Cryptocurrency
Islamic finance and Web3 take stage at Istanbul Blockchain Week

Being one flight away from both Dubai and London, Istanbul is the “financial capital” of Turkey and a popular destination for events and organizations. Its convenient location also helps organizers customize their events to align with the specific needs of Eastern or Western cultures — which felt like the case at Istanbul Blockchain Week 2023.
IBW 2023 saw thousands of local and international enthusiasts join the conversation on crypto, blockchain and Web3 on Aug. 22 and 23 at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti. Tailored to reflect the various discussions across the Web3 ecosystem, the event’s agenda was filled with keynotes about artificial intelligence (AI), regulation, Web3 gaming and blockchain use cases from the real world.
Aside from the hot topics to capture the global audience, IBW 2023 also featured region-specific talks, such as on Islamic finance and a Shariah-compliant Web3 economy. The explosive growth of crypto and Web3 in the United Arab Emirates, especially in Dubai, combined with the UAE’s interest in the Turkish market created a convenient time frame for organizer EAK Digital to hold this year’s event, just nine months after IBW 2022.

Having the event in August in Istanbul was a strategic decision, according to Erhan Korhaliller, founder and CEO of EAK Digital. He explained that it’s far too hot to have any events in summer in Dubai, so they presented Istanbul as a neighboring international hub for major players from the UAE — and their tactic paid off:
“We have over 25 booths this year. A hackathon with a $50,000 prize. […] Having the government representatives and big banks with us here during a bear market is very important.”
Aside from the agenda for the main stage, the event hall was packed with blockchain and crypto enthusiasts from various backgrounds networking, holding roundtable discussions and workshops, getting themselves scanned for the metaverse, or simply chatting and taking selfies with Desi, the conversational AI robot from SingularityNET and Yaya Labs.
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While AI, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and Web3-friendly fan tokens featured prominently in the main hall, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were notably missing. Last year, there was a whole day and an exhibition dedicated to NFTs.
“As organizers, we should be flexible and adaptive to what the market is telling us,” explained Korhaliller. “NFT trading is like 99% down. The interest clearly is not here, and therefore, we’re not doing an NFT Day this year.”
Islamic finance hackathon
Similar to last year, the main stage was divided into several events to hold speeches, workshops and the IstanHack hackathon simultaneously.
As keynote speakers presented their arguments around crucial elements of Islamic finance, a crowded cast of young developers coded against time to create working solutions that aligned with the overall mission of the event — promoting ethical finance and sustainable development for people dissatisfied with traditional banking.

Islamic finance has a target market of 1.9 billion people, most of whom are unsatisfied with traditional finance services due to the involvement of interest. “Interest is forbidden in Islam,” explained Tansel Kaya, an IstanHack juror and founder of Mindstone Blockchain Labs. He told Cointelegraph that more than just the big prize, “the hackathon served as an eye-opener for the young talent looking to develop something beyond your run-of-the-mill DeFi yield products.”
AI takes the stage
AI was a hot topic, both on and off stage, during Istanbul Blockchain Week, with participating companies demonstrating their take on how Web3 and AI can be in sync. During his speech titled “The Future of Decentralised Generative AI on Blockchain,” SingularityNET chief marketing officer Loic Claveau noted that for the first time in history, people have the ability to own their data.
“AI is very data-intensive,” he said, adding, “It needs to run a ton of data to be able to work as you use something like ChatGPT. It is a Big Tech monopoly. […] All the big behemoths of the tech world, they run and they do it.”

According to Claveua, AI developers who work with a relatively smaller team have two options at this point: Working for Big Tech or selling their next big ideas to Big Tech. “That’s the way to move forward in your career and get into the very interesting projects.”
Crypto adoption: Slowly but surely
Cointelegraph Turkey was one of the media partners of the event as well. “Here in Istanbul, we are still experiencing the impact of a prolonged bear market, just like the rest of the world,” commented Eray Dengiz, CEO of Cointelegraph Turkey and Kriptomeda.
He underscored the importance of the active participation from the Turkish banking ecosystem, with major Turkish banks such as Garanti BBVA, Akbank and Yapi Kredi attending a panel for CBDCs.
Röportajlarımız devam ediyor. #IBW23 pic.twitter.com/oXe6GsK6cw
— Cointelegraph Türkiye (@CointelegraphTR) August 23, 2023
A first-timer to a crypto event held in Turkey was Addy Crezee, founder of NFT ticketing platform Ozaru and the former CEO of Cointelegraph’s own global event, BlockShow. Crezee moderated a panel about crypto finance at IBW 2023.
Recent: Bitcoin gains traction in West Africa with educational drive
“Obviously, finance is the biggest topic here in Turkey,” he told Cointelegraph. “When you come out of the plane, you see all the ads from all the different exchanges. I was impressed.”
Highlighting the overall progress the crypto ecosystem has achieved in terms of adoption and reaching more people in less than a decade, Crezee summarized:
“I remember attending crypto events, mainly about Bitcoin, in 2014 or 2015. There were less than a hundred people. Today, when an event attracts less than a thousand people, it’s considered pretty small.”
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Cryptocurrency
DWF Ventures Analyzes Performance of Binance Alpha and Spot Listings

[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, June 13th, 2025]
Leading web3 investor DWF Ventures has published an analysis of Binance Alpha and Spot listings. It examines the performance of projects that have reached the exchange’s spot market following a token launch on Binance Alpha.
DWF Ventures has comprehensively analyzed the projects that have featured on Binance Alpha following the introduction of the listing mechanism in 2024. It highlights the increased transparency that Alpha brings by enabling users to appraise the merits of emerging tokens, some of which have the potential to migrate to a Binance Spot listing.
Research conducted by DWF Ventures has found that of the more than 190 projects to have been selected by Binance Alpha to date, more than 70% are currently trading at below $50M market cap, while a handful of outliers such as Ondo and Virtuals have surpassed $1B valuation.
DWF Ventures’ analysis also shows that memecoins and AI agents have dominated Binance Alpha projects with DeFi in third place. Memecoins and AI agents surpass all other onchain sectors featured in Binance Alpha combined. DWF further found that Solana was the most popular chain for featured projects, followed closely by BNB Chain and Ethereum.
Key findings from DWF Ventures’ Binance Alpha report include the fact that around 10% of Alpha projects converted to a Spot listing, with a total of 19 making the grade. DeFi and memecoins had the highest conversion rate, while the most valuable projects after Ondo and Virtuals were Maple Finance and Cookie DAO.
DWF Ventures summarizes its report by noting that projects that migrate from Alpha to Spot are typically defined by active social media engagement, high trading volume, and are category leaders in popular onchain verticals. The full DWF Ventures report can be read here.
About DWF Labs
DWF Labs is the new generation Web3 investor and market maker, one of the world’s largest high-frequency cryptocurrency trading entities, which trades spot and derivatives markets on over 60 top exchanges.
Learn more: https://www.dwf-labs.com/
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Cryptocurrency
Roam Launches on Binance Alpha and Solana’s Meteora DEX, Expands Cross-Chain Access via BSC Integration

[PRESS RELEASE – Vancouver, Canada, June 13th, 2025]
Roam, the open wireless network powered by WiFi and eSIM technologies, today announced its official listing on Binance Alpha, alongside the launch of a liquidity pool on Meteora, the leading Solana-based DEX. This dual listing marks a significant step in Roam’s cross-chain expansion, boosting $ROAM token accessibility across both BNB Chain and Solana ecosystems.
Beginning June 13 at 13:00 UTC, eligible Binance users can participate in the ROAM Alpha campaign and claim rewards through Binance’s official event portal. Simultaneously, liquidity providers on Meteora can earn platform-specific incentives via Roam’s official LP pool.
Staking and Airdrop Rewards for General Users and Roam Miners
Roam is introducing a high-yield staking program offering an average 35% APY for general users. Meanwhile, Roam Miner users can access a dedicated staking pool with 500 $ROAM staking capacity per device, a guaranteed 100% APY, and monthly airdrops of 40 $ROAM per device for six consecutive months.
This reward structure is designed to align long-term community participation with Roam’s DePIN-based infrastructure and token economy.
Binance Alpha: Early Access to Curated Web3 Projects
Binance Alpha is Binance’s discovery platform for early-stage Web3 tokens, offering users curated access to high-potential projects. ROAM was selected based on its ecosystem growth, on-chain traction, and technical innovation.
With Alpha’s streamlined “Quick Buy” feature, users can purchase ROAM without adjusting slippage or navigating gas-intensive environments. Enhanced trade routing and MEV protection ensure security and efficiency. Participants can also earn Alpha Points by trading or holding ROAM, unlocking airdrops, and other future benefits.
Meteora Listing Enhances $ROAM Liquidity on Solana
Roam’s debut on Meteora—the dynamic liquidity protocol developed by the team behind Jupiter—brings sustainable market depth to $ROAM within the Solana DeFi ecosystem. Meteora’s DLMM architecture, AMM vaults, and liquidity aggregation reduce volatility and deliver optimized capital efficiency for LPs.
The integration strengthens Roam’s Solana presence while supporting long-term DeFi adoption and trading scalability.
BSC Integration Enables Cross-Chain Token Access via Roam App
To improve user accessibility and trading flexibility, Roam has enabled native cross-chain support via Wormhole’s NTT framework, allowing users to bridge ROAM between Solana and BNB Chain directly within the Roam App. The process is intuitive, requiring no third-party tools or external wallets.
This BSC integration introduces $ROAM to new users across Binance’s CEX and DeFi ecosystems while offering reduced transaction costs. Users can deposit directly from Binance accounts and access $ROAM on platforms such as PancakeSwap. The feature complements Binance Alpha’s zero-fee trading promotion (March 17–September 17, 2025), further reducing onboarding friction.
Building Real-World Adoption Through Decentralized Connectivity
Roam is expanding its presence as a decentralized infrastructure provider focused on enabling real-world connectivity. Backed by OpenRoaming and eSIM technologies, Roam has deployed over 10 million WiFi nodes, serving more than 2.8 million global users.
With the Roam App, users can connect to nearby Roam WiFi hotspots and earn Roam Points by contributing to the network—through adding WiFi nodes, completing WiFi Check-Ins, and participating in community-driven campaigns. These points can be converted into $ROAM tokens, creating a tangible bridge between user contributions and token utility.
Roam’s token model supports real yield through network growth, and its expanding ecosystem includes targeted advertising, Web3 travel integrations, and enterprise-grade eSIM services trusted by partners like Bybit and MEXC. The soon-to-launch Premium eSIM will integrate voice, SMS, and high-speed data, with users able to purchase service directly using $ROAM—strengthening utility across both consumer and enterprise use cases.
About Roam
Roam is focused on building a decentralized global open wireless network that provides seamless, secure connectivity for individuals and smart devices, whether stationary or mobile. Through a blockchain-based credential infrastructure, Roam has supported the adoption of WiFi OpenRoaming among small and medium-sized businesses.
As highlighted in Messari’s 2024 State of DePIN report, Roam is recognized as the fourth-largest DePIN project globally, with a network of over 2.1 million nodes spanning 200 countries and a user base of 2.4 million registered app users. The network also enables access to free eSIM data through participation in activities such as building and validating WiFi nodes, demonstrating Roam’s role in advancing adoption within the DePIN sector.
Users can contact Roam via:
Twitter: https://x.com/weRoamxyz
Telegram: https://t.me/WeRoamXYZ
For more information, users can visit the Roam App or follow official exchange announcements.
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Cryptocurrency
Sharplink Becomes Largest Public ETH Holder With $462M Purchase but Shares Tumble

Sharplink Gaming has taken a major step into the crypto space by establishing an Ethereum Treasury Reserve and acquiring over $462 million worth of ETH. This move makes the company the largest public holder of ETH, second only to the Ethereum Foundation.
According to a press release, Sharplink purchased 176,270.69 ETH at an average price of $2,626, totaling approximately $462.9 million. The acquisition reflects a major shift in the firm’s strategy, placing Ethereum at the center of its digital asset reserves.
Sharplink’s ETH Funding Strategy
To fund the purchase, Sharplink raised $425 million through a private placement deal and another $79 million via an at-the-market (ATM) equity offering. The company used most of these proceeds to acquire ETH, highlighting its strong commitment to building a substantial crypto reserve.
As a result, Sharplink reported an 11.9% increase in ETH per share since June 2. It has also deployed over 95% of its ETH into staking and liquid staking protocols, contributing to Ethereum’s network security while generating passive yield.
Stock Dips Despite Ethereum Bet
Despite Sharplink’s bullish ETH announcement, its stock (SBET) experienced sharp volatility. According to Google Finance, the stock dropped 12.25% on Thursday to close at $32.50, then plunged to as low as $8 in after-hours trading.
However, by Friday, it had recovered slightly to $11.05, still down about 66% over 24 hours. Nonetheless, the stock remains up nearly 230% over the past month and 37% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, the steep drop came after Sharplink filed an S-3 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing outlined a possible resale of 58.7 million shares issued during a previous private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering, involving more than 100 investors.
In turn, this triggered fears of dilution, prompting a wave of selling. In response, Sharplink Chairman Joseph Lubin clarified on X that the filing doesn’t reflect any current sales. He explained that it only registers shares in case past investors choose to sell later.
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