Nvidia plans an open-source AI agent platform called NemoClaw for enterprise software, expanding its push deeper into the AI ecosystem.

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The ruling highlights growing legal scrutiny on AI's role in digital commerce, potentially reshaping how AI tools interact with online platforms.

The post Court blocks Perplexity from using AI agents to shop on Amazon appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin climbs toward $71K as oil tumbles 11% on possible IEA oil reserve release, lifting crypto markets and equities.

The post Bitcoin climbs to $71K as crude tumbles on possible global oil reserve release appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Starknet launches STRK20 private tokens using zero-knowledge proofs, enabling anonymous transfers, swaps, and staking.

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X Money's early access could significantly enhance user engagement and transform X into a comprehensive digital ecosystem.

The post Elon Musk says early access to X Money is coming next month appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Netflix Censored Bitcoin Sponsors on Boxer Trunks During Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua Broadcast

Netflix blocked Bitcoin-related sponsors from appearing on a pro boxer’s fight trunks and gear during a major event it streamed live, forcing last-minute changes days before the bout, according to Sazmining CEO Kent Halliburton.

Halliburton, whose company provides Bitcoin mining-as-a-service using renewable hydroelectric energy, detailed the incident in a statement shared with Bitcoin Magazine. The sponsorship involved welterweight fighter Justin Cardona‘s appearance on the undercard of the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua fight card, held December 19, 2025, at Miami’s Kaseya Center. Netflix served as the exclusive broadcaster, estimating viewership between 20 million and 100 million.

Sazmining, Bitcoin lending platform LEDN, and a standalone Bitcoin logo secured placement on Cardona’s trunks in mid-October 2025. Sponsors were submitted by late October, meeting the October 31 deadline for approval and embroidery. Logos were produced, invoices paid, and Cardona promoted the partnership publicly on social media. No objections arose for nearly two months.

On December 12, 2025—one week before fight night—promoter Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), co-promoting with Netflix, informed Cardona’s team of a “secondary review” by Netflix. The decision banned all Bitcoin-related content from fight-night trunks, press conferences, weigh-ins, and other fight-week activities. Cardona could have faced potential fines for non-compliance. The rejection cited “Prohibited per our policy,” with no additional explanation.

Netflix’s sponsor guidelines, reviewed by Halliburton, prohibit categories such as weapons, drugs, tobacco, political ads, sexually explicit content, and “speculative financial products.” Examples under the latter include get-rich-quick schemes, pyramid schemes, credit repair services, and payday loans. Bitcoin receives no explicit mention. Financial services appear in a “restricted” category requiring case-by-case approval, alongside alcohol, insurance, and gambling.

Other sponsors in restricted categories cleared the process without issue. An insurance firm backing Cardona gained approval. Polymarket and Draft Kings, two well-known betting sites, enabling real-money wagers on elections, sports, and cultural events, featured prominently on the broadcast—including stream branding and a main-event fighter displaying related merchandise on camera. Both of these platforms involve speculative financial elements and gambling, yet encountered no restrictions.

The ban compelled Cardona to replace custom-embroidered trunks at his own expense, disrupting preparations for what he called the biggest fight of his career. “In the ring, I fight for every round because time is scarce and every punch counts. Bitcoin is the same way—there’s a fixed supply, no one can inflate it away. I took a lot of pride in having Bitcoin companies on my trunks,” Cardona stated. 

Halliburton highlighted the inconsistency, emphasizing Bitcoin’s institutional growth by 2026. Spot ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity have drawn billions in inflows, publicly traded companies hold Bitcoin on balance sheets, and nations discuss adding it to reserves. The U.S. government has debated a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. “It’s unbelievable that Bitcoin and Bitcoin companies continue to be censored,” Halliburton said, calling the reversal “incoherent” given Netflix’s guidelines and approvals for similar sponsors.

He urged Netflix to clarify its stance: If Bitcoin faces a blanket ban, it should appear explicitly in guidelines to avoid misleading athletes and businesses. Platforms set their own rules, Halliburton acknowledged, but demanded consistent, upfront application—especially after initial silence implied approval.

The incident illustrates ongoing hurdles for Bitcoin firms pursuing mainstream visibility through sports and media partnerships, despite the asset’s maturation into a $2 trillion class with regulated financial products.

For Bitcoin businesses like Sazmining, the episode reinforces the need for promoters aligned with Bitcoin’s principles. Cardona’s next fights prioritize such environments, potentially amplifying Bitcoin’s exposure in combat sports.

This post Netflix Censored Bitcoin Sponsors on Boxer Trunks During Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua Broadcast first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Investment Bank Gives Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) Buy Ratings, Flags Bitcoin Treasury Discounts

Investment bank B. Riley has entered the corporate bitcoin treasury sector with formal coverage of two Nasdaq-listed companies, Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) and Strive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASST), assigning Buy ratings and price targets of $175 and $12, respectively. 

Analyst Fedor Shabalin led the Strive initiation, according to Investing.com The move comes as both stocks trade well below their previous highs, with bitcoin near $70,000.

B. Riley framed the current valuation compression in both companies as an opportunity rather than a structural concern. Strategy shares currently trade at 1.2 times net asset value (NAV), down from a 3.4x peak in 2024. 

Strive trades around 0.9 times modified NAV, reflecting early-stage volatility and a discount to the company’s combined bitcoin and asset management value.

Strategy’s market dominance and Strive’s dual engine structure 

For Strategy, B. Riley highlights scale and market dominance. The company holds 738,731 BTC, the largest corporate treasury in the world, and has built a digital credit platform spanning six securities, including five series of perpetual preferred stock alongside common equity and convertible notes. 

This capital structure allows Strategy to access funding across market cycles. 

The company also added 41,002 bitcoin in January 2026 alone and raised $25.3 billion in FY2025 through equity issuance, making it the largest U.S. public issuer for the second consecutive year. Its software subscription business saw Q4 2025 revenue grow 62.1% year over year. 

Despite operational progress, MSTR shares have fallen 51.6% over the past year.

Strive operates a dual-engine model, combining a bitcoin treasury of roughly 13,132 BTC with an asset management business overseeing $2.5 billion in assets. The company went public via a reverse merger in September 2025 and completed an all-stock acquisition of Semler Scientific in January 2026, adding a medical device business. 

B. Riley highlighted Strive’s strong capital structure and minimal near-term convertible debt, offering predictable cash flows for income-focused investors. ASST shares are down 42.3% year to date and 28.6% over the past month, according to the analysts. 

B. Riley’s initiation comes amid a broader pullback in bitcoin and related equities. Bitcoin fell more than 45% from about $126,000 in October 2025 to roughly $69,000 in early March 2026, compressing NAV multiples and slowing equity-driven BTC accumulation. 

Each $1,000 move in bitcoin translates to roughly $739 million in treasury value for Strategy and $13.1 million for Strive, underlining the price sensitivity of both firms.

Yesterday, Strategy said they spent a whopping $1.28 billion to buy 17,994 more bitcoin last week, raising its total holdings to 738,731 BTC worth about $50 billion at current prices.

This post Investment Bank Gives Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) Buy Ratings, Flags Bitcoin Treasury Discounts first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bhutan Keeps Selling Its Bitcoin, Reserves Sold by Over Half

Bhutan’s state-owned investment arm has steadily sold portions of the country’s Bitcoin reserves, moving about $42.5 million in BTC and USDT so far in 2026 through a small set of recurring counterparties.

Data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence shows that the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 175 BTC, valued at $11.85 million, on Monday to an address that had previously received 184 BTC in February. 

The February activity included multiple transfers totaling roughly $30.7 million, including two sends to QCP Capital, a trading firm, and a $1.5 million USDT transfer to a Binance hot wallet.

The pattern suggests a planned treasury drawdown and liquidity management strategy rather than panic selling. Bhutan mined much of its Bitcoin using surplus hydropower, giving the government a near-zero cost basis. Every sale, therefore, represents a profit for the state.

Bhutan’s Bitcoin stack peaked around 13,000 BTC in late 2024, after several years of accumulation through state-backed mining operations. 

tSince then, the holdings have fallen to approximately 5,400 BTC, a 58% reduction. 

Dollar value has also dropped due to the decline in Bitcoin prices from roughly $126,000 at the peak to around $69,000 today. Holdings once worth over $1.5 billion are now valued near $374 million.

Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), Bhutan’s sovereign wealth fund, manages the country’s cryptocurrency assets. 

Bhutan is one of the world’s largest bitcoin holders

The fund oversees state-owned enterprises and acts as the principal financial arm of the government. In December, Bhutan pledged up to 10,000 BTC to fund Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special economic zone designed to hold digital assets for its financial reserves.

The transfers have consistently gone to the same counterparties in similar sizes, with no clear correlation to price movements. This pattern points to structured liquidity management rather than reactive selling.

Bhutan ranks as the seventh-largest government Bitcoin holder, behind the first place United States, which holds 328,372 BTC valued at nearly $22 billion. 

Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has previously noted that Bitcoin proceeds support public services, including healthcare, environmental initiatives, and salaries for public employees. 

Surplus hydropower generated during summer months has enabled the kingdom to continue state-backed mining operations efficiently.

Since the 2024 Bitcoin halving, mining rewards declined to 3.125 BTC, reducing overall profitability and prompting some energy resources to be redirected to high-performance computing. 

This post Bhutan Keeps Selling Its Bitcoin, Reserves Sold by Over Half first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Jumps Above $70,000 After Oil Shock, On-Chain Data Points to New Support Zone

Bitcoin price steadied this week after a burst of volatility tied to tensions in the Middle East and a surge in oil prices. As of this morning, the bitcoin price is around $70,000 after being above $71,000 in early trading. 

The turbulence began over the weekend when disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz pushed crude oil above $100 per barrel. Risk assets across global markets reacted to the shock.

Bitcoin price fell alongside equities during the initial sell-off, sliding into the mid-$60,000 range before finding support.

Bitcoin price finds support

The pullback triggered a wave of on-chain activity. Blockchain data from Glassnode shows nearly 600,000 BTC changed hands between $60,000 and $70,000 during the correction, equal to more than $40 billion worth of bitcoin. Over 200,000 BTC of that volume appeared in the last two weeks alone.

The shift created a dense ownership cluster in that range. In total, about 1.558 million BTC last moved between $60,000 and $70,000, up from roughly 997,000 BTC at the start of the year.

Analysts say this concentration could form a key support zone because a large group of holders now shares a similar cost basis.

Checkonchain data also shows that about 60% of circulating bitcoin currently sits in profit, leaving around 40% of holders with an average purchase price above $70,000. The mix highlights the uneven distribution of entry points after bitcoin’s rapid climb earlier in the year.

Institutional flows continued to shape market structure during the volatility. U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded roughly $568 million in net inflows last week after five weeks of outflows. The products now hold more than $55 billion in cumulative net inflows since their launch, according to data from SoSoValue.

Market maker Enflux said the bitcoin price held up well relative to other assets during the initial energy-driven risk-off move. The firm noted that the asset stabilized in the mid-$60,000 range even as oil spiked and equities dropped.

Macro developments shifted again Monday after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the conflict with Iran could end sooner than expected. Oil prices fell from weekend highs and equity markets reversed earlier losses, which helped lift risk assets across the board.

Nasdaq’s tokenized stocks

While macro forces drove short-term trading, a separate development in capital markets drew attention across the crypto industry yesterday. 

Nasdaq announced plans to launch tokenized stocks through a partnership with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The initiative will distribute blockchain-based versions of public equities through Kraken’s xStocks platform.

The framework aims to tokenize both stocks and exchange-traded products while preserving existing shareholder rights and corporate governance structures. Kraken will serve as a distribution partner and settlement layer for the tokenized assets.

Nasdaq expects the system to launch in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.

Also yesterday, Strategy said they spent a whopping $1.28 billion to buy 17,994 more bitcoin last week, raising its total holdings to 738,731 BTC worth about $50 billion at current prices.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is near $69,400.

This post Bitcoin Price Jumps Above $70,000 After Oil Shock, On-Chain Data Points to New Support Zone first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Blockstream’s Jade Hardware Wallet Adds Lightning Network Support, Enabling Instant Bitcoin Payments From Cold Storage

Hardware wallets have long been the gold standard for securing bitcoin, but they have remained largely disconnected from the fast-moving world of Lightning payments. A new update from Blockstream is trying to close that gap.

The company told Bitcoin Magazine that its Blockstream Jade hardware wallet is now the first hardware wallet able to interact with the Bitcoin Lightning Network, allowing users to send and receive Lightning payments while keeping funds secured in cold storage.

The feature arrives through version 5.2.0 of the Blockstream app. The update connects Lightning payments with the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain developed by Blockstream, using atomic swaps that convert Lightning payments into Liquid bitcoin (LBTC) secured by the Jade device.

The change addresses a long-standing limitation in the Lightning ecosystem. Lightning transactions have required either hot wallets connected to the internet or custodial services that hold funds on behalf of users. 

“This is a breakthrough for self-custody,” Jeff Boortz, CPO at Blockstream, told Bitcoin Magazine.

While those tools allow instant payments and low fees, they introduce security risks that many long-term holders prefer to avoid.

By linking Lightning payments to hardware wallet security, Blockstream is attempting to merge two parts of the Bitcoin stack that have rarely worked together.

“Jade is the first hardware wallet in the world to send and receive Lightning payments while keeping your keys fully offline,” Boortz said. “Blockstream is uniquely positioned to deliver this. Our full-stack infrastructure connects all three Bitcoin layers to make this possible on a single hardware wallet.”

How will the software work? 

When a user receives a Lightning payment through the Blockstream app, the software generates a Lightning invoice and automatically performs an atomic swap that converts the incoming payment into LBTC. 

The funds then settle into the user’s Jade-secured wallet. Because the hardware wallet holds the keys offline, it does not need to be connected to receive the payment.

“This launch lets users receive bitcoin instantly over Lightning, hold it securely in a Jade-protected wallet, and move to the base Bitcoin layer whenever they choose,” Peter Bain, CMO at Blockstream, told Bitcoin Magazine. “The result is faster payments, stronger self custody, and fewer unnecessary transactions.”

Sending payments follows a similar process in reverse. Users paste a Lightning invoice into the app, which swaps LBTC for Lightning liquidity. The Jade device signs the transaction before funds leave the wallet, preserving the cold storage security model.

The design creates a bridge between three layers of the Bitcoin ecosystem: Lightning for payments, Liquid for holding and transferring funds, and the base Bitcoin network for final settlement.

For merchants, the structure could allow Lightning payments to accumulate in hardware wallet storage instead of hot wallets that remain exposed online. At the end of a day or week, those funds can be swapped from Liquid to mainchain bitcoin in a single transaction.

For individual users, the system also introduces a different way to move bitcoin off exchanges. Instead of withdrawing directly to the mainchain, users could send funds over Lightning to their hardware-secured Liquid wallet, then consolidate to the base layer when network fees drop.

This post Blockstream’s Jade Hardware Wallet Adds Lightning Network Support, Enabling Instant Bitcoin Payments From Cold Storage first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin climbed back above $70,000 Tuesday as crude oil staged a sharp reversal, easing near-term fears of accelerating inflation and giving digital asset markets room to recover.

According to CryptoSlate's data, the largest digital currency jumped over 5% in the last 24 hours, peaking at around $71,164 after slipping below $68,000 earlier in the session.

Brent crude fell more than 6% to around $90 a barrel, retracing much of the previous day's surge that had briefly pushed the international benchmark to nearly $120. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US benchmark, fell by a similar margin as traders reassessed how long a geopolitical premium in energy markets could hold.

The synchronized moves in crude and crypto reflect how tightly Bitcoin's short-term price action has become linked to macro liquidity signals.

When oil surged on March 9, investors began pricing in the possibility that renewed energy inflation would delay Federal Reserve rate cuts, tightening the financial conditions that have supported risk assets throughout this cycle.

However, the current oil selloff unwound a portion of that positioning and gave Bitcoin buyers a cleaner entry point.

Why did oil price fall today?

Oil’s sharp reversal followed fast-moving developments in the Middle East that reshaped expectations for how long the geopolitical premium would last.

Traders pointed to President Donald Trump’s comments to CBS that the Iran conflict is “very complete, pretty much,” a language that markets took as a potential signal of de-escalation.

Trump also said the US may seek to take control of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that if Iran disrupts flows through the corridor, the United States would respond with far greater force.

He wrote on Truth Social:

“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for energy markets. About 20% of global oil consumption, 27% of global seaborne oil trade, and 20% of global LNG trade pass through it.

In light of those Trump's remarks, traders were left calibrating between two competing timelines: one in which the geopolitical premium in crude dissipates quickly and inflation fears fade, and another in which the disruption persists long enough to feed into price pressures and central bank policy.

Outside of Trump's remarks, G7 finance ministers also discussed the possibility of releasing oil into the market to cool the rally in crude prices. The group includes France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In their March 9 virtual meeting, they said:

“We stand ready to take necessary measures, including to support global supply of energy such as stockpile release.”

Reports said the volumes under consideration ranged from 300 million to 400 million barrels.

Taken together, those developments pushed traders to reassess Middle East risk and unwind part of the geopolitical premium embedded in crude

How did Bitcoin price recover?

The oil reversal gave traders room to regroup, and some crypto market plumbing began to look less strained, even as energy markets remained volatile.

Data from SoSoValue showed significant institutional interest in the top crypto, with $167.03 million net inflows flowing into the 12 spot Bitcoin ETF products.

This represented a reversal of the 12 funds' weak performance in the last two trading sessions, which pulled more than $500 million from the investment vehicles.

At the same time, CryptoQuant noted that stablecoin liquidity has started rising again after a tepid performance earlier this year.

According to the firm, this kind of shift is often treated as an indirect gauge of demand that dry powder is entering the market. Notably, DeFiLlama data showed stablecoin supply recently reached a fresh all-time high of $313 billion.

Meanwhile, BTC options positioning data from Coinbase-owned Deribit also showed that BTC traders had significant call buying concentrated near the $75,000 and $80,000 strike before the oil shock.

This was corroborated by blockchain analysis firm Glassnode, which stated:

“Options markets have become less defensive. The volatility spread narrowed meaningfully as implied volatility moves closer to realised conditions, while 25-delta skew declined, pointing to softer demand for downside hedging and a more balanced near-term backdrop.”

US CPI data will determine whether BTC's recovery holds

The next test for Bitcoin's recovery arrives with US inflation data due later this week.

Headline consumer price growth has been moderating in recent months, and survey-based measures of short-term inflation expectations had eased before oil's sudden spike, reinforcing a broadly held view that disinflation remained the dominant trend.

Moreover, market-based measures, including Treasury breakeven inflation rates, rose in the days surrounding the crude shock, indicating that bond investors were pricing in some probability of renewed energy-driven price pressure even as they waited for confirmation.

That divergence frames BTC's recovery as conditional. If the coming inflation readings remain consistent with the disinflation narrative, the macro backdrop that has supported Bitcoin's recovery would strengthen, and the options market's positioning near $75,000 to $80,000 could begin to act as a gravitational pull on spot prices.

Notably, oil's fundamentals ahead of the US-Iran geopolitical flare-up also pointed in that direction.

Major energy agencies, like the International Energy Agency (IEA), had forecasted production growth outpacing demand through the remainder of the year, and global inventories had been building before the disruption hit.

So, a crude market that settles back toward pre-conflict levels would reduce the inflation risk premium and give the Fed room to proceed with the rate cuts investors had been anticipating.

However, the adverse path runs through a scenario in which crude fails to extend its reversal.

A renewed rally in oil prices back above $100 would likely push breakeven inflation rates higher, harden expectations of Federal Reserve policy, and compress the valuations of broadly rate-sensitive risk assets.

In that environment, Bitcoin would trade in step with high-beta equities, and the focus would shift back to whether spot prices can hold the support levels that failed briefly in previous sessions.

Put simply, analysts at Bitfinex told CryptoSlate that:

“If ETF flows stabilise and macro conditions remain neutral, BTC could grind toward the low-$70,000 region. However, if oil-driven inflation pushes yields higher again, a retest of the $60,000 support region becomes increasingly likely.”

The post Trump says the Iran conflict is “very complete” — oil plunges and Bitcoin snaps back above $70k appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Nasdaq's latest tokenization push is another attempt to bring stocks onto blockchain rails. Yet the real significance lies more in the structure.

Rather than endorsing the offshore model of stock wrappers and synthetic equity exposure, Nasdaq is trying to build a version where the token is the share. As a result, the token shares the same legal status, a direct link to the issuer's ownership record, and a path to voting, governance, and corporate actions.

That makes this less a crypto-adoption story than a control story. If tokenized equities are going to scale, someone will decide whether investors own a legally equivalent on-chain share or just a programmable claim that behaves like one.

Nasdaq's design suggests Wall Street does not want to leave that decision to offshore wrappers or third-party token issuers.

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Feb 22, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

The SEC just drew the battle lines

On Jan. 30, the SEC's staff issued a statement explicitly separating issuer-sponsored tokenized securities from third-party models.

In the issuer-sponsored version, the issuer integrates distributed ledger technology into the master securityholder file, so transferring the token updates the actual ownership record.

In third-party models, holders may have only exposure or an indirect entitlement and may face additional risks.

Nasdaq's Mar. 9 announcement leans into that framework. The exchange is pitching tokens tied to the official registry, with proxy actions, corporate actions, governance rights, and legal equivalence to the underlying security.

The program targets operational readiness in the first half of 2027.

Nasdaq's 2025 rule proposal clarifies the rights question. The exchange would treat tokenized shares as equivalent to traditional shares only if they have the same CUSIP and confer the same dividends, voting rights, and claims to residual assets.

If a token lacks those rights, Nasdaq would treat it as a distinct instrument.

Crypto wrappers proved that investors will trade stock-like exposure on-chain. Nasdaq's point is that proxy rights, corporate actions, and legal ownership should travel with the token.

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Feb 11, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

What rights-light products already prove

Kraken's xStocks provide the contrast. The platform's FAQ states that xStocks “do not confer shareholder rights like voting or dividends,” provide “synthetic exposure” with “no legal claims” to the underlying shares or residual assets, and are restricted to non-U.S. retail clients.

Yet demand exists. Payward says xStocks have surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume, including more than $4 billion settled on-chain, with more than 85,000 unique holders. The tokenized stocks are deployed into Solana, Ethereum, and TON infrastructures.

Nasdaq is trying to intercept that demand and redirect it into a more regulated, issuer-centered format.

The hidden battleground is whether the official ownership record stays within issuer-sponsored rails or migrates to wrappers that are easier to distribute but weaker in terms of rights.

If users are satisfied with wrappers that trade around the clock, incumbent markets risk finding that the internet has already chosen a de facto equity product.

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Feb 19, 2026 · Gino Matos

Preserving incumbent economics while extending the stack

Nasdaq's proposal preserves price discovery, best execution, DTC settlement, and the mechanics of a regulated exchange.

The 2025 filing describes tokenized securities trading on the same order book as traditional securities and settling through DTC infrastructure.

The proposed process would let a participant flag a trade for token settlement, after which DTC would convert the position into token form.

This extends the existing market stack while preserving the things incumbents monetize: liquidity, clearing, settlement, collateral, and compliance. The broader economics are likely to be driven by turnover, collateral reuse, financing, after-hours access, issuer services, and governance workflows.

Payward frames the gateway in terms of capital mobility and collateral efficiency.

The partnership is designed to enable tokenized equities to move between regulated markets and on-chain markets while preserving issuer rights and price integrity.

The opportunity is large even before mass adoption

Nasdaq is home to roughly 4,000 listings, valued at about $14 trillion. Even modest token-rail adoption would be strategically meaningful.

A simple sizing exercise: if only 0.1% of that value touches issuer-sponsored token rails, that implies roughly $14 billion of equity value, while 1% implies $140 billion.

The broader tokenization backdrop justifies a Wall Street framing.

McKinsey's 2024 model centers on about $2 trillion in tokenized financial assets by 2030, excluding cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. That explains why exchanges, brokers, custodians, and crypto venues are now fighting over standards and distribution.

The competitive backdrop is heating up. ICE announced in January that NYSE is developing a tokenized-securities platform with operations approaching around-the-clock trading, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based funding.

Nasdaq also announced a post-trade partnership with Seturion in Europe. Legacy exchanges now compete on listings, liquidity, and the architecture of tokenized market access.

On Mar. 5, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC said the capital rule is technology-neutral and that eligible tokenized securities with identical legal rights should be treated the same as non-tokenized securities for capital purposes.

The clarification reduces one source of institutional hesitation while broader legal questions remain.
Nasdaq emphasizes that participation remains voluntary and that future enhancements will be guided by evidence and regulatory review.

The exchange plans to engage with issuers, transfer agents, regulators, and market participants as the framework evolves.

Can legal design catch distribution?

Rights-light products are the threat vector.

The deciding questions are: Can Nasdaq make the rights-preserving version easy enough that investors stop settling for wrappers? Can regulated infrastructure support the benefits people want from crypto-native products without losing the legal attributes of the share? Will issuers actually sponsor tokenized shares?

The most plausible near-term outcome is coexistence. Issuer-sponsored tokens arrive, but wrappers continue to dominate crypto-native distribution because they are simpler and already have traction.

Nasdaq creates a regulated standard for some issuers and institutions, but not a universal default.

The bull case consists of the SEC taxonomy, bank-capital neutrality, and an exchange-led infrastructure shift that moves the market toward rights-preserving tokenized equities.

Tokenized shares start to look less like crypto wrappers and more like a modernized distribution and settlement layer for ordinary listed equities.

In the bear case, rights-light stock tokens continue to grow faster because they are globally accessible, wallet-native, and already integrated into crypto trading flows. Nasdaq's model proves legally cleaner but operationally heavier, and the market splits between “real shares” for institutions and “good-enough wrappers” for everyone else.

A major failure in a wrapper-based product, or a visible dispute over voting or liquidation rights, could abruptly increase the value of issuer-sponsored models.

The reverse is also possible: if exchange-led systems prove too slow or too closed, markets may decide that legal perfection matters less than access.

Nasdaq's proposal preserves the same market architecture while making equity rights programmable rather than optional.

The real economic prize is likely control over clearing, collateral mobility, issuer services, governance workflows, and cross-network interoperability.

Wall Street is racing to make the real share programmable before offshore wrappers become good enough to replace it. Nasdaq is trying to make sure that, when equities become internet-native, the token that wins is the actual share.

The post People traded $25B of crypto stock tokens that do not make them stockholders appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Cardano's recent updates look unremarkable when read one by one: a ratified long-term vision, a stricter constitution, better governance indexing, a formal-verification push, and new treasury guardrails.

However, they point to a larger shift when taken together.

At the same time, Europe's MiCA regime is pushing crypto toward greater accountability, while Cardano is positioning itself as one of the most governable chains in the market.

The ecosystem is assembling rules that are harder to bend, treasury flows that are easier to monitor, governance data that are easier to index, and smart contracts that are easier to verify.

In a market still obsessed with growth, Cardano may be trying to win the race for credibility with enterprises, public institutions, and tokenized-asset projects that need visible controls.

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The boring infrastructure crypto may need next

Over seven weeks, Cardano shipped a coordinated stack. On Jan. 21, DReps ratified the Cardano 2030 Vision with 67.8% approval, representing 3.77 billion ADA, framing the chain around “mission-critical applications.”

One day later, the updated constitution passed with roughly 79% support and took effect on Jan. 24, adding mandatory immutable links for off-chain documents and requiring treasury withdrawals to be self-contained.

That same month, the Cardano Foundation announced that a financial audit was cryptographically secured and attested directly on-chain using Reeve, describing it as a global first.

By Feb. 3, Yaci Store 2.0 added governance-state derivation, enabling applications to track proposals and calculate rewards directly. Three days later, the development team announced early access to an automated formal verification tool.

February brought treasury discipline into sharper focus. Intersect proposed a 300 million ADA net change limit through July 2027 as a constitutional guardrail required before future treasury movements.

The 2026 budget framework emphasizes vendor compliance checks, smart contract-based milestone payments, and transparent oversight.

Delivery Assurance staff audit milestones. A proposed multi-signature “stop-payment” authority could freeze disbursements if milestones are not met.

Read together, those moves look less like housekeeping and more like a bid to make Cardano easier for auditors, administrators, and regulated counterparties to reason about. Cardano is trying to turn proceduralism into a product.

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Feb 22, 2026 · Gino Matos

Why legibility became a feature

The market backdrop now favors infrastructure that can survive supervision.

ESMA's guidance makes clear that MiCA creates uniform EU market rules for crypto assets, with transparency, disclosure, authorization, and supervision requirements.

Only authorized firms may provide crypto-asset services in the EU, with the reverse solicitation exemption narrowly construed.

That context makes Cardano's recent emphasis on immutable governance records, self-contained treasury withdrawals, milestone-gated disbursements, and verifiable reporting look strategic.

The chain is assembling features that fit a more compliance-heavy market and may make it easier for regulated actors to operate on or around the infrastructure.

There is also a real asset-side reason this matters. McKinsey's 2030 tokenization model centers on roughly $2 trillion in tokenized financial assets in the base case.

Current market data shows tokenization is no longer hypothetical: distributed RWA value stands at $26.54 billion, tokenized US Treasuries at $11 billion, and stablecoins at $313 billion.

Institutions are already choosing rails, and the next question is what properties those rails need.

Reeve provides the most concrete institutional hook. The Foundation describes it as a trust layer that anchors financial events to Cardano, creating immutable, independently verifiable evidence suitable for auditors, regulators, and stakeholders.

That moves “auditability” from aspiration to operating example.

Governance becoming machine-readable matters for similar reasons. Institutions need rules that can be queried, monitored, and reconciled by software. A chain whose governance state is easier to derive is easier to supervise and integrate.

The automatic formal verification tool reinforces the same theme: Cardano aims to make “high assurance” cheaper and more commonplace.

The bet behind the build

Bitcoin won the first institutional phase by becoming an acceptable asset to hold. The next institutional phase concerns which chains become acceptable systems for running things.

For that second phase, the questions shift from custody and exposure to audit trails, administrative controls, and measurable governance. Cardano is trying to compete on those terms.

The strategy becomes clearer when you look at what the ecosystem is trying to attract.

USDCx went live on the Cardano mainnet on Feb. 27. The Foundation's Spring 2026 accelerator cohort is explicitly RWA- and institutional-flavored: tokenized commodities, regulated digital asset issuance, climate-finance workflows, institutional staking and custody, and an asset-referenced token built with MiCA alignment in mind.

Those moves bridge governance rhetoric to real deployment questions. The old anti-Cardano argument was that it was too slow, too formal, too procedural. In a speculative cycle, those traits looked like drag. In a supervision-heavy cycle, they may look like prerequisites.

The real binary tension: fast chains optimize for experimentation, liquidity, and iteration speed.

Governable chains optimize for traceability, treasury discipline, and evident clarity. Crypto may be entering a phase where those two optimization functions diverge.

The market that could validate this thesis does not exist yet

This cannot read like a victory lap, because Cardano has not won the market that would validate the thesis.

RWA.xyz's Mar. 9 league table is led by Ethereum ($15.3 billion), BNB Chain ($2.6 billion), Liquid ($1.8 billion), Solana ($1.7 billion), and Stellar ($1.3 billion). Cardano does not appear in that top-10 snapshot.

The counterargument: auditability may be a good narrative, but liquidity, distribution, and existing institutional integrations still live elsewhere. Cardano may be building the right controls for the next phase and still fail to capture the flows if institutions decide they would rather add compliance wrappers to already dominant ecosystems.

There is also execution risk embedded in the governance model itself. The proposed treasury guardrails, milestone contracts, and stop-payment authorities are proposals, not proven workflows.

If the multi-stakeholder approval process becomes slow or contentious, the very controls designed to attract institutions could repel builders who need faster iteration cycles.

What decides the outcome

The question is whether a more regulated crypto market will reward the things Cardano spent years building.

The evidence to watch: whether treasury withdrawals actually run through milestone smart contracts, whether Reeve expands beyond Foundation use cases, whether USDCx meaningfully improves on-chain dollar liquidity, and whether any of the accelerator cohort's institutional projects reach production scale.

If tokenization trends toward McKinsey's $4 trillion upside and MiCA-style supervision becomes a template rather than a regional exception, Cardano's recent stack reads as early positioning. If visible failures elsewhere make “governable infrastructure” more valuable, the brand could shift from “slow chain” to “high-assurance public infrastructure.”

The bear case: tokenization grows, but institutions mostly stay on Ethereum, private rails, or ecosystems that already dominate RWA distribution. Cardano's governance becomes admired but not monetized.

The real test will come when the next wave of regulated capital needs to choose among infrastructure options.

Cardano is betting that when compliance becomes non-negotiable, chains built to be legible from the start will beat chains retrofitting controls onto architectures designed for speed.

That bet has not paid off yet. But the pieces are now in place to find out whether it will.

The post Cardano spent years looking slow. Now that may help it win in crypto’s rule-heavy era appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin's circulating supply surpassed 20 million coins on March 9, a milestone that places 95% of all BTC that will ever exist into the hands of holders and leaves fewer than 1 million coins still to be mined before the network reaches its hard cap of 21 million.

The milestone was reached at block height 940,000, with the block mined by Foundry USA, according to Mempool data.

It took roughly 17 years for miners to produce those first 20 million coins. The final 1 million will take more than a century to enter circulation, with the last fractions, measured in units called satoshis, expected to be issued around 2140.

Thomas Perfumo, chief economist at the exchange Kraken, framed the milestone in terms of Bitcoin's design philosophy, saying:

“In a world of excess and abundance, Bitcoin stands as one of the few truly scarce assets. Unlike traditional currencies with unlimited supply, Bitcoin's maximum supply is mathematically bound.”

Simon Gerovich, founder of Japan-based Metaplanet, offered a more succinct view, noting that the remaining 1 million BTC would represent “the era [when] true digital scarcity [begins].”

Both men represent firms with significant financial exposure to Bitcoin, and their optimism should be read accordingly. Kraken generates revenue from Bitcoin trading, and Metaplanet holds Bitcoin as a core treasury asset.

The milestone, however, is independently verifiable on the blockchain, and the supply mechanics underlying their claims are written into open-source code that has operated without interruption since 2009.

Shrinking subsidies push miners toward new business models

Bitcoin's issuance schedule has always been front-loaded by design. When the network launched, miners received 50 BTC for each block they validated. That reward fell to 25 BTC in 2012, to 12.5 BTC in 2016, to 6.25 BTC in 2020, and to 3.125 BTC after the fourth halving in April 2024.

Each halving occurs every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years, on a schedule that no government, central bank, or corporate issuer can unilaterally alter.

The economic consequences of that tightening supply schedule fall first and hardest on miners. Every halving strengthens the scarcity argument for holders while simultaneously cutting the stream of newly minted coins that compensates the operators who secure the network.

That pressure is showing up in real time. Hashprice, a metric that measures daily mining revenue per unit of computational power, fell below $30 per petahash per second per day in late February after a sharp increase in network difficulty.

Hashrate Index reported that levels around $30 sit at or below breakeven for many operators even before broader corporate overhead is factored in.

Transaction fees have so far offered limited relief. Hashrate Index said miners collected an average of 0.0192 BTC in fees per block during the past week.

Against a block subsidy of 3.125 BTC, that leaves miner revenue overwhelmingly dependent on the subsidy and on Bitcoin's market price. The fee market remains too thin, at least at present, to cushion the step-down in block rewards.

That strain is accelerating a split within the mining industry. One camp is doubling down on Bitcoin production, pursuing greater machine efficiency, more favorable power contracts, and larger operational scale.

The other camp is reframing mining sites as energy and cooling infrastructure that can serve higher-margin computing workloads, particularly artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

For context, several publicly traded miners, including Core Scientific, Bitfarms, TeraWulf, CleanSpark, and Hut 8, have announced AI pivots over the past year.

During this period, these companies have reportedly announced more than $43 billion in AI and high-performance computing contracts.

The long shadow over network security

The migration of well-capitalized miners toward AI hosting raises a question the Bitcoin community has debated for years but can no longer treat as distant: how will the network sustain enough computational power to remain secure as the block subsidy continues its programmed decline toward zero?

Bitcoin's security model relies on miners' energy and computational resources to validate transactions and add blocks to the chain. In return, they receive the block subsidy and transaction fees.

The subsidy has historically accounted for the vast majority of that compensation. As halvings continue to cut that subsidy in half roughly every four years, the model assumes that transaction fees will eventually grow large enough to replace it.

So far, the evidence supporting that assumption is thin. Fee revenue remains a small fraction of total miner income, and the gap between subsidy income and fee income has widened, even as Bitcoin's price has recently struggled despite its rising adoption.

Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation argued in 2025 that Bitcoin's fees have not risen enough to compensate for successive halvings and warned that persistently low fee revenue could compromise long-run security.

According to him:

“Bitcoin's security model is broken. If Bitcoin gets taken over, the fallout could take the entire crypto ecosystem with it. The systemic risks can't be ignored.”

Notably, his critique reflects a structural concern that Bitcoin developers and economists have also acknowledged internally.

The counterargument within Bitcoin circles rests on two assumptions. The first is that a rising Bitcoin price will keep mining profitable even as the per-block subsidy declines in BTC terms, because the fiat-denominated value of each coin will offset this decline.

The second is that the fee market will mature as more users and institutions transact on the network and on layers built on top of it, such as the Lightning Network and emerging protocols for tokenized assets.

Whether those assumptions hold will play out over decades. The 20 million coin milestone, meanwhile, offers a clear snapshot of where Bitcoin stands in that transition.

The overwhelming majority of its supply now exists. The dilution rate is already low and locked into a schedule that will push it lower still. Institutional adoption through exchange-traded funds, corporate treasuries, and professional capital allocations has broadened the demand base considerably over the past two years.

For holders, that combination of constrained supply and widening demand channels is the core investment thesis. For miners, the same supply mechanics that underpin that thesis are compressing margins and forcing strategic reinvention.

And for the network itself, the open question is whether the fee market and Bitcoin's price trajectory can sustain the security infrastructure that keeps the entire system functioning, long after the last coin is mined, more than a century from now.

The post 95% of all Bitcoin is now mined — and it’s raising a new question about security appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Treasury’s mixer language points to a new U.S. line on crypto privacy

A new Treasury report says lawful users may use mixers for financial privacy on public blockchains. The language leaves Treasury’s money-laundering case intact, while opening room for privacy tools that can operate inside regulated U.S. crypto markets.

In a report to Congress this week, the U.S. Treasury said lawful users of digital assets may use mixers to protect financial privacy on public blockchains.

Treasury gave ordinary examples. It said users may want to shield personal wealth, business payments, charitable donations, and consumer spending from full public view.

The same report also kept the department’s enforcement case in place. Treasury said criminals use mixing, bridging, and swapping to break audit trails and highlighted North Korean activity.

It added that bridges have received about $1.6 billion in deposits from mixing services since May 2020, with more than $900 million reaching one bridge that later drew scrutiny over failures tied to DPRK laundering.

Treasury’s wording still marks a significant change in official language. For several years, the department described mixers mainly through the lens of sanctions risk, darknet activity, ransomware payments, and state-backed theft.

The report puts lawful privacy use into the record alongside those risks. That wording points to a narrower policy distinction between illicit concealment and supervised privacy services on public chains.

President Donald Trump made U.S. leadership in digital financial technology a formal goal by executive order at the start of his term.

The July 2025 digital-assets report then told Treasury to revisit its 2023 mixer proposal in a way that still blocks illicit finance while protecting privacy and lowering regulatory burden.

Those steps, however, do not suggest a broad pardon for mixers, but Washington wants more crypto activity, more dollar-linked settlements, and more institutional capital inside domestic channels.

Once that becomes official policy, privacy starts to look less like an edge case and more like missing infrastructure for public-chain finance.

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Treasury’s own numbers show why privacy is back in the policy record

Treasury’s report said successful monthly transactions on public blockchains reached 3.8 billion in early 2025, up 96% year over year.

That scale changes the policy question. A network carrying billions of transactions each month does not serve only traders and protocol users.

It starts to carry payroll-adjacent activity, treasury movements, commercial settlement, donations, and consumer payments. At that point, full public visibility becomes a business risk for many lawful users, not just a compliance benefit for investigators.

Treasury paired that growth figure with a warning, not a retreat. The department also released a new money-laundering risk assessment, which says digital assets are increasingly used alongside social media, encrypted messaging, and AI-enabled fraud.

Another review from the FATF this month also said criminals’ misuse of stablecoins through peer-to-peer transfers and unhosted wallets is a growing concern.

That mix of signals points to a more selective U.S. approach. Treasury’s report said custodial mixers, if they register and comply as money services businesses, can still generate off-chain information useful to regulators and law enforcement.

In practice, that points toward privacy tools that preserve records, screening, and suspicious activity reporting, while keeping pressure on tools that operate outside those controls.

A hedge fund, issuer, or corporate treasury may want confidentiality around counterparties, payment amounts, and wallet relationships.

Treasury is signaling that the government can accept some forms of confidentiality if service providers remain legible to the state. The department is drawing lines around provider type, recordkeeping, and supervision rather than treating every privacy use case as identical.

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The resulting policy picture is more skeptical than the celebratory reading circulating in some circles. Treasury has not changed its view that mixers can serve as laundering infrastructure.

The department has acknowledged that lawful users on transparent blockchains may also want privacy, and that some providers may be able to offer it inside a regulated perimeter.

Institutional capital helps explain why the language changed now

The White House’s crypto agenda helps explain the timing. The January 2025 executive order made digital-asset leadership a U.S. goal.

The March 2025 Bitcoin reserve fact sheet added a sovereign signal around Bitcoin. The July 2025 digital-assets report told agencies to reduce unnecessary drag while keeping anti-money-laundering controls in place.

Treasury’s mixer language fits that sequence.

Institutional flows add the market side. The regulated bitcoin channel is already large.

Market data showed about $1.7 billion moving into spot bitcoin ETFs over a late-February to early-March window, even after sharp outflow days.

That does not prove institutions want mixer access, but it does show that large investors already use U.S.-approved crypto vehicles at scale, and that the policy debate has moved from whether institutions will enter the market to how the surrounding infrastructure will work once they do.

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Privacy has become part of that infrastructure discussion. Coinbase Institutional said in its 2026 market outlook that rising institutional adoption is increasing demand for privacy technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and fully homomorphic encryption.

Cambridge’s February 2026 analysis pushed the point further, arguing that sanctions pushed away legitimate users faster than criminals and said the mixer market has shifted toward more compliant privacy protocols.

The Cambridge figures are particularly useful because they show how early this shift still is. Institutions moved $1.22 trillion in stablecoin transactions over two years, yet only 0.013% of these transactions touched privacy protocols, according to the same analysis.

That tiny share can support two readings at once. One reading says institutional demand for privacy remains marginal in practice.

The other says a large privacy gap remains between the amount of value institutions already move onchain and the tools they are currently willing or able to use.

Bitcoin sits at the center of that gap. The asset now sits inside ETF wrappers, reserve policy, and large-scale portfolio allocation.

Its base layer also remains highly transparent. If the United States wants tokenized dollars, tokenized deposits, and public-chain settlement to develop under domestic rules, commercial users will keep asking for ways to hide counterparties and payment details without stepping outside compliance systems.

Thus, Treasury’s report suggests Washington has started to accept that demand as a feature of market structure, not just a risk category.

The next phase will decide who gets privacy, and under what conditions

The next policy phase will likely turn on provider design. The White House already asked Treasury to revisit the older mixer policy in a way that protects privacy while reducing the burden.

Treasury has now added lawful privacy use to the official record. The unresolved question is whether agencies will convert that language into a broader framework for regulated public-chain finance or limit it to a narrow set of supervised intermediaries.

What happens from here?

For Bitcoin, the immediate implication is indirect. Treasury has made it easier for policymakers and regulated firms to argue that lawful users on public chains may need confidentiality tools around payments and settlement.

That argument helps institutions, issuers, and market infrastructure providers far more than it helps every open-source privacy project.

The sharper question is who gets to provide that confidentiality. If banks, custodians, and other licensed firms control most of it, the policy shift will support institutional crypto growth while leaving permissionless privacy projects under pressure.

A wider circle of approved providers would point to a broader change in U.S. policy. A narrow circle would still mark a meaningful change, though one aimed at regulated channels first.

Treasury’s March 2026 report, therefore, lands at a useful moment for the market. The White House wants more crypto activity onshore. Institutional money is already moving through regulated bitcoin products.

Public-chain activity has reached 3.8 billion successful monthly transactions. Against that backdrop, Treasury has put lawful financial privacy back into the federal record.

The next round of guidance will show whether that privacy belongs only to supervised intermediaries or whether it becomes part of the normal public-chain market structure in the United States.

The post US Treasury says lawful crypto users may use mixers for financial privacy appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Pi Network (PI) is currently trading at $0.221, marking a 2.15% increase in the last 24 hours. This price movement aligns with a broader recovery in the digital asset market but is significantly amplified by the upcoming Pi Day on March 14. As the community anticipates major roadmap updates and ecosystem milestones, the token has managed to sustain its position above critical psychological support levels.

Is Pi Coin Bullish?

For traders asking if $Pi can break its current resistance, the short-term outlook remains cautiously bullish. The convergence of a major protocol upgrade on March 12 and the annual Pi Day celebration provides a strong fundamental backdrop for a potential move toward $0.24.

Why is Pi Coin UP?

The Pi Network is a social cryptocurrency and developer platform that allows mobile users to mine PI tokens without draining battery life. Unlike traditional Proof-of-Work assets like $Bitcoin, Pi uses a consensus mechanism based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP).

Currently, the network is in its "Open Network" transition phase. The primary drivers for today's price action include:

• Protocol v20.2 Upgrade: A mandatory node update set for completion by March 12, 2026.
• Pi Day Speculation: The annual March 14 event where the Core Team historically announces major utility updates or Mainnet progress.
• Market Beta: Pi is benefiting from a 3.48% rise in Bitcoin, showing a positive correlation with market leaders.

Pi Day and Network Upgrades

The current rally is a classic "buy the rumor" scenario. Daily trading volumes have surged to approximately $39 million, indicating a sharp increase in retail participation.

The v20.2 Transition

The Core Team has moved the deadline for the v20.2 protocol upgrade to March 12. This upgrade is essential for the network's stability and is rumored to be a precursor for the launch of Pi Decentralized Exchange (DEX) tools. Successful implementation is expected to reduce network latency and prepare the infrastructure for higher transaction throughput.

Market Sentiment and Social Buzz

According to data from Santiment, social volume for Pi Network has spiked in the first week of March. While increased "social whispering" often precedes a local top, the proximity to a scheduled event (Pi Day) suggests that the speculative premium may hold until the actual announcements are made.

Pi Coin Analysis: Resistance and Support Levels

From a technical perspective, PI is showing signs of a bullish pennant formation on the daily chart.

If PI holds above the $0.20 support, the probability of a retest of the $0.24 level before March 14 remains high. However, an RSI reading near 70 suggests the asset is approaching overbought territory, increasing the risk of a "sell the news" correction post-event.

Bitcoin ($BTC) has once again captured the financial world's attention by reclaiming the psychological $70,000 price level on March 10, 2026. This move comes after a period of intense volatility where the leading cryptocurrency dipped as low as $65,000 due to escalating geopolitical tensions. However, a combination of shifting risk appetite, robust institutional demand via Bitcoin ETFs, and a growing "safe-haven" narrative has propelled the asset back into bullish territory.

Why is Bitcoin Up Today?

The primary drivers for today’s price action include:

• Geopolitical De-escalation Hopes: Recent remarks from political leadership suggesting a potential cooling of the Middle East conflict have reignited risk appetite.
• Institutional Inflows: Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded significant net inflows (over $1.1 billion in early March), signaling that "smart money" is buying the dip.
• Short Squeeze: A cascade of liquidations for bearish traders forced buy-backs as BTC crossed the $68,500 resistance.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Interpreting the BTC Uptrend

According to the provided BTC/USD chart, Bitcoin bottomed out near the $65,000 support zone earlier this week. This level acted as a critical floor, coinciding with the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level from the previous swing high.

The recovery has been characterized by a "V-shaped" bounce, supported by rising trading volume. Technical indicators like the RSI (Relative Strength Index) have moved from oversold conditions (below 30) to a neutral-bullish stance around 58. The most significant technical feat was the daily close above the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), which has now flipped from resistance to support.

The Role of Middle East Instability

Geopolitics have been the "double-edged sword" for Bitcoin in 2026. Initially, the strikes involving Israel, the U.S., and Iran caused a "risk-off" environment, driving capital into gold and crude oil. However, the narrative shifted as the week progressed.

1. Bitcoin as a "Digital Gold" Alternative

As traditional markets in Asia and Europe faced uncertainty, some investors rotated into Bitcoin, viewing its decentralized nature as a hedge against sovereign risk. During the peak of the Hormez Strait tensions, Japanese and South Korean exchanges saw a 200% spike in BTC trading volume, according to Reuters.

2. The Oil-Inflation Connection

The surge in oil prices to over $120 per barrel initially pressured BTC by stoking inflation fears. However, as President Trump signaled that the conflict might be "over soon," oil prices retreated below $85. This drop in energy costs reduced the "inflation tax" on the global economy, allowing risk assets like $Bitcoin and tech stocks to rebound sharply.

Institutional Demand: The ETF Backbone

Despite the macro chaos, institutional players have remained remarkably "diamond-handed." Data from the past 72 hours shows:

• BlackRock (IBIT) and other major providers absorbed over $460 million in a single session.
• The Coinbase Premium Index turned positive, indicating that U.S. institutional buying is the main driver behind the $70,000 breakout.

Bitcoin Future: What’s Next for BTC?

Reclaiming $70,000 is a major psychological victory, but the road ahead remains contested. The next major resistance sits at $73,750, a zone that has historically reversed rallies. If Bitcoin can maintain its footing above $70,000, the path toward a new all-time high remains open. However, investors should keep a close eye on further geopolitical developments and upcoming CPI inflation data, which could introduce new volatility.

Why Is Crypto So Volatile?

Cryptocurrency markets are famous for their dramatic price swings. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins can rise or fall by double-digit percentages within hours, creating both massive opportunities and significant risks for investors.

Unlike traditional financial markets, crypto operates in a relatively young and rapidly evolving ecosystem. This combination of innovation, speculation, and global participation creates a market environment where volatility is not the exception — it is the norm.

Understanding what drives these price movements can help investors interpret market behavior more clearly.

Here are five of the most important factors that influence crypto volatility.

1. Liquidity and Market Size

Compared to traditional markets like stocks or foreign exchange, the cryptocurrency market is still relatively small.

This means that large buy or sell orders can significantly move prices. When liquidity is low, even a single large transaction from institutional investors or major traders can trigger sharp price movements.

As the crypto market grows and attracts more institutional capital, liquidity is gradually improving. However, compared to global equity markets, crypto still experiences stronger price swings.

2. Macro Economic News

Crypto markets are increasingly influenced by global macroeconomic developments.

Interest rate decisions from central banks, inflation data, geopolitical conflicts, and changes in global liquidity can all impact investor sentiment.

For example, during periods of economic uncertainty, investors may reduce exposure to risk assets — including cryptocurrencies — which can trigger market selloffs.

On the other hand, rising global liquidity often pushes investors toward higher-risk assets like crypto.

3. Whale Activity

Large holders, often called “whales,” can significantly influence crypto markets.

Because blockchain transactions are transparent, traders often monitor large wallet movements. When whales transfer large amounts of Bitcoin or Ethereum to exchanges, markets sometimes anticipate potential selling pressure.

These movements can create rapid reactions among traders and contribute to sudden volatility.

4. Leverage and Liquidations

A large portion of crypto trading occurs in derivatives markets where traders use leverage.

When prices move quickly, leveraged positions can be liquidated automatically by exchanges. These liquidations can accelerate price moves and create cascading effects across the market.

During major corrections, billions of dollars in leveraged positions can be wiped out in a single day.

5. Market Sentiment and Narratives

Crypto markets are strongly driven by narratives and investor sentiment.

News about ETF approvals, regulatory changes, technological breakthroughs, or major partnerships can rapidly shift market expectations.

Social media platforms and online communities also play a major role in shaping investor sentiment, sometimes amplifying both optimism and fear within the market.

Crypto Volatility Is Part of the Market Structure

Volatility is often viewed as a risk, but it is also one of the characteristics that attracts traders and investors to the crypto market.

While large price swings can be uncomfortable, they are also part of the growth process of an emerging asset class. As adoption increases and institutional participation expands, volatility may gradually decrease — but it is likely to remain a defining feature of crypto markets for years to come.

For investors, understanding the drivers behind volatility is an important step toward navigating the market more effectively.

The global energy market has just experienced its most dramatic single-day reversal in history. After climbing to a multi-year high of $119.48, crude oil prices crashed by 32% to touch the $81 mark on Monday, March 9, 2026. This unprecedented volatility has sent shockwaves through both traditional equities and the digital asset space, marking the largest one-day percentage drop ever recorded.

Here is Why Oil Prices Just Collapsed

The catalyst for this historic crash is a breaking report from CBS News regarding a shift in U.S. foreign policy. President Donald Trump has indicated that the United States is considering "taking over" the Strait of Hormuz. This move is intended to provide open access to vital oil routes that have been largely restricted during the recent escalations in the Middle East.

The Strategic Importance of the Strait

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It serves as the world's most critical oil chokepoint, with approximately 20% of global oil consumption transiting through its waters daily. Previously, the threat of a blockade had driven prices toward the $120 level. The prospect of the U.S. military securing the waterway suggests a forced restoration of global supply, causing traders to liquidate "long" positions immediately.

From Record Highs to a Historic Plunge

The intraday price action reflects a total shift in market sentiment:

• The High: Prices hit $119.48 in early trading as markets priced in a total supply cutoff.
• The News: President Trump told CBS that the U.S. "could do a lot" about the waterway and is "thinking about taking it over" to ensure shipping continues.
• The Crash: Markets immediately removed the "conflict premium," leading to a massive sell-off that saw prices tumble to $81.25 within hours.

Market Impact and Data

In a historic moment for decentralized finance, the $Bitcoin network has officially surpassed the 20,000,000 BTC circulating supply mark. As of March 9, 2026, the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency has entered its final "million" phase. This milestone confirms that 95.23% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist has already been produced, leaving a tiny fraction for the next century of miners and investors to fight over.

How Many Bitcoins Are Left?

If you are looking for the exact number, here is the breakdown:

• Total Supply Cap: 21,000,000 BTC
• Current Supply: 20,000,000 BTC
• Remaining to be Mined: 1,000,000 BTC

While the first 20 million took roughly 17 years to mine (2009–2026), the protocol’s programmed difficulty and halving events mean the final 1 million coins will not be fully exhausted until approximately the year 2140.

Why is the Bitcoin Supply Capped at 21 Million?

The 21 million limit is hard-coded into the Bitcoin protocol by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. This specific number was chosen to ensure absolute scarcity. Unlike fiat currencies that can be printed infinitely by central banks, Bitcoin acts as a "hard" asset.

The scarcity is enforced through a geometric supply reduction. Every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years), the amount of new Bitcoin created per block is cut in half. This makes Bitcoin more scarce over time, often leading investors to move their assets to for long-term holding.

How Long Will it Take to Mine the Final 1 Million BTC?

It will take 114 years to mine the remaining 1,000,000 $BTC. This staggering timeline is due to the exponential decay of the block reward:

• Current Era (Post-2024): 3.125 BTC per block.
• Next Era (Post-2028): 1.5625 BTC per block.
• Final Era: By the late 21st century, the reward will be measured in tiny fractions of a satoshi.

This slow release ensures that the network remains secure for over a century while the market slowly absorbs the remaining supply. You can track the current of this scarcity on our live ticker.

What Happens When the Last Bitcoin is Mined?

A common question among new users is: Will miners stop working when there is no more Bitcoin to create? The answer is no. When the subsidy hits zero in 2140, miners will be paid entirely in transaction fees. As the network grows and more people use to trade, the volume of fees is expected to be sufficient to incentivize miners to keep securing the blockchain.

Why Does the 20 Million Milestone Matter for Investors?

Reaching 20 million is a psychological "supply shock" trigger. With institutional adoption rising and the "liquid supply" on exchanges hitting record lows, the fact that only 1 million coins remain to be discovered serves as a massive bullish signal for the "Digital Gold" narrative.

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XRP price might reclaim $2 again as golden cross emerges on hourly chart.

Online gambling has never lacked for competition, but the nature of that competition is changing. For years, growth meant licensing in more countries, signing more provider deals, and spending more on marketing. Betsson has executed that playbook about as well as anyone. But 2026 has introduced a different kind of competitor — one that does not follow the same playbook at all. ZunaBet launched this year with a crypto-native foundation, a game library that dwarfs most traditional operators, and a reward system built on principles that legacy platforms have not adopted. Looking at these two side by side shows how differently growth can look depending on what a platform is built to do.

Betsson: Methodical Expansion Across Regulated Markets

Betsson AB has been a fixture of European online gambling since 2001. The Swedish publicly traded company operates multiple brands with Betsson as the flagship, holding licenses from the Malta Gaming Authority, the Swedish Gambling Authority, and regulators in several other jurisdictions. The growth strategy has been deliberate and compliance-driven — enter new markets through proper licensing, build local credibility, and scale steadily over time.

The sportsbook has been central to that growth. Football dominates the coverage but shares space with tennis, basketball, ice hockey, horse racing, and an extensive selection of other sports. Live in-play betting is a particular strength, running smoothly with real-time odds and a responsive interface that reflects years of investment in the underlying technology. Betsson has treated its sportsbook as a flagship product and the quality justifies that positioning.

Casino gaming rounds out the platform with a respectable library. Slots, table games, and live dealer experiences from established providers cover the expected categories. Game counts across the Betsson ecosystem sit in the range of a couple of thousand titles depending on the market. Relationships with major studios have been cultivated over more than two decades, resulting in a catalog that is solid by traditional standards.

Payments process through conventional financial infrastructure. Cards, bank transfers, Trustly, Skrill, Neteller, and various market-specific methods are available. Withdrawal speeds follow familiar patterns — e-wallets tend to clear fastest while bank-based methods can stretch across several business days. The payment experience is reliable and well-organized but bound by the timelines that traditional banking imposes.

Betsson handles player rewards through promotional campaigns and market-specific loyalty offerings. Free spins, deposit bonuses, free bet promotions, and tournament-style competitions rotate through the platform on a regular basis. Some markets receive more structured VIP treatment with personal account management. The overall reward experience is promotion-led, meaning what a player gets back varies depending on which campaigns are active during their play periods.

ZunaBet: Fast Launch, Massive Footprint

ZunaBet arrived in 2026 under Strathvale Group Ltd with an Anjouan gaming license and a development philosophy that deliberately breaks from the traditional operator model. The team behind it has over 20 years of combined gambling industry experience, but they funneled that knowledge into building a crypto-native platform from scratch rather than iterating on existing designs. The result is a platform that shares almost no structural DNA with legacy operators like Betsson.

The game library announces that ambition immediately. ZunaBet carries 11,294 games from 63 providers — a figure that outstrips most traditional operators by a significant margin. Pragmatic Play, Evolution, Hacksaw Gaming, Yggdrasil, and BGaming sit at the top of the roster, backed by dozens of additional studios that extend the variety across slots, live dealer tables, and RNG games. The breadth of the catalog means players encounter fresh content consistently rather than cycling through the same limited rotation.

Sports betting was engineered as a complete product from day one. Football, basketball, tennis, hockey, and mainstream global sports get full market coverage. Esports hold a permanent and prominent place with markets on CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant. Virtual sports and combat sports push the boundaries even further. ZunaBet does not ask players to choose between being a casino player or a sports bettor — it serves both at the same level of quality.

Every transaction on ZunaBet runs through cryptocurrency. Over 20 coins are supported — BTC, ETH, USDT across multiple chains, SOL, DOGE, ADA, XRP, and many more. No platform processing fees apply to any transaction. Withdrawals move via blockchain without passing through banks, without observing business hours, and without varying in speed based on the player’s location. The payment experience is fast, consistent, and identical for every user regardless of where they are in the world.

The welcome package reaches up to $5,000 plus 75 free spins distributed across three deposits. First deposit earns a 100% match up to $2,000 and 25 spins. Second deposit earns 50% up to $1,500 and 25 spins. Third deposit earns 100% up to $1,500 and 25 spins. The staged structure keeps value arriving through a player’s early weeks rather than front-loading everything into a single moment.

ZunaBet ships native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS. The dark-themed responsive interface delivers fast performance across devices. Live chat support runs 24/7.

Rotating Offers vs Permanent Returns

The loyalty structures at these two platforms reveal fundamentally different thinking about what keeps players engaged.

Betsson cycles through promotional offers on a regular basis. Free spin drops, deposit match campaigns, risk-free bets, and seasonal tournaments create a rhythm of available deals. The frequency varies by market, and some players receive VIP access with more personalized rewards. But for the majority of the player base, the return on loyalty depends on whether the right promotion happens to be running at the right time. Miss a good offer and there is no mechanism that compensates for the gap.

ZunaBet eliminated that inconsistency by building rakeback directly into the platform. The dragon evolution loyalty program runs six tiers — Squire at 1%, Warden at 2%, Champion at 4%, Divine at 5%, Knight at 10%, and Ultimate at 20% rakeback. A dragon mascot named Zuno evolves alongside the player. Higher tiers add up to 1,000 free spins, VIP club membership, and double wheel spins.

The difference is not cosmetic. Rakeback runs every session, on every qualifying wager, at a published rate. There is no promotional calendar to consult. No terms that change from one week to the next. A player earning 15% or 20% rakeback knows exactly what their activity returns and can plan accordingly. Over any meaningful stretch of regular play, consistent rakeback at those percentages generates more total value than even a generous promotional rotation can match.

Old Rails vs New Rails

Payment infrastructure is not glamorous, but it determines more about the player experience than most people realize.

Betsson moves money through traditional systems. Cards, banks, and e-wallets each introduce their own processing timelines and potential fees. International players face the additional complexity of currency conversion and cross-border transfer costs. Betsson handles these challenges as well as any traditional operator can, but the underlying infrastructure places a ceiling on how fast and how cheaply money can move.

ZunaBet removed that ceiling. Crypto transactions skip banks, skip card networks, and skip the variable processing windows that come with traditional methods. A withdrawal from ZunaBet triggers a blockchain transaction that moves at network speed regardless of geography, time of day, or banking relationships. Zero platform fees at every stage. The same experience whether you are in Stockholm or São Paulo.

As crypto becomes a normal part of financial life for more people globally, platforms that process payments natively on blockchain gain a compounding advantage. They do not need to add crypto support later or integrate with third-party crypto payment processors. They already operate the way an increasing share of the market wants to transact.

Two Kinds of Growth, Two Different Futures

Betsson has built an impressive business through patience, regulatory discipline, and methodical market expansion. Two decades of sustainable growth, a portfolio of licensed brands, and a polished product across casino and sportsbook all speak to a company that knows how to execute the traditional playbook. For players in regulated European markets who prefer conventional banking and established oversight, Betsson remains a first-rate choice.

ZunaBet is chasing a different kind of growth entirely. It is not expanding market by market through licensing applications. It is attracting a global audience of crypto-native players by offering more games, better loyalty economics, faster payments, and a sportsbook that reflects modern betting interests including esports. In less than a year, it has assembled a platform that exceeds most established operators on the metrics that matter most to this audience.

Betsson’s growth is measured in quarterly earnings reports and new market entries. ZunaBet’s growth is measured in how quickly it is reshaping what players expect from an online gambling platform. Both forms of growth are real. But in 2026, it is ZunaBet’s version that is generating the most conversation, the most curiosity, and the most excitement about what comes next in online gambling.

The post Betsson and ZunaBet: A Tale of Two Growth Strategies in Online Gambling appeared first on Blockonomi.

Market access isn’t assured, not even for the most established projects. And that’s been made clear this week, as Flow Foundation has filed an emergency motion with the Seoul Central District Court to stop three major Korean exchanges from pulling the plug on FLOW. A single security incident wiped 75% off the token.

This is exactly the type of situation that DeepSnitch AI, an intelligence platform to guide retail traders like never before, was built for. Equally, that’s the very utility that makes it the best crypto presale in 2026, enough to drive it 1000x when it launches.

And with the presale having crossed $2M now, that launch is due before March is over. Until then, this crypto presale with utility is priced at only $0.04399. But that won’t last long, as DeepSnitch AI is a truly rare token, built for the 2026 market and incredibly undervalued, but it’s about to hit exchanges.

Flow’s legal battle and Bitcoin’s identity crisis

The Flow Foundation and Dapper Labs are asking a Seoul court to block Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone from ending FLOW trading support on March 16. The delistings followed a December exploit that duplicated tokens, crashing FLOW by 75%. The Foundation insists every major global exchange has since restored full services, but Korean regulators haven’t lifted a finger just yet.

Separately, NYDIG’s head of research has made efforts to undo the narrative that Bitcoin trades like a tech stock. Greg Cipolaro argued that the recent tandem rally with software equities is a sure sign of shared macro sensitivity, which is to say that, according to him, we’re not looking at structural convergence.

Only about 25% of Bitcoin’s price action tracks equity correlations, and the remaining 75% is driven by crypto-native forces (ETF flows, derivatives positioning, and network activity).

But either way, what a project ships is infinitely more important in 2026 than what narrative it’s riding on. While new crypto fundraising opportunities are full of trust breaches and unsteady promises today, that’s all the more reason to really pour your faith into those rare early access crypto projects with proven, deployed technology.

Those are the best crypto presales, ripe for the market, with room to run and something to trust.

Some tokens follow the flow of the market, but not all of them

1. DeepSnitch AI

To understand why DeepSnitch AI is easily the best crypto presale of 2026, all you have to do is compare it to Flow’s delisting crisis. After all, most retail holders found out after FLOW had already cratered 75%. They opened their portfolio apps to a bloodbath with zero warning. DeepSnitch AI exists specifically because that scenario keeps repeating across crypto, and the team behind it (on-chain analysts) has built a platform that both defies that trend and attends to it with its utility.

The use case here is abundantly clear, as the platform automates the entire DYOR process into something you can run in minutes, with a clean, comprehensible dashboard to show you what’s happening across the market. It uses a powerful, efficient, diligent, and sophisticated set of AI agents, all of which you can rely on to get the job done by surfacing the most valuable insights out there. That’s no small feat when the average trader has to spend hours and hours combing through the expanse of the internet, with all its falsities and misinformation.

With DYOR spun into a pre-buy habit, this is a platform that could easily become a permanent piece of the trading stack. And that’s what makes its permanence and 1000x potential not an insane pipe dream but, really and truly, plausible.

If DeepSnitch AI’s suite of bots becomes a daily routine for even a fraction of the global trading community (and given how clean the dashboard is and how immediately useful the alerts are, that adoption curve looks steep), the buy pressure could be structural and compounding. That’s the utility and demand that make DeepSnitch AI the best crypto presale available right now.

This isn’t a token that needs marketing headlines or influencer pumps to hold value. It needs traders to keep using it. And they will, because nothing else in new crypto fundraising offers this level of deployed, tested intelligence.

Launch is days away. And if you’re doubting whether or not DeepSnitch AI will come through on its promises, there’s no need to, because it already has. The platform has been internally live with tools shipping for months now, and early holders have already been able to test it out. And their conviction remains firm.

While shockingly undervalued for now, and priced at $0.04399, this is a plausible moonshot token with a proven, sophisticated product, and the presale has already crossed $2M.

Likely the best crypto presale of the year, you’ll want to buy into DeepSnitch AI as soon as possible, so that you can see the highest gains on the back of its March launch.

2. Cardano

Hovering at around $0.255 on March 9, ADA is tracking the broader market without any independent catalyst. The token drifted with Bitcoin’s mild uptick, and analysts flagged $0.25 as the support floor. A break below could drag the price toward $0.24 from here.

By the time the end of the year rolls around, Cardano could get up to $0.2695, meaning it could realistically see some modest (single-digit) upside from current levels. Governance upgrades are progressing in the background, but the market hasn’t rewarded that technical work with price action yet.

3. Avalanche

AVAX is at $9.00, as of March 9, and it’s consolidating pretty tightly after testing resistance near $9.50 earlier in March. The VanEck AVAX ETF, launched in late January, has brought with it a fresh institutional access point, and RWA tokenization on the network has pushed TVL toward above $2 billion.

Short-term predictions point toward a slight decline to around $8.63 by April, though longer-term recovery targets between $20 and $28 are on the table, but that’ll only be if macro conditions stabilize.

Final say

When a project like Flow can lose three exchanges over a single exploit, it crystallizes the value of shipped, battle-tested infrastructure. DeepSnitch AI’s agents are operational, its staking is uncapped, its dashboard is refined, and it’s about to go live. As the best crypto presale for anyone wanting to see the gains of the next moonshot, moments waiting could be the moment lost.

And if you’re buying in now, you’ll still have a chance to use the VIP bonus codes for an incredible opportunity to take home more tokens than you pay for, loading up on up to 300% extra tokens on larger deposits.

Head over to the DeepSnitch AI presale to buy in as soon as possible, and you can keep up to date via X and Telegram as the launch countdown continues.

FAQs

Why is the best crypto presale for the highest gains of 2026 unlikely to be an already-listed token?

DeepSnitch AI is the best crypto presale available right now, with a combination of early access crypto pricing and the sort of operational infrastructure that most listed tokens will never ship. It’s that room to run and alignment with the 2026 market that, together, are positioning it for 1000x repricing.

Is new crypto fundraising risky during a bear market?

Bear markets have historically produced the strongest presale entries, even though risk is always something to be wary of in crypto. DeepSnitch AI does a lot of de-risking, for instance, with deployed and proven tools and a utility-driven adoption loop that means its value doesn’t hinge on market sentiment. It’s the best crypto presale right now precisely because it has wild potential combined with mitigated risk.

Which crypto presale with utility is likely to follow through on its promises in 2026?

DeepSnitch AI has already done this, with three of five agents live and the remaining two rolling out before exchange listing. No other new crypto fundraising project in 2026 matches that deployment pace.

The post Best Crypto Presale of 2026: DeepSnitch AI Blasts Through $2M With a 1000x Set to Accompany March Launch, as ADA and AVAX Struggle appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Polymarket partnered with Palantir Technologies and TWG AI to build a sports market integrity platform.
• The platform uses the Vergence AI engine to monitor trades in real time.
• The system screens prohibited users and detects suspicious trading activity.
• Shayne Coplan said the partnership will strengthen monitoring across sports prediction markets.
• The move comes as Polymarket expands its sports offerings and plans a return to the United States.

Polymarket has partnered with Palantir Technologies to build a monitoring platform for its sports prediction markets. The companies will deploy advanced analytics to detect suspicious trading and enforce compliance standards. The agreement comes as Polymarket expands its sports markets and prepares to re-enter the United States.

Polymarket Partners with Palantir and TWG AI to Launch Integrity Platform

Polymarket confirmed that it will work with Palantir Technologies and TWG AI to develop a sports integrity system. The platform will use the Vergence AI engine, which Palantir and TWG AI jointly operate. The companies said the system will monitor trades and flag irregular activity in real time. The announcement outlined plans to prevent manipulation and insider activity across sports prediction markets.

Polymarket said the system will screen prohibited users and support compliance reporting tools. It will also track market behavior to identify unusual trading patterns. The companies stated that the platform will help ensure trust and fairness as trading volumes grow. Shayne Coplan said, “Our partnership with Palantir and TWG AI allows us to apply world-class analytics and monitoring to sports markets.” He added that the tools will help leagues and teams maintain confidence in games.

Expansion of Sports Prediction Markets and Regulatory Backdrop

Polymarket and Kalshi have expanded sports event contracts as trading volumes increase. The expansion has drawn scrutiny from certain gaming authorities and state regulators. At the same time, DraftKings has launched DraftKings Predictions in 38 states. These states include California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, where traditional sports betting remains restricted.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Kalshi last month. The agency asserted “exclusive jurisdiction” over futures markets, including gaming contracts. Kalshi faces a lawsuit alleging violations of Nevada gaming laws. CEO Tarek Mansour said Kalshi recorded over $1 billion in trading volume on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Polymarket and Kalshi have discussed funding rounds with potential investors. The report said both companies seek valuations near $20 billion. Polymarket has also acquired a CFTC-regulated platform to facilitate its return to the United States. The company has opened a waitlist for users ahead of the relaunch.

Palantir Technologies, co-founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, develops data analytics software. The company provides tools to U.S. government agencies and enterprise clients. Through the Vergence AI engine, Palantir and TWG AI will power the new monitoring platform for Polymarket’s sports markets.

The post Polymarket Taps Palantir for Sports Market Monitoring appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• KBC partnered with Swiss fintech Taurus to support its regulated crypto trading service in Belgium.
• KBC became the first Belgian bank to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading within a regulated banking framework.
• The bank integrated Taurus-PROTECT to provide institutional-grade digital asset custody for its Bolero platform.
• Retail clients can trade Bitcoin and Ether on an execution-only basis under the EU MiCAR framework.
• KBC structured the service under a closed model that keeps crypto assets within the Bolero platform.

Major Belgian lender KBC has partnered with Swiss fintech Taurus to power its regulated crypto trading service. The bank will use Taurus-PROTECT to provide institutional custody for digital assets offered through its Bolero platform. The launch makes KBC the first Belgian bank to enable Bitcoin and Ethereum trading within a regulated banking framework.

KBC Group Launches Regulated Bitcoin Trading with Taurus Support

KBC Group confirmed it teamed up with Taurus SA to deploy Taurus-PROTECT for secure digital asset custody. The bank integrated the platform into Bolero, its self-directed investment service, to support regulated crypto trading. The service went live last month and offers retail clients access to Bitcoin on an execution-only basis.

KBC Group structured the offering under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework. The bank executes all Bitcoin transactions in compliance with MiCAR requirements and internal governance standards. Erik Luts, Chief Innovation Officer at KBC Group, said growing client demand drove the partnership.

“By working with Taurus, we can offer crypto services supported by banking-grade custody,” Luts said. He added that the bank applies the same security and control standards across its crypto operations. KBC Group confirmed that clients trade Bitcoin directly within Bolero without external transfers.

Ether Access Expands Through Closed Operating Model

KBC Group also introduced Ethereum trading under the same regulated structure. Retail clients can access Ether on an execution-only basis through Bolero. The bank keeps all purchased crypto assets within its closed operating model.

Under this model, clients cannot transfer Bitcoin or Ether to external wallets or exchanges. The structure removes the need for clients to manage private keys themselves. KBC Group said this approach reduces operational and fraud risks linked to retail custody.

Lamine Brahimi, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Taurus, addressed the collaboration. “We are proud to support KBC’s market-first initiative in Belgium with Taurus-PROTECT,” Brahimi said. He stated that Taurus designed the platform specifically for banks seeking institutional-grade custody.

Taurus-PROTECT provides digital asset storage with governance and compliance controls aligned with banking standards. KBC Group confirmed it applies the same oversight procedures used across its broader financial services. The bank said the platform ensures secure storage of both Bitcoin and Ether holdings.

KBC Group stated that all transactions occur within a fully regulated banking environment. The bank said it processes trades through established compliance systems and internal monitoring tools. The service became available to retail investors last month through the Bolero platform.

KBC Group emphasized that clients gain crypto exposure through a trusted banking channel. The bank maintains full custody responsibility for assets held on the platform. The announcement marked the official rollout of regulated Bitcoin and Ether trading in Belgium’s banking sector.

The post KBC taps Taurus for Belgium’s first regulated crypto trade appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Strategy recorded its largest STRC issuance day and bought an estimated 1,420 Bitcoin.
• The company sold about 2.4 million STRC shares through its at-the-market program.
• Strategy reported around $378 million in STRC proceeds in its latest SEC filing.
• The company disclosed a total Bitcoin purchase worth 1.3 billion dollars.
• Strategy amended its ATM sales rules to allow a second agent to sell shares outside regular hours.

Strategy executed its largest recorded STRC issuance day and used the proceeds to acquire an estimated 1,420 Bitcoin. The company amended its at-the-market sales rules and expanded agent access before and after regular trading hours. It then reported $1.3 billion in total Bitcoin purchases in its latest SEC filing.

STRC Issuance Drives Estimated 1,420 BTC Purchase

Strategy sold about 2.4 million STRC shares through its at-the-market program in one day. Data from STRC.live estimated that the company bought 1,420 Bitcoin following the sales. The estimate marked the largest daily STRC issuance and related Bitcoin purchase on record.

Previously, STRC.live recorded a daily purchase of 1,069 Bitcoin as the highest issuance-linked total. However, the latest transaction exceeded that earlier figure based on the same data source. STRC functions as Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock launched in July 2025.

The company uses STRC alongside Stride, Strife, Strike, and common stock to fund Bitcoin acquisitions. Strategy sets monthly variable cash dividends for STRC holders. It fixed the March annualized dividend rate at 11.5 percent.

Bitcoin Purchase Expands Treasury Holdings

Strategy disclosed in its SEC filing that it sold about $378 million in STRC. The company also reported nearly $900 million in proceeds from common stock MSTR sales. Together, those transactions supported a $1.3 billion Bitcoin purchase.

STRC.live had estimated that weekly STRC proceeds would fund around 4,300 Bitcoin purchases. However, the reported total exceeded that estimate based on disclosed sales figures. Strategy confirmed the Bitcoin acquisition as one of its largest on record.

The company reported an average cost basis of $75,862 for its Bitcoin holdings. At the time of reporting, Bitcoin traded at $71,279. Strategy continued purchases despite the market price remaining below its average cost.

Revised ATM Rules Expand Sales Access

Strategy amended its at-the-market program rules on Monday. The company now allows a second sales agent to sell securities outside regular market hours. Previously, it limited sales to one agent per trading day.

The updated structure permits sales before the US market opens and after it closes. Market observer Ragnar stated, “A lot more capital will be raised, and a lot more Bitcoin will be purchased.” The company has not issued further operational changes beyond the filing.

STRC remains one of several securities used to fund Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury approach. The company continues to report sales and purchases through SEC filings. The latest filing detailed the $1.3 billion Bitcoin acquisition and expanded ATM structure.

The post Strategy Logs Record STRC Sale, Buys 1,420 Bitcoin appeared first on Blockonomi.

XRP remains under pressure on both the USDT and BTC pairs, with the broader trend still leaning bearish despite some short-term stabilization. Buyers are defending key support zones for now, but the asset still trades below major resistance levels and has yet to show a convincing trend reversal.

Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair

On the XRP/USDT chart, the asset is still moving inside a broad descending channel, which keeps the daily structure bearish. XRP is trading around $1.41 and remains below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, while the dotted trendline and the $1.80 zone continue to cap rebounds.

The main support remains the $1.20 area, which aligns with the lower boundary of the channel and has held recent downside attempts. If buyers manage to reclaim the $1.80 level and the 100-day moving average nearby, the next major resistance sits near $2.40 to $2.50, but until then, the market structure still favors sellers. The RSI has also recovered slightly, though momentum is still not strong enough to suggest a sustained bullish reversal.

The BTC Pair

Against Bitcoin, XRP also remains weak and continues to trade below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages. The pair is currently sitting around 1,990 sats, right at the important horizontal support zone near 2,000 sats, while the 2,400 to 2,450 sats region remains the key resistance area overhead.

As long as XRP stays below that resistance cluster, the BTC pair remains structurally bearish. A breakdown below 2,000 sats could send the pair toward the lower support around 1,500 sats, while a recovery above 2,400 sats would be needed to improve the outlook and open the path toward 2,700 to 2,800 sats. For now, the trend still points to relative weakness versus Bitcoin.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: Where Is XRP Heading Next After 5% Weekly Increase? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum is still trading within a broader bearish structure, but the recent price action shows signs of short-term stabilization above a key support zone. After the sharp selloff seen in early February, ETH has managed to base around the $1,800 area, and buyers are hoping for another push higher, although the market still needs a stronger breakout to confirm a more meaningful recovery.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, ETH remains below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which keeps the higher timeframe trend tilted to the downside. The asset is also still trading inside a descending channel, while the $2,400 and $2,800 zones continue to act as the main resistance barriers on any larger rebound.

At the same time, the market has been holding above the blue demand region around $1,800 to $1,700, which is currently the most important support range. As long as ETH stays above this area, the structure can remain constructive in the short term, but a daily reclaim of the $2,400 region is still needed to suggest that the broader bearish pressure is starting to weaken.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour chart, ETH is gradually moving higher from the late February lows and is now pressing toward the $2,150 resistance level once again. The formation of a rising short-term trendline from the recent swing lows also points to improving momentum, while the RSI has pushed back above the midline and supports the case for a stronger recovery attempt.

Still, the price has not broken out yet, and the $2,150 level remains the key trigger in the near term. A clean move above it could open the way toward the $2,400 supply zone, while another rejection would likely keep ETH stuck inside its current range and send it back toward the $1,800 support levels.

On-Chain Analysis

From an on-chain perspective, Ethereum’s exchange reserve continues to trend lower and has now dropped to around 16.1 million ETH, which is a notable long-term bullish signal. The persistent decline suggests that more coins are being moved away from exchanges, typically reflecting lower immediate sell pressure and a stronger preference for holding rather than distributing.

That said, the exchange reserve trend is a supportive background factor rather than a direct timing signal. In the short term, ETH still needs price confirmation through a breakout above nearby resistance, but the continued drawdown in exchange balances does strengthen the idea that downside pressure may be more limited than before if demand starts to improve.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Needs to Reclaim This Key Level to Reignite Sustainable Rally appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading just above the $70,000 level today, brushing off weeks of geopolitical turbulence tied to the conflict pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran to post gains of about 4% in the last 24 hours.

Now, analyst Markus Thielen is arguing that the flagship cryptocurrency’s refusal to crumble under that pressure is itself a bullish signal, which makes a return to the $70,000 to $80,000 range more likely.

BTC Has Absorbed the Pressure

In his March 10 daily chart note for Matrixport, Thielen pointed out that since early February, BTC has mostly traded sideways, despite facing headwinds such as weaker U.S. employment figures, a sell-off in Korean equities, and a significant rise in oil prices over the weekend.

He noted that Bitcoin only retraced toward the $66,000 level, eventually finding support, even as oil prices briefly jumped to $120 over fears of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“As markets gradually start to discount the Iran conflict,” Thielen wrote, “Bitcoin is likely to look through the geopolitical noise, which should support a move toward this higher trading range.”

The sentiment has found backing from the broader news cycle, with reports emerging on March 9 that U.S. President Donald Trump had said that the war was “very complete, pretty much.” Oil prices dropped back below $90 per barrel shortly after his remarks, with gold touching $5,140 per ounce and the S&P 500 climbing above 6,800.

Bitcoin wasn’t left behind either, jumping to around $69,600 before settling near $69,000 that day. Its current CoinGecko data shows a 24-hour range of about $67,000 to $71,200, with the asset now just above $70,500.

The price is up 3% from its level 7 days ago and more than 10% over 2 weeks. However, BTC is still down about 15% year-on-year and sits over 44% below its October 2025 all-time high when it passed $126,000.

Deleveraged Market Prepares the Stage for a Move Higher

One reason analysts are closely watching the current structure is because of the significant deleveraging that has taken place. As we previously covered, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost noted that since February, Bitcoin’s Estimated Leverage Ratio on Binance fell from 0.198 to 0.152, as the OG crypto dropped from $96,000 to around $69,000.

According to the market technician, lower leverage usually means less systemic pressure, which can help stabilize price action before the market enters a new directional phase.

Interestingly, the cleaner leverage profile seems to be pairing with a futures market leaning heavily on shorts. Per data from Binance Research, open interest has gone up some 18% since late February, returning from under $30 billion, while funding rates have stayed low to negative.

That combination means a large share of current open interest is from short positions, and if BTC moves higher, forced short covering could add velocity to any rally.

The post Geopolitics Fail to Break Bitcoin: Analyst Eyes $80K Upside Ahead appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The much-anticipated financial app, planned and developed by the popular social media platform X (formerly Twitter), is coming to market sooner than some may have anticipated.

Elon Musk posted on X to reveal that the app’s early public access launch will take place as soon as next month.

𝕏 Money early public access will launch next month

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2026

Why it Matters for Crypto?

As CryptoPotato reported earlier, Musk’s vision of transforming social media into an “everything app” has been gradually taking shape with the development of X Money. The latter is supposed to be a new payments feature designed to bring financial services directly to the platform.

Up until this moment, Musk said that the app was running in a closed internal beta.

Early screenshots of the popular actor William Shatner suggested that the app may include features such as a debit card with cashback, as well as tools for sending and receiving payments.

One of the biggest questions surrounding X Money, however, is whether or not it will support cryptocurrencies. Musk, who has frequently influenced crypto markets in the past, particularly through his comments about Dogecoin, as well as his decision to integrate Bitcoin payments for Tesla purchases, as well as to hold BTC on Tesla’s balance sheet, has hinted at broader financial capabilities for the platform.

He even recently amplified a post that described potential services, such as crypto support, and commented that the overall initiative will be big.

It’s worth noting, however, that there’s no official confirmation of whether such integrations will be featured.

The post Elon Musk Confirms Early Public Access Launch of X Money Next Month appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The weekly RSI levels for XRP have declined to their most oversold territory since at least 2022, said popular market commentator EGRAG CRYPTO, adding that this might be a proper entry zone.

While their chart reviews the broader XRP picture, another analyst weighed in on the asset’s daily gains today, noting that he wants to short it only after it reaches a certain level.

Most Oversold in History?

Known for his detailed and mostly bullish analysis on several large cryptocurrencies, but with the main focus on XRP, EGRAR’s latest chart on the cross-border token indicated that the asset is “entering the most oversold region” in its history right now.

They explained that when XRP has plunged to such RSI levels, it has historically bottomed, as was the case in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. This means that the token has not seen such oversold numbers in four years.

However, EGRAR disclosed that although XRP has indeed reached a macro bottom at similar levels, it does not mean that “the exact bottom prints immediately,” but it’s entering its final phase, which looks like this:

• Final liquidity sweep
• Sideways accumulation
• Gradual reversal

“This is why many experienced investors start accumulating in this region instead of trying to perfectly time the bottom,” they added before asking: “When XRP weekly RSI is in the most oversold zone in its entire history… is this the worst time to buy? Or, one of the best times to start accumulating?”

Or, Maybe Short XRP?

While EGRAG’s analysis focuses on XRP’s macro picture, Crypto Tony weighed in on the asset’s most recent price performance and whether he sees a potential for a trend reversal in the short-term. The token dumped to $1.21 last week, rebounded to $1.55, where it was rejected, and has remained within a tighter range between $1.34 and $1.48 since then.

It jumped to $1.42 earlier today, and Crypto Tony saw an upcoming opportunity to short the upper boundary of this range at $1.47-$1.48. However, XRP was rejected for now and remains around $1.40 as of press time, which is a level that the bulls “need to flip into support,” and they haven’t done it decisively yet.

$XRP / $USD – Update

I would love a spike up to $1.47 range high to then look for shorts. Bulls need to flip $1.40 into support to make this happen pic.twitter.com/U0SrpuCbvz

— Crypto Tony (@CryptoTony__) March 10, 2026

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