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$1.2 Billion in Solana Moved in Mere Minutes, What's Happening?
NFT Gaming

$1.2 Billion in Solana Moved in Mere Minutes, What’s Happening?

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Solana has seen dramatic moves among whales in the last hour as the token continues to trend upwards today. 

As enthusiasm appears to be returning to the crypto market, on-chain tracking firm Whale Alert has spotted Solana whales pulling large amounts of SOL from the leading U.S. crypto exchange on September 11.

According to data provided by the source, Solana has recorded a series of high-volume transfers in the last hour, seeing over $1.2 billion worth of Solana being moved among large holders.

More specifically, the transfers happened in a series of 7 separate transactions, each seeing hundreds of thousands of SOL tokens move between Coinbase Institutional and different unknown wallets.

Solana whales resurge with billion dollar moves

Among the pack of high-volume SOL transfers witnessed during the period, the largest of them all involved 1,756,934 SOL worth $398.84 million being mysteriously exchanged among two unknown wallets.

While the transaction did not involve the service of any crypto exchange, it is difficult to tell if the move was an attempt to buy or sell the tokens, pointing to a possible internal reshuffling of assets by large holders.

On the other hand, the smallest of the moves happened in two repeated identical transfers of 439,233 SOL worth $99.2 million each. Each of these transfers was pulled from the leading U.S. crypto exchange, signaling major buy activities from high-profile investors or institutions.

Other transactions involved 999,999 SOL worth $225.68 million moved from an unknown wallet to Coinbase Institutional, 755,934 SOL worth $171.20 million transferred back from an unknown wallet to Coinbase Institutional, and 505,935 SOL worth $114.70 million moved among two unknown wallets.

While the move appears bullish for the Solana ecosystem, the repeated major activities which happened in dramatic consecutive order signal heightening interest from institutional investors or high-profile entities holding large amounts of SOL.

With these bullish moves coinciding with the broad crypto market rebound, market watchers are keeping a close eye on SOL price action as they remain optimistic that the large whale transfers could sustain the ongoing rally, pushing Solana’s price beyond expected highs.



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Ripple XRP price
Crypto Trends

Chainalysis Extends XRP Ledger Support In Latest Move – What’s New?

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Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Chainalysis is extending its support for the XRP Ledger and the new coverage goes beyond the native token. Customers now get more ways to follow token activity and check transactions. With Chainalysis adding this extended support, users now have stronger ways to interact with one of the most active blockchains in the market.

Chainalysis Expands Coverage For XRP Ledger

In its announcement, Chainalysis explained that automatic token support now includes fungible tokens such as IOUs, non-fungible tokens under the XLS-20 standard, and multi-purpose tokens, also known as MPTs. MPTs operate like Ethereum’s well-known ERC-1155 tokens. The update means many different kinds of assets on the XRP Ledger are now covered.

The company also shared that more than 260,000 tokens are already supported. As developers create more tokens on the blockchain, the total number increases daily, showing the steady activity and expansion of the XRP Ledger.

Chainalysis added that customers can now use its KYT (Know Your Transaction) service to monitor these tokens. KYT gives real-time alerts, continuous tracking, and compliance checks. Chainalysis KYT now keeps a close eye on a wide range of XRP Ledger assets, making activity on the network easier to monitor and safer to engage with.

Stronger Tools For Compliance And Investigations

Chainalysis also highlights that its expansion links directly to the company’s main investigative products. The extended coverage is now available through Reactor, the platform designed for in-depth transaction reviews and its entity screening services. 

Customers can now use the Chainalysis Reactor tool and entity screening products with XRPL tokens. They can visualize transactions in detail and act quickly if they notice risks. Customers can now track token flows, see how money moves, and identify signs of suspicious activity. 

Chainalysis noted that the XRP Ledger is well-known for facilitating fast and low-cost cross-border transactions, making it one of the most trusted blockchains today. The network has handled more than 3.3 billion transactions across over 90 million blocks. 

Its native token remains among the top digital assets by market value and is supported by a large global community. The Ledger itself continues to show strong performance. Nearly 200 validators worldwide support it, which are independent nodes that confirm transactions, with Ripple named as a key contributor. 

The Chainalysis update will make oversight on the XRP Ledger easier at a time when the number of tokens is skyrocketing. Customers can now use its Reactor tool to check XRPL tokens, follow how funds move, and help keep the network secure.

With the latest support from Chainalysis, the ledger becomes even more transparent, and customers now have safer and stronger ways to follow the growing number of tokens that developers are adding to the blockchain. 

Bulls push for another test for $3 | Source: XRPUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured image from DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.



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What’s the Real Difference Between the iPhone Air and iPhone 16?
Product Reviews

What’s the Real Difference Between the iPhone Air and iPhone 16?

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Thin phones are in. The iPhone Air (not the iPhone 17 Air, as rumors previously suggested) will be the thinnest iPhone ever, or at least that’s what Apple claimed at its “Awe Dropping” product debut Tuesday. Whether that matters to you depends on the size of your pocket, though. If you were wondering just how this compares to the last-gen iPhone 16, we have most of the specs necessary to offer a point of comparison. The iPhone Air effectively replaces the usual Plus model in the latest smartphone lineup. If you were thinking about jumping on the upgrade, perhaps you should hold your horses and consider if you’ll be giving anything up for the sake of a cake-cutting iPhone.

The closest comparison to what you can get in the U.S. is the $1,100 Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. That device’s 5.8mm thickness is slim enough to cut a slice of pie, but it also gives up flagship-level battery life with its 3,900mAh battery. The first iPhone Air will also miss out on the battery life Apple fans have come to expect from their phones. It’s better to think of the Air as an alternative device, a phone with a very specific use case (extremely thin pockets) and a user base with specific needs (wanting to be the cool kids on the block with the latest iPhone design).

But we’ll need to put the new Air through its paces. Perhaps, with time, it will prove as landmark a device as the original MacBook Air was close to two decades ago. Or maybe China-based companies like Tecno will figure out slim devices with good batteries far faster than the engineers in Cupertino. Time—as always—will tell.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Design

Your regular iPhone 16 came with several new features that would normally be relegated to the Pro models. For one, it featured an all-new Camera Control capacitive button used for snapping photos or modifying photo settings without having to touch the screen. It included Apple’s A18 chip, which sported a beefed-up CPU and GPU with enough power to handle on-device ray tracing; being close enough to the iPhone 16 Pro, the device felt like a bargain. The good news is the iPhone Air still has the Camera Control button as well as the Dynamic Island on the main display, rather than any sort of notch.

The iPhone Air boasts Ceramic Shield 2 on the glass and back for better scratch and crack resistance, plus titanium sides that are supposed to keep the device from bending under pressure. Apple’s older phone from 2024 was 7.8mm thin, which is standard for a phone that weighs in at just 170g, or .37 pounds. Few people would call that thick or heavy. Compared to the Air, the 16 is a brick. The iPhone Air weighs in at 165g, or .36 pounds. The difference in weight is so minimal, though at 5.6mm thick, the Air is many times thinner than the 16. If you want a point of comparison, glance at this video showing off the S25 Edge at 5.8mm versus the Air.

iPhone Air thinned comparison with Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/BlujtA6wV1

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

The major distinction between the old and new devices is what lies inside. Apple designed the Air from the ground up with new in-house 5G modems and wireless chips. The iPhone 16, by comparison, uses a Qualcomm-made 5G modem. The new device also comes stock with 256GB of storage for its base price, whereas the iPhone 16 makes do with 128GB. While the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 sport a host of calming colors (pink, teal, and ultramarine blue), the base 17 also comes in calming lavender and sage hues. The iPhone Air will seem a little more mundane with black, white, light gold, plus a “sky blue” hue, which I imagine is similar to the gray-blue of the MacBook Air with M4.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Battery

If you’re looking for the main distinction between Apple’s new phone category and its battery. The iPhone 16 was rated for up to 22 hours of battery life in video playback tests, but in real life, we’ve seen the iPhone 16 go for more than a full day after regular use and still have some juice for the following morning. The iPhone 16’s battery capacity sits at 3,561mAh, which doesn’t seem especially high until you consider the limited refresh rate and Apple’s good standby power savings on the base iPhone.

Apple has yet to share precise specs for the iPhone Air’s battery capacity. Instead, the company repeatedly promised the device would have a “full-day” battery life. On the specs page, Apple said the Air managed to hit 27 hours in video playback tests, though only 22 hours when streaming. That’s better than a base iPhone 16, though not nearly as good as the iPhone 16 Plus, which the Air is effectively replacing in Apple’s 2025 iPhone lineup. Apple emphasized all the extra work it did to maximize battery efficiency.

iPhone Air with battery pack pic.twitter.com/dSy3jy8LAx

— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) September 9, 2025

The iPhone Air promises to support a separate “iPhone Air MagSafe Battery” sold separately from the main unit. This battery, which is three-quarters the size of the actual phone, should push the battery life further at the cost of the thin frame. At least, the new device is compatible with the Qi2 standard up to 20W as well as MagSafe.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Camera

The iPhone Air is supposedly very durable, but you’ll need to give up on an ultrawide sensor. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo

The older iPhone contained a 48-megapixel Fusion camera as well as a 12-megapixel ultrawide. The main sensor also enabled 12-megapixel 2x telephoto pictures. The device also made use of the TrueDepth camera for Face ID. The iPhone Air is notable since it contains a single camera bump, just like the iPhone 16e. The new device sports the 48-megapixel Fusion main camera that also allows for 2x, 12-megapixel telephoto shots. Unfortunately, there’s no ultra-wide lens to speak of. The new device can also handle 4K video up to 60 FPS, the same as the iPhone 16.

The Air has one sensor that beats the 16. The slim device sports an 18-megapixel “Center Stage” front camera compared to 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16. Apple suggested users would end up spending more time with the front camera with the inclusion of better image stabilization.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Display

With a 6.3-inch OLED display at 2,556×1,179 resolution, the regular iPhone was still a looker even compared to the larger, higher-resolution Plus model. The device was limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, which miffed some users when comparing their phones to mainline Android devices. Still, that means the device lasts longer compared to other devices.

The iPhone Air is slightly larger at 6.5 inches, less than the iPhone 16 Plus, though it sports a big, 2,736×1,260 resolution screen at 460 PPI, or pixels-per-inch—the same as the older phone models. However, the Air features a much faster screen at a 120Hz refresh rate that can go down to 1Hz if you enjoy an always-on display blazing from your nightstand.

First look at how thin the iPhone Air is #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/0uMLAJayOi

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

The Air may have a brighter display at both HDR and SDR brightness for viewing outside, though the device is not designed to share screens over USB. Compared to the iPhone 16, which supported DisplayPort over USB-C, the iPhone Air doesn’t.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Chip

The iPhone 16’s A18 chip was one of Apple’s best for the regular iPhone, often meeting benchmarks of the A18 Pro-level chip except in intensive situations, like ray tracing scenarios when gaming. The A18 was built on a six-core CPU and five-core GPU design with a 16-core neural engine.

Not much has changed in configuration, though Apple swears the Air’s A19 Pro is a true next-gen chip despite it all. The A19 Pro uses a six-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, alongside a five-core GPU (the iPhone 17 Pro devices make use of a six-core GPU, which will make them slightly better for graphics tasks). The device still supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

The A19 Pro is supposed to make the phone more energy efficient while improving on single-thread performance, which is how Apple is implying it should be able to handle simple tasks faster than before. How well it performs in the field, especially considering its awkward battery life specs, will determine if the thin frame is worth all the other small trade-offs.





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Ethena Price Soars 15% In 24 Hours. What’s Going On
Crypto Trends

Ethena Price Soars 15% in 24 Hours. What’s Going On?

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Ethena’s ENA token is on fire today as it bounced back with one of its strongest weeks in months, and climbed more than 12% in just a day to trade near $0.7351. The rally has also pushed weekly gains above 12%, while its market cap is now sitting at more than $5.2 billion.

The sharp surge is caused by a buybank plan from its treasury arm, StablecoinX, which has already carried out $150 million of a $260 million plan since July 21. That alone removed nearly 3.5% of ENA’s supply from circulation. 

A much larger $570 million program has already cut 13% of the overall supply, which has been building pressure on the market as scarcity begins to boost the price.

The trading volume spiked up fast too, with a 140% jump in one day pushing the number to $1.46 billion during earlier trading hours. But at the time of writing this report, trading activity is down to 56.59%, with $1.3 billion in trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap.

Meanwhile, data from Santiment showed that whales with more that $5 million of $ENA’s stablecoin have boosted their share by 3% in just two weeks. 

ENA Gains Momentum After Weeks of Trading Sideways.

On the chart via trading view, ENA experienced a major breakout In June 2025, which gave over 170% surge from $0.305 to $0.852. But after that, the frenzy dropped and prices started pushing down. For weeks, the price has been consolidating, but keep pushed back by a support level at $0.61. However, it finally got good momentum and now it’s trading upside.

Meanwhile, ENA has moved above its 30-day simple moving average of $0.69. This shows strength against earlier resistance.

StablecoinX Secures $530m in Funding

StablecoinX has also secured $530 million in new funding, bringing total PIPE financing to about $895 million. This could give it that control of more than 3 billion ENA tokens once the deal is complete. “This raise alone covers about 14% of ENA’s market cap,” the group said.

@TLGYAcq and StablecoinX Assets are thrilled to announce that we have raised an additional $530 million in PIPE financing. This PIPE brings our total amount raised to $890 million following our previously announced a definitive agreement for a business combination. pic.twitter.com/DENtKTlUoh

— StablecoinX (@stablecoin_x) September 5, 2025

At the same time, Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin has become one of the first compliant synthetic dollars under the U.S. GENIUS Act thanks to a partnership with Anchorage Digital. That milestone adds a regulatory win while Ethena continues to step back from the European Union market due to strict MiCA rules.

Also Read: Fonte Capital Launches First Solana ETF with Staking on AIX





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SHIB 0% Surge Raises Questions: What's Going On?
GameFi Guides

SHIB 0% Surge Raises Questions: What’s Going On?

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Shiba Inu has seen a 0% surge in one of its closely watched ecosystem metrics, sparking questions in the crypto community.

According to Shibburn, Shiba Inu has seen a surprising 0% surge in its daily burn rate as only 69,613 tokens were burned in the past day. Contributing to this figure is a single transaction of 69,420 SHIB tokens burned.

HOURLY SHIB UPDATE$SHIB Price: $0.00001231 (1hr 0.31% ▲ | 24hr -0.85% ▼ )
Market Cap: $7,254,604,904 (-0.86% ▼)
Total Supply: 589,247,711,761,922

TOKENS BURNT
Past 24Hrs: 69,613 (0.00% ▼)
Past 7 Days: 20,241,091 (81.32% ▲)

— Shibburn (@shibburn) September 7, 2025

The 69,613 SHIB tokens burned in the last 24 hours bear same with the figure tallied the day before. On Sept. 6, only 69,808 SHIB tokens were burned, hence the 0% surge.

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However, in the last seven days, 20,241,091 SHIB tokens were burned, representing an 81.32% surge in weekly burn rate.

Out of an initial total supply of 1 quadrillion SHIB tokens, over 41% have been burned, leaving Shiba Inu’s total supply at 589,247,711,692,117 SHIB.

SHIB price action

At the time of writing, SHIB was up 1.12% in the last 24 hours to $0.0000124 as price continues to consolidate near $0.000012. In the last 24 hours, 9.17 trillion SHIB or $113.74 million in SHIB has been traded, marking a 21.92% drop in trading volume as traders await the next move on the market.

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Shiba Inu recently completed a death cross on its daily chart, a flip following a golden cross that emerged on its chart in late August. With the current signals being mixed for Shiba Inu, traders will turn to the broader market to adjudge the sentiment and thus predict Shiba Inu’s next major move.

September remains a mixed month in terms of price performance for Shiba Inu, marking two out of four Septembers in green since 2021. Last September, Shiba Inu had a positive close with a gain of 26.97%, and the market is now eager to see if SHIB will sustain this trend.

Shiba Inu is currently up 1.80% so far this September.





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What's so special about the original Hollow Knight? The intoxicating power of Team Cherry's invisible, insistent guiding hand
Game Reviews

What’s so special about the original Hollow Knight? The intoxicating power of Team Cherry’s invisible, insistent guiding hand

by admin


It’s not just locked doors, imposing bosses, and top-tier traversal. It’s a world, a sensation, a desperate and lonely feeling communicated through screen and pad. It’s chains and foliage obscuring the foreground, as imposingly huge bugs slink about in the background. The depth of parallax art and the grit of an impossible fight. The feeling of movement as you flap your wings or dash over pits or scramble up walls. The world is dying, but you feel alive and vital within it. From vanishingly small beginnings to power comparable to godhood, Hollow Knight isn’t just a good game: it’s one of the best ever made.

There’s been a wealth of incredible Metroidvania games from small dev teams over the past few generations – Axiom Verge, Guacamelee, Headlander, Ori and the Blind Forest to name just a few – but I don’t think any of them compare with Hollow Knight, really. Team Cherry’s 2017 debut is a masterpiece. And I am not using that word lightly. It represents a high tide for the genre that I think even surpasses the achievements of its progenitors, taking the foundational design philosophies of Metroid and Castlevania and sanding off all the rough edges to leave something elegant, perplexing and utterly moreish.

Here’s a bit of Silksong for you.Watch on YouTube

It all begins with its subtle tutorialisation. This is a Metroidvania, so the unwritten understanding is that you get power-ups, and they open up new areas. When you’re thrown into the world of Hallownest from the starting town of Dirtmouth with the vague instruction of ‘head on down’, you are instantly and subconsciously directed about where to go next: verdant green leaves tease the Green Path from the Forgotten Crossroads, and peculiar pink gems nod towards the Crystal Peak.

It’s the enticing greenery of the Path that typically grabs your attention first, though – the visual language of the game’s ‘second zone’ eating into the starting area in a small touch you’ll soon notice runs as a theme in the game. One screen in, and you’re barred; an armoured beetle-like thing impedes your progress. So you soldier on, going right instead of left, until you face your first boss and ingest your first upgrade, the Vengeful Spirit. In order to leave this area, an NPC instructs you to clear its temple, and what do you find at the exit? The very same armoured beetle, which you can now kill. Aha, you think, I know this guy.

So you backtrack, clear the doorway, and you’re on your way. That experience, a delicious example of early game not-quite-handholding that makes you feel like you’ve done all the work, sets a precedent. It’s easy, early on, to trick a player into thinking they’re smart for putting two and two together and coming out with four. But as the paths deviate, the 15 zones that make up Hallownest and its colonies begin to show themselves, and you start to gain a bit more independence, Team Cherry keeps finding ways to make you feel smart. It’s intoxicating, ego-boosting, and I even think at times it feels sublime. Really.

Image credit: Team Cherry / Eurogamer

You’re nudged along with barely perceptible cues that keep your brain itching whilst your fingers dance over the parabolic difficulty spikes in Hollow Knight’s combat. So many design decisions in this game are small, but mighty – fitting for a game about bugs, failing empires, and bitter godheads. Each area, be it the perpetually soggy City of Tears or the dusty dankness of the Ancient Basin, has its own specific colour. Colours are saturated, and props and set dressing is placed (with little repetition) to make each area feel distinct. In your head, you associate these areas with the map: left is green, right is pink, down is blue. It tugs at your cortex, so when you’re trying to navigate, you’ve always got an impression of what direction applies to what power.

But there’s more. The map itself hues its areas to match the world design, subconsciously gluing these colours to your spacial reasoning processes even more distinctly. Paired with more explicit progression cues – Silksong’s Hornet teasing you with which way to go by constantly dashing out of reach and out of view – Hollow Knight simultaneously baits you and makes you feel like you’re in control of your fate. It’s a dirty, delicious trick. And I cannot wait to see how this formula is expanded upon in the sequel.

Team Cherry’s approach to the map, too, cedes all power to the player. It’s not until you actually make it to the City of Tears that the game itself actually applies anything to your map – and even then, it’s a strange waypoint for a place we’ve already discovered. Otherwise, it’s all on you. You even need to choose between a power-up notch in your character screen and a marker to identify where you are on the map. Some may call this obtuse, or needlessly unhelpful, but I think it does wonders for the sense of place Hollow Knight dedicates so much effort to instilling in your head. You pull up the map a lot. Good. If you want to learn everything there is to know about Hallownest, you should know it inside out. The relationship between the knight and the world is a symbiotic relationship, technically and narratively, and all of these mechanics feed into that.

Image credit: Team Cherry

I think that’s where the real appeal of Hollow Knight lies. You have proper agency when it comes to progression and exploration – a sense of proper agency I have honestly only felt in the first Dark Souls in terms of ‘modern’ games. You’re let loose to discover your power on your terms, pluck at various locks and see which one comes undone, whilst also given the power to go and forge your own locks. You don’t even need to be a game design savant to understand the potential for sequence breaks (something Ori and the Blind Forest also understood very well), and by keeping a keen eye on the environment and the map, it feels like Team Cherry almost dares you to skip certain bosses or platforming challenges. The devs understand player ego, how to appeal to it, and how to challenge it. It makes the game’s difficulty more than just a combat or dexterity check, but an emotional one, too.

A lot of Metroidvania games also fall down when they design their critical paths: all too often, there will be one place you need to find and use your new power in order to progress. Some bits of Hollow Knight have four separate paths leading to the ‘next bit’ of the critical path. Chances are, you’ll happen upon one when casually exploring, or backtracking to farm currency or get a combat upgrade. The trail of breadcrumbs never runs out, and by letting you manually pin things to your map when resting at a bench, the sense of self-direction always feels natural and encouraged. The invisible hand of Team Cherry, it becomes clear from this first game alone, is one of the deftest in the business. And that insistent, impossibly light touch is so much of what makes Hollow Knight so special, so compelling, so intoxicating.

I’ve not even touched on the strength of the combat and the 160+ enemies here, or the build-crafting that’s integral to your journey through the game via pins and notches. I’ve not spoken about the game-changing spectral/dream mechanic you unlock about 50 percent of the way through, and how Team Cherry makes asset reuse into a genius portion of the game that anyone that’s played, say, Bravely Default would be agog over. I’ve not spoken about the subtle narrative craft that rivals FromSoft in its multi-layered complexity. I’ve not spoken about the music, the use of leitmotif, or how five twinkly piano notes can evoke such a distinct sense of loss, hopelessness, and desolation.

But that’s because it’s the design of Hollow Knight that sets it apart both from its contemporaries and its inspirations. Sure, the game wouldn’t be half as good if it didn’t have stellar combat or a surprisingly deep build-crafting system, but it’s in the irrepressible way the game keeps nudging you deeper, further down into its mystery that it truly shines. Hollow Knight is, indeed, a masterpiece, an exemplary manifestation of a developer understanding and leveraging player psychology. Is all this hype for Silksong really justified? Yes. And then some.



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Cid uses his thunder sword to light up the battlefield.
Game Reviews

6 Things We Learned About What’s Different

by admin


It’s unclear exactly how big the audience is for an exceedingly faithful remaster of an RPG spin-off that came out over 25 years ago, even if it does have Final Fantasy in the name and is one of the best games ever made. But those who fell in love with Final Fantasy Tactics once they discovered it and have been obsessing about it ever since care very much about the upcoming Ivalice Chronicles remaster, especially what it will or won’t change about the original, and what it might mean for a potential sequel all these years later.

You can find my thoughts on what I played of Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles recently behind closed doors at PAX West 2025, but a recent barrage of interviews with the development team has provided some more clues about what fans can expect from the overhaul. The game isn’t out until September 30, but the director of the project has already been tipping his hand about some big questions I’ve had, including how the remaster approaches Final Fantasy Tactics‘ most broken characters.

Orlandeau Thunder God Cid will still be OP

Every Final Fantasy has a Cid, and Final Fantasy Tactics‘ is by far the most broken. He joins your party late into the game and comes with a full suite of magic sword abilities with no charge time that do incredible damage. He also arrives equipped with Excalibur, which auto-casts Haste on the user. He’s a wrecking ball that trivializes every fight, which is why I have a strict rule against ever using him.

If we remaster it, what do you think about whether it is better to weaken ” The Thunder God Cid”, who was accused of destroying the balance ?

— 松野泰己🐈‍⬛ (@YasumiMatsuno) June 1, 2023

It sounds like he will still be that way. “We haven’t made any changes to characters that were powerful,” director Kazutoyo Maehiro told Gamesradar. “And similarly, not just for the unique characters, but for jobs such as the arithmetician, we haven’t made any major changes.” While some classes like Archer have been buffed, the team wanted to avoid players experiencing any moments of “your favorite job got nerfed.”

FF7‘s Cloud won’t suck so much when you first get him

The Final Fantasy VII protagonist has an unusual cameo in Tactics, where he not only appears in the world but can be recruited and used in battle. I won’t get into the story details that explain Cloud’s arrival, but in the original game he’s kind of a pain to use, at least until you finish his side quest. That’s changing for The Ivalice Chronicles.

“We’ve made it so that his stats are adjusted a little bit. On top of that, he will come equipped with the Materia Blade when he joins your party initially,” Maehiro told Inverse. “So in terms of usability of him as a character, it will be much more approachable than it was in the original.” Players will also be able to recruit him earlier in the remaster, starting in chapter 4. It remains to be seen if the charging time and attack power on his Limit command will get the buffs they deserve.

The Wiegraf boss fight isn’t easier, but it won’t break your save file

Wiegraf is one of Final Fantasy Tactics‘ most tragic characters and most difficult enemies. Most first-time players are completely unprepared for the unique one-on-one fight with the ex-revolutionary that the game throws them into without warning about halfway through. Worse still, in the original game, the encounter happens inside a castle, wedged between two other encounters with no opportunity to go grind on the world map if you’re having trouble. Without a backup save, a playthrough can grind to a complete halt this way.

The Ivalice Chronicles doesn’t make Wiegraf easier, but it does offer a new option to back out of the fight if you’re having trouble. “We have the ability to retry battle, or when you’re doing consecutive battles, you can actually back out to the world map,” Maehiro told Inverse. “We have those types of features for accessibility and ease of play.” Players can also switch to the easy mode if they’re having too much trouble, or they can exploit one of the many strategies fans have come up with over the years to make easy work of Wiegraf and his OP holy sword attacks (including a glitch that’s still in the new version).

Genji armor stealing is back in a day-one patch due to popular demand

Another big fight in Final Fantasy Tactics is against Marquis Elmdore in the Limberry Castle. One of the things that’s unique about it is that Elmdore has a full set of Genji samurai gear that appears nowhere else in the game. Diligent players can spend the entire battle trying to steal it from him but it’s very difficult because, among other things, Elmdore has an ability that reduces the success rate below 20 percent unless you spend a lot of time debuffing him.

Stealing the armor was only possible in the U.S. version of the original game, not the Japanese version or the later War of the Lions port that was based on it. The option is coming back for The Ivalice Chronicles, though. “In interviews when the game was announced, we received a lot of feedback from fans both in Japan and overseas saying, ‘I wish we could steal Genji equipment,’” Maehiro told Famitsu. “Matsuno, the director of the original version, also mentioned the same thing, so we decided to make it possible to steal in the Enhanced Version. This will be reflected in a patch on the release date, so please connect online and apply the patch.”

The Time Mage’s all-powerful Teleport skill now costs 3,000 JP to unlock

This one cuts me to my core. Teleport is one of the best skills in the game, and you can have a character learn it very early as long as you grind for job points to unlock it in a couple of battles. It lets a character try to move anywhere on the battlefield, but the farther the square is from their current location, the lower the probability of success. On levels divided by castle walls or other difficult terrain, however, it makes it easy to dominate the battlefield.

In the original game, the skill only costs 600 JP. It’s a steal. Not so in the remaster. As pointed out by RPGFan, the skill now costs 3,000 JP to unlock. That’s going to be a whole lot of characters standing around attacking one another before a battle ends to grind for points. At least this way, finally obtaining the skill will feel a little less easy-mode.

Final Fantasy Tactics could still get (another) sequel

Final Fantasy Tactics is far from the only strategy RPG Square Enix has released, even in recent years. There were two spin-offs on Game Boy Advance back in the 2000s and more recently, the spiritual successor, Triangle Strategy, which is to Tactics what Octopath Traveler is to Final Fantasy VI. But for some fans, none of these games ever hit the way the original did and they’re still pining for some cosmic convergence that captures tactical-RPG lightning in a bottle a second time.

“Our first and foremost goal here really was to recreate the original game,” Maehiro told Wired. Though he can’t make any promises, there’s apparently a possibility The Ivalice Chronicles could get additional new content in a future update if the game sells well enough. “If [The Ivalice Chronicles] were to become a success,” he continued, “I do feel that that would then lead to discussions around potentially bringing out sequels, for example, or newer tactical RPGs.”





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Gigantic $6,080,413,883 XRP Move Stuns Ripple Wallets: What's Going On?
NFT Gaming

Gigantic $6,080,413,883 XRP Move Stuns Ripple Wallets: What’s Going On?

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As expected, the first day of September brought Ripple escrow transactions, and as always the scale is hard to miss. Whale Alert tracked several transfers in quick succession: 500,000,000 XRP equivalent to $1,380,340,882 were unlocked and sent to a Ripple wallet. Then, 300,000,000 XRP worth $830,158,847 and 200,000,000 XRP equal to $553,278,406 were unlocked.

Not all of that supply will hit the market, however. By the end of the sequence, Ripple returned 700,000,000 XRP to escrow: 400,000,000 XRP valued at $1,104,530,305 and 300,000,000 XRP valued at $828,023,264.

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This results in a net release of 300,000,000 XRP for September, which is consistent with the company’s usual pattern of unlocking 1 billion, distributing some of it and relocking what’s left.

Why does Ripple shuffle XRP?

This system was introduced years ago to make XRP’s circulating supply more predictable. Each month, Ripple opens a fresh tranche of 1 billion XRP from escrow. The tokens are available for use in Ripple’s ecosystem or for institutional demand.

Whatever remains unused, however, is locked back for a later cycle. It’s a rolling mechanism that currently covers about 35.6 billion XRP in escrow.

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Net supply increases can weigh on price action, while larger relocks reduce that pressure. This time, the balance appears moderate: 300 million XRP were freed up, worth just over $830 million at the current value, with most of it pushed back into long-term hold.



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Shiba Inu Sees Sudden 10% Price Surge on Coinbase, What's Going On?
NFT Gaming

Shiba Inu Sees Sudden 10% Price Surge on Coinbase, What’s Going On?

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As seen on a TradingView chart, Shiba Inu suddenly saw a sharp price spike on the Coinbase crypto exchange, as its price swung from a low of $0.00001203 to reach $0.00001303.

The price action has formed an intraday candlestick with a long upper wick, which suggests that Shiba Inu buyers pushed its price higher, but sellers eventually emerged, driving the price down subsequently.

The price surge corresponds with a 169% surge in trading volumes for the SHIB/USD pair on Coinbase, according to recent CoinGlass data.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Daily Chart, Courtesy: TradingView/Coinbase

Around the time of writing, Shiba Inu had retraced its gains in line with the broader market drop. Shiba Inu was recently trading at $0.00001238, up 1.51% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.

What happened?

Shiba Inu saw a sharp drop on Friday, falling to a low of $0.00001199 after having traded at a high of $0.00001272 earlier.

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On Saturday, Shiba Inu sharply rose from $0.000012, a level confirmed as support with multiple retests toward August’s close. For instance, Shiba Inu saw a sharp surge on Aug. 22 from the $0.000012 support, reaching $0.0000135 consequently.

This trend repeated in today’s session, which saw SHIB rise again from $0.00001203 to reach $0.00001303, posting a large green daily candlestick. This corresponds with increased activity in the derivatives market, with volumes reaching $200.16 million.

According to CoinGlass, the long short indicator for Shiba Inu is currently at 1.05, implying more buyers than sellers in the market, which might explain in a way the recent price move.



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Btc, Eth, And Xrp Price Prediction For September: What’s Next?
GameFi Guides

BTC, ETH, and XRP Price Prediction For September: What’s Next?

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The cryptocurrency market is currently experiencing a volatile phase as traders weigh the next potential move for leading digital assets. Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $108,876, Ethereum (ETH) holds above $4,350, and XRP consolidates near $2.81 as cryptocurrency markets maintain a $3.78 trillion market capitalization despite 24-hour trading volume declining 26.71% to $140.15 billion.

Bitcoin maintains 57.4% market dominance while Ethereum commands 14% market share, though both major cryptocurrencies face technical resistance after recent all-time highs, setting up potential September volatility.

Despite the overall bullish structure of the long-term cycle, the market has recently been under pressure as both BTC and ETH struggle to reclaim key resistance levels, while XRP consolidates in a tight range. Investors are closely watching whether September could spark a decisive breakout or trigger deeper corrections. Let’s break down the technical outlook for BTC, ETH, and XRP.

Will Bitcoin Price Hit $100K This September?

Bitcoin is currently trading around $108,876 as per the data from CoinMarketCap, showing a modest intraday gain of 0.46%. However, the bigger picture reflects a sustained pullback as it is constantly recording a lower high since BTC marked its all-time high at $126,414.

The daily chart reveals BTC struggling below its 9-day SMA which is the blue line or the $112,091 mark, and has now converted into a key resistance level. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has dropped from 79 to 38.89 in two weeks, highlighting bearish momentum, placing BTC close to oversold territory.

The immediate resistance lies at $110,485, followed by its upper resistance levels at $112,000 which is the SMA trendline and $116,000 range respectively where sellers have repeatedly defended.

On the downside, BTC is holding just above $107,656, with the next major support resting at $104,582. Bitcoin’s ability to defend current support levels will determine whether the correction continues toward the psychological $100,000 level or if buying interest emerges for potential recovery.

Ethereum Price Holds Above $4,350 Mark

Ethereum is trading at $4,369, edging slightly higher after defending support. ETH reached an all-time high at $4,891, but like Bitcoin, it has faced rejection at higher levels, signaling selling pressure.

The daily Exponential Moving Average (EMAs) highlights critical zones. ETH is currently trading just below the 20-day EMA that is $4,379, reflecting short-term weakness. Notably, a strong daily close above this level would strengthen bullish sentiment.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remains bearish, with the histogram showing persistent red bars and the MACD line sitting below the signal line. This suggests sellers are still in control of the Ethereum token in the market.

Support rests at $4,350 and $4,042, with a stronger floor near $3,969. A breakdown below these levels could drag ETH toward $3,750, where major buying interest is likely to reemerge. Conversely, if bulls push ETH above $4,625, the path toward retesting the $4,891 all-time high becomes clearer.

XRP to Reclaim $3?

Ripple’s XRP is trading around $2.81, showing sideways consolidation after repeated failures to reclaim the $3.00 resistance zone. Despite the broader market’s decline, XRP’s volatility has remained relatively controlled compared to BTC and ETH.

On the daily chart, XRP has been rejected multiple times near $3.25, marking it as a key resistance. The Bollinger Bands are tightening, indicating a likely breakout move in the coming sessions.

The Bear Bull Power (BBP) sits at -0.3094, reflecting increased selling pressure. If bears maintain control, XRP risks slipping toward $2.75 and further down to the major support at $2.50.

However, a close above $3.00 and $3.25 could flip momentum bullish, opening the door for a rally toward $3.50 and potentially $3.65. Volume trends show declining participation, meaning a strong breakout will require renewed market interest.

September Outlook Depends on Support Defense

The cryptocurrency market’s September performance hinges on major cryptocurrencies’ ability to defend current technical support levels. Bitcoin’s proximity to the psychological $100,000 level, Ethereum’s defense of $4,350, and XRP’s consolidation pattern suggest potential for significant volatility.

Declining trading volume indicates reduced market participation, which could amplify price movements once directional momentum emerges. Technical indicators across all three assets show bearish momentum, though oversold conditions may provide near-term bounce opportunities.

Also Read: Weekly Wrap: Crypto Market Tumbles, Bitcoin Whales Pivot to ETH, Altcoins Treasuries, and More 

Disclaimer: The Crypto Times does not endorse or promote this digital asset in any manner. This article was created only for educational purposes. Make sure to “DYOR” as the market is highly volatile. New positions should be done by traders being careful and awaiting volume-backed breakouts.



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