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Bitcoin (BTC) is known to be a volatile asset, but as of late, this is not the case; bitcoin has
Shaurya Malwa
Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and
Egypt and Cyprus on Monday signed deals for the reexport and commercialization of Cypriot gas, agreements that are key for
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Bitcoin (BTC) is known to be a volatile asset, but as of late, this is not the case; bitcoin has been trading in a very tight range since the end of November, between $91,000 and $109,000.
In other words, bitcoin’s volatility has compressed enormously. According to Glassnode data, the 2-week realized volatility, which provides of how turbulent the asset was in the past two weeks, measures volatility over the past two weeks annually, has dropped to an annualized 32%, one of the lowest levels in years. In addition, the options implied one-month volatility, which is the market’s expectation for volatility over four weeks, has slipped below annualized 50%, again one of the lowest levels in years.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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To put into context how much bitcoin has been in this sideways consolidation, consider what analyst Checkmate calls is the “Choppiness Index”. The data shows that bitcoin, on a weekly time frame, based on its choppiness, is at its highest level since 2015, which shows how tight this trading range has been.
Implied and realized volatility (Glassnode)
Volatility tends to mean-reverting, meaning an unusually stable market often paves the way for a big move in either direction and vice versa. The longer and tighter the consolidation, the violent the eventual volatility explosion.
To cut the long story short, the ongoing rangeplay, the most intense since 2015, could soon pave the way for wild price action. Bitcoin, at some point, will break out of this range; the question remains if it will go higher or lower.
Shaurya Malwa
Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.
But while top leadership is sold on its potential, it’s a different tale for IT teams working the ground. In Australia, the challenges of implementing AI are particularly pronounced, ranging from limited expertise and siloed operations to the rising tide of cybersecurity risks. It’s no surprise then that in the face of complexity, companies are not sure how to take the first step towards smooth and successful AI deployments.
Australia’s AI challenges
Access to skilled resources, funding issues, and having to keep ahead of AI’s rapid evolution are just some of the challenges that make it difficult to implement AI solutions uniformly in Australia. For mid-market companies in highly regulated industries, such as finance, energy, and utilities, addressing cybersecurity concerns and responsible AI implementation are also on the list. This is further made complex by the widespread use of legacy systems, which are unable to cope with AI’s demands.
“From an AI context, their challenges are similar to other sectors. This includes access to talent, quality of data, integration with legacy systems, change management, and ethical and regulatory concerns. However, they also face heightened cyber threats and fraud, driven by threat actors leveraging AI to become more sophisticated. The consequence of a breach can be significant from both a financial and consumer trust perspective,” explains John Hanna, Neudesic Australia.
Ultimately, the breadth of data mid-market companies in finance, energy, and utilities need to deal with is beyond the capabilities of existing systems that rely on the identification of known patterns or human analysis. Hanna added that adopting AI, unlocks a company’s capability to analyse information at scale and speed to identify and stop these threats before they significantly impact the business.
To overcome these challenges, Neudesic helps organisations through its expertise, cutting-edge technology, and strong partnerships with Microsoft, having won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award over 20 times. As a global professional services firm, Neudesic is now bringing decades of experience delivering capabilities spanning data and AI, cloud migration and modernisation, application development, and business strategy to Australia.
Hanna shares Neudesic’s approach, which comprises four pillars.
People: Its diverse array of internal experts spanning industries, skillsets, and Microsoft Azure and OpenAI solutions help clients address a wide spectrum of business challenges for any organisation
Approach: It achieves results not only by implementing Microsoft and OpenAI solutions, but also by addressing today’s challenges, identifying tomorrow’s opportunities, and designing the best path forward
Technology: It focuses on innovation to develop solutions that meet clients’ needs while accelerating time to value
Expertise: With 20 years of expertise in Microsoft’s stack, it offers clients expert knowledge to tackle critical IT challenges and unlock new opportunities
Neudesic’s process starts with understanding each client’s business needs, followed by collaborative workshops and rapid prototyping. The team will then develop a roadmap aligned with a client’s goals and ensure ongoing model refinement, data updates, and process improvements.
“We are also back by IBM and an awarded Microsoft partner. What this means for customers is access to the expertise and experience of experts across both tech stacks dedicated to solving the most critical IT challenges of Australian businesses and capturing new growth opportunities,” says Hanna.
Simplifying critical industry processes with AI
A clear example of how Neudesic is driving AI is in simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) process in finance, also known as identity verification.
KYC is where good customer experience is critical, but traditional KYC processes can take days or even weeks. According to a report conducted by financial compliance software company Fenergo, eight out of 10 survey respondents would lose clients to an inefficient onboarding process. More than ever, there is a need for streamlined and intelligent document processing solutions to stay competitive.
Neudesic’s Document Intelligence Platform helps automate the KYC process by capturing customer data from various formats, cross-referencing it with databases, and validating the information in real-time. It also streamlines compliance with customer identification programs.
What does this mean for financial organisations? They can now handle high volumes of KYC checks without additional staffing, while automation cuts operational costs. Real-time verification speeds up processes like account openings and loan approvals so that banks can acquire and manage customer assets sooner. What’s more, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Fenergo for a more robust and efficient workflow.
By partnering with integrators like Neudesic, Australian businesses can deploy AI through a proven, logical methodology and unlock the ability to invest and accelerate AI use based on business demand and available capital
“Every business dreams big with AI but can stumble when turning ambition into action. Success demands strategy, tailored solutions, and expert guidance. With a trusted partner, businesses can avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that will result in less investment remorse and create business confidence in AI faster than would otherwise be possible,” concludes Hanna.
Learn more about how Neudesic can help Australian organisations go forward in AI, confidently.
Egypt and Cyprus on Monday signed deals for the reexport and commercialization of Cypriot gas, agreements that are key for Cairo in its push to become a regional energy exporter as its own output suffered declines in the past couple of years.
Under the deals, production from the Cronos gas field, off Cyprus’s southwest coast, and Aphrodite, located to the southeast, will be transported to Egyptian liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta before being exported as liquefied natural gas. The signing of the memorandum of understanding was overseen by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at a gas conference in Cairo.
The essence of these agreements is not limited to promoting the exploitation of deposits, but also “broadens the prospects for energy cooperation with Egypt,” the Cypriot presidency said in emailed statement.
Aphrodite, first discovered in 2011, is estimated to hold 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, but is yet to be developed. Chevron Cyprus Ltd. holds a 35% operator interest in Aphrodite with partners BG Cyprus Limited (Shell) 35% and NewMed Energy 30%.
Chevron welcomed the agreements, with Frank Cassulo, Chevron International Exploration & Production’s vice president, saying in a statement that it will “provide the basis to move forward with related commercial arrangements.”
The agreements are pivotal for Egypt, which has been pursuing agreements with neighboring countries amid a sharp decline in its own output over the past couple of years. A crippling foreign currency crunch stymied government efforts to repay arrears to foreign oil companies, impacting investment in oil fields.
The decline in output turned the North African nation into a net importer as rising electricity demand strained local resources. Egypt’s gas production fell in June 2024 to its lowest level since 2017. As a result, liquefied natural gas imports by the government rose to their highest in about six years.
Officials are hoping to resume exports by the end of 2027, after a massive $57 billion bailout by the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund and others helped ease the currency crunch.
Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector.
Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to take on the risks or operational burdens of dealing with smart contracts. A liquid staking token, to be issued in the coming months by Maple, will allow staked BTC to be used by trading firms and asset managers as collateral for borrowing in DeFi or with trading counterparties.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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Sign me up
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
The ability to earn yield on bitcoin and potentially unleash a new wave of liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem has become a hot topic, with protocols like Babylon having entered the market. A massive, untapped group of BTC holders will be able to get yield on their BTC thanks to Core’s dual-staking mechanism, said Maple CEO Sid Powell.
“Bitcoin’s security budget will face problems in a few years as miners receive less block rewards revenue,” Powell said in an interview. “Staking solutions like CORE can help strengthen Bitcoin network security by giving alternative revenue sources to miners. Holders of lstBTC will benefit from this by earning yield on their BTC while in custody, which represents an immense total addressable market.”
Maple launched an existing BTC staking product on CORE this month. This product involves locking up BTC for 90 days and has a yield target of 5%-plus APY. The liquid staking token BTC (lstBTC) will be instantly redeemable, offering better liquidity. Therefore, Maple expects a slightly lower APR range.
Powell said Core is placing itself in an excellent competitive position, as things are in place to be first to market with a yield-bearing BTC liquid staking token.
“There are few BTC yield options out there. If you look across the stack, most of them are just points and they’re not liquid yet or delivering yield in BTC.Read more: Staking Will Define Bitcoin’s Role in the Global Digital Economy in 2025
Bitcoin (BTC) is known to be a volatile asset, but as of late, this is not the case; bitcoin has been trading in a very tight range since the end of November, between $91,000 and $109,000.
In other words, bitcoin’s volatility has compressed enormously. According to Glassnode data, the 2-week realized volatility, which provides of how turbulent the asset was in the past two weeks, measures volatility over the past two weeks annually, has dropped to an annualized 32%, one of the lowest levels in years. In addition, the options implied one-month volatility, which is the market’s expectation for volatility over four weeks, has slipped below annualized 50%, again one of the lowest levels in years.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don’t miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto for Advisors Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Sign me up
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
To put into context how much bitcoin has been in this sideways consolidation, consider what analyst Checkmate calls is the “Choppiness Index”. The data shows that bitcoin, on a weekly time frame, based on its choppiness, is at its highest level since 2015, which shows how tight this trading range has been.
Implied and realized volatility (Glassnode)
Volatility tends to mean-reverting, meaning an unusually stable market often paves the way for a big move in either direction and vice versa. The longer and tighter the consolidation, the violent the eventual volatility explosion.
To cut the long story short, the ongoing rangeplay, the most intense since 2015, could soon pave the way for wild price action. Bitcoin, at some point, will break out of this range; the question remains if it will go higher or lower.
Shaurya Malwa
Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.
But while top leadership is sold on its potential, it’s a different tale for IT teams working the ground. In Australia, the challenges of implementing AI are particularly pronounced, ranging from limited expertise and siloed operations to the rising tide of cybersecurity risks. It’s no surprise then that in the face of complexity, companies are not sure how to take the first step towards smooth and successful AI deployments.
Australia’s AI challenges
Access to skilled resources, funding issues, and having to keep ahead of AI’s rapid evolution are just some of the challenges that make it difficult to implement AI solutions uniformly in Australia. For mid-market companies in highly regulated industries, such as finance, energy, and utilities, addressing cybersecurity concerns and responsible AI implementation are also on the list. This is further made complex by the widespread use of legacy systems, which are unable to cope with AI’s demands.
“From an AI context, their challenges are similar to other sectors. This includes access to talent, quality of data, integration with legacy systems, change management, and ethical and regulatory concerns. However, they also face heightened cyber threats and fraud, driven by threat actors leveraging AI to become more sophisticated. The consequence of a breach can be significant from both a financial and consumer trust perspective,” explains John Hanna, Neudesic Australia.
Ultimately, the breadth of data mid-market companies in finance, energy, and utilities need to deal with is beyond the capabilities of existing systems that rely on the identification of known patterns or human analysis. Hanna added that adopting AI, unlocks a company’s capability to analyse information at scale and speed to identify and stop these threats before they significantly impact the business.
To overcome these challenges, Neudesic helps organisations through its expertise, cutting-edge technology, and strong partnerships with Microsoft, having won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award over 20 times. As a global professional services firm, Neudesic is now bringing decades of experience delivering capabilities spanning data and AI, cloud migration and modernisation, application development, and business strategy to Australia.
Hanna shares Neudesic’s approach, which comprises four pillars.
People: Its diverse array of internal experts spanning industries, skillsets, and Microsoft Azure and OpenAI solutions help clients address a wide spectrum of business challenges for any organisation
Approach: It achieves results not only by implementing Microsoft and OpenAI solutions, but also by addressing today’s challenges, identifying tomorrow’s opportunities, and designing the best path forward
Technology: It focuses on innovation to develop solutions that meet clients’ needs while accelerating time to value
Expertise: With 20 years of expertise in Microsoft’s stack, it offers clients expert knowledge to tackle critical IT challenges and unlock new opportunities
Neudesic’s process starts with understanding each client’s business needs, followed by collaborative workshops and rapid prototyping. The team will then develop a roadmap aligned with a client’s goals and ensure ongoing model refinement, data updates, and process improvements.
“We are also back by IBM and an awarded Microsoft partner. What this means for customers is access to the expertise and experience of experts across both tech stacks dedicated to solving the most critical IT challenges of Australian businesses and capturing new growth opportunities,” says Hanna.
Simplifying critical industry processes with AI
A clear example of how Neudesic is driving AI is in simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) process in finance, also known as identity verification.
KYC is where good customer experience is critical, but traditional KYC processes can take days or even weeks. According to a report conducted by financial compliance software company Fenergo, eight out of 10 survey respondents would lose clients to an inefficient onboarding process. More than ever, there is a need for streamlined and intelligent document processing solutions to stay competitive.
Neudesic’s Document Intelligence Platform helps automate the KYC process by capturing customer data from various formats, cross-referencing it with databases, and validating the information in real-time. It also streamlines compliance with customer identification programs.
What does this mean for financial organisations? They can now handle high volumes of KYC checks without additional staffing, while automation cuts operational costs. Real-time verification speeds up processes like account openings and loan approvals so that banks can acquire and manage customer assets sooner. What’s more, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Fenergo for a more robust and efficient workflow.
By partnering with integrators like Neudesic, Australian businesses can deploy AI through a proven, logical methodology and unlock the ability to invest and accelerate AI use based on business demand and available capital
“Every business dreams big with AI but can stumble when turning ambition into action. Success demands strategy, tailored solutions, and expert guidance. With a trusted partner, businesses can avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that will result in less investment remorse and create business confidence in AI faster than would otherwise be possible,” concludes Hanna.
Learn more about how Neudesic can help Australian organisations go forward in AI, confidently.
Egypt and Cyprus on Monday signed deals for the reexport and commercialization of Cypriot gas, agreements that are key for Cairo in its push to become a regional energy exporter as its own output suffered declines in the past couple of years.
Under the deals, production from the Cronos gas field, off Cyprus’s southwest coast, and Aphrodite, located to the southeast, will be transported to Egyptian liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta before being exported as liquefied natural gas. The signing of the memorandum of understanding was overseen by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at a gas conference in Cairo.
The essence of these agreements is not limited to promoting the exploitation of deposits, but also “broadens the prospects for energy cooperation with Egypt,” the Cypriot presidency said in emailed statement.
Aphrodite, first discovered in 2011, is estimated to hold 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, but is yet to be developed. Chevron Cyprus Ltd. holds a 35% operator interest in Aphrodite with partners BG Cyprus Limited (Shell) 35% and NewMed Energy 30%.
Chevron welcomed the agreements, with Frank Cassulo, Chevron International Exploration & Production’s vice president, saying in a statement that it will “provide the basis to move forward with related commercial arrangements.”
The agreements are pivotal for Egypt, which has been pursuing agreements with neighboring countries amid a sharp decline in its own output over the past couple of years. A crippling foreign currency crunch stymied government efforts to repay arrears to foreign oil companies, impacting investment in oil fields.
The decline in output turned the North African nation into a net importer as rising electricity demand strained local resources. Egypt’s gas production fell in June 2024 to its lowest level since 2017. As a result, liquefied natural gas imports by the government rose to their highest in about six years.
Officials are hoping to resume exports by the end of 2027, after a massive $57 billion bailout by the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund and others helped ease the currency crunch.
Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector.
Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to take on the risks or operational burdens of dealing with smart contracts. A liquid staking token, to be issued in the coming months by Maple, will allow staked BTC to be used by trading firms and asset managers as collateral for borrowing in DeFi or with trading counterparties.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don’t miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Sign me up
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
The ability to earn yield on bitcoin and potentially unleash a new wave of liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem has become a hot topic, with protocols like Babylon having entered the market. A massive, untapped group of BTC holders will be able to get yield on their BTC thanks to Core’s dual-staking mechanism, said Maple CEO Sid Powell.
“Bitcoin’s security budget will face problems in a few years as miners receive less block rewards revenue,” Powell said in an interview. “Staking solutions like CORE can help strengthen Bitcoin network security by giving alternative revenue sources to miners. Holders of lstBTC will benefit from this by earning yield on their BTC while in custody, which represents an immense total addressable market.”
Maple launched an existing BTC staking product on CORE this month. This product involves locking up BTC for 90 days and has a yield target of 5%-plus APY. The liquid staking token BTC (lstBTC) will be instantly redeemable, offering better liquidity. Therefore, Maple expects a slightly lower APR range.
Powell said Core is placing itself in an excellent competitive position, as things are in place to be first to market with a yield-bearing BTC liquid staking token.
“There are few BTC yield options out there. If you look across the stack, most of them are just points and they’re not liquid yet or delivering yield in BTC.Read more: Staking Will Define Bitcoin’s Role in the Global Digital Economy in 2025
Bitcoin (BTC) is known to be a volatile asset, but as of late, this is not the case; bitcoin has been trading in a very tight range since the end of November, between $91,000 and $109,000.
In other words, bitcoin’s volatility has compressed enormously. According to Glassnode data, the 2-week realized volatility, which provides of how turbulent the asset was in the past two weeks, measures volatility over the past two weeks annually, has dropped to an annualized 32%, one of the lowest levels in years. In addition, the options implied one-month volatility, which is the market’s expectation for volatility over four weeks, has slipped below annualized 50%, again one of the lowest levels in years.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don’t miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto for Advisors Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Sign me up
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
To put into context how much bitcoin has been in this sideways consolidation, consider what analyst Checkmate calls is the “Choppiness Index”. The data shows that bitcoin, on a weekly time frame, based on its choppiness, is at its highest level since 2015, which shows how tight this trading range has been.
Implied and realized volatility (Glassnode)
Volatility tends to mean-reverting, meaning an unusually stable market often paves the way for a big move in either direction and vice versa. The longer and tighter the consolidation, the violent the eventual volatility explosion.
To cut the long story short, the ongoing rangeplay, the most intense since 2015, could soon pave the way for wild price action. Bitcoin, at some point, will break out of this range; the question remains if it will go higher or lower.
Shaurya Malwa
Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.
But while top leadership is sold on its potential, it’s a different tale for IT teams working the ground. In Australia, the challenges of implementing AI are particularly pronounced, ranging from limited expertise and siloed operations to the rising tide of cybersecurity risks. It’s no surprise then that in the face of complexity, companies are not sure how to take the first step towards smooth and successful AI deployments.
Australia’s AI challenges
Access to skilled resources, funding issues, and having to keep ahead of AI’s rapid evolution are just some of the challenges that make it difficult to implement AI solutions uniformly in Australia. For mid-market companies in highly regulated industries, such as finance, energy, and utilities, addressing cybersecurity concerns and responsible AI implementation are also on the list. This is further made complex by the widespread use of legacy systems, which are unable to cope with AI’s demands.
“From an AI context, their challenges are similar to other sectors. This includes access to talent, quality of data, integration with legacy systems, change management, and ethical and regulatory concerns. However, they also face heightened cyber threats and fraud, driven by threat actors leveraging AI to become more sophisticated. The consequence of a breach can be significant from both a financial and consumer trust perspective,” explains John Hanna, Neudesic Australia.
Ultimately, the breadth of data mid-market companies in finance, energy, and utilities need to deal with is beyond the capabilities of existing systems that rely on the identification of known patterns or human analysis. Hanna added that adopting AI, unlocks a company’s capability to analyse information at scale and speed to identify and stop these threats before they significantly impact the business.
To overcome these challenges, Neudesic helps organisations through its expertise, cutting-edge technology, and strong partnerships with Microsoft, having won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award over 20 times. As a global professional services firm, Neudesic is now bringing decades of experience delivering capabilities spanning data and AI, cloud migration and modernisation, application development, and business strategy to Australia.
Hanna shares Neudesic’s approach, which comprises four pillars.
People: Its diverse array of internal experts spanning industries, skillsets, and Microsoft Azure and OpenAI solutions help clients address a wide spectrum of business challenges for any organisation
Approach: It achieves results not only by implementing Microsoft and OpenAI solutions, but also by addressing today’s challenges, identifying tomorrow’s opportunities, and designing the best path forward
Technology: It focuses on innovation to develop solutions that meet clients’ needs while accelerating time to value
Expertise: With 20 years of expertise in Microsoft’s stack, it offers clients expert knowledge to tackle critical IT challenges and unlock new opportunities
Neudesic’s process starts with understanding each client’s business needs, followed by collaborative workshops and rapid prototyping. The team will then develop a roadmap aligned with a client’s goals and ensure ongoing model refinement, data updates, and process improvements.
“We are also back by IBM and an awarded Microsoft partner. What this means for customers is access to the expertise and experience of experts across both tech stacks dedicated to solving the most critical IT challenges of Australian businesses and capturing new growth opportunities,” says Hanna.
Simplifying critical industry processes with AI
A clear example of how Neudesic is driving AI is in simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) process in finance, also known as identity verification.
KYC is where good customer experience is critical, but traditional KYC processes can take days or even weeks. According to a report conducted by financial compliance software company Fenergo, eight out of 10 survey respondents would lose clients to an inefficient onboarding process. More than ever, there is a need for streamlined and intelligent document processing solutions to stay competitive.
Neudesic’s Document Intelligence Platform helps automate the KYC process by capturing customer data from various formats, cross-referencing it with databases, and validating the information in real-time. It also streamlines compliance with customer identification programs.
What does this mean for financial organisations? They can now handle high volumes of KYC checks without additional staffing, while automation cuts operational costs. Real-time verification speeds up processes like account openings and loan approvals so that banks can acquire and manage customer assets sooner. What’s more, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Fenergo for a more robust and efficient workflow.
By partnering with integrators like Neudesic, Australian businesses can deploy AI through a proven, logical methodology and unlock the ability to invest and accelerate AI use based on business demand and available capital
“Every business dreams big with AI but can stumble when turning ambition into action. Success demands strategy, tailored solutions, and expert guidance. With a trusted partner, businesses can avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that will result in less investment remorse and create business confidence in AI faster than would otherwise be possible,” concludes Hanna.
Learn more about how Neudesic can help Australian organisations go forward in AI, confidently.
Egypt and Cyprus on Monday signed deals for the reexport and commercialization of Cypriot gas, agreements that are key for Cairo in its push to become a regional energy exporter as its own output suffered declines in the past couple of years.
Under the deals, production from the Cronos gas field, off Cyprus’s southwest coast, and Aphrodite, located to the southeast, will be transported to Egyptian liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta before being exported as liquefied natural gas. The signing of the memorandum of understanding was overseen by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at a gas conference in Cairo.
The essence of these agreements is not limited to promoting the exploitation of deposits, but also “broadens the prospects for energy cooperation with Egypt,” the Cypriot presidency said in emailed statement.
Aphrodite, first discovered in 2011, is estimated to hold 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, but is yet to be developed. Chevron Cyprus Ltd. holds a 35% operator interest in Aphrodite with partners BG Cyprus Limited (Shell) 35% and NewMed Energy 30%.
Chevron welcomed the agreements, with Frank Cassulo, Chevron International Exploration & Production’s vice president, saying in a statement that it will “provide the basis to move forward with related commercial arrangements.”
The agreements are pivotal for Egypt, which has been pursuing agreements with neighboring countries amid a sharp decline in its own output over the past couple of years. A crippling foreign currency crunch stymied government efforts to repay arrears to foreign oil companies, impacting investment in oil fields.
The decline in output turned the North African nation into a net importer as rising electricity demand strained local resources. Egypt’s gas production fell in June 2024 to its lowest level since 2017. As a result, liquefied natural gas imports by the government rose to their highest in about six years.
Officials are hoping to resume exports by the end of 2027, after a massive $57 billion bailout by the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund and others helped ease the currency crunch.
Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector.
Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to take on the risks or operational burdens of dealing with smart contracts. A liquid staking token, to be issued in the coming months by Maple, will allow staked BTC to be used by trading firms and asset managers as collateral for borrowing in DeFi or with trading counterparties.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don’t miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Sign me up
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The ability to earn yield on bitcoin and potentially unleash a new wave of liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem has become a hot topic, with protocols like Babylon having entered the market. A massive, untapped group of BTC holders will be able to get yield on their BTC thanks to Core’s dual-staking mechanism, said Maple CEO Sid Powell.
“Bitcoin’s security budget will face problems in a few years as miners receive less block rewards revenue,” Powell said in an interview. “Staking solutions like CORE can help strengthen Bitcoin network security by giving alternative revenue sources to miners. Holders of lstBTC will benefit from this by earning yield on their BTC while in custody, which represents an immense total addressable market.”
Maple launched an existing BTC staking product on CORE this month. This product involves locking up BTC for 90 days and has a yield target of 5%-plus APY. The liquid staking token BTC (lstBTC) will be instantly redeemable, offering better liquidity. Therefore, Maple expects a slightly lower APR range.
Powell said Core is placing itself in an excellent competitive position, as things are in place to be first to market with a yield-bearing BTC liquid staking token.
“There are few BTC yield options out there. If you look across the stack, most of them are just points and they’re not liquid yet or delivering yield in BTC.Read more: Staking Will Define Bitcoin’s Role in the Global Digital Economy in 2025
Bitcoin (BTC) is known to be a volatile asset, but as of late, this is not the case; bitcoin has been trading in a very tight range since the end of November, between $91,000 and $109,000.
In other words, bitcoin’s volatility has compressed enormously. According to Glassnode data, the 2-week realized volatility, which provides of how turbulent the asset was in the past two weeks, measures volatility over the past two weeks annually, has dropped to an annualized 32%, one of the lowest levels in years. In addition, the options implied one-month volatility, which is the market’s expectation for volatility over four weeks, has slipped below annualized 50%, again one of the lowest levels in years.
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To put into context how much bitcoin has been in this sideways consolidation, consider what analyst Checkmate calls is the “Choppiness Index”. The data shows that bitcoin, on a weekly time frame, based on its choppiness, is at its highest level since 2015, which shows how tight this trading range has been.
Implied and realized volatility (Glassnode)
Volatility tends to mean-reverting, meaning an unusually stable market often paves the way for a big move in either direction and vice versa. The longer and tighter the consolidation, the violent the eventual volatility explosion.
To cut the long story short, the ongoing rangeplay, the most intense since 2015, could soon pave the way for wild price action. Bitcoin, at some point, will break out of this range; the question remains if it will go higher or lower.
Shaurya Malwa
Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.
But while top leadership is sold on its potential, it’s a different tale for IT teams working the ground. In Australia, the challenges of implementing AI are particularly pronounced, ranging from limited expertise and siloed operations to the rising tide of cybersecurity risks. It’s no surprise then that in the face of complexity, companies are not sure how to take the first step towards smooth and successful AI deployments.
Australia’s AI challenges
Access to skilled resources, funding issues, and having to keep ahead of AI’s rapid evolution are just some of the challenges that make it difficult to implement AI solutions uniformly in Australia. For mid-market companies in highly regulated industries, such as finance, energy, and utilities, addressing cybersecurity concerns and responsible AI implementation are also on the list. This is further made complex by the widespread use of legacy systems, which are unable to cope with AI’s demands.
“From an AI context, their challenges are similar to other sectors. This includes access to talent, quality of data, integration with legacy systems, change management, and ethical and regulatory concerns. However, they also face heightened cyber threats and fraud, driven by threat actors leveraging AI to become more sophisticated. The consequence of a breach can be significant from both a financial and consumer trust perspective,” explains John Hanna, Neudesic Australia.
Ultimately, the breadth of data mid-market companies in finance, energy, and utilities need to deal with is beyond the capabilities of existing systems that rely on the identification of known patterns or human analysis. Hanna added that adopting AI, unlocks a company’s capability to analyse information at scale and speed to identify and stop these threats before they significantly impact the business.
To overcome these challenges, Neudesic helps organisations through its expertise, cutting-edge technology, and strong partnerships with Microsoft, having won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award over 20 times. As a global professional services firm, Neudesic is now bringing decades of experience delivering capabilities spanning data and AI, cloud migration and modernisation, application development, and business strategy to Australia.
Hanna shares Neudesic’s approach, which comprises four pillars.
People: Its diverse array of internal experts spanning industries, skillsets, and Microsoft Azure and OpenAI solutions help clients address a wide spectrum of business challenges for any organisation
Approach: It achieves results not only by implementing Microsoft and OpenAI solutions, but also by addressing today’s challenges, identifying tomorrow’s opportunities, and designing the best path forward
Technology: It focuses on innovation to develop solutions that meet clients’ needs while accelerating time to value
Expertise: With 20 years of expertise in Microsoft’s stack, it offers clients expert knowledge to tackle critical IT challenges and unlock new opportunities
Neudesic’s process starts with understanding each client’s business needs, followed by collaborative workshops and rapid prototyping. The team will then develop a roadmap aligned with a client’s goals and ensure ongoing model refinement, data updates, and process improvements.
“We are also back by IBM and an awarded Microsoft partner. What this means for customers is access to the expertise and experience of experts across both tech stacks dedicated to solving the most critical IT challenges of Australian businesses and capturing new growth opportunities,” says Hanna.
Simplifying critical industry processes with AI
A clear example of how Neudesic is driving AI is in simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) process in finance, also known as identity verification.
KYC is where good customer experience is critical, but traditional KYC processes can take days or even weeks. According to a report conducted by financial compliance software company Fenergo, eight out of 10 survey respondents would lose clients to an inefficient onboarding process. More than ever, there is a need for streamlined and intelligent document processing solutions to stay competitive.
Neudesic’s Document Intelligence Platform helps automate the KYC process by capturing customer data from various formats, cross-referencing it with databases, and validating the information in real-time. It also streamlines compliance with customer identification programs.
What does this mean for financial organisations? They can now handle high volumes of KYC checks without additional staffing, while automation cuts operational costs. Real-time verification speeds up processes like account openings and loan approvals so that banks can acquire and manage customer assets sooner. What’s more, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Fenergo for a more robust and efficient workflow.
By partnering with integrators like Neudesic, Australian businesses can deploy AI through a proven, logical methodology and unlock the ability to invest and accelerate AI use based on business demand and available capital
“Every business dreams big with AI but can stumble when turning ambition into action. Success demands strategy, tailored solutions, and expert guidance. With a trusted partner, businesses can avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that will result in less investment remorse and create business confidence in AI faster than would otherwise be possible,” concludes Hanna.
Learn more about how Neudesic can help Australian organisations go forward in AI, confidently.
Egypt and Cyprus on Monday signed deals for the reexport and commercialization of Cypriot gas, agreements that are key for Cairo in its push to become a regional energy exporter as its own output suffered declines in the past couple of years.
Under the deals, production from the Cronos gas field, off Cyprus’s southwest coast, and Aphrodite, located to the southeast, will be transported to Egyptian liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta before being exported as liquefied natural gas. The signing of the memorandum of understanding was overseen by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at a gas conference in Cairo.
The essence of these agreements is not limited to promoting the exploitation of deposits, but also “broadens the prospects for energy cooperation with Egypt,” the Cypriot presidency said in emailed statement.
Aphrodite, first discovered in 2011, is estimated to hold 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, but is yet to be developed. Chevron Cyprus Ltd. holds a 35% operator interest in Aphrodite with partners BG Cyprus Limited (Shell) 35% and NewMed Energy 30%.
Chevron welcomed the agreements, with Frank Cassulo, Chevron International Exploration & Production’s vice president, saying in a statement that it will “provide the basis to move forward with related commercial arrangements.”
The agreements are pivotal for Egypt, which has been pursuing agreements with neighboring countries amid a sharp decline in its own output over the past couple of years. A crippling foreign currency crunch stymied government efforts to repay arrears to foreign oil companies, impacting investment in oil fields.
The decline in output turned the North African nation into a net importer as rising electricity demand strained local resources. Egypt’s gas production fell in June 2024 to its lowest level since 2017. As a result, liquefied natural gas imports by the government rose to their highest in about six years.
Officials are hoping to resume exports by the end of 2027, after a massive $57 billion bailout by the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund and others helped ease the currency crunch.
Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector.
Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to take on the risks or operational burdens of dealing with smart contracts. A liquid staking token, to be issued in the coming months by Maple, will allow staked BTC to be used by trading firms and asset managers as collateral for borrowing in DeFi or with trading counterparties.
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The ability to earn yield on bitcoin and potentially unleash a new wave of liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem has become a hot topic, with protocols like Babylon having entered the market. A massive, untapped group of BTC holders will be able to get yield on their BTC thanks to Core’s dual-staking mechanism, said Maple CEO Sid Powell.
“Bitcoin’s security budget will face problems in a few years as miners receive less block rewards revenue,” Powell said in an interview. “Staking solutions like CORE can help strengthen Bitcoin network security by giving alternative revenue sources to miners. Holders of lstBTC will benefit from this by earning yield on their BTC while in custody, which represents an immense total addressable market.”
Maple launched an existing BTC staking product on CORE this month. This product involves locking up BTC for 90 days and has a yield target of 5%-plus APY. The liquid staking token BTC (lstBTC) will be instantly redeemable, offering better liquidity. Therefore, Maple expects a slightly lower APR range.
Powell said Core is placing itself in an excellent competitive position, as things are in place to be first to market with a yield-bearing BTC liquid staking token.
“There are few BTC yield options out there. If you look across the stack, most of them are just points and they’re not liquid yet or delivering yield in BTC.Read more: Staking Will Define Bitcoin’s Role in the Global Digital Economy in 2025
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