FIFA, football’s global governing body, plans to use Avalanche’s network to power its own dedicated layer-1 blockchain.

The FIFA Blockchain is an Avalanche L1, a customizable blockchain that uses Avalanche’s technology (also previously known as a subnet). The news comes as the Avalanche network recently went through its major Avalanche9000 upgrade, aimed at attracting new developers and encouraging them to create customized L1s.

Thursday’s announcement is not FIFA’s first foray into the world of blockchain and crypto. In 2022, the football body released a non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Algorand blockchain ahead of the Qatar World Cup. FIFA also teased this change in April, noting that it would shift its collection to an EVM-compatible blockchain while continuing to pursue Web3 initiatives.

The NFT craze, which saw large institutions and corporations jumping into the trend, has now mostly vanished after the brutal crypto winter that dampened industry sentiment for several painful years. However, a large entity such as FIFA’s continued focus on blockchain likely signals that the use case for the technology hasn’t died down, and big enterprises are still looking to dabble in the industry.

“Avalanche is designed for enterprises and organizations looking to build custom, high-performance blockchain solutions,” said John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, in a press release shared with CoinDesk . “FIFA’s decision to launch its L1 on Avalanche is a testament to our technology’s ability to support global-scale applications with speed, flexibility, and security.”

While FIFA currently only has a World Cup NFT collection and a digital collectibles marketplace, it did not share what else it is planning to release on its new blockchain.

Read more: FIFA Embraces NFTs Tied to Classic Games Highlights for World Cup 2022

A single trader has opened a massive $1.1 billion notional long position on bitcoin (BTC) using 40x leverage on the onchain decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid, a rare instance of a ten-figure position being open entirely on a blockchain-based platform.

The trade is tied to wallet address “0x507,” belonging to pseudonymous trader “James Wynn” on the platform.

Lookonchain data shows the position was opened at an entry price of $108,084, with a liquidation level just under $103,640 — meaning if BTC drops to that price, the position could be wiped out. The trade is sitting on over $40 million in unrealized profit as of early Thursday.

Wynn closed 540 BTC (~$60M) in European morning hours to lock in a $1.5 million profit. Notably, his past three exits were followed by sharp BTC pullbacks and traders may want to watch for a repeat, Lookonchain said.

Hyperliquid is built on its own high-performance layer 1 blockchain, HyperEVM, and offers features typically reserved for centralized platforms, like real-time order books, deep liquidity, and near-zero gas fees.

Its consensus mechanism, HyperBFT, reportedly handles over 200,000 transactions per second, allowing traders to execute quickly and transparently.

Unlike centralized exchanges that require KYC or restrict access, Hyperliquid allows anyone with a wallet to trade permissionlessly. The platform has rapidly gained popularity for its speed and capital efficiency, and this billion-dollar position may serve as a signal to other large players exploring onchain execution.

In many ways, it also marks a new phase of capital migration from centralized finance to decentralized finance (DeFi) — one where whales, not just retail, are willing to place big bets outside the traditional system.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE is up 15% in the past 24 hours as demand for the token increased.

Bitcoin’s BTC dollar high succumbed on Thursday as the largest cryptocurrency rose past $111,800, a remarkable 50% gain from its April low near $75,000, but when measured against traditional stores of value like gold and silver, BTC — often dubbed «digital gold» — still has room to advance.

The bitcoin-to-gold ratio stands at 33.27 ounces, below its January peak of over 40 oz. BTC has also not reached an all-time high against silver, though it has just breached the 3,300 oz. level, compared with the record 3,530 oz.

The digital gold moniker reflects bitcoin’s fixed supply and decentralized nature, and it’s increasingly living up to the name. In recent weeks, it has outperformed U.S. equities, which remain sluggish for the year despite recovering from their April tariff-tantrum induced downturn.

In fiat terms, bitcoin is nearing significant psychological milestones across other currencies too. It currently trades around 82,500 British pounds, just shy of its all-time high of 88,300 pounds, and at 91,500 Swiss francs, versus a previous peak just under 100,000 francs. These levels hint at imminent breakthroughs as bitcoin gains further strength.

Notably, BTC has already achieved all-time highs relative to major financial instruments like the Nasdaq 100 and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). Its continued outperformance of both bonds and tech stocks underscores a broader trend. The final frontier remains precious metals. Surpassing gold and silver benchmarks will mark a complete reversal of monetary dominance.