Tag: ChangeNOW

  • ChangeNOW Hires Former TON Executive Martin Masser to Lead Strategic Partnerships

    ChangeNOW Hires Former TON Executive Martin Masser to Lead Strategic Partnerships

    ChangeNOW, the crypto super app, has announced the appointment of Martin Masser as Director of Strategic Partnerships. Masser, a former executive at the TON Foundation, brings deep experience in growth, business development, and ecosystem building to the role.

    His primary focus will be to forge key relationships with blockchain networks, wallets, fintech companies, payment providers, and other infrastructure partners. This move is central to ChangeNOW’s transition from a standalone crypto exchange into a fully integrated super app where users can buy, store, swap, trade, send, receive, and grow digital assets in a single environment.

    “Martin brings a rare mix of commercial relationships, product and media understanding,” said Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeNOW. “He knows what the technology can do, what the business needs and how to make the market pay attention. That is exactly the perspective we need as we build the ChangeNOW super app.”

    Masser’s role is not about accumulating partnership announcements but about identifying relationships that make the platform more complete and remove friction from the user experience. He commented: “The best partnerships create access, adoption and attention. My focus is to build relationships that make the product stronger, simpler and more useful, and then help the market understand why they matter. If you are building wallets, networks, payments, stablecoins, fintech infrastructure, consumer crypto or Web3 products, I want to hear from you.”

    For consumers, ChangeNOW is consolidating all core crypto activities into one interface. For businesses, it is developing an integrated toolkit for crypto payments, exchange, stablecoin settlement, digital asset management, and Web3 integrations. Masser’s appointment marks a significant step toward connecting the right networks, wallets, and partners to drive product value, adoption, and market momentum.

    About ChangeNOW

    ChangeNOW.io is a crypto super app built for every crypto move, serving newcomers, professionals, and businesses with simple and secure access to Web3 finance. Since 2017, it has evolved from a fast, secure, and limitless instant exchange into a trusted platform covering storage, swaps, trading, staking, and asset management for millions of clients worldwide.

    About Martin Masser

    Martin Masser is Director of Strategic Partnerships at ChangeNOW. His career spans traditional banking and capital markets in London, plus Web3 roles including Head of Growth at TON Foundation. He works at the intersection of growth, infrastructure, and partnerships, connecting products and industry players to create seamless crypto experiences.

    For media inquiries, contact: PR Team, CHN Group LLC – pr@changenow.io

  • New Report by ChangeNOW and CoinRabbit Explores Crypto Privacy, Illicit Use, and Regulatory Path Forward

    New Report by ChangeNOW and CoinRabbit Explores Crypto Privacy, Illicit Use, and Regulatory Path Forward

    ChangeNOW, a cryptocurrency super app, and CoinRabbit, a crypto asset management platform, have jointly released a research report titled “Financial Privacy in the Digital Age.” The report examines the dual-use nature of privacy-preserving technology in cryptocurrencies, weighing legitimate needs for discretion against the risks of illicit exploitation. Drawing on data from TRM Labs, Chainalysis, the RAND Corporation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Statista, and U.S. Treasury Department disclosures, the study argues that current regulatory efforts are misdirected and should focus on fiat off-ramps rather than transactional privacy infrastructure.

    Balancing Privacy and Security

    The report finds that on-chain privacy has evolved from a niche preference to an essential safety measure. It protects individuals from physical extortion and kidnapping, prevents corporate espionage on treasury movements, and enables humanitarian efforts in conflict zones. The key conclusion is that privacy and compliance are not a zero-sum trade-off—the most significant enforcement vulnerability lies at the point where crypto converts to fiat currency, not in the privacy tools themselves.

    Key Findings and Threat Assessment

    • Pig-butchering fraud generated an estimated USD 75 billion in cumulative losses between 2020 and 2024.
    • Physical “wrench attacks” targeting cryptocurrency holders surged: $124.1 million in crypto was targeted in 52 verified incidents in H1 2026 alone, a 33% increase in incidents and nearly elevenfold rise in financial exposure compared to H1 2025.
    • Crypto payments linked to human trafficking networks in Southeast Asia grew 85% in 2025.
    • Corporate data exposure remains a major threat, with 36% of board members citing internal financial data becoming publicly accessible as a top governance concern, and the average data breach costing USD 4.44 million.

    Industry Solutions for Compliant Privacy

    “Financial privacy isn’t a feature request, it’s a baseline that every other financial system already provides,” said Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeNOW. “The question the industry needs to answer isn’t whether privacy should exist on-chain. It’s whether we build it responsibly or let bad actors define what it looks like by default.” The report profiles two working examples: ChangeNOW’s Private Crypto Transfers, which break the deterministic link between sender and receiver without pooling user funds, and CoinRabbit’s custodial model, which uses dynamic per-user deposit addresses to prevent end-to-end reconstruction of a client’s holdings from public blockchain data.

    Recommendations for Policymakers

    The report closes with five recommendations centered on shifting enforcement resources toward fiat off-ramps and cross-jurisdictional intelligence sharing, rather than restricting transactional privacy for general users. The full report is available online.

  • Crypto Privacy Tools Can Bolster Both Security and Compliance, New Report Reveals

    Crypto Privacy Tools Can Bolster Both Security and Compliance, New Report Reveals

    For years, mainstream crypto design prioritized absolute on-chain transparency, treating financial privacy as a liability rather than a necessity. A new joint report by digital asset management and crypto loan provider CoinRabbit and crypto super app ChangeNOW challenges that assumption, concluding that public ledgers create dangerous privacy leaks for businesses and physical safety risks for individual holders.

    Presented by Decrypt, Financial Privacy in the Digital Age synthesizes data from TRM Labs, Chainalysis, CertiK, and Statista to make a pragmatic case: Web3 privacy tools are essential infrastructure for basic security, while law enforcement leverage actually sits at regulated fiat gateways, not upstream transaction histories.

    Key Highlights

    • $124.1M lost to physical attacks. Public wallet addresses act as unintended net-worth registries, exposing investors to targeted extortion and social engineering.
    • Corporate vulnerabilities & $4.44M breach costs. Transparent ledgers allow competitors to reconstruct vendor contracts, payroll, and treasury balances, impacting the 36% of board members who consider internal data exposure their top operational threat.
    • Enforcement targets gateways, not on-chain history. Authorities combat illicit flows at centralized fiat off-ramps, exchange KYC databases, and stablecoin issuer freezes rather than through continuous public surveillance.
    • Privacy tools already operating within compliance. The report highlights CoinRabbit’s custodial model and ChangeNOW’s private crypto transfers as benchmarks for privacy-preserving infrastructure.

    The Corporate and Personal Risks of Open Ledgers

    While permanent ledger visibility makes protocol audits efficient, it presents severe liabilities for mainstream business adoption. Unlike traditional bank accounts, public blockchain addresses broadcast complete cash flows and account balances to anyone with an internet connection. Competitors can easily monitor corporate wallets to deduce profit margins, supplier pricing, and internal payroll cadence. With Statista estimating average data breach costs at $4.44 million, broad ledger exposure creates a structural weakness for corporate treasuries moving on-chain.

    For private investors, that visibility carries physical consequences. “Public blockchain transparency lets anyone audit your net worth in real time, turning private wealth into public information,” said Walter Barrett, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at CoinRabbit.

    The security data back up that warning. CertiK recorded 52 verified physical extortion (“wrench”) attacks in the first half of 2026. In France, which accounted for 33 of those incidents, breaches at public agencies allowed criminal networks to cross-reference residential addresses with suspected crypto holdings. In response, 30% of surveyed high-net-worth holders now hire data-broker removal services to break the link between their identities and wallet addresses.

    How Investigators Track Illicit Capital

    Skeptics often frame financial privacy as an enclave for illicit finance, pointing to TRM Labs data that places 2025 illicit crypto inflows at $158 billion, with Chinese-language laundering networks accounting for over $100 billion. However, investigative data shows that raw ledger transparency is rarely the decisive factor in asset recovery or criminal attribution. Instead, law enforcement leverage is concentrated at centralized touchpoints: exchange KYC registries, court subpoenas, stablecoin blacklist functions, and fiat off-ramps.

    “Successful blockchain investigations rely on the combination of on-chain analysis, behavioral patterns, KYC information, exchange cooperation, stablecoin issuer interventions, and traditional investigative methods. In practice, attribution is achieved by connecting multiple sources of evidence rather than relying on blockchain transparency alone,” noted Albert Quehenberger, founder of AQ Forensics.

    Because enforcement operates primarily at these regulated checkpoints, the authors argue that base-layer privacy tools can protect legitimate user data without disabling the mechanisms authorities use to police market abuse.

    Rethinking Financial Transparency in Web3

    The report calls for a fundamental redesign of Web3 architecture, urging developers to replace mandatory public broadcasting with permissioned, selective disclosure. “The privacy debate starts from the wrong assumption that ordinary users must prove they have nothing to hide by exposing everything,” said Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeNOW. “That is not how any mature financial system works.”

    Yet as crypto pushes for institutional adoption, this tension between default visibility and basic confidentiality remains one of Web3’s thorniest policy battlegrounds. While developers press for selective disclosure tools to protect commercial secrets, global regulators continue to push for tighter oversight of self-custodial flows. How the industry resolves that pushback will determine whether digital assets can offer a viable financial infrastructure for traditional finance, or whether privacy and compliance remain locked in an ongoing tug-of-war.

    Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are risky assets; always conduct your own research before investing.

  • The Safest Crypto Exchanges in 2026: Custodial vs Non-Custodial Security Compared

    The Safest Crypto Exchanges in 2026: Custodial vs Non-Custodial Security Compared

    Choosing a crypto exchange based on coin selection or fees is common, but the real question in 2026 is: which platform is most secure and trusted? History is littered with costly failures—FTX evaporated billions overnight, Bybit lost $1.5 billion in February 2025 despite MiCA licensing, Binance paid a $4.3 billion U.S. AML settlement and suffered two major hacks, and Celsius froze withdrawals without warning.

    This guide evaluates leading custodial platforms with hard data, then introduces a structurally different model: non-custodial instant swaps, exemplified by ChangeNOW.

    What Security Means in 2026

    The old checklist—cold storage, 2FA, encryption—is no longer sufficient. Every serious exchange has those, yet breaches still happen. Today’s evaluation focuses on five factors:

    • Custody model: Does the platform hold your funds? If yes, those funds become a target.
    • Track record: Has the platform been breached? Were customer funds affected? How was it handled?
    • Proof of reserves: Can the platform cryptographically prove it holds what it claims?
    • Incident response: Insurance funds, recovery processes, and law enforcement cooperation.

    Top Trusted Crypto Platforms

    ChangeNOW: The Non-Custodial Option

    ChangeNOW is not a traditional exchange. It is a non-custodial instant swap service that never holds your funds. You send from your own wallet to a one-time deposit address; ChangeNOW routes the swap across its liquidity network and delivers the output directly to your wallet—usually in under one minute.

    This eliminates the fundamental risk of custodial platforms: a concentrated pool of user funds. ChangeNOW’s security record is clean—zero major breaches since 2017. It joined the Crypto Defenders Alliance in 2026, launched Private Transfers for reduced on-chain visibility, and boasts a 98% swap success rate across 1,500+ assets and 110+ blockchains.

    Kraken

    Kraken stores customer funds in air-gapped cold storage with 24/7 armed security. It was the first major exchange to run verifiable proof-of-reserves audits (since 2014) and publishes quarterly reports via a registered CPA firm. Account protections include FIDO2 hardware keys, Global Settings Lock, and zero SMS recovery. Kraken holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 1 certifications. In March 2026, its Wyoming-chartered bank gained a Federal Reserve master account. Track record: zero customer fund losses in 15 years.

    Limitations: Standard fees run 1–1.5%; competitive rates require Kraken Pro.

    Coinbase

    The most regulated U.S. exchange, NASDAQ-listed (COIN), with mandatory quarterly audited disclosures. 98% of customer crypto is in geographically distributed offline cold storage using military-grade Cross Domain Solution technology. Multi-Party Computation (MPC) splits private keys across secure environments. Coinbase holds MiCA, FCA, and New York BitLicense. No platform-wide hack or customer fund loss has occurred.

    Limitations: A €21.5 million AML fine from Ireland’s Central Bank undercuts its compliance image. Standard interface fees reach 3.99% for card purchases.

    Binance

    The world’s largest exchange by volume. Its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) holds ~$1 billion, funded by 10% of trading fees. AI-powered monitoring issues 15,000+ security alerts daily. Two notable breaches occurred: a $570 million BNB Chain bridge vulnerability (2022) and a $40 million theft (2019), both covered by SAFU with no customer losses.

    Limitations: CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a $4.3 billion U.S. settlement for AML violations.

    Bitget

    Bitget’s Protection Fund exceeds $300 million, and monthly Merkle Tree proof-of-reserves reports show reserve ratios above 180% for BTC, ETH, and USDT. Over 95% of assets are in cold storage. Bitget holds ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications. No major platform breach to date.

    Limitations: Seychelles incorporation means lighter regulatory oversight. The Protection Fund is platform-managed, not guaranteed insurance.

    The Problem Custodial Exchanges Share

    Kraken, Coinbase, Binance, and Bitget all hold your funds. Despite best-in-class security, Bybit (MiCA-compliant) lost $1.5B. Binance was hacked twice. Coinbase paid a €21.5M AML fine. The risk is structural: when a platform holds your funds, you carry counterparty exposure. Non-custodial models like ChangeNOW eliminate this risk entirely.

    Final Verdict

    Kraken is the best custodial exchange for security. Coinbase offers the most regulatory accountability. Binance has the largest protection fund. Bitget has the most transparent reserves. All require trust. ChangeNOW does not—it never takes possession of your assets. Nine years, zero breaches, 8 million users, and 98% success rate demonstrate what happens when security is built into the model.

    For active traders needing order books and margin, Kraken is the custodial choice. For everyone else, ChangeNOW makes counterparty risk optional.

    FAQs

    What is the difference between custodial and non-custodial architecture? In custodial architecture, a third party manages your private keys like a bank. In non-custodial, you retain ownership and the service never holds your funds.

    Is ChangeNOW safe? Yes. It never holds your funds, eliminating counterparty risk.

    Which exchange has the best security? Kraken has the finest track record among custodial exchanges. ChangeNOW offers unparalleled structural security.

    What happened to Bybit in 2025? Bybit suffered the largest exchange hack in crypto history, losing $1.5 billion despite MiCA compliance.

    Can ChangeNOW be hacked? Any platform can be targeted, but there is no pooled user funds or stored keys to steal at scale.

  • Fastest Crypto Platforms for 2026: Speed Leaders Compared

    Fastest Crypto Platforms for 2026: Speed Leaders Compared

    Speed used to be a luxury in crypto. Now it’s the baseline. With Layer 2 networks maturing, cross-chain bridges stabilizing, and swap infrastructure quietly catching up to TradFi execution times, slow transactions are starting to feel like a deliberate choice someone made years ago and forgot to revisit.

    Whether you’re moving between chains mid-volatility, grabbing an entry before a candle closes, or simply tired of watching confirmations crawl across a block explorer, the platforms you use matter more than most traders admit. Here’s a look at the fastest crypto platforms worth keeping in your stack in 2026.

    ChangeNOW: Instant Non-Custodial Infrastructure

    By treating speed and simplicity as a single feature rather than two discrete selling points, ChangeNOW has established a unique position in the non-custodial exchange market. More than 110 networks and more than 1,500 assets (including RWAs) are supported by the platform. Depending on the chain pair, swaps usually take less than one minute to complete.

    It’s not simply backend routing that makes ChangeNOW truly quick. Without forcing customers to do any of that work themselves, the platform aggregates liquidity from several sources at once and routes each swap into the quickest path. There is no layered UI attempting to upsell items you didn’t choose, no account signup, and a streamlined onboarding process for normal limits. After entering assets and verifying a wallet address, you proceed.

    The platform offers a Pro account for traders who frequently swap across multiple bridges and assets. Depending on the subscription tier, the account offers AML checks, tokens, and credits. Another useful feature is private sends, which maximize the privacy of the transaction and ensure extra safety for the recipients.

    ChangeNOW has evolved from a stand-alone destination to an embedded layer inside wallets, portfolio tools, and crypto apps because the API is also production-grade. When you use a third-party integration to access it, speed doesn’t decrease.

    Kraken: Institutional Engine Built for Retail Execution

    When you need the infrastructure of a global centralized exchange without sacrificing the rapid execution speed of defragmented order books, Kraken acts as a premier institutional engine for regular traders. Kraken’s platform infrastructure leverages deterministic order matching that eliminates execution lag, even during periods of heavy market volatility.

    Kraken pairs this transaction velocity with substantial market depth, holding a top-tier liquidity score. This baseline depth ensures that market orders fill immediately on the matching engine rather than hanging or encountering heavy slippage.

    • Advanced Order Routing: The desktop and mobile interfaces feature sub-millisecond API response times, giving automated algorithms and day traders instant feedback on spot and futures execution.
    • Capital Velocity: Kraken’s unified margin system and integrated banking rails allow for efficient collateral allocation across hundreds of digital assets.

    By avoiding the complex, multi-layered interfaces of older brokers, Kraken delivers a clean, high-throughput workspace where transactions execute precisely when you hit the button.

    Coinbase: Low-Latency Execution on Major Liquidity Rails

    Coinbase serves as a massive liquidity rail, handling high-volume order flow with low-latency architecture. Originally built to handle standard retail trades, the platform’s advanced trading tier directly connects users to its core institutional matching engine, turning it into one of the most reliable environments for large-scale, rapid order fulfillment.

    The platform’s speed advantage lies in its deep, highly integrated order books. Because a significant portion of global fiat-to-crypto volume settles through its banking corridors, trades match almost instantly with minimal price distortion.

    • Unified Asset Management: Traders can pivot capital instantly from spot markets into derivatives or high-yield staking programs without waiting on localized clearing times.
    • Developer-First API: The platform boasts robust WebSockets and REST APIs, allowing third-party tools and algorithmic bots to read market changes and execute trades within milliseconds.

    For macro traders who need to deploy heavy capital into major pairings without worrying about localized exchange halts or network congestion bottlenecks, Coinbase provides a steady, high-speed anchor.

    Binance: The Global Heavyweight for Raw Throughput

    For pure volume and matching engine performance, Binance remains a dominant force in transaction processing speeds. The core architecture handles millions of orders per second without flinching, making it the preferred playground for high-frequency scalpers and systemic trading desks.

    Because liquidity is deeply concentrated here, market impact is minimized even when entering multi-million dollar positions on major asset pairs.

    • BNB Ecosystem Synergy: Paying trading fees with BNB reduces the platform’s baseline costs, maximizing capital deployment efficiency over thousands of rapid executions.
    • Algorithmic Suite: Built-in grid trading bots, advanced TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) orders, and direct API endpoints process position updates virtually instantaneously.

    Bybit: Specialized High-Speed Derivatives Hub

    When high leverage and immediate execution finality are non-negotiable, Bybit stands out as a purpose-built home for derivatives trading. Its matching engine runs with an impressive uptime record, ensuring that liquidations and stop-losses trigger exactly when the underlying oracle triggers, eliminating the costly lag that plagues lesser perpetual platforms during cascading liquidations.

    Operational Focus: Bybit’s user interface is deeply responsive, updating chart intervals, order books, and open position values instantly. This immediate visual data sync helps fast-paced intraday traders cut losses or take profits without manual page refreshes or button delays.

    Crypto.com: Mobile-First Asset Rotation

    While desktop platforms favor multiple monitors and hardwired internet connections, Crypto.com dominates the speed category for mobile-exclusive execution. The platform is designed to let users capture market momentum entirely from their phones, minimizing the friction between spotting a macro trend and confirming an entry.

    • Rapid Fiat Integration: The platform’s native Visa card ecosystem and direct fiat deposit rails mean you can fund your wallet and purchase assets in seconds.
    • Instant Rewards Staking: Capital can be rapidly shifted from unutilized spot holdings into yield-bearing lockups, making it highly efficient for passive wealth management on the fly.

    OKX: The Hybrid Web3-to-CEX Bridge

    OKX bridges the gap between centralized liquidity and decentralized custody. Its primary unified account architecture allows traders to use their entire balance across spot, margin, and perpetual derivatives simultaneously, accelerating capital velocity.

    What sets OKX apart in terms of modern speed is its seamless, built-in Web3 wallet switch. Within a single interface tap, you can hop off the centralized order book and drop into decentralized L2 aggregators, allowing you to catch early-stage chain listings or move into on-chain yield strategies before the broader market catches on.

    At a Glance: Fast-Execution Crypto Platforms Compared

    Navigating Platform Selection: Finding the fastest setup comes down to your personal workflow. If you want to trade immediately without setting up accounts or navigating complex compliance verification, non-custodial aggregators like ChangeNOW offer the quickest line between point A and point B. Conversely, if your execution relies on heavy API usage, automated scripts, or highly advanced order books, deploying capital to institutional hubs like Kraken or Binance will give you the technical edge needed to beat market friction.

    Disclaimer: Analytics Insight does not provide financial advice or guidance on cryptocurrencies and stocks. Also note that the cryptocurrencies mentioned/listed on the website could potentially be risky. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You are responsible for conducting your own research (DYOR) before making any investments.