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Coinbase, BiT Global End Legal Fight Over WBTC Delisting

by admin June 8, 2025

BiT Global has ended its dispute over the delisting of BiT Global’s wrapped bitcoin (wBTC) token on Coinbase.

According to a joint court filing, BiT Global has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the crypto exchange with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought again in the future. The filing notes that both companies will cover their own legal expenses.

BiT Global had filed the lawsuit last year in the Northern District of California after Coinbase delisted the token over what it said was “unacceptable risk” that the tokenized BTC would “fall into the hands of Justin Sun.”

Sun became affiliated with wBTC in August last year through a partnership, prompting Coinbase to question BiT Global about his role. Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire, has nevertheless been supporting the token, with World Liberty Financial dropping its cbBTC for wBTC after he joined as an advisor.

The suit alleged the exchange’s decision was unjustified and harmed the token’s liquidity and reputation while favoring Coinbase’s competing asset cbBTC. Coinbase launched cbBTC just two months before announcing it was delisting wBTC.

The dismissal does not disclose any terms beyond the cost arrangement.

UPDATE (June 7, 2025, 22:30 UTC): Clarifies the filing was not a settlement.

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June 8, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Elon Musk’s Fight With Trump Threatens $48 Billion in Government Contracts

by admin June 7, 2025

The data show the US is also on the hook for about $14 billion for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service at numerous offices, such as a Department of Interior facility in Nevada.

The data could be outdated or include errors, but many of the listed figures line up with press releases from agencies such as the US Space Force. Some of the funding is subject to congressional approval, and a portion could end up going to SpaceX’s rivals.

But SpaceX’s competitors have faced numerous technical setbacks, and Musk’s company remains the dominant market leader. The billionaire said this week that SpaceX would earn about $15.5 billion in revenue this year, nearly double estimates from two years ago. SpaceX has accounted for 134 of the 166 orbital launches in the US so far this year, according to tracking by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

WIRED didn’t review detailed contracts or search for deals the government may have struck with Musk’s companies through intermediaries. For instance, some government agencies may be buying ads on Musk’s X social media platform through advertising agencies.

The government’s vehicle fleet includes Tesla electric vehicles, according to documents online, and the General Services Administration recently paid the company for maintenance.

But the GSA’s annual Federal Fleet Report doesn’t break down the number of vehicles by manufacturer or offer details on future spending. The report lists 7,706 battery-electric vehicles in the government fleet. Earlier this year, the Trump administration paused orders for new zero-emission vehicles, dealing a blow to companies such as Tesla.

DOGE Pinching

Musk’s companies have benefited from government support for years. In February, an analysis by The Washington Post found Musk businesses had received at least $38 billion since 2003 in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits across the US, including at the state and local levels. A New York Times analysis from October identified at least $15.4 billion in federal government contracts over the past decade for Tesla and SpaceX.

But Musk himself has tried to take a chain saw to federal spending through his work leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which claims to have saved $180 billion since January, including by canceling contracts, though that figure remains highly disputed.

Some of DOGE’s efforts were temporarily blocked by the federal courts and also drew protests from federal labor unions, public activists, Congress, states, and even Trump’s own aides and cabinet secretaries. Last month, Musk said he was stepping away from DOGE work to focus on his companies.

Trump’s cost-cutting initiatives haven’t stopped, though. Hiring freezes remain in effect, and the importance of stretching each dollar further is being emphasized more than ever at many federal agencies, according to representatives at two companies with major government contracts. They declined to be named out of fear of retribution from Trump.

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June 7, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Sony unveils its own internally designed fight stick, Project Defiant

by admin June 6, 2025

Sony is designing its own fight stick.

Revealed last night (June 4) at PlayStation’s State of Play showcase, Sony confirmed the “ultra-low latency” wireless stick, known internally as Project Defiant, is expected to be available in 2026. No price point has been set for the peripheral.

“Project Defiant features a high-quality digital stick that’s custom-designed by Sony Interactive Entertainment,” explained VP for product development, Edwin Foo.

“The controller features toolless interchangeable restrictor gates (square, circle, and octagon) for the stick, buttons with mechanical switches, and a touch pad like the one found on the DualSense wireless controller. It’s built in a sturdy, ergonomic design for a comfortable feel during intense fight sessions.

“For convenience and portability, the controller has a storage compartment for restrictor gates and PS Link USB adapter. Project Defiant also supports the ability to wirelessly wake up your PS5 by pressing and holding the PS button.”

The controller’s final name and launch date are expected “in the months ahead.”

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June 6, 2025 0 comments

A bird man character from Elden Ring reads a book in a library

Product Reviews

Elden Ring Nightreign players have figured out how to guarantee you always reach max level by the time you fight your run’s Nightlord, but unfortunately it’s super boring

by admin June 5, 2025

I’ve got a few dozen Elden Ring Nightreign expeditions on the books, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone when I say they haven’t all been successes. Many of those failures have come agonizingly close to victory, where my team’s Nightlord target survived by only a sliver of health—a sliver it probably wouldn’t have had if we’d entered the arena with one or two more levels.

Luckily, Nightreign players on Reddit have found a method for ensuring you’re always at max level when you face off with your run’s final boss. Unfortunately, it’s—well—pretty boring.

The trick is simple: just don’t jump in the goo.

Let me explain. The idea is that you run through your expedition as normal until you’ve killed the boss at the end of Day 2. However, once the pile of ethereal goop appears as your gateway to the Spirit Shelter where you’re intended to do your final Nightlord prep, don’t jump in.

Nightreign Pro Tip: Guaranteed level 15 every game and anyone can do it! from r/Nightreign

If you open your map, you’ll see why. Once the Day 2 boss dies, all the Sites of Grace on the map become active. That means, if you intentionally avoid ascending to boss fight heaven, you and your team can run around the map farming enemies, providing enough runes to hit max level.

Now, there is a complication. The battle royale-style circle of hellish, lethal fire is still locked around where you fought the Day 2 boss, so you will be taking tick damage while you’re running around grinding out levels. Thankfully, it’s not much of an issue: Just kill enemies until you run out of flasks and die, and then you can simply run back from the nearest Grace, pick your runes back up, and carry on—collecting your runes after death gives you enough to reclaim your lost level, after all.

The real problem is that this is extremely tedious. It’s easy to imagine a nightmare world in which, very soon, randoms online will get irritated if you aren’t joining them to grind out a few more levels in the hellfire.

It’s hard to say how likely it is that FromSoft will patch this. On one hand, it’s against the spirit of Nightreign’s whole deal—why have the time pressure of the battle royale circle if you can just ignore it at the end? On the other, doing it is kinda miserable. Time will tell.

If you’re willing to top off your levels with this method, you might want to do it sooner than later. But I’d recommend saving it for when you’re playing with a full party—for all our sakes.

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June 5, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Diablo 4’s Season 9 finally lets us fight Astaroth in the endgame, but the rest of what it brings feels like a re-skin of old systems

by admin May 24, 2025

Right on schedule, Blizzard delivered a long and detailed livestream covering Diablo 4’s upcoming patch 2.3.0 PTR (Public Test Realm). The developer revealed when the PTR will be going online, and what it’s actually going to include.

The PTR will, as previously revealed, only be available on PC through Battlenet. It will go live next week, on Tuesday, May 27, ending one week later on June 3.

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As you may recall from the Diablo 4 roadmap, Season 9 is titled Sins of the Horadrim. The structure of the next season will be similar to recent ones: there’s going to be a new activity or two, with the new gameplay revolving mainly around powers you can acquire as you play said activities.

For Sins of the Horadrim, the new endgame activity is called Escalating Nightmares (previously Dungeon Escalation), and the powers will be Horadric Spellcraft. Astaroth will also return as part of the season.

The highlight of the new season is the ability to create Horadric Spells, a new system that relies on three elements to function: Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana. Catalysts are the base, unmodified powers, which you can then alter with Infusions. This changes the elemental damage type of the spell, but you can also change the baseline power of it using Arcana.

The system, in essence, is a refresh of Season 7’s Witchcraft Powers, and is similar to Season 8’s Boss Powers in the way it works, too.

Look familiar? | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment.

Something else being introduced with Sins of the Horadrim is Horadric Strongrooms. These are micro-dungeons that can be found within larger Nightmare Dungeons. Your goal is to claim some lost Horadric knowledge within, and fight your way out in time, as a timer kicks in after you trigger a Strongroom.

Doing so will earn you Horadric Attunement, which can later be exchanged for rewards. The chances of Horadric Strongrooms spawning increase the higher your Torment level, but you can also use Horadric Phials (a new seasonal currency) to increase your chance of finding them further. Some Nightmare Dungeon Sigils will also guarantee a Horadric Strongroom can be found within.

Horadric Strongrooms follow a similar dungeon design where you get to choose what sort of challenge you want to take on by interacting with one of the different Horadric Pillars. Once the ritual is performed and the pillar is satiated, you’ll get Horadric Attunement. At the end of it, there’s a boss you’ll need to fight to complete the run. Before you leave, you’ll get to use your Horadric Attunement to acquire a Horadric cache.

He’s back! | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment.

The big new activity in Season 9 is Escalating Nightmares, which is a fancy name for a new chain of three Nightmare Dungeons, with nightmares escalating as you go through each. The main hook here is that each dungeon’s affixes stack with the next one, meaning the third in the chain will have affixes from all three. If you manage to go through all three, you’ll get to fight an Exalted version of Astaroth.

Triggering an instance of Escalating Nightmare requires an Escalation Sigil, which can be found in Horadric caches from the aforementioned Strongrooms (starting from Torment 1). The Astaroth fight itself is one of the most impressive and memorable fights from Diablo 4’s campaign, and players have been asking Blizzard since launch to bring it into the endgame.

This version has something of a mechanical twist, too. Astaroth will jump off his mount, essentially forcing you to fight both him and Amalgam. This isn’t just a visual trick, either, because slaying Amalgam before Astaroth sends the hound into a resurrection state that will put it back in the fight after some time.

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As you might have guessed, there’s a major focus on dungeons in Season 9. Blizzard is turning its gaze to dungeons across both the Seasonal, and Eternal Realms. This will encompass a few tweaks, as well as some new quality of life changes. You’ll soon be able to activate a Nightmare Sigil from within the Nightmare Dungeon itself once it’s complete, meaning you’ll be able to re-run the same one without having to leave and re-enter to create a new instance. The pool of Nightmare Dungeon affixes is also being bolstered with a set of new ones, available across both realms.

Then there’s Horadric Jewels, which will be available in Torment 1 and beyond. Completing a Strongroom has a chance to spawn Horadric Tomes, which, when consumed, let you craft Horadric Jewels. These are effectively gems, just with some powerful effects that play nicely with your Horadric Spells. You’ll also need Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments to craft them, and they can only be socketed into Amulets and Rings.

Catch up on the full change log on the Diablo 4 blog, which also includes PTR-specific boosts those taking part will need to rely on if they want to get into endgame content quickly.

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May 24, 2025 0 comments