BitGo has introduced Lightning Earn, a product that lets institutional clients allocate Bitcoin to Lightning Network routing channels.

The product uses Amboss Technologies’ Rails platform to manage liquidity routing across Lightning payment paths. Participants earn fees in Bitcoin from routed payments while using BitGo custody accounts.

BitGo links custody accounts to Lightning routing

BitGo designed Lightning Earn for corporate treasuries and institutional allocators that already hold Bitcoin through its custody platform. Clients can place Bitcoin into Lightning Network channels used to route payments between connected nodes. The routing activity generates fees paid in native Bitcoin, rather than tokens or synthetic rewards.

The company said clients access the product through existing BitGo custody accounts. BitGo also said custody controls, governance steps, and compliance workflows remain in place during deployment. The structure allows institutions to use Bitcoin for routing liquidity without moving assets into external retail wallets.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said Rails gives clients a way to deploy Bitcoin “without compromising custody or governance.” The company also placed part of its own treasury into Rails. BitGo said the allocation helped test the process before wider institutional use.

Amboss Rails manages liquidity across payment channels

Amboss Technologies provides the Rails platform behind the routing function. Rails helps allocate Bitcoin liquidity across Lightning channels where payment flow requires capacity. The system connects institutions with routing paths that need capital to process Bitcoin payments.

Amboss CEO Jesse Shrader said BitGo’s integration of Rails shows that “Lightning is fit for institutions.” He also said institutional capital can support enterprise-scale Bitcoin payments. The statement relates to liquidity deployment, not guaranteed returns.

Lightning Network routing fees depend on payment activity across connected channels. Participants receive fees when their liquidity helps move payments between nodes. BitGo said the product does not use synthetic assets, token incentives, or derivative yield products.

Lightning Earn uses Bitcoin fees instead of token rewards

The product differs from yield products that depend on lending, staking, or third-party token rewards. Lightning Earn relies on routing fees from payment traffic across Lightning channels. All earnings remain denominated in Bitcoin.

BitGo said its regulated trust bank controls continue to govern the deployed assets. The firm also said clients retain ownership of Bitcoin used in routing channels. Governance rules apply across all allocations made through the product.

Amboss said Rails supports liquidity allocation across Lightning Network endpoints. The company also said the platform helps payment channels access routing capacity. BitGo’s Lightning Earn product is now available to institutional clients through existing custody accounts.

Tether Investments said it led a $1.4 billion funding round for Neura Robotics, a German startup developing AI-powered humanoid robots, in what it called one of the largest investments into physical AI on record.

The funding, announced Wednesday, was projected to value Neura between $9 billion and nearly $12 billion when it first became public last November. Other participants in the round included Qualcomm Technologies, Amazon and NVIDIA, Neura said in a post on its website.

Neither Tether nor Neura responded immediately to a CoinDesk request for further information.

“AI is moving from the digital world into the physical world,” David Reger, founder and CEO of Neura Robotics, said in a statement. The company recently said it aims to produce 5 million robots by 2030 with about $1.2 billion orders already.

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, is building its own technology right into Neura’s systems. The robots will receive their own independent digital wallets, allowing them to be paid automatically the moment they finish a job. They will also be able to make electronic payments to other machines, cutting out human managers, paperwork and bank delays.

Under CEO Paolo Ardoino, the El Salvador-based company is spending in a range of industries outside of the immediate crypto sector. Its growing portfolio includes investments in agriculture, brain tech and sports. The company made over $10 billion in profit in the first nine months of 2025 by investing rese

SpaceX has priced its shares at $135, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, setting the stage for one of the most closely watched public market debuts in recent years.

The company sold 555.6 million shares at that price, raising $75 billion, making it the largest IPO ever, easily topping Saudi Aramco’s $30 billion in 2019.

The Elon Musk-led aerospace and satellite company is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker SPCX, giving public investors their first opportunity to buy shares. Based on the offering price, SpaceX will enter the public markets with a fully-diluted valuation of roughly $1.8 trillion.

The valuation is a pricey one, given SpaceX produced roughly $19 billion in revenue last year, driven by launches, government contracts and its rapidly growing Starlink satellite internet business.

Also notable is the company’s sizable bitcoin BTC$62,866.08 holdings. SpaceX held 18,712 bitcoin as of March 31. That would be valued at just under $1.2 billion at BTC’s current price around $63,500.

Ether (ETH) traders are increasing their leveraged long positions despite ETH price being down 44% in 2026. Ether’s futures open interest at Binance has climbed to a record 3.7 million ETH, with the exchange accounting for more than 44% of total Ether futures.

Crypto analyst Darkfost noted that Ether futures activity has improved despite rising uncertainty driven by geopolitical tensions and weakening economic conditions.

The analyst noted that Binance now holds nearly 3.7 million ETH in open futures contracts, marking a new all-time high for Ether open interest on the exchange.

ETH open interest value on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant

Improving risk appetite for long positions also emerged as Binance’s weekly average taker buy-sell ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.95 after months of seller-led activity. A reading near 1.0 points to a more balanced market after a prolonged period of selling pressure.

The trend extends beyond Binance. Across all exchanges, the taker buy-sell ratio has risen to 1 from 0.94 over the past two weeks, indicating that buyers are becoming more active in market orders than sellers.

Ether: taker buy sell ratio across all exchanges. Source: CryptoQuant

At the same time, the speculative activity is accelerating faster than spot demand. Binance’s perp-spot volume imbalance indicator climbed to roughly 0.90, close to a record high, while its 30-day Z-score reached 2.53. 

Perpetual futures volume stood near 5.57 million ETH compared with about 290,000 ETH in spot trading. This indicates leveraged participation is expanding far more quickly than activity in the underlying market.

ETH Perp-Spot volume imbalance indicator. Source: CryptoQuant

Related: Audiera’s AI token BEAT beats Bitcoin, Ethereum as price surges 1,500% in a month

ETH liquidation risk remains on both sides

Market analyst Amr Taha highlighted a growing split in exchange positioning. Binance recorded a 30-day open interest increase of 616,400 ETH, its strongest reading since 2019. During the same period, Gate.io posted a decline of 631,700 ETH.

Multi-exchange open interest 30-day change. Source: CryptoQuant

Liquidation heatmaps show nearly $8 billion in short positions clustered between $2,200 and $2,400. Those levels stand out as key liquidity zones if ETH price begins to push higher. 

However, near-term positioning remains heavily leveraged on both sides. Roughly $1.72 billion in cumulative long liquidations sits below the current price of $1,500, while nearly $1.90 billion in short liquidation exposure is concentrated near $1,800. 

The narrow gap between those pools highlights a market where both bullish and bearish positions carry significant liquidation risk.

ETH liquidation map. Source: CoinGlass

Related: ETH crash to $1K looms if key support breaks: Will futures traders step in?

Binance has announced a $250,000 humanitarian contribution to support frontline response efforts against an ongoing Ebola outbreak affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The exchange said the funds will be divided equally between the Uganda Red Cross Society and Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

What the donation will support

The company said the funding is earmarked for activities such as emergency medical care, prevention and public-awareness campaigns, contact tracing and containment work, and provision of sanitation supplies and personal protective equipment for health workers. Binance framed the contribution as a rapid-response intervention to shore up services in high-risk and underserved areas where healthcare access remains limited.

Outbreak context and operational constraints

Health authorities have linked the recent cases to the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or targeted antiviral treatment. That profile heightens pressure on local health systems, particularly in eastern DRC where insecurity and limited infrastructure complicate response operations. MSF has reported concern about the speed and geographic spread of the outbreak, including cross-border transmission into Uganda, and has emphasised the need for swift action to prevent escalation.

Operationally, donations that finance protective equipment, sanitation, community outreach and contact tracing can improve immediate containment measures. However, humanitarian responders frequently highlight that resources alone are not a silver bullet: access, security, logistics and sustained funding streams all influence whether short-term grants translate into lower transmission.

Why a crypto firm is stepping in

Binance has been expanding its footprint across African markets through initiatives tied to education, digital skills and financial inclusion. This contribution follows a pattern of technology and crypto companies engaging in corporate social responsibility and emergency aid, often to complement work by established humanitarian organisations.

For Binance, supporting recognised responders such as MSF and national Red Cross societies helps direct funds to organisations with operational experience and logistics networks already in place. The company has also publicly urged other firms active in the region to consider similar support during humanitarian crises.

Industry and reputational implications

Donations by major crypto platforms carry both practical and reputational effects. On the practical side, funds can supply critical items that immediate responders need. From a reputational perspective, contributions to humanitarian causes can bolster a company’s public image and relationships with governments and civil-society actors—important in jurisdictions where crypto regulation and licensing are evolving.

At the same time, observers note potential limits. A $250,000 pledge, while useful for targeted activities, is modest relative to the scale of nationwide outbreak responses and the sustained funding those efforts typically demand. How companies balance short-term aid with longer-term development or health-system strengthening will shape whether their interventions are perceived as substantive or largely symbolic.

What this means for responders and the region

For frontline organisations, rapid injections of cash can enable faster procurement of supplies and quicker expansion of outreach in specific communities. MSF and national Red Cross societies often operate in volatile environments where formal procurement channels and local markets may be disrupted; unrestricted funds or targeted grants for equipment and awareness campaigns can therefore have a direct impact on response speed.

Nonetheless, containment of Ebola outbreaks relies on coordinated multi-agency efforts, steady surveillance and community trust. Financial contributions from private companies are most effective when they align with national and international response plans and when they are delivered through partners with local operational capacity.

Looking ahead

Binance’s contribution highlights a growing trend of crypto-sector actors participating in humanitarian financing, particularly in regions where they have commercial or strategic interest. For policy makers and aid organisations, the emergence of new private donors offers additional resources but also underscores the need for transparent coordination, accountability and sustained engagement to ensure that funds strengthen resilience rather than only addressing immediate gaps.

As the outbreak evolves, the priority for health agencies and their partners will remain rapid detection, treatment where possible, and measures to break chains of transmission. Private donations can support those goals, but they are one element within a broader, resource-intensive public-health response.