 36th quarterly BNB token burn by BNB Chain. This marks our third burn of 2026.

Here are the facts and figures from the latest burn:

* Auto-Burn (Total BNB burned): 1,615,827.795 BNB
* Approximate value in USD at the time of burn completion: ~$931,702,464
* Transaction ID (TXID) for BNB burn: View transaction
* Remaining to be burned: Check real-time data here
* Remaining total supply: 133,166,127.91 BNB

at time of writing 15 July, 2026 at 10:35AM UTC.

What You Need to Know About the BNB Burn

BNB is the native coin of the BNB Chain ecosystem, essential for powering its multifaceted Web3 environment. It supports transactions on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the opBNB L2s, and BNB Greenfield blockchain. Besides transaction fees, BNB serves as a governance token, granting holders the ability to participate in the BNB Chain’s decentralized on-chain governance. Additionally, BNB functions as a strategic reserve asset and enters the radar of more mainstream financial institutions, driving ecosystem growth and incentivizing adoption.

Following its mainnet launch on April 18, 2019, BNB transitioned from the Ethereum Network to BNB Chain. “Build and Build” is the philosophy behind BNB, reflecting its role in fostering development within the ecosystem. BNB employs an Auto-Burn system to gradually reduce its total supply to 100,000,000 BNB. The burn amount is adjusted based on BNB’s price and the number of blocks generated on BSC during a quarter, ensuring transparency and predictability.

BNB Auto Burn

The BNB Auto-Burn provides an independently auditable, objective process. The figures are reported quarterly, and the mechanism is independent of the Binance centralized exchange.

This quarter’s burn and future burns will occur directly on BSC due to the BNB Chain Fusion. The corresponding BNB amount will be sent to the “blackhole” address: 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD.

Note: Due to the recent Lorentz, Maxwell and Fermi upgrades, BSC is producing blocks more frequently, compared with the time when the Auto Burn formula was originally defined. The parameters used in the formula have been adjusted to keep the idea and spirit consistent.

BNB Real-time Burn

Additionally, BNB implements a real-time burning mechanism based on gas fees. BSC validators determine the ratio of gas fees collected in each block, which is burned at a fixed rate. Since the introduction of BEP95, roughly 291K BNB has been burnt under this mechanism.

About BNB Chain

BNB Chain is one of the largest and most active blockchain ecosystems in the world, supported by a global community of developers and users. With high throughput, low transaction costs, and full EVM compatibility, BNB Chain powers scalable applications across finance, gaming, and the broader Web3 economy. For more information, users can visit www.bnbchain.org.

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