Connect with us

Press Release

Portal to Bitcoin ($PORTAL) Lands Multi-Exchange Listings on Binance, Bitget, KuCoin, and More

Published

on

San Francisco, 2nd September 2025: Portal to Bitcoin (PORTAL), a custodyless protocol bringing atomic swaps natively to Bitcoin and other blockchains, announced today that its native token, $PTB, will be listed on a number of the world’s foremost cryptocurrency exchanges. The earned listings to this point are Binance Alpha & Futures, Kraken, KuCoin, Gate.io, Bitget, and MEXC, significantly escalating the accessibility and liquidity to token holders throughout the globe. 

Portal has seen robust user growth and network activity levels in the past few months. So far, on testnet, the platform has handled 18m transactions, attracted more than 1.3m downloads in the Chrome Web Store, and helped 850,000 wallets grow. More than 950,000 are still active wallets, which is a good 73 % retention rate, which shows how relevant the project has become to a growing worldwide audience.

It has also benefited from significant funding to develop the ecosystem. The company raised $92m from top-tier investors such as Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital, Republic, Shima Capital, and prominent institutional investors and blockchain founders affiliated with Ethereum, Tether, Dfinity, and Hedera. Furthermore, Portal recently committed to an ecosystem fund of $50,000,000 committed by Paloma Investments to expedite developer adoption, ecosystem growth, and institutional acceptance. This fund is designed to bring Portal’s infrastructure integrations to to mass market and make Bitcoin the settlement layer for all of TradF,i not just DeFi.

Central to this expansion is BitScaler, its proprietary scaling technology that allows Bitcoin to handle more transaction types and higher throughput than even lightning with lower fees without changes to the core Bitcoin protocol, requiring no bridges, L2s, Sidechains, wrapped derivatives, etc,” says Dr. Chandra Duggirala, CEO and Founder of Portal to Bitcoin

The $PTB token is built for long-term growth and to reward all valuable ecosystem participants. All swaps on the network are charged a 0.3% fee, 0.15% refilled and burned $PTB, reducing the circulating supply and creating significant deflationary conditions as demand grows. Incentives are well aligned in all aspects of the distribution:

  • Liquidity providers receive the majority of emissions
  • Validators and lite nodes are rewarded for securing the network
  • Community members benefit from airdrops, partly released at token generation event and gradually thereafter
  • Development and reserves remain largely subject to long-term lock-ups

“Portal’s token design ensures that participants, from liquidity providers to validators, are rewarded both in the near and long term. Early contributors stand to benefit from direct distribution for the value they contributed to the network, while the burn mechanism helps sustain the network expansion and utility as well as value,” continues Dr. Duggirala.

Portal’s ecosystem extends beyond swaps. Its Portal Wallet provides multi-currency support while maintaining all important self-custody and is embedded with a cross-chain DEX. The Swap SDK provides ease of integration for third-party wallets and DEXs, and the project’s AI-driven investment copilot, RAFA-AI, serves as a strategy and decision-making system for professional traders.

The founding members are influential figures from both blockchain and high technology fields, including Dr Chandra Duggirala (inventor of BTC Layer 2 cross-chain atomic swaps), George Burke (Bitcoin OG and inventor of first Bitcoin debit card), and Manoj Duggirala (Stanford-trained engineer who also made many contributions to Apple’s M7 core processor).

With multi-exchange listings under its belt, solid financial support for the long-term journey ahead, and real-world adoption metrics in early growth mode, Portal to Bitcoin is set to play a fundamental role in taking Bitcoin to its next stage as the global financial reckoning foundation.

About Portal to Bitcoin

Portal is non-custodial infrastructure enabling atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other chains—without bridges, Cex’s, or wrapped assets. Its technology stack includes BitScaler, PortalOS, the Portal Wallet, Swap SDK, and RAFA-AI. The protocol is backed by Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital, and others, with a funding pedigree totaling $92 million from tier one investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Shima Capital, and Arrington Capital.

Website | Twitter/X | Discord | Telegram 

Media Contact

Organization: Portal to Bitcoin

Contact Person: Ian Byrne

Website: https://portaltobitcoin.com/ 

Email: hello@portaldefi.com 

About Author

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

Continue Reading

Press Release

AgentLISA Unveils PaymentShield: The First Complete Security Suite for X402 Autonomous Payments

Published

on

Singapore – Blockman PRDecember 16, 2025 — AgentLISA, the leading Agentic Security Operating System for Web3, today announced PaymentShield, a comprehensive security platform purpose-built to protect X402 autonomous payment infrastructure. Alongside this announcement, AgentLISA releases a detailed position paper analyzing critical application-layer vulnerabilities in agentic payment systems and unveils a strategic one-year roadmap to deliver full-stack protection for the rapidly growing X402 ecosystem.

With X402 processing over 100 million autonomous transactions in its first six months and major backing from Coinbase, Cloudflare, Google, and Visa, the protocol is positioned to become the universal standard for AI-driven commerce. While X402’s protocol layer demonstrates robust security design, our analysis identifies critical vulnerabilities at the application layer—where AI agents interact with payment services.

“X402 built a strong protocol foundation with excellent protection against replay attacks, frontrunning, and cross-chain exploits,” said Dr. Izaiah Sun, Co-founder and Research Lead at AgentLISA. “However, the real security challenge lies in the application layer—where autonomous agents can be manipulated, budgets can be drained, and compliance risks emerge. PaymentShield addresses these critical gaps.”

The Application Layer Security Challenge

AgentLISA’s comprehensive security analysis reveals three critical vulnerabilities in X402’s application layer:

Malicious Recipient Risks: No validation of payment addresses against sanctions lists, scam databases, or honeypot contracts—exposing users to legal liability and financial loss

Settlement Race Conditions: Timing gaps between payment verification and actual settlement allow attackers to receive services without payment

Resource Exhaustion Attacks: Lack of standardized rate limiting enables verification spam and economic DoS attacks against service providers and facilitators

Additionally, autonomous agents face unique manipulation risks including prompt injection, recursive payment loops, and budget exploitation—threats that assume no human oversight.

PaymentShield: Comprehensive Application Layer Protection

PaymentShield directly addresses these identified vulnerabilities through specialized security capabilities:

AI Agent Payment Firewall

  • Real-time sanctions screening (OFAC, UN, EU) preventing payments to prohibited addresses
  • Smart contract risk analysis detecting honeypots, rug-pull patterns, and malicious code
  • Prompt injection detection blocking manipulation attempts in payment descriptions
  • Recursive payment loop prevention through graph analysis
  • Intelligent spending controls with automatic circuit breakers

Settlement Assurance Engine

  • Pre-settlement balance and nonce verification eliminating race conditions
  • Atomic settlement-access binding preventing resource delivery before payment confirms
  • Configurable settlement policies based on transaction value and risk

Rate Limiting and DoS Defense

  • Adaptive throttling preventing verification spam attacks
  • Economic threshold enforcement blocking micro-payment griefing
  • Facilitator protection through API authentication and request signing

Enterprise Compliance Suite

  • Comprehensive audit trails for regulatory requirements
  • Transaction monitoring flagging suspicious patterns
  • Customizable whitelisting/blacklisting policies

One-Year Development Roadmap

Phase 1: Application Layer Security (H1 2026)

Focus on immediate protection for AI agents and payment interactions:

  • AI Agent Protection Suite: Seamlessly integrated with AgentLISA’s Agentic Auditor, providing real-time defense against payment manipulation and budget exploitation
  • Enhanced Wallet Security: Extension of our Wallet Health Check for X402 payment flows, including session validation and spending pattern analysis
  • Payment Request Verification: Multi-layered authentication preventing response forgery and account substitution
  • Malicious Recipient Detection: Real-time screening against sanctions lists, scams, and honeypot contracts

This phase leverages AgentLISA’s existing AI-powered security infrastructure, extending our industry-leading capabilities to the payment interaction layer.

Phase 2: Protocol Layer Monitoring (H2 2026)

Enhanced visibility and detection complementing X402’s strong protocol security:

  • Settlement Assurance: Multi-network verification ensuring payment finality across all supported chains
  • Double-Spend Prevention: Distributed monitoring detecting duplicate payment attempts ecosystem-wide
  • Session Security: Protection for X402 V2’s reusable sessions against hijacking and replay attacks
  • Unified Security Platform: Integrated dashboard providing complete visibility across application and protocol layers

By end of 2026, PaymentShield will deliver the industry’s first complete security stack for autonomous payments.

Strategic Advantages

Seamless Integration: Built on AgentLISA’s battle-tested platform securing billions in smart contract value. Organizations using our Agentic Auditor and Wallet Health Check experience zero-friction adoption.

First-Mover Advantage: As the first comprehensive application-layer security solution for X402, PaymentShield establishes AgentLISA as the security standard for autonomous payments.

Enterprise-Ready: Audit logging, compliance reporting, role-based access controls, and SLA guarantees enable confident deployment of autonomous agents at scale.

Ecosystem Collaboration: Active partnership with the X402 Foundation and major platforms ensures PaymentShield becomes the trusted security layer ecosystem-wide.

Availability and Pricing

PaymentShield launches in three editions:

  • Developer Edition (Free): Core protection for individual developers and small-scale deployments
  • Professional Edition: Full feature set for production applications with moderate transaction volumes
  • Enterprise Edition: Unlimited scale, dedicated support, custom integration, and SLA guarantees

Early access begins Q1 2026 for current AgentLISA customers.

Join the Secure Autonomous Economy

“We’re not just building security tools—we’re building the trust layer that enables the autonomous economy to flourish,” said Dr. Sun. “X402 has a strong protocol foundation. PaymentShield completes the picture by securing the application layer where AI agents actually operate. Every agent deserves to operate safely. Every service provider deserves to be paid fairly. PaymentShield makes both possible.”


About AgentLISA

AgentLISA is the first Agentic Security Operating System for Web3, purpose-built to secure smart contracts and autonomous payments at the speed of modern development. Following our $12 million funding round led by tier-1 investors including Redpoint Ventures and UOB Ventures, we’ve established ourselves as the industry leader in AI-powered security for Web3 infrastructure.

Our Holistic Security Platform:

  • Agentic Auditor: Industry’s first AI-powered smart contract security platform with omnichain scanning across all major programming languages (Solidity, Rust, Move), securing billions in on-chain value
  • PaymentShield: Application-layer security for X402 and autonomous payment protocols
  • Wallet Health Check: Real-time wallet security monitoring and credential protection
  • LISA-Bench: Industry’s first and largest security benchmark dataset for building Web3 agents and evaluating frontier LLMs’ capabilities to detect crypto vulnerabilities

From smart contract deployment to autonomous agent payments, we secure billions in transaction value across the complete Web3 application lifecycle.


Media Contact
For more information, product demos, or interviews: dev@agentlisa.ai

Download the Position Paper
Read our comprehensive analysis of X402 application-layer security challenges:
www.agentlisa.ai/x402-positionpaper


PaymentShield and AgentLISA are trademarks of AgentLISA Labs. X402 is developed by the X402 Foundation.

About Author

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

Continue Reading

Press Release

Darius McGrew Gives a Homerun Explanation of Enterprise Telecom for Financial Services

Published

on

Darius McGrew is an Enterprise Account Executive in Tampa, Florida. He and his team focus on mitigating risk and delivering consistent bandwidth for enterprise customers.

Many of his customers are in the financial services sector. For them, technology decisions are about more than performance metrics – it’s all about safeguarding trust.

As a seasoned Telecom sales rep in Florida, Darius McGrew exemplifies this daily focus. 

This helps him effectively guide institutions through complex implementations with precision.

Much like a baseball manager setting the lineup for a championship game, Darius McGrew ensures that every solution is positioned to deliver consistent long-term performance while protecting enterprise value.

 

Stepping Up to the Plate: Discovery and Risk Assessment

The first step in any engagement is discovery. For financial services clients, it is critical to identify pain points such as:

  • Latency in trading platforms

  • Compliance gaps in data transmission

  • Or resilience concerns during hurricane season.

Darius McGrew, a Telecom sales leader in Florida, uses baseball analogies to weave the explanation together.

“Just like a batter studies the pitcher before stepping into the batter’s box, a good rep studies the client’s environment. Every swing must be data-driven, every pitch anticipated.” – Darius McGrew

By treating discovery as the first at‑bat, reps like Darius McGrew can set the tone for a good game built on preparation and foresight.

 

Building the Lineup: Solution Design

Once risks are identified, Darius McGrew designs a solution that balances performance with compliance.

  • Security: End‑to‑end encryption and secure access service edge (SASE) serve as the infield defense — preventing breaches before they reach critical systems.

  • Compliance: Documentation and audit trails are the rulebook. Regulatory compliance is essential. 

  • Reliability: Redundant circuits, SD‑WAN failover, and disaster recovery planning protocols are the bullpen — ready to step in when the starter falters.

Darius McGrew explains that an effective rep builds a solution with layered strengths. Each component plays its role in protecting enterprise value.

 

Playing Through the Season: Implementation and Testing

Implementation is where theory meets practice. This is especially true for financial services clients.

Darius McGrew is a Florida-based Telecom rep that coordinates provisioning, testing, and validation with the precision of a World Series team executing a double play.

He explains that the Enterprise Value Strategy is simple:

  • Testing protocols: Latency is measured against trading benchmarks, uptime is validated against SLA commitments, and compliance is confirmed through simulated audits.

  • Disaster recovery drills: Failover circuits are tested like spring training exercises, ensuring readiness when the regular season begins.

  • Performance monitoring: Ongoing analytics resemble the box score—tracking throughput, packet loss, and jitter in every inning to ensure we deliver consistent wins.

 

The Closer: Post‑Implementation Support

Every championship team needs a reliable closer to succeed. Here’s why it matters in Telecom:

  • Monitoring: AI‑driven analytics track network performance, alerting IT leadership to anomalies before they impact members.

  • Compliance updates: As regulations evolve, the best reps provide updated documentation and ensure that solutions remain audit‑ready.

  • Continuous improvement: Quarterly reviews align infrastructure with emerging financial services needs, from mobile banking expansion to secure cloud adoption.

Florida Finance: Resilience Under Pressure

Operating from Tampa, Florida, Darius McGrew is an Enterprise Account Executive that understands the unique challenges of hurricane‑prone regions. 

“Reliability is not theoretical; it is tested annually by severe weather.” – Darius McGrew

Disaster recovery planning includes geographically diverse routes, redundant data centers, and proactive failover strategies.

 

Why IT Leadership Values This Approach

For IT leaders in financial services, leveraging trusted Telecom reps like Darius McGrew offers clear advantages:

  • Security as defense: Like a gold‑glove shortstop, security measures prevent costly errors.

  • Compliance as rule adherence: Just as baseball requires strict adherence to rules, financial services demand compliance with regulatory frameworks.

  • Reliability as consistency: A reliable bullpen wins championships; reliable infrastructure wins member trust.

Many Financial Institutions are rethinking their Cloud Connectivity Strategy for Secure Transactions

Darius McGrew explains that complex solutions are like a well‑executed game plan — strong pitching (security), disciplined adherence to rules (compliance), and consistent hitting (reliability). The institution not only wins the game but also builds a season of trust with its members.

Conclusion

Telecom sales in financial services is not about chasing quick wins; it is about building a season of sustained success. 

Darius McGrew is a Florida-based Telecom representative demonstrating how security, compliance, and reliability will form the foundation of every solution.

Through baseball analogies, the parallels are clear: defense prevents errors, rules ensure fairness, and reliability wins championships.

For IT leadership, the lesson is simple: trusted Telecom reps like Darius are not just vendors. They are managers, coaches, and players who ensure that every inning of the technology game delivers value, resilience, and trust.

About Author

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

Continue Reading

Press Release

KeyCrew Media Selects Teddy Abdelmalek as Verified Expert for Student Housing Operations and Property Management Innovation

Published

on

KeyCrew Media, a real estate analytics and media network, has selected Teddy Abdelmalek, Senior Vice President of Business Development at HH Red Stone, as a KeyCrew Verified Expert.

Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 16th Dec 2025 – KeyCrew Media, a real estate analytics and media network, has selected Teddy Abdelmalek, Senior Vice President of Business Development at HH Red Stone, as a KeyCrew Verified Expert. Abdelmalek will contribute data-driven analysis on student housing operations, property management innovation, and multifamily real estate trends across national markets.

KeyCrew Verified Experts are carefully selected as prolific market trend authorities who demonstrate exceptional insight and expertise in their fields. These distinguished professionals regularly contribute market insights, expert perspectives, and forward-looking analysis to help audiences navigate complex industry landscapes.

Teddy Abdelmalek brings 25 years of student housing and multifamily experience to his role at HH Red Stone, the property management arm of HH Group. With a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration with an emphasis in Student Affairs, Abdelmalek uniquely combines operational expertise with deep understanding of the student experience. He started his career managing on-campus student housing before transitioning to the private sector, where he has built a reputation for transforming underperforming assets through disciplined operations and innovative resident experience strategies.

As Senior Vice President of Business Development, Abdelmalek leads HH Red Stone’s third-party management vertical, overseeing approximately 10,000 beds across student housing, multifamily, affordable, and mixed-use properties nationwide. Under his leadership, HH Red Stone has pioneered a “functional hospitality” operating model that prioritizes resident experience and owner alignment through performance-based fee structures.

Abdelmalek’s approach to property management challenges industry conventions. Rather than collecting standard management fees regardless of property performance, HH Red Stone operates on a base fee plus performance incentives tied to NOI achievement – ensuring the company only benefits when properties succeed.

“I’m honored to be selected as a KeyCrew Verified Expert,” said Teddy Abdelmalek. “The student housing industry is evolving rapidly, moving away from amenities arms races toward functional, wellness-integrated designs that support academic success. With my background in both on-campus student affairs and private sector operations, I’m excited to share insights on how operators can drive real value for property owners while creating environments where students truly thrive.”

Abdelmalek’s areas of expertise include:

  • Student Housing Operations—Specialized knowledge in off-campus student housing management, leasing strategies, and renewal optimization
  • Property Management Innovation—Forward-thinking approaches to third-party management that prioritize owner alignment and performance-based results
  • PropTech Integration—Strategic implementation of property technology that enhances resident experience and operational efficiency
  • Multifamily & Affordable Housing—Comprehensive understanding of diverse asset classes and cross-sector operational best practices
  • Resident Experience & Hospitality-Driven Operations—Expertise in creating community environments that drive occupancy and NOI through disciplined, consistent service delivery

About HH Red Stone

HH Red Stone is the property management arm of HH Group, managing approximately 10,000 beds across multiple asset classes including student housing, multifamily, affordable, and mixed-use properties nationwide. After a decade of exclusively managing HH Group’s owned portfolio, the company launched its third-party management vertical to serve other owners with the same institutional-grade approach it applies to its own assets. HH Red Stone’s operating philosophy centers on “functional hospitality” – treating residents as CEOs and maintaining operations with the discipline and consistency that drives sustainable success. Website: www.hhredstone.com

About KeyCrew Media

KeyCrew Media is the next generation real estate intelligence platform that leverages AI-powered analytics and first-person reporting from verified experts to produce forward-looking insights across local markets and niche asset classes. Proprietary market reporting is delivered through KeyCrew’s growing portfolio of niche media properties – including KeyCrew Journal, NextAsset News, and other specialized publications – as well as selectively syndicated to media partners that influence industry decision-makers. Learn more at keycrew.co

 

Media Contact

Organization: KeyCrew Media

Contact Person: Heather Hook

Website: https://www.keycrew.co

Email: Send Email

City: Baltimore

State: Maryland

Country:United States

Release id:39119

The post KeyCrew Media Selects Teddy Abdelmalek as Verified Expert for Student Housing Operations and Property Management Innovation appeared first on King Newswire. This content is provided by a third-party source.. King Newswire makes no warranties or representations in connection with it. King Newswire is a press release distribution agency and does not endorse or verify the claims made in this release. If you have any complaints or copyright concerns related to this article, please contact the company listed in the ‘Media Contact’ section

file

About Author

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

Continue Reading

LATEST POST