The rehiring at Block highlights the growing impact of AI and automation on workforce dynamics, prompting industry-wide strategic shifts.

The post Jack Dorsey’s Block brings back a few workers after mass layoffs appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The rollout of encrypted AI models by Venice could set a new standard for privacy in AI, potentially influencing industry-wide practices.

The post Erik Voorhees’ Venice rolls out end-to-end encrypted AI modes, VVV token surges 10% appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Algorand Foundation cuts 25% of staff as macro pressure weighs on operations, with ALGO down 19% year to date near $0.09.

The post Algorand Foundation cuts 25% of staff as macro pressure and crypto slump weigh on operations appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

In-depth comparison of Ledger, Trezor, SafePal & NGRAVE hardware wallets. Security chips, open-source status & community trust.

The post Best hardware wallets 2026: Ledger vs Trezor vs SafePal vs NGRAVE appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

SEC approves Nasdaq rule enabling tokenized securities trading alongside traditional shares within existing market structure.

The post SEC approves tokenized securities to trade alongside traditional stocks appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

SEC Approves Nasdaq Rule to Trade Tokenized Securities, Paving Way for Blockchain Integration

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a Nasdaq rule change that allows certain securities to be traded in tokenized form, a move that integrates blockchain technology into traditional stock market infrastructure.

The approval, issued Wednesday, is part of a broader effort to explore digital representations of regulated assets while maintaining investor protections and market stability.

Under the new framework, eligible securities — including stocks in the Russell 1000 Index and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking major benchmarks such as the S&P 500  — can be represented and traded as tokenized assets on Nasdaq. 

These tokenized versions are fully interchangeable with traditional shares, sharing the same ticker symbols, CUSIP numbers, and shareholder rights. 

Investors holding tokenized securities retain standard protections, including voting rights, dividend access, and claims on residual assets, ensuring consistency with existing securities laws.

The system operates as a pilot program through the Depository Trust Company (DTC), which handles post-trade settlement and tokenization. Market participants can choose to settle trades in tokenized form via a designated instruction at order entry. 

Earlier this month, Nasdaq partnered with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, to enable the trading of tokenized stocks between traditional markets and blockchain networks using Payward’s xStocks platform. 

A nod to Bitcoin

This move won’t directly affect Bitcoin’s price or network, but it’s a nod to a growing regulatory comfort with blockchain-based assets, which could indirectly boost institutional interest in digital currencies. 

By integrating tokenized securities into mainstream markets, it may pave the way for broader adoption of crypto infrastructure and financial products that interact with Bitcoin.

If tokenization requirements are not met, trades default to traditional settlement. Nasdaq confirmed that its core trading infrastructure — including order types, routing strategies, trading sessions, and market data feeds — remains unchanged, ensuring tokenized securities are fully integrated into existing systems. 

Settlement continues on a T+1 basis, aligning tokenized trading with current standards.

Nasdaq emphasized that a tokenized share and its traditional counterpart will trade on the same order book, with identical execution priority and market data treatment. Surveillance systems will monitor both forms of the security using the same underlying data, accessible to both Nasdaq and FINRA. 

The exchange will issue alerts identifying which securities are eligible for tokenized trading and will notify members at least 30 days before launching any tokenized instruments.

The SEC, in its approval, said the proposal meets regulatory requirements designed to protect investors and maintain fair and orderly markets. 

The Commission specifically cited Section 6(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act, which requires exchange rules to prevent fraud, promote equitable trading principles, and remove impediments to a free and open market.

According to the document, tokenized securities must mirror traditional shares in rights and privileges, limiting the risk of divergence in value or investor protections.

The DTC pilot provides a controlled framework for blockchain-based trading without introducing new market risks.

The approval reflects growing momentum toward tokenization in regulated markets. Exchanges and infrastructure providers are increasingly exploring blockchain representations of conventional assets while remaining within the bounds of existing law. 

Nasdaq has indicated that alternative tokenization methods are under discussion and would require separate filings with the SEC.

This post SEC Approves Nasdaq Rule to Trade Tokenized Securities, Paving Way for Blockchain Integration first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

The Core Issue: Your Node Vs. The Digital Wilderness

Over 50 years after the first inter-networked message, peer-to-peer networks remain rare beasts in the jungle of the Internet. Bitcoin’s ability to provide an open monetary system depends on its peer-to-peer architecture, and across its attack surface it is the networking layer–how peers discover and connect to each other–that is the most vulnerable. There are two main places problems can occur: Bitcoin’s own peering protocol, and the Internet protocols that Bitcoin’s protocol depends on. In this light Core has a dual mandate to prevent Denial of Service (DOS) vectors that can be abused between nodes, and enable nodes to communicate safely in the wider adversarial environment that is the Internet.

P2P

“Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.”

– Satoshi, Nov 7, 2008 [1]

The P2P protocol encompasses how nodes exchange messages about transactions, blocks, and other peers. This exchange of information is required before any transaction or consensus validation can occur, and is therefore a primary concern.

There have been several bugs in this area over the years. In 2017, for example, a malicious SOCKS server vulnerability was patched and disclosed [2]. This “buffer overflow” vulnerability could theoretically lead to many different attacks: crash the node, inject malicious payloads, or modify data on the node. In 2020, a high severity vulnerability was reported and patched where a remote peer could get addresses banned, growing the banlist quadratically, and is therefore a DOS on the node [3]. The vulnerability was not disclosed until 2024. This bug is correctly marked as “high severity” since the attack is simple to execute, its effect results in a loss of function for the node, and it has few preconditions required to make it work. These are the kind of bugs that keep Core developers up at night, and why it is highly encouraged to update your node to a still maintained version (older versions of Core are not actively maintained/updated).

This distributed network we call Bitcoin remains relatively small: the clearnet node count hovers around 20k nodes, and even assuming a generous 100k TOR nodes, we still have a small, easily surveillable network. Recently, Daniela Brozzoni and naiyoma showed [4] that if a node runs with both clearnet and Tor, it is trivial to map a node’s IPv4 and Tor addresses. It is very likely that this is already done by intelligence agencies and chainalysis companies. It then becomes easy to notice which nodes publish which transactions first, deducing the transaction’s original IP, and therefore location. While this is not a bug per se, since the node does not crash or misbehave, it can be considered a vulnerability, since it presents a method for tying a given IP address to a transaction. 

How to prevent this effectively is currently an open question.

The Badlands of the Web

“We build our computers like we build our cities. Over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.” – Ellen Ullman [5]

Bitcoin runs on the Internet, and its ability to remain a distributed and decentralized system depends on the properties of the Internet itself. Unfortunately, the Internet’s architecture as we know it today remains woefully insecure, with known attacks employed routinely. Most of these attacks are conducted undetected until damage has been done, and this is not to mention the surveillance regimes that permeate the Internet today.

The most well known and practical vector of attack to be concerned with is called an eclipse attack, where a victim node’s peers are all malicious, and feed a specific view of the chain or network to the victim node. This class of attack is fundamental in distributed systems, if you control a node’s peers, you control its awareness of the network. Ethan Heilman and collaborators presented one of the first practical eclipse attacks on Bitcoin at USENIX 2015 [6], and in 2018, the Erebus attack paper described a “stealthy” eclipse attack via a malicious Autonomous System (AS) [7]. 

These attacks largely leverage weaknesses in the way the Internet’s networks communicate amongst themselves, such as ASs routing topology or via a protocol called the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). While there are ongoing initiatives to secure the BGP protocol–BGPsec, RPKI–they both have limitations that are well understood, and leave the Internet’s stewards pining for stronger solutions. Until then, the Internet will remain the wild west. 

A recent analysis by cedarctic at Chaincode Labs found that Bitcoin nodes are homed within just 4551 ASs, a fairly small subsection of the constituent networks that make up the Internet. They describe a set of attacks that can lead to eclipse attacks by compromising the upstream AS that nodes operate in [8]. The small distribution of nodes amongst ASs and the specific relationships among these ASs creates a unique attack vector. While there are remediations, it is unclear whether this attack vector was well understood beforehand by bitcoiners or their adversaries.

Any attack that relies on compromising one or several ASs requires resources, coordination, and skills to achieve. Although no successful attack of this type has been reported on a Bitcoin node, such attacks have been successfully mounted against miners [9], wallets [10], swap platforms [11], and bridges [12]. While we’re not going to fix the Internet, we can arm nodes with the tools to operate in this adversarial environment.

Network Armory

Below are some features and functionalities that Bitcoin Core has developed or integrated support for in order to arm users against network level attacks:

TOR (the Onion Router) is the oldest privacy-focused overlay network incorporated in Bitcoin Core. It creates hops between a random network of peers to obfuscate traffic. 

v2transport [13] encrypts connections between peers, hiding the traffic from snoops and censors. The aim is to thwart passive network observers from snooping on the contents of your communications with other nodes.

I2P (the Invisible Internet Project [14]) is an optional feature of Core which enables an additional, private, encrypted layer to one’s connections. It is a Tor-like anonymity network which relies on peers to obfuscate traffic between clients and servers.

ASmap [15] is another optional feature of Core which implements a mitigation for the Erebus attack that the authors already outlined in the paper, and applies to all AS-based attacks. By making Bitcoin’s peering mechanism aware of the AS that peers are coming from to ensure diversity amongst peers, an eclipse becomes exponentially more difficult, as an attacker would have to compromise many ASs, which is highly unlikely and almost impossible without being detected. Bitcoin Core supports taking a map of IP networks to their AS (an AS-map) since Core 20.0, and the Kartograf project enables any user to generate such an ASmap easily.

Given that the Internet is likely to continue being vulnerable to many attacks, one of the things we can do is observe our peers’ behavior to attempt to detect malicious behavior. This is the impetus behind the peer-observer project by 0xb10c [16]. It provides a full eBPF tracepoint-based logging system (a way to observe the tiniest actions in a program running on an operating system) to observe a node’s activity, including peer behavior. It also gives you everything you need to build your own logging systems.

Bitcoin Must Be Robust

Securing the ability to connect to peers and exchange messages is a keystone component of what makes Bitcoin tick.

Bitcoin operates in a multi-dimensional adversarial environment, in which many of the threats are created by limitations of the internet’s architecture itself. If Bitcoin is to survive and thrive, its developers and users must learn to navigate these strange waters.

The price of open networks is eternal vigilance.

Don’t miss your chance to own The Core Issue — featuring articles written by many Core Developers explaining the projects they work on themselves!

This piece is the Letter from the Editor featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The Core Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.

[0] https://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/connect.html

[1] https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/4/

[2] https://bitcoincore.org/en/2019/11/08/CVE-2017-18350/

[3] https://bitcoincore.org/en/2024/07/03/disclose-unbounded-banlist/

[4] https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/fingerprinting-nodes-via-addr-requests/1786/

[5] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ellen_Ullman

[6] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity15/sec15-paper-heilman.pdf

[7] https://ihchoi12.github.io/assets/tran2020stealthier.pdf

[8] https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/eclipsing-bitcoin-nodes-with-bgp-interception-attacks/1965

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2014/08/07/bgp_bitcoin_mining_heist/

[10] https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/24/17275982/myetherwallet-hack-bgp-dns-hijacking-stolen-ethereum

[11] https://medium.com/s2wblog/post-mortem-of-klayswap-incident-through-bgp-hijacking-en-3ed7e33de600

[12] www.coinbase.com/blog/celer-bridge-incident-analysis

[13] https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/v2-p2p-transport/

[14] https://geti2p.net/en/

[15] https://asmap.org

[16] https://peer.observer

[13] https://github.com/asmap/kartograf

This post The Core Issue: Your Node Vs. The Digital Wilderness first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Julien Urraca, Fabian Jahr, 0xb10c and CedArctic.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Fights For $70,000 As Federal Reserve Holds Rates

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate steady, maintaining the federal funds target range at 3.50% to 3.75%. Bitcoin price is fighting to hold $70,000 amid a complex backdrop of elevated inflation, slowing job growth, and war in the Middle East. 

The decision marked the second consecutive FOMC meeting with no change in borrowing costs and followed a pause that began after three rate cuts last year.

Bitcoin price responded to the announcement with a drop in trading, changing hands around $70,500, down 3.6% over the previous 24 hours, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro. The cryptocurrency had flirted with $76,000 last week, reaching its highest level in over a month, but has since retraced as investors weighed inflation data and global uncertainties.

Voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were split for a sixth consecutive policy meeting. Eleven supported holding rates steady, while Fed Governor Stephen Miran dissented, advocating a 25-basis-point cut. 

In its statement, the FOMC noted that “inflation remains somewhat elevated” and that job gains have remained low, even as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in February. The Fed emphasized a data-dependent approach to future adjustments, signaling that any decision will rely on incoming economic information.

The backdrop for the Fed’s policy deliberations included the ongoing war involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran, which has pushed energy prices higher. On Wednesday, Bitcoin price fell in tandem with U.S. stocks following reports that Israel struck the South Pars gas field in Iran.

“Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated,” the FOMC said. “The implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell discussed the implications of rising energy prices at a press conference. 

He said, “Near term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East.” 

He added that it is “too soon to know” the full economic impact of the conflict and that policymakers would continue to monitor data closely.

Bitcoin price reacts to tariffs, rate expectations

Powell also highlighted the influence of tariffs on consumer prices, noting that “some big chunk of that, between a half and three-quarters, is actually tariffs.” 

He described the current federal funds rate range as within neutral territory and emphasized the importance of central bank independence. 

“Independence is what allows us to do our jobs, and stable prices is half of our mandate, it’s one of our two mandates – maximum employment being the other,” he said.

Bitcoin price markets have historically been sensitive to interest rate expectations, as lower rates tend to make cryptocurrencies more attractive relative to traditional assets. 

Analysts suggest that the combination of higher energy costs, persistent inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty has prompted investors to reduce exposure to riskier assets, including Bitcoin.

Oil prices continued to climb Wednesday, with Brent crude rising 3.8% to $107.38 per barrel following the attack on the South Pars field. 

Despite the recent pullback, Bitcoin price remains above $70,000 for now and has recorded gains of 1.6% over the past week. Traders are watching closely for any signs from Powell or the Fed that could influence future monetary policy.

Powell’s term as Fed Chair will conclude in May, with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh expected to succeed him if confirmed. Powell’s future on the Board of Governors remains undecided. 

He said, “I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality.”

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is slightly above $71,000.

This post Bitcoin Price Fights For $70,000 As Federal Reserve Holds Rates first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Till Death or Seed Phrase: Woman Accused of Spying on Husband, Stealing $172 Million in Bitcoin

A dispute over more than $172 million in Bitcoin has moved forward in the UK’s High Court of Justice, where a man alleges his estranged wife stole thousands of coins from his hardware wallet using covert surveillance inside their home.

Court filings show that Ping Fai Yuen, a UK resident, held 2,323 Bitcoin in a Trezor hardware wallet in 2023. 

On Aug. 2 of that year, the full balance was transferred without his knowledge. The funds were later split across 71 separate addresses through a series of transactions. No movement has been recorded since Dec. 21, 2023.

Yuen claims his wife, Fun Yung Li, obtained access to the wallet’s recovery phrase, which can be used to recreate the wallet and move funds. 

The filings allege she recorded him inside their home to capture the phrase, possibly with help from her sister, Lai Yung Li, who is also named as a defendant.

According to the claim, Yuen had been warned by his daughter in July 2023 that Li was attempting to access his Bitcoin. 

He then installed audio recording equipment in the residence. The recordings are cited as key evidence. In one excerpt referenced in court, Li is alleged to have said, “The Bitcoin has transferred to me” and “take all of it.”

The filings also describe a recording from July 29, 2023 in which Li allegedly discussed camera placement and the location where Yuen stored his wallet credentials. The claim states she was “covertly recording” him in an effort to obtain access.

After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault.

Police opened an investigation into the alleged theft and arrested Li in 2023. Officers seized 10 crypto cold wallets during a search, including several linked to Yuen. Authorities later released Li after a no comment interview. The police have since stated they will take no further action without new evidence.

In November 2025, Yuen sought a proprietary asset preservation injunction. He asked the court to confirm his ownership of the Bitcoin, freeze Li’s crypto holdings, and order the return of the assets or an equivalent sum in British pounds.

‘Damning’ evidence of bitcoin theft

In a judgment following a March 2 hearing, Justice Cotter said Yuen’s case shows a strong likelihood of success. He pointed to the warning from Yuen’s daughter, the audio transcripts, and the discovery of equipment capable of accessing the wallet.

“The evidence is that he was warned of what the First Defendant was seeking to do, the transcripts are damning,” Cotter wrote.

The judge also cited Occam’s razor, the principle that the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is often the most likely. He said that this straightforward account aligns with the available evidence, and noted that Li has had the opportunity to present her version of events but has not done so in the proceedings.

Cotter added that the volatility of Bitcoin supports the need for a swift trial, as the value of the disputed assets may shift during the course of litigation.

The case is expected to test how English courts handle ownership and recovery claims tied to digital assets.

This post Till Death or Seed Phrase: Woman Accused of Spying on Husband, Stealing $172 Million in Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Zip Ties, Sleeping Pills and Pepper Spray: Canadian Crypto Millionaire Targeted in Foiled Madrid Kidnapping

A Canadian crypto entrepreneur survived a kidnapping attempt Monday night on one of Madrid’s busiest nightlife streets, after witnesses alerted police and helped foil the attack.

The incident occurred at approximately 11 p.m. near the intersection of Calle Claudio Coello and Calle Jorge Juan in the Salamanca district, a hub of high-end restaurants and bars. 

The victim had just left Lobito de Mar, the restaurant owned by chef Dani García, when three men forcibly removed him from the street, pepper-sprayed him, and threw him into a Ford Transit van.

Several pedestrians and residents on nearby balconies immediately called authorities. Spanish National Police tracked the vehicle to Ronda de Toledo, about 15 minutes from the scene, and arrested two of the attackers. One suspect escaped and remains at large, according to reports.

Police identified the arrested suspects as Serbian men, ages 33 and 45, both with no prior criminal record.

Investigators say the attackers had planned the abduction to extract the victim’s cryptocurrency passwords and gain access to his digital assets. The suspects also attempted to steal the Canadian’s €100,000 luxury watch.

Authorities determined the kidnappers had followed the businessman from Barcelona to Madrid, where he had traveled to finalize a cryptocurrency deal. 

The van used in the crime had an altered license plate, rented specifically for the abduction, and contained plastic zip ties and sedative pills, suggesting a premeditated scheme. GPS data recovered from the vehicle indicated the suspects intended to transport the victim to Petrer, a town in Alicante.

Inside the van, the victim was left alone while police focused on detaining the suspects. He freed himself from the zip ties and flagged down a taxi, which took him to La Princesa Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained during the initial assault. Police recovered firearms from the van during their investigation.

Be careful with your crypto

The kidnapping aligns with a recent rise in physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders across Europe. France, for example, has recorded 11 similar incidents so far in 2026, reflecting a trend of criminals seeking direct access to digital assets rather than traditional bank accounts.

Security experts refer to such attacks as “wrench attacks,” in which criminals attempt to obtain wallet seed phrases or private keys through coercion or violence. 

Authorities warn that cryptocurrency entrepreneurs are increasingly at risk due to the digital and highly liquid nature of their assets.

Police continue to search for the third suspect and have appealed to the public for information. 

The investigation remains open, with officers examining surveillance footage and digital evidence to determine whether the plot involved additional collaborators or extended surveillance beyond the two confirmed attackers.

This post Zip Ties, Sleeping Pills and Pepper Spray: Canadian Crypto Millionaire Targeted in Foiled Madrid Kidnapping first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

US banks “reduced” their credit risk after 2008 by shifting more of it to nonbank lenders.

Since 2008, banks have shifted a growing share of their lending to nonbanks like private credit funds, making it their fastest-growing loan category.

That shift doesn’t signal another 2008-style crisis today, but it does show where trouble could surface first if private credit starts to crack.

This week, traders, analysts, and Investment firms are reviving a familiar question: are US banks setting up a repeat of 2008?

The clean answer is no, based on the publicly available numbers. The same debate also points to a real shift in bank balance sheets that deserves a harder look.

The chart below, which is circulating on X, shows that bank lending to nondepository financial institutions, or NDFIs, rose 2,320% over 15 years.

An FDIC note documented $1.32 trillion of those loans by the third quarter of 2025, up from $56 billion in the first quarter of 2010, and called the category the fastest-growing loan segment since the 2008-09 crisis.

After 2008, large banks pulled back from riskier direct lending, but they also funded the nonbank lenders that stepped in. That group includes private credit vehicles, mortgage finance firms, securitization structures, and other parts of the shadow banking system. The risk moved elsewhere rather than disappearing.

However, that does not mean banks are already in trouble. The FDIC’s latest industry profile showed the banking sector earned $295 billion in 2025, posted a fourth-quarter return on assets of 1.24%, reduced unrealized securities losses to $306 billion, and counted 60 problem banks, still within the agency’s normal non-crisis range. Those are not the numbers of a system already in a panic.

The issue is where losses, redemptions, and liquidity pressure land when the lending chain has more links.

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Mar 4, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

For crypto, that changes the timing of any stress. A classic bank panic starts at the bank. In the current structure, stress can begin in a fund, a warehouse line, or a financing vehicle, then work backward into banks if marks fall, borrowers miss payments, or investors ask for cash faster than the assets can be sold.

The post-crisis shift is now visible in the numbers

The official numbers make the structural change hard to dismiss. The FDIC said bank lending to NDFIs compounded at 21.9% a year from 2010 to 2024.

By the third quarter of 2025, the total had reached $1.32 trillion, or roughly 10% of bank lending in the agency’s analysis.

Not every dollar in that bucket is private credit, and exposures in the category carry different levels of risk. Even so, the scale shows that a large share of credit intermediation now sits in institutions that do not take deposits and often disclose less than banks do.

That nuance is important. NDFI is a broad label. It can include mortgage intermediaries, consumer finance firms, securitization vehicles, private equity funds, and other nonbank lenders, alongside private-credit funds.

A sloppy reading turns the whole bucket into one bet on private credit. A more accurate reading is that banks built a large, fast-growing set of links to the broader nonbank system.

Private credit is one visible part of that system, and one of the most closely watched because it grew during a long period of higher rates, tighter bank regulation, and steady investor demand for yield.

A Federal Reserve staff note sharpens this point. It is estimated that committed credit lines from the largest US banks to private-credit vehicles rose from about $8 billion in the first quarter of 2013 to about $95 billion by the fourth quarter of 2024, with roughly $56 billion already drawn.

The same work put total committed bank lines to private credit and private equity at about $322 billion.

That does not prove systemic failure is close. The Fed’s own conclusion was more restrained: direct financial-stability risk from this channel looked limited so far because the largest banks appeared able to absorb major drawdowns.

Even so, growing links between banks and private-credit vehicles warrant close attention.

The risk is best framed as continued bank funding for parts of the lending chain, which changes where stress appears first.

Related Reading

Largest Wall Street funds start restricting withdrawals as investors rush for the exit while Bitcoin climbs

If Binance or Coinbase limited withdrawals like this the internet would be warning of insolvency - TradFi behaves differently.

Mar 16, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

In the public market, losses print quickly. In private markets, they can move more slowly because marks update less often, assets are less liquid, and investor withdrawals are managed through product rules.

That delay can make the system look calm until cash needs force a sharper repricing.

Global context points in the same direction. The Financial Stability Board said the nonbank financial intermediation sector accounted for about 51% of total global financial assets in 2024 and continued to grow at roughly twice the pace of banking, according to its latest report.

This is no longer a US edge case. Credit has been moving into institutions outside the classic banking model for years, and the US private-credit boom is part of that wider pattern.

Why the trade is getting tested now

The issue became more urgent as structural data arrived while private credit began to show public strain. Some private-credit vehicles have limited or managed withdrawals, while JPMorgan tightened some lending against private-credit portfolios after markdowns.

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Largest Wall Street funds start restricting withdrawals as investors rush for the exit while Bitcoin climbs

If Binance or Coinbase limited withdrawals like this the internet would be warning of insolvency - TradFi behaves differently.

Mar 16, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Those events stop short of establishing a full-market break and instead show where pressure is likely to emerge first: fund liquidity, financing terms, and collateral values.

That is also why any comparison to 2008 needs restraint.

The same FDIC report that drove renewed attention also showed banks entering this phase from a stronger income position than during past crises. The public banking system is not in free fall.

The greater concern is a funding architecture that could transmit stress from nonbank lenders back into banks if private assets keep repricing lower or if investors want cash before loans can be sold or refinanced.

Borrower quality and refinancing deserve more attention than broad slogans. In a recent Financial Times interview, Partners Group’s chair said that private-credit default rates could double from their roughly 2.6% historical average over the coming years. That is not an official baseline, and it should not be treated as one.

It does, however, capture the key pressure point. A system built on long-duration private loans, slower marks, and regular financing lines can look stable until defaults rise and refinancing windows narrow at the same time.

For Bitcoin, the setup is awkward in the short run and cleaner in the medium run. At the time of writing, BTC traded near $73,777 and held 58.5% market dominance, with gains of 0.05% over 24 hours, 4.55% over seven days, and 7.51% over 30 days, according to CryptoSlate data.

That price action suggests crypto is not trading as if a banking event is already underway. If a broader credit squeeze did hit, the first move would likely be a selloff in liquid assets, and Bitcoin is still one of the most liquid assets in global markets.

Over a longer horizon, if the debate broadens into a deeper loss of trust in how the financial system carries leverage and values private assets, Bitcoin’s appeal as an asset outside the banking stack becomes easier to articulate.

That second-order effect is the real contagion risk for crypto.

A private-credit strain does not automatically send capital into Bitcoin on day one. It can easily produce the opposite move.

Over time, though, if banks have to pull back, if fund financing gets harder, and if more investors start asking who really owns the credit risk, the case for holding some assets outside that system becomes easier to make. We know that trade. The banking data now place it in a new macro setting.

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Washington gives big banks a $175B break while Bitcoin still gets the harder treatment

A major banking policy reversal is taking shape in Washington, where regulators are considering softer capital standards and a new approach to liquidity that treats Fed borrowing capacity as more usable cash.

Mar 14, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

What to watch in the next round of data

The next phase of this story will likely emerge through three checks: whether more private-credit vehicles limit withdrawals or take larger marks, whether banks keep financing those funds on the same terms, and whether the NDFI loan book continues to expand at anything close to the pace the FDIC documented over the prior decade.

That is where the current debate becomes more concrete than the usual “shadow banking” label. If banks tighten financing to nonbank lenders, middle-market borrowers can feel it quickly through cost and access, even if no household hears the acronym NDFI.

If the funds meet redemptions by selling what they can, public credit can take some of the price discovery that private books avoided. If the funds do not sell and banks keep financing them, the exposure stays in the system longer.

None of those paths requires a repeat of 2008. All of them can still change how credit flows.

Pressure is already showing in all three areas

The direction of travel so far looks like tightening, not collapse.

On withdrawals and marks, semi-liquid private-credit vehicles are restricting cash more aggressively while investors push for fresher valuations.

A recent report said Cliffwater’s flagship corporate lending fund received redemption requests equal to about 14% of shares and met only 7%, while Morgan Stanley’s North Haven fund received requests equal to 10.9% and honored only its 5% cap.

The same report said BlackRock and other vehicles also hit standard quarterly limits, while Apollo moved toward monthly and then daily NAV reporting to answer criticism of stale pricing.

That points to weaker liquidity conditions and stronger investor demand for faster price discovery and greater cash access at the same time.

On bank financing, lenders are getting more selective rather than shutting the door outright.

A separate report said JPMorgan marked down some software-backed private-credit collateral and restricted lending to affected funds, which reduced borrowing capacity and pointed to tougher collateral treatment in weaker pockets of the market.

That stance is not universal. Other coverage said banks were still willing to finance some withdrawal needs. The signal is narrower and more useful: lenders are still in the market, but they are showing less tolerance for weak collateral and more willingness to tighten terms fund by fund.

On balance-sheet growth, the NDFI loan book has already changed behavior without needing to contract outright.

The FDIC’s February 2026 study said bank loans to NDFIs compounded at 21.9% annually from 2010 to 2024 and reached $1.32 trillion by the third quarter of 2025. A category that grew at that pace does not need an outright contraction to reset underwriting.

Slower growth, more frequent markdowns, and tougher financing terms are enough to change redemption behavior, reduce leverage, and make investors less willing to assume that rapid balance-sheet growth can continue alongside benign losses.

The official numbers argue against panic today, but they do not support complacency.

The FDIC’s balance-sheet data show a large post-crisis migration in bank exposures. The Fed’s research shows large banks remain connected to the private-credit complex through financing lines. Global data show nonbank finance has become too large to treat as a side story, and the first public tests of private-credit liquidity are already showing up in the market.

The next stress point may arrive through a route that looks safer in good times because it sits one step away from the bank.

The next useful check is whether fund withdrawals stay contained, whether bank financing stays open, and whether the $1.32 trillion exposure that the FDIC documented keeps rising as private credit faces a harder year.

The post Banks risk another 2008 crisis after moving the equivalent of 18 million BTC into shadow lenders appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token moved into the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalization, beating Cardano's ADA amid a 1,700-fold rise in trading volume tied to oil volatility during the US-Iran conflict.

Notably, Bitcoin benefited significantly from the broader bid for crypto during the conflict, but HYPE gained a second channel as traders used Hyperliquid's platform to express views on oil around the clock, including on weekends when conventional futures venues were closed.

From March 1 to March 18, HYPE’s market value rose from about $8.16 billion to $10.66 billion, a gain of about 30.7%, according to CryptoSlate's data. Over the same stretch, the token climbed from No. 13 to No. 10 in the site’s rankings.

The move built on momentum already forming across decentralized perpetual futures markets. Hyperliquid had been gaining significant market share as traders shifted more derivatives activity on-chain and as the venue expanded its reach beyond crypto-native speculation.

The US-Iran conflict accelerated that trend by giving traders a reason to use crypto rails for real-time exposure to oil-linked volatility.

That gave HYPE a different profile from many large-cap tokens, as traders no longer priced the token solely as exposure to a fast-growing crypto venue. Instead, they were also pricing in a platform that became a live venue for macro hedging while legacy markets were offline.

Oil volatility pushes flow on-chain

The latest conflict began after US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, setting off a rise in oil prices and a scramble across markets to reprice supply risk.

Since then, Brent crude has settled above $100 a barrel, while analysts have tracked the possibility of further gains if shipping routes or regional energy infrastructure are disrupted.

Hyperliquid became one of the places where that view showed up in volume, as trading in oil-linked perpetual contracts on the platform expanded quickly as the war developed.

Data from Flowscan showed that cumulative oil-futures volume on Hyperliquid rose from about $339 million on Feb. 28 to more than $10 billion as of press time.

Bitwise research analyst Danny Nelson explained that the high Hyperliquid volume was a sign that traders were using the on-chain venue to hedge a commodity that still sits at the center of the global economy.

According to him, oil had been about 2.5 times more volatile during the war than in the two weeks before the conflict and pointed to the gap that forms when traditional futures venues close for the weekend while headlines continue to move.

He added:

“Wartime forces markets to adapt. Sometimes you don’t realize you need a solution until it stares you in the face. I think that’s what’s happening here with weekend hedging. Hyperliquid’s weekend oil sessions have grown 1,700x in just a month.”

Notably, Hyperliquid had confirmed the trend, saying that real-world asset trading on the venue repeatedly set records, surpassing $1.3 billion in open interest and $1.4 billion in weekend volume.

The company said the platform had become a venue for 24/7 price discovery in oil, metals, and equity indexes when standard markets were shut.

Despite this, the scale still remained small compared with legacy energy markets. Nelson noted that traditional futures venues handle about $18.5 billion in WTI contracts on an average trading day, or roughly 35 times Hyperliquid’s best weekend oil session.

Even so, the pace of Hyperliquid's growth drew attention because it suggested a market segment was being built during live geopolitical stress rather than through a slower cycle of product launches and user incentives.

Revenue structure helps explain HYPE’s rally

HYPE rose alongside that activity because Hyperliquid’s structure links platform revenue more directly to token demand than many crypto networks do.

According to Hyperliquid’s documentation, trading fees are directed to an Assistance Fund, which uses them to buy HYPE on the open market.

Tokens held in the fund are burned, reducing supply over time. Users who stake HYPE also receive fee discounts on the platform. The result is a model that allows traders to view the token more like an exchange-linked asset whose value can rise with trading volume.

That framework became more relevant as war-driven oil trading pushed volume higher. In simple terms, more trading produced more fees, and more fees increased the amount of HYPE bought back and removed from circulation. The market had a revenue-based reason to reprice the token.

DefiLlama data showed Hyperliquid generated about $182.5 billion in perpetual futures volume over 30 days, $42.69 billion over seven days, and $6.76 billion over 24 hours.

The platform also posted about $45.4 million in 30-day earnings, which implied roughly $554 million on an annualized basis if activity held near that level.

Considering this, Arthur Hayes, founder of BitMEX, described Hyperliquid as the largest revenue-generating crypto project outside stablecoins.

He said 97% of that revenue was being used to buy back HYPE from the market, a design he argued gave the token a stronger link to platform cash flow than many other crypto assets. According to him, Hyperliquid could continue to take derivative volume from centralized exchanges while adding new products to expand revenue.

Some of that product expansion is already underway through HIP-3, Hyperliquid’s framework for permissionless perpetual listings, which has allowed the trading of real-world assets. The trading platform is also looking to enable prediction markets and options-style derivatives as part of its array of features.

The combination of these developments, he argued, would bolster HYPE's potential to reach $150 by August next year.

A war trade becomes a market-structure test

Meanwhile, the next question is whether that wartime flow turns into a standing category of demand.

The continued use of Hyperliquid for oil-linked and metals-related contracts after tensions cool would support the case that 24/7 macro trading on crypto rails can hold a larger share of activity.

However, a retreat in those volumes, once energy prices settle, would weaken the revenue assumptions that helped drive HYPE higher this month.

Meanwhile, there are also near-term risks. Token unlocks remain on the calendar, including an April 6 unlock that traders will monitor for supply pressure. At the same time, questions remain after research into Hyperliquid’s October 2025 stress event raised concerns about how the platform managed a large liquidation and the use of auto-deleveraging.

Even with those issues, the move into the top tier of crypto assets reflected a clear sequence. The US-Iran war lifted oil volatility. Oil volatility drove demand for markets that stayed open around the clock.

Hyperliquid captured part of that demand through on-chain perpetuals, and HYPE benefited because the platform’s fee structure feeds directly into token buybacks and burns.

The post Why the US-Iran conflict sent traders to Hyperliquid — and pushed HYPE into crypto’s top 10 appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ethereum is outpacing Bitcoin as tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran continue to shape global markets.

Data from CryptoSlate shows ETH has risen 18% against the dollar since the start of March, compared with a 13% gain for Bitcoin over the same period.

The ETH/BTC ratio has also moved higher, rising 7.6% to 0.0315 from 0.0293 in less than three weeks, a sign that Ethereum is gaining ground relative to Bitcoin rather than simply rising alongside it.

That shift has pushed ETH above $2,300 and left it on track for its first positive monthly close since August 2025. The move stands out because it is unfolding amid pressure across global macro markets, where conflict risk and higher energy prices have begun to reshape expectations for inflation and monetary policy.

The military conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran has driven Brent crude above $102 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate has moved past $95. Energy markets are increasingly pricing in the risk of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping route that carries about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

Higher oil prices have often fed into inflation expectations, raising the prospect that central banks will keep policy tight for longer. In past episodes, that backdrop has tended to support Bitcoin’s role as a defensive crypto trade, with investors treating it as the asset closest to a macro hedge inside the sector.

This time, Ethereum is delivering a stronger performance. The divergence points to capital flowing into blockchain-specific themes tied to Ethereum’s market structure, network activity, and positioning among institutional investors, rather than a broad move into crypto as a shelter from geopolitical stress.

Asset management firm Matrxiport said:

“Ethereum is increasingly behaving like a financial asset…This dynamic may also help explain why crypto has recently shown relative strength versus other asset classes and does not neatly fit into the traditional risk-on/risk-off framework.”

Wall Street money returns to Ethereum

Wall Street is sending fresh capital into Ethereum at a pace that is helping drive the token’s recent outperformance.

Data from SoSoValue shows the nine spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) took in more than $160 million of net inflows last week, their strongest weekly intake since mid-January. The trend extended into the new week, with the funds drawing another $35.9 million on March 16.

That flow pattern has added to the case that institutional demand is returning to ETH after a period of weaker sentiment.

Typically, sustained inflows of that scale have previously preceded some of the asset’s sharper price moves, including rallies that carried ETH above $4,000.

So, the latest allocations suggest portfolio managers are again increasing exposure as the market broadens beyond Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, a second shift is also shaping the investment case. Regulated products that offer exposure to Ethereum’s network yield are opening a new route for traditional finance investors.

BlackRock recently launched an Ethereum staking ETF under the ticker ETHB, giving investors access to both price exposure and validator rewards. The fund raised $104.7 million in seed capital and attracted more than $45.7 million of additional inflows in its first two trading days.

That structure gives portfolio managers a way to evaluate ETH through cash flow potential and network-based yield, a framework that can carry more weight with allocators who need income generation as part of the case for holding alternative assets.

At the same time, corporate buyers are building Ethereum positions on their balance sheets.

Since last year, BitMine has aggressively expanded its ETH treasury and said it plans to acquire up to 5% of the token’s supply.

The pace of those purchases has increased this month, with the company buying more than 100,000 ETH in the first two weeks, bringing total corporate holdings to nearly 4.6 million Ether as of mid-March.

That buying is creating a steady layer of demand that echoes the treasury strategy several public companies used to accumulate Bitcoin earlier in the cycle.

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Speculative interest gradually returns to ETH

Speculative demand is showing signs of returning to ETH as institutional buying strengthens.

CryptoQuant data showed that derivatives positioning across the digital-asset market was reset after the Oct. 10 flash crash, when about $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours.

On Binance, Ethereum’s estimated leverage ratio fell 27% in the aftermath of that move, pointing to a broad reduction in speculative exposure.

Since then, leverage has been rebuilding gradually. By mid-March, positioning had risen alongside an improvement in trader sentiment, indicating that speculative participation was returning in a more measured way than during earlier phases of the cycle.

Data from BlockScholes adds to that picture. The firm’s ETH Risk-Appetite Index has climbed from earlier lows, signaling a pickup in investors’ willingness to take exposure to the token as conditions across the crypto market stabilize.

Meanwhile, market structure data also points to lower immediate selling pressure on the digital asset.

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CryptoQuant data shows that 30-day Ethereum inflows to Binance fell to about $20.2 billion, the lowest level since May 2025. The drop in exchange deposits suggests fewer tokens are being positioned for sale on major centralized venues, thereby tightening liquidity as prices recover.

At the same time, more investors appear to be moving ETH into private wallets and staking contracts. That shift reduces the volume of tokens readily available for spot trading and leaves the market more responsive to fresh buying activity.

Ethereum's blockchain fundamentals also support a rally

Ethereum’s recent gains against Bitcoin are tracking a pickup in network activity, according to data from staking provider Everstake and other industry sources.

In a recent report, Everstake said Ethereum is on pace to post its strongest quarter of network usage in more than a year, even before the first quarter is complete.

The network has processed more than 150 million transactions so far in the period and recorded 27.7 million active addresses, the report said. Both figures are above comparable quarterly readings seen across 2025.

The increase in activity is also showing up in Ethereum’s base-layer throughput. Everstake said the network reached a record 2.52 million gas per second, a metric indicating higher usage across decentralized applications and other on-chain activity.

Part of that demand is tied to Ethereum’s position in tokenized real-world assets, a segment that has drawn more attention from financial firms.

Data from Token Terminal shows Ethereum currently settles about $200 billion in tokenized financial instruments, giving it a 61% share of the market. That scale has helped keep Ethereum at the center of issuance and settlement activity as institutions move traditional assets onto blockchain-based rails.

The network’s supply profile is also part of the investment case. Since Ethereum moved to a proof-of-stake system, the pace of new ether issuance has remained below that of Bitcoin, according to Leon Waidmann, head of research at Lisk.

Waidmann said Ethereum’s annualized supply growth is about 0.24%, compared with about 1.28% for Bitcoin after its latest halving.

Considering this, he said:

“Everyone calls Bitcoin ‘sound money.' But by the numbers, ETH has the tighter monetary policy!”

Taken together, the data points to a market where Ethereum’s price strength is being matched by higher usage, broader participation, and a slower rate of supply growth. For investors weighing relative value across major digital assets, that combination is helping support ETH's recent outperformance.

The post Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin when it shouldn’t be — what’s driving it? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The SEC just made its biggest crypto classification move in years, placing major tokens such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Dogecoin, Avalanche, XRP, and Chainlink into a “digital commodities” bucket while saying some token sales can stop being treated as securities-law cases once the issuer’s core promises are fulfilled.

Paired with a new SEC-CFTC coordination framework, the March 17 interpretation is less a narrow staking memo than a broad attempt to replace years of crypto-by-enforcement with a clearer split between assets, contracts, and regulator turf.

Until Gary Gensler left the SEC, crypto in the US has lived under a legal cloud. Tokens were launched, traded, staked, wrapped, and airdropped while builders and users were left guessing about the boundary between securities law and commodity law.

The long-awaited interpretation explaining how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and common crypto transactions, and the CFTC joined it, saying it will administer the Commodity Exchange Act consistently with that view.

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The Mar. 17 release provides interpretive guidance while preserving existing fraud liability and registration requirements. Additionally, it draws clearer lines.

The SEC's fact sheet says the agency had spent more than a decade engaging with crypto, mostly through Howey-based analysis, and, before 2025, failed to build a tailored framework, instead “regulating by enforcement.”

The Mar. 11 SEC-CFTC memorandum of understanding then established a Joint Harmonization Initiative to clarify product definitions, reduce friction for dually registered venues and intermediaries, and coordinate policymaking, exams, and enforcement.

In the MOU itself, the agencies also commit to consult on overlapping enforcement matters, including, where appropriate, before a Wells notice or similar step.

That makes this week's interpretation bigger than staking or airdrops.

In plain English, the SEC is now saying that many major crypto tokens are not themselves securities.

It then goes further to confirm that some ordinary crypto activities, such as covered staking, mining, wrapping, and certain airdrops, can fall outside securities-sale treatment in some circumstances, and that a token sale does not necessarily remain a live securities-law relationship forever if the issuer’s essential promises have been fulfilled.

That does not erase fraud liability, excuse unlawful original sales, or settle every edge case, but it does give exchanges, issuers, builders, and users a much clearer answer to the question that has hung over the market for years: what is the asset, what is the contract around it, and when does that contract end?

A federal labeling system

The government is finally saying, in plainer terms, what people are buying: a commodity-like token, a collectible, a practical tool, a payment stablecoin, or a tokenized security.

The SEC fact sheet states that digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and GENIUS Act payment stablecoins fall outside securities classification, whereas tokenized securities remain securities.

That means that a stablecoin such as USDC falls outside the securities classification, while the tokenized stocks xStocks issued by Kraken and Backed Finance would be classified as securities.

It also says covered protocol mining, covered protocol staking, and wrapping of a non-security crypto asset fall outside the offer-and-sale requirement, and that certain airdrops fail Howey's investment-of-money prong.

It also reduces one of crypto's biggest structural drags in the US: uncertainty over ordinary token activity being considered an illegal securities transaction after its conclusion.

The interpretation says that added clarity could reduce legal costs, increase competition, and encourage more activity to remain in the US.

The separation concept

The most important shift may be conceptual. The SEC says a non-security crypto asset can be sold subject to an investment contract and later, separate from that contract, once the issuer's essential promises are fulfilled, or, in some cases, if those promises clearly fail.

In plain English: a token can exit securities status when the underlying investment contract ends.

That directly addresses the long-running fear that tokens are permanently stained by the way they were first sold. The release explains that when buyers cease to reasonably expect the issuer's essential managerial efforts to remain connected to the asset, the token can separate and exit that contractual relationship.

Separation still requires that the original token sale was registered or exempt when the investment contract was created, and fraud liability can survive even after the token later separates.

The release also says the common-enterprise element of Howey must be satisfied, and it explains that if the issuer's promises remain connected to a token, secondary market trades in that token can still be securities transactions until separation occurs.

The agencies are saying the answer depends on whether the underlying issuer-driven investment contract is still alive.

That is a much more structured framework than the old blanket fog.

What changed for ordinary users

For users, the practical shift is that the SEC has defined core behaviors more precisely.

Covered protocol mining, protocol staking, and wrapping are outside securities-sale treatment in the circumstances described, and certain no-consideration airdrops fail Howey's investment-of-money prong.

The government has said that some ordinary crypto activities may fall outside the securities bucket in the described circumstances, while other configurations may still trigger securities obligations.

For platforms, the new rulebook reduces the category problem.

Digital commodities, collectibles, tools, and permitted payment stablecoins begin with the assumption that securities laws apply to the contractual relationships surrounding them, if any, rather than to the assets themselves. Tokenized stocks, bonds, and similar instruments remain subject to securities law.

Non-security tokens still tied to issuer promises carry securities obligations until separation.

The release provides exchanges and wallet providers with clearer listing and feature logic while Congress continues work on the permanent statute.

The bull case holds that this will serve as the interim US operating manual. Exchanges, wallets, and issuers use the taxonomy and separation framework to lower legal friction, while the SEC and CFTC use the MOU to reduce overlap in exams and enforcement.

Congress codifies most of the framework, the agencies jointly formalize more definitions, and onshore token issuance, staking, and secondary trading expand because firms can finally structure products around clearer lines.

The SEC's own economic section points to better pricing efficiency, more capital formation, and more competition if clarity holds.

The bear case holds that the interpretation proves helpful within a narrower scope. Litigation tests the boundaries of “separation,” later commissions revisit parts of the framework, and firms still avoid aggressive launches because past failures to register and anti-fraud exposure remain enforceable.

In this scenario, legal uncertainty diminishes but persists in edge cases.

The next phase

The SEC says the Crypto Task Force has already received more than 300 written submissions and held multiple roundtables, including a Mar. 21, 2025, session specifically on security status.

On Jan. 29, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig publicly called for clear, unambiguous safe harbors for software developers, onshoring of perpetuals, and a harmonized crypto taxonomy with the SEC.

Taken together with the Mar. 11 MOU and the Mar. 17 interpretation, the move appears to be a sequenced regulatory project.

This also puts the US closer to other major jurisdictions. The EU says MiCA is a comprehensive legislative framework covering crypto-assets and related services. The UK FCA is rolling out a staged crypto regime, with its roadmap pointing to final rules in 2026 and the new regime expected to come into force in October 2027.

The US is taking an interpretation-heavy approach, grounded in existing securities and commodity statutes. At the same time, this release moves it closer to the category-based regulatory style that other major jurisdictions are already adopting.

The real significance of this release is that the two main US market regulators are trying to move crypto from a regime of case-by-case enforcement toward a more coherent market structure.

The interpretation is paired with the Mar. 11 SEC-CFTC memorandum of understanding aimed at harmonizing oversight, and both agencies framed this week's action as a bridge to broader market structure legislation in Congress.

Once assets are sorted into buckets and the agencies coordinate on overlaps, the next big battles shift to exchange registration, custody, tokenized securities plumbing, stablecoin competition, and the extent to which Congress codifies this framework.

The press release itself says the interpretation complements congressional efforts.

The agencies published a category-based taxonomy, explicitly addressed when non-security tokens become subject to an investment contract and when they stop being subject to one, and clarified several common crypto activities that had lived in gray areas.

That represents a materially more structured approach to enforcement.

If market participants can better predict which rules apply to which assets and activities, compliance costs should fall, pricing distortions from uncertainty should ease, and more activity can plausibly stay onshore.

Whether this becomes a true turning point, however, will depend on whether courts accept the framework, future SEC leaders keep it in place, and Congress locks it into statute.

The post SEC makes huge U-turn, declares crypto tokens are ‘digital commodities’ after years of legal battles appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A token sale tied to a live ecosystem

Playnance is bringing G Coin to a major public milestone today, after saying March 18 would mark the token’s generation event and broader market debut. Unlike projects that arrive before product adoption, Playnance is pitching G Coin as the utility layer for an ecosystem that already has more than 200,000 holders; its official tracker recently showed 203,732 holders.

Launch materials distributed through Chainwire also said roughly 13 billion G Coin had already been distributed during the presale phase ahead of today’s event.

G Coin is positioned as the settlement and utility token across the Playnance stack, which includes on-chain gaming, prediction products, and loyalty mechanics. On its official site, Playnance says the token already powers 10,000-plus on-chain games and 2.5 million live sports events annually, while the G Coin page says the broader ecosystem averages 1.5 million on-chain transactions per day.

What buyers are actually getting

The most important point for buyers is that Playnance describes G Coin as a utility token, not a security, payment token, or claim on company profits.

The whitepaper says the token is meant to unlock gameplay, rewards, loyalty programs, missions, premium features, and promotional access across the ecosystem, and explicitly states that holders do not receive equity, dividends, governance rights, or redemption rights against the issuer.

The whitepaper also adds an important nuance to today’s launch framing. It says G Coin had already been available through authorized sales interfaces inside the Playnance ecosystem before publication, and that the current public offer is structured as an ongoing offer rather than one with a predefined end date.

For direct purchases, Playnance says accepted payment methods include EUR and USD through on-ramp providers such as Wert.io and Onramper, plus a range of crypto assets including BTC, ETH, POL, USDT, USDC, SOL, ADA, DOGE, SHIB, TON and others.

Supply, vesting and distribution

Playnance says tokens sold during the presale are delivered immediately and are not subject to vesting. Non-professional buyers who purchase directly from the issuer are entitled to a 14-day withdrawal period, provided the tokens have not already been used inside the ecosystem.

The same whitepaper says that right does not apply to third-party exchange purchases or to tokens already spent in gameplay or missions.

On tokenomics, the project says total supply is fixed at 77 billion G Coin, with 54 billion allocated to token sale minting. The company also says unsold tokens at the token generation event will face a 12-month cliff followed by 24-month linear vesting, while tokens lost through gameplay are locked for 12 months before re-entering circulation.

That lock-based model sits at the center of Playnance’s supply pitch, which argues for time-based release schedules instead of permanent burns or open-ended issuance.

The bigger bet

The real question is whether utility can translate into durable demand once broader market trading begins. Playnance is clearly betting that a token tied to active gameplay, sports interaction, and on-chain settlement has a stronger story than another speculative launch with no product behind it.

If the company can turn its existing user activity into sustained token usage, G Coin may enter the market with more traction than the average presale. But the whitepaper is also explicit on the limits: this is a utility token with no ownership rights, no guaranteed value, and no promise of financial return.

The post Playnance Puts G Coin Presale in Focus as March 18 Launch Day Arrives appeared first on CryptoSlate.

After a brief rally earlier this week, Ethereum ($ETH) is now testing the critical breakout-turned-support zone between $2,180 and $2,200.

This price action comes as a direct response to three simultaneous global shocks: a major military escalation in the Middle East, a hotter-than-expected US inflation report, and a stern warning from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. For ETH bulls, the mandate is clear: hold the $2,200 line or risk a deep correction toward the psychological support of $1,900.

Ethereum Analysis: Why Are Cryptos Crashing

The sudden reversal in risk appetite isn't just a technical correction; it is a fundamental shift driven by three massive catalysts.

1. Middle East Conflict Hits Global Energy

Geopolitical tensions reached a breaking point today following reports that Israel targeted Iran’s South Pars gas facility, the world’s largest gas field. In immediate retaliation, Iranian strikes reportedly caused extensive damage to Qatari LNG infrastructure at Ras Laffan.

This "energy war" sent crude oil prices soaring toward $99 per barrel almost instantly. For Ethereum and the broader crypto market, rising energy costs act as a double-edged sword: they increase the cost of living (reducing retail liquidity) and fuel long-term inflation fears.

2. PPI Data: The Inflation Pipeline is Refilling

Adding fuel to the fire, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for February 2026 came in significantly hotter than anticipated at 3.4% year-on-year. This suggests that wholesale inflation is accelerating even before the full impact of the recent oil price surge hits the data.

When "factory gate" prices rise, they inevitably trickle down to consumers, making the path to the Fed’s 2% target look increasingly impossible.

3. Powell’s Hawkish Pivot

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell held interest rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% today, but it was his tone that rattled the cages. For the first time in the Fed's history, the committee explicitly acknowledged the Middle East situation as a primary economic risk.

Powell’s refusal to commit to a timeline for rate cuts, combined with the acknowledgment of "uncertain" implications for the US economy, led markets to price out a summer pivot.

Ethereum Price Analysis: Will Ethereum Price Recover?

Despite the macro negativity, Ethereum's chart shows a technical battle that is currently being fought at the "Line in the Sand."

Critical Support at $2,180–$2,200

As seen in recent trading data, Ethereum has retraced to its previous breakout zone. This area was formerly a heavy resistance level throughout early 2026. In technical analysis, a successful "retest" of this zone as support would be a massive bullish signal.

• The Bull Case: If ETH closes the daily candle above $2,200, it confirms that buyers are still defending the trend despite the macro noise. This could lead to a relief rally back toward $2,320.
• The Bear Case: A breakdown below $2,180 would invalidate the recent recovery. Given the lack of intermediate liquidity, the next major "safety net" sits at $1,900.

Market Sentiment and Correlation

Ethereum’s correlation with the S&P 500 and Bitcoin remains high. With the US dollar index (DXY) strengthening on the back of safe-haven flows, ETH faces significant selling pressure. Investors looking to hedge against this volatility often turn to hardware wallets to secure their assets during periods of extreme exchange uncertainty.

Ethereum Prediction: What to Watch Next

The next 48 hours are crucial for the ETH/USD pair. Investors should monitor:

• Oil Price Stability: If oil breaks $105, expect further downside in equities and crypto.
• The $2,180 Closing Price: A daily close below this level often triggers stop-loss cascades.
• Strait of Hormuz Developments: Any further disruption to global trade will likely keep the crypto market in a defensive crouch.

Bitcoin Price Crash: Crypto Market Faces a Sudden Reversal

The cryptocurrency market has entered a period of intense volatility today, March 18, 2026, with Bitcoin ($BTC) tumbling from its recent highs near $76,000 to the $72,000 range. This sudden "sea of red" has caught many retail traders off guard, especially following the bullish momentum seen earlier this week.

While the digital asset space often moves independently, today’s crash is a direct result of a "perfect storm" involving geopolitical escalations, disappointing US inflation data, and a necessary technical cooling period.

1. Middle East Escalation: Energy Infrastructure Under Attack

The primary driver of the "risk-off" sentiment across global markets is the dramatic escalation in the Middle East. Following Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars gas field—the world’s largest natural gas reserve—Tehran has officially declared its intent to retaliate against Gulf energy sites.

Key Geopolitical Developments:

• Target List: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have identified key infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as potential targets.
• Energy Disruption: Iraq has already reported a total halt of gas supplies from Iran, leading to a loss of approximately 3,100 megawatts of power.
• Oil Prices Surge: Brent crude has spiked toward $110 a barrel, fueling fears of global stagflation.

In times of war and energy insecurity, investors typically flee "risk assets" like cryptocurrencies in favor of "safe havens" like gold or the US Dollar. This flight to safety is putting massive downward pressure on the $Bitcoin price.

2. US Core PPI Hits 3.9%: Inflation Remains "Sticky"

Macroeconomic data released today has further dampened hopes for a dovish pivot from the Federal Reserve. The US Core Producer Price Index (PPI), which excludes volatile food and energy costs, came in at 3.9% year-over-year.

This figure significantly overshot market expectations of 3.7%. For crypto investors, this is a bearish signal because:

• Higher for Longer: Hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation suggests the Fed will keep interest rates elevated to cool the economy.
• Yield Pressure: Treasury yields have climbed following the report, making non-yielding assets like Bitcoin less attractive to institutional players.
• Liquidity Crunch: High interest rates reduce the "cheap money" that typically flows into speculative markets.

3. Technical Adjustment: The $76,000 Rejection

From a purely technical perspective, many analysts argue that a correction was overdue. Bitcoin recently hit a peak of $76,000, a level that acted as a psychological and technical glass ceiling.

The "Overheated" Market

Leading up to today’s drop, several on-chain indicators suggested the market was "overextended." Funding rates in the derivatives market had reached unsustainable levels, meaning long-positioned traders were paying high premiums to keep their bets open.

When the news of the Iranian retaliation broke, it triggered a "long squeeze," forcing leveraged traders to liquidate their positions. This mechanical selling accelerated the drop, pushing BTC toward its immediate support levels.

What’s Next for Bitcoin and Altcoins?

The market is currently looking for a floor. While the $72,000 level is providing some initial support, the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting will be the next major catalyst. If the Fed adopts a hawkish tone due to the PPI data and rising energy costs, we could see further testing of the $68,000–$70,000 zone.

The Bitcoin price is currently navigating a high-stakes consolidation phase, trading at approximately $74,272 during the March 18, 2026, session. After a period of bearish dominance that saw the asset retreat from its 2025 record highs, the market is now testing the resilience of the $74,000 resistance zone.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Why is BTC Price UP?

Analyzing the BTC/USD 4-hour chart, we observe several key technical patterns that define the current trend.

Double Bottom Recovery

The chart highlights two significant "troughs" (marked with green circles) near the $63,000 level. This Double Bottom formation served as a powerful reversal signal in late February and early March, allowing Bitcoin to climb back above the psychological $70,000 mark.

Key Resistance and Support Levels

The price action is currently sandwiched between tightly defined horizontal levels:

• Immediate Resistance: $74,500 – $76,000. A decisive break above this yellow-lined zone is required to target the next major hurdle at $80,000.
• Critical Support: $72,000. If the price fails to hold the $74,000 level, the green support line at $72,000 will be the first line of defense.
• Deep Support: $68,500 and $65,000. These remain the "must-hold" zones to prevent a return to the bear market lows seen earlier this year.

RSI and Momentum

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering around 60.79. While this indicates bullish momentum, the RSI has flattened significantly as the price approaches resistance. This suggests a "cooling off" period or a potential bearish divergence if the price makes a higher high while the RSI fails to follow suit.

Bitcoin News and Macro Catalysts

The broader crypto market is currently characterized by a "Fear" rating on the Sentiment Index (sitting at 26), despite Bitcoin's recent price recovery.

• The FOMC Factor: Traders are bracing for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments. While interest rates are expected to remain steady, any hawkish rhetoric regarding inflation—driven by $100+ oil prices—could trigger a "sell the news" event for $BTC.
• Institutional Inflows: According to data from Bloomberg, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a resurgence in March, with nearly $2.8 billion in net inflows, providing a structural floor for the recent rally.
• The Gold vs. Bitcoin Debate: As gold continues to trade near record levels above $5,000, Bitcoin's role as "Digital Gold" is being tested. Many analysts, including those at Fidelity Digital Assets, suggest that capital may rotate back into BTC if gold's parabolic move stalls.

Conclusion: What to Expect Next?

Bitcoin is showing "Experience" and "Expertise" in its ability to hold the $74,000 handle despite a heavy macro environment. However, the information density on the 4-hour chart suggests that the current range is exhausting.

If Bitcoin can flip $76,000 into support, a run toward $80,000 is the most likely scenario. Conversely, a rejection here, coupled with a hawkish Fed, could see a swift retest of the $68,500 support.

• Technical Note: Watch the 4-hour candle close. A close below $73,800 would signal a short-term breakdown, while a close above $75,100 validates the bullish breakout attempt.

The crypto market in early 2026 has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. After the euphoric highs of late 2025, where Bitcoin flirted with the $130,000 mark, a "diffuse cocktail of macro anxieties" has sent prices into a steep correction. As of late mid-March 2026, $Bitcoin has retraced nearly 50% from its All-Time High (ATH), trading in above $73,000.

Is it a Good Time to Buy Crypto?

Historical cycles suggest that corrections of 50% to 70% are healthy "purges" that wipe out over-leveraged traders. With Bitcoin currently sitting at a 50% discount, the risk-to-reward ratio for March 2026 has shifted heavily in favor of the bulls.

As geopolitical tensions and tariff uncertainties stabilize, capital is expected to rotate back into "risk-on" assets. Investors who missed the 2025 rally now have a second chance to enter the market. If you are looking to build a portfolio, diversifying across these five projects offers a balance of stability, utility, and explosive recovery potential.

1. Ethereum (ETH) – The Infrastructure King

Despite the rise of "Ethereum killers," Ethereum remains the undisputed home of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization. In 2026, the successful rollout of the "Prague" upgrade has further slashed Layer-2 costs, making the network more scalable than ever.

• Why Buy Now? ETH has followed Bitcoin’s slide, dropping from its 2025 high of $4,950 to under $2,000.
• The Catalyst: Major financial institutions like BlackRock and JPMorgan are increasingly using Ethereum for tokenized deposit pilots. At current prices, you are buying the "settlement layer of the internet" at a 60% discount.

2. Solana (SOL) – The Speed Demon

Solana has proven its resilience after the network reliability concerns of previous years. With the Firedancer upgrade now fully integrated in 2026, Solana can process over 1 million transactions per second.

• Status: While it reached $260 in the last bull run, SOL is currently trading significantly lower, creating a "gap" that savvy traders are eager to fill.
• Use Case: It has become the primary chain for consumer AI-crypto applications and high-frequency trading.

3. Chainlink (LINK) – The Oracle Essential

You cannot have a functional DeFi ecosystem without accurate data, and Chainlink owns 90% of that market. In 2026, its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has become the standard for banks moving data between private and public blockchains.

• The Play: LINK often lags behind the initial BTC pump but rallies hard once the ecosystem matures. It is one of the most undervalued "blue-chip" utility tokens heading into March.

4. Sui (SUI) – The Emerging Contender

Sui has emerged as the breakout Layer-1 of the 2025-2026 cycle. Utilizing the Move programming language, it offers a level of security and parallel processing that older chains struggle to match.

• Growth Potential: Sui's Total Value Locked (TVL) has remained stable even during the February crash, suggesting a loyal and committed developer base. As the market recovers, SUI is positioned to be a top performer.

5. Fetch.ai (FET/ASI) – The AI Narrative

2026 is the year of "AI Agents." Fetch.ai, as part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, is at the forefront of this movement. Their autonomous agents are now being used in logistics and decentralized energy grids.

• Why March 2026? The "AI plus Crypto" narrative is the strongest secular trend in the market. With FET down along with the broader market, it offers a high-beta play for those betting on the continued AI revolution.

Conclusion: Strategy for March 2026

Investing during a 50% Bitcoin drawdown requires a long-term mindset. While volatility may persist in the short term, the fundamental value of these projects remains unchanged. Consider using a regulated exchange to dollar-cost average into these positions throughout the month.

Vietnam is shifting from one of the world's most active unregulated crypto markets to a strictly controlled domestic ecosystem. According to reports from Reuters, the government in Hanoi is preparing to launch a pilot scheme for locally licensed digital asset exchanges while simultaneously drafting rules to ban citizens from using overseas platforms.

The Race for the First Vietnam Crypto License

Five major domestic entities have passed an initial qualification round to operate the country’s first legal exchanges. This move marks a significant transition for a nation that ranked fourth globally on the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index.

The qualified applicants include:

• Techcombank (TCB)
• VPBank (VPB)
• LPBank (LPB)
• VIX Securities
• Sun Group

Why Hanoi is Curbing Foreign Trading

The Vietnamese government’s primary concern is uncontrolled capital outflows. While the country has high crypto interest, most transactions currently occur on offshore servers, making it difficult for authorities to monitor wealth movement or collect taxes.

By forcing users onto local platforms, Hanoi aims to:

• Regulate Capital: Ensure trades are settled via local banking rails.
• Tax Revenue: Implement a structured tax framework for digital assets.
• Consumer Protection: Bring high-risk trading under the oversight of the Ministry of Finance.

Market Impact and Local Adoption

Currently, Vietnamese traders move over $200 billion annually in crypto. The new regulations will likely push this liquidity into the hands of major local financial institutions. However, digital assets are still not recognized as legal tender or a formal means of payment in the country.

Summary of New Vietnam Crypto Regulations

The approval lets Nasdaq test tokenized versions of some stocks and ETFs without moving beyond existing market rails.

The phishing campaign lures OpenClaw developers with fake $5,000 token airdrops, then drains wallets through a cloned site with a hidden connection prompt.

Persistent inflation signals and surging oil prices are weighing on risk appetite, even as institutional money has continued to flow.

Advocacy groups say the OpenAI-backed measure would limit legal accountability and lock in narrow protections for children.

The organization behind layer-1 blockchain Algorand laid off 25% of its staff due to macroeconomic uncertainty and lower crypto prices.

One of the oldest and most popular whales on the market turned to selling all of a sudden.

After growing his account to over 260,000 followers, "The ₿itcoin Therapist" posted a lengthy complaint stating his monetization was unjustly paused for "spam.".

Evernorth Holdings has officially filed its Form S-4 with the SEC, a major step toward listing the first-of-its-kind, billion-dollar XRP treasury vehicle on the Nasdaq.

Market is witnessing a serious turnaround that might suggest the existing source of momentum is disappearing.

Crypto news digest: Ripple scores more institutional adoption; SHIB sees spike in futures activity; XRP forms rising support near $1.53.

TLDR:

• SEC approved Nasdaq’s proposal to allow Russell 1000 stocks and major ETFs to trade in tokenized form.
• Tokenized trades on Nasdaq will still settle through the Depository Trust Company under existing securities laws.
• ICE, the parent of NYSE, is also developing an on-chain settlement platform and awaiting its own regulatory approval.
• First token-settled trades on Nasdaq are expected to take place before the close of the third quarter of 2026.

Tokenized securities are now moving closer to mainstream equity markets after a landmark U.S. SEC ruling. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Nasdaq proposal on Wednesday to allow stocks to trade in tokenized form.

Nasdaq, listed as NDAQ, had submitted the original proposal in September 2025. The decision marks a concrete step toward integrating blockchain-based settlements into traditional equity trading.

Exchange operators across the industry have been racing to capitalize on the growing tokenization boom under easing crypto regulations.

Nasdaq Sets the Framework for Eligible Tokenized Securities

The SEC approval covers a defined set of securities eligible for tokenized trading on Nasdaq’s main market. Initially, stocks within the Russell 1000 Index will qualify for tokenized trading under the newly approved rules.

Exchange-traded funds tracking key benchmarks, including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, are also covered under the approval.

Journalist Eleanor Terrett captured the scope of the ruling clearly on X, writing that “the move will allow participants to opt to have trades in Russell 1000 stocks, as well as ETFs tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, settled as tokenized securities rather than through traditional methods.”

Furthermore, investors will be able to choose between trading stocks as conventional shares or as blockchain-based digital tokens.

Settlement for all tokenized trades will run through the Depository Trust Company, a familiar and established institution.

The original proposal, filed in September 2025, sought to amend Nasdaq’s existing rules to support both traditional and tokenized trading on its primary market.

The first token-settled trades are potentially expected to occur by the end of the third quarter of 2026. The SEC’s approval of that amendment now makes tokenized equity trading a functional option for a broad range of investors.

Rival Exchanges Are Also Pursuing Blockchain-Based Settlement

Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE parent listed as ICE, has similarly moved into this space in 2025. Earlier this year, ICE announced it had developed a dedicated platform for trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities. The company is currently pursuing the necessary regulatory approvals to bring that platform to market.

The broader push toward tokenization is being driven in part by easing crypto regulations across the United States.

The Trump administration and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins have placed strong emphasis on strengthening American leadership in digital financial technology and making the country the leading hub for crypto globally.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has also been vocal on the matter, stating that “tokenized securities are still securities” and that market participants must fully adhere to federal securities laws when trading these instruments.

The competition between Nasdaq and ICE reflects how aggressively traditional finance is embracing tokenized markets.

Nasdaq has also partnered with Kraken’s parent company, Payward, to develop an “equities transformation gateway,” further extending its blockchain reach beyond the SEC ruling.

This parallel development across rival exchanges points to on-chain equity settlement gaining genuine and lasting industry-wide traction.

The post Nasdaq Gets SEC Green Light to Trade and Settle Stocks as Tokenized Securities appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• The PBOC added 30,000 ounces in February, pushing official gold reserves to a record 2,309 tonnes worth $387.6 billion.
• Analysts estimate China’s true gold holdings could be two to ten times its official figure due to undeclared accumulation channels.
• The Shanghai Gold Exchange processed 126 tonnes in physical withdrawals in January, with settled gold permanently leaving auditable systems.
• Gold now represents 10% of China’s foreign exchange reserves, a share that has doubled over the past twenty months amid global tension.
  

China gold reserves have reached a record 2,309 tonnes, valued at approximately $387.6 billion. The People’s Bank of China added 30,000 ounces in February, marking its 16th consecutive month of gold accumulation. 

Analysts at Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs, and the World Gold Council estimate that undeclared holdings could be two to ten times the official figure. 

Gold now makes up roughly 10 percent of China’s foreign exchange reserves, a share that has doubled in twenty months.

Multi-Channel System Keeps Chinese Gold Flows Out of Sight

The Shanghai Gold Exchange operates under mandatory physical settlement rules. Buyers receive bullion from one of 58 certified vaults spread across 56 Chinese cities. 

Once gold exits a certified vault, it cannot re-enter the system. That rule renders the metal permanently invisible to outside auditors and flow-tracking mechanisms.

The SGE processed 126 tonnes of physical withdrawals in January alone. Hong Kong acts as the primary import gateway for routing bullion to the mainland. 

London, Switzerland, and Dubai supply 400-ounce bars through over-the-counter channels that never surface in exchange records. 

Russia settles bilateral gold deals in yuan, placing those flows outside both PBOC reserves and published trade statistics.

Analyst @shanaka86 described the operation plainly in a post this week. “This is not a central bank buying gold,” the post read. “This is a state operating a multi-channel physical accumulation system designed from the ground up for opacity.” 

The comment pointed to how far beyond conventional reserve management this activity extends.

These channels work together to keep the true total hidden from outside observers. China is also drawing commercial crude reserves at one million barrels per day and has suspended nitrogen and potassium fertiliser exports. 

Each action appears aimed at building domestic supply buffers while reducing competitor access to key resources.

Gold’s Physical Market Diverges From Paper Pricing as Global Pressure Mounts

Gold is trading at $5,000 per ounce, with retail investors putting $70 billion into ETFs while institutions sell. 

That split between physical demand and paper market behavior mirrors the pricing gap between Oman crude and WTI. 

Both the retail buyer and the Chinese central bank appear to be reading the same underlying signals.

The Hormuz crisis has added fresh pressure across oil, fertiliser, and LNG supply chains. Physical chokepoints are repricing commodities at a pace that monetary policy cannot match. Gold, unlike oil or LNG, requires no strait, pipeline, or political approval to store value.

At its current pace, China could become the world’s largest sovereign gold holder within a decade. The PBOC’s official figure stands at 2,309 tonnes, while the undeclared total remains unknown. 

The dollar still holds its position as the world’s reserve currency. Yet China is building a financial buffer that no sanctions regime can freeze.

That buffer has now been growing for sixteen consecutive months. Nitrogen is stuck behind Hormuz, and LNG faces disruption from burning refineries. Gold, meanwhile, continues flowing through every available channel into Chinese vaults.

The post China Gold Reserves Hit Record 2,309 Tonnes as PBOC Marks 16 Straight Months of Buying appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Federal Reserve maintained interest rates at 3.50%–3.75% in an 11-1 decision on March 18, 2026
• Bitcoin experienced a nearly 4% decline, falling to approximately $71,600 after the announcement
• Both Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices retreated 0.55% during trading
• Fed upgraded its 2026 inflation projection from 2.4% to 2.7% due to Middle East tensions
• CME data indicates zero probability of rate reduction at April’s meeting

The Federal Reserve chose to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 3.50%–3.75% during its Wednesday, March 18, 2026 meeting. Market participants had broadly anticipated this outcome.

The decision passed with an 11-1 margin. Stephen Miran stood as the sole dissenting voice, advocating for a 25 basis point reduction.

The central bank identified the escalating U.S.-Iran military situation as a primary consideration influencing its decision. Crude oil has surged to approximately $100 per barrel, representing a significant increase from below $60 earlier in the year.

“The implications of events in the Middle East for the US economy are uncertain in the near term,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated. “Higher energy prices will push up overall inflation, but it is too soon to know the scope and duration of the potential effects.”

Powell characterized economic expansion as proceeding at a healthy pace. Household consumption remains robust and corporate capital expenditure continues advancing. However, real estate activity remains sluggish and employment metrics indicate cooling.

The Fed revised its 2026 inflation outlook upward to 2.7%, an increase from the previous 2.4% projection. Policymakers anticipate inflation will moderate to 2.2% during 2027.

Financial Markets Respond to Policy Decision and Geopolitical Tensions

Bitcoin experienced significant pressure preceding the policy statement. Following the decision, it traded at $71,600—representing nearly a 4% daily decline. The cryptocurrency’s weakness accompanied rising crude prices and disappointing inflation readings released earlier in the session.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 both declined 0.55%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed modestly to 4.21%.

Reduced borrowing costs generally benefit risk-oriented investments like Bitcoin and equities by making bonds less attractive to investors. Conversely, elevated rates tend to channel capital toward more conservative fixed-income vehicles.

The Fed’s projection matrix, commonly called the “dot plot,” continues to indicate just one 25-basis-point reduction anticipated for 2026, followed by an additional cut in 2027. This outlook remains unchanged from previous guidance.

CME Group data reveals that 97% of market participants expect no policy adjustment at April 2026’s Federal Open Market Committee gathering. A marginal 3% anticipate a 25-basis-point increase, which would elevate the rate to 3.75%–4.00%.

Market Expert Perspectives

Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder, indicated he’s postponing additional Bitcoin purchases until the Fed pivots toward rate cuts. He further speculated that the Iran conflict might eventually compel the Fed toward accommodative policy to support military financing requirements.

Macro analyst Lyn Alden characterized the Fed’s current stance as entering a “gradual print” phase, wherein monetary expansion occurs steadily, incrementally inflating asset valuations over extended periods.

The central bank’s twin objectives—maintaining price stability while fostering maximum employment—face mounting challenges. Inflation persists above the 2% benchmark even as labor market indicators suggest deceleration.

Powell acknowledged that both the magnitude and timeline of economic consequences stemming from Middle East hostilities remain unclear. The Federal Reserve will maintain vigilant monitoring of evolving conditions before implementing any subsequent policy adjustments.

The post Federal Reserve Maintains Interest Rates Amid Rising Middle East Tensions and Market Volatility appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin plummeted beneath the $70,000 threshold following the Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain current interest rates with minimal 2026 rate cut expectations.
• Federal Reserve policymakers elevated their 2026 inflation projection to 2.7%, attributing the increase to escalating petroleum prices linked to Middle Eastern tensions.
• Petroleum prices skyrocketed beyond $110 per barrel following Iranian strikes on regional energy infrastructure.
• Veteran Bitcoin investors liquidated more than 1,650 BTC, totaling approximately $117 million in value.
• Widespread declines affected cryptocurrency, equity, and precious metal markets, with the Nasdaq falling 1.5% and Ethereum declining over 6%.

Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a notable downturn this week, dropping beneath $70,000 following the Federal Reserve’s announcement to maintain current interest rate levels while indicating a slower pace of future rate reductions than market participants anticipated.

The central bank maintained its policy rate within the 3.5%–3.75% corridor. However, the primary source of anxiety for market participants stemmed from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s commentary during the subsequent press briefing.

Powell highlighted escalating petroleum costs as an emerging inflationary threat. “The oil shock for sure shows up,” he stated, acknowledging its influence on the Federal Reserve’s economic projections.

The Federal Reserve elevated its 2026 inflation outlook to 2.7%, surpassing its previous projection of 2.4%. This upward revision alarmed market participants who anticipated continued disinflation.

The central bank’s forward-guidance framework, commonly referenced as the “dot plot,” now indicates a median expectation of a single rate reduction in 2026. Just one month earlier, financial markets had priced in two to three rate decreases.

Prediction markets on Polymarket and CME Fed funds futures contracts responded immediately. The likelihood of only one rate cut this year surged to approximately 80%, compared to a mere 38% probability a month earlier.

Petroleum Market Volatility Intensifies Pressure

Oil prices had already been climbing before the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement. Crude oil prices jumped above $110 per barrel after Iran launched attacks on energy infrastructure throughout the Middle East, in retaliation for strikes on its South Pars natural gas complex.

Elevated petroleum prices drove bond yields higher and bolstered the U.S. dollar, factors that typically create headwinds for risk-sensitive assets such as Bitcoin.

The Bank of Japan similarly maintained its policy rate on Thursday and identified the Middle Eastern conflict as a potential threat to Japan’s inflation trajectory.

Bitcoin had been exchanging hands above $74,000 earlier in the week, momentarily approaching $76,000. By Thursday morning, it had declined to approximately $70,817, representing roughly a 4.2% decrease over the previous 24-hour period.

Ethereum dropped more than 6%, while XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin all registered declines ranging from 3% to 5%. The CoinDesk 20 Index decreased 3%.

Veteran Bitcoin Holders Liquidate Over $117 Million

On-chain analytics monitored by Lookonchain revealed that a minimum of two long-term Bitcoin investors sold during the market decline.

One early adopter who had previously liquidated an 11,000 BTC position sold an additional 650 BTC. A second veteran holder with a 5,000 BTC allocation liquidated their entire 1,000 BTC recent position.

Collectively, these two investors sold over 1,650 BTC valued at more than $117 million.

Cryptocurrency-related equity securities also experienced significant declines. Strategy (MSTR) and Bitmine (BMNR) decreased 5%–6%. Galaxy (GLXY) fell nearly 7%, while Gemini (GEMI) plunged 15%, reaching its lowest valuation since its public market debut.

Gold similarly extended its losses, declining 3.1% to below $4,850 per ounce — representing its weakest pricing in more than a month.

Powell rejected analogies to 1970s stagflation, emphasizing that unemployment remains near normal historical levels and inflation exceeds the target by only a modest margin. Financial markets are now incorporating expectations for a more restrictive monetary policy environment throughout the remainder of 2026.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Tumbles Under $70K Following Hawkish Federal Reserve Stance appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Five U.S. regional banks holding over $600B in deposits have joined Cari Network as design partners on ZKsync.
• Stablecoins processed $5.7T in 2024, pushing regional banks to seek programmable settlement outside traditional rails.
• Zero-knowledge proofs allow banks to verify settlement cryptographically without exposing counterparty data to third parties.
• Prividium lets each bank run its own governed chain while posting ZK settlement proofs directly to Ethereum.

Five U.S. regional banks are moving to ZKsync, and the reasons run deeper than trend-chasing. Cari Network has announced that Prividium will power its tokenized deposit network.

The five design partner banks are Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon, M&T Bank, KeyCorp, and Old National Bancorp.

Together, they hold more than $600 billion in combined deposits. Their move signals a structural shift in how regulated banks approach programmable settlement.

A Decade-Old Problem Banks Could Not Solve

Banks have been caught between two non-negotiable demands for years. Regulators require full control over transaction governance and counterparty data.

Markets require real-time settlement and round-the-clock availability. No single architecture had successfully delivered both at once. That gap has widened as digital finance moves faster than traditional banking infrastructure.

The financial pressure is now measurable. Stablecoins processed $5.7 trillion in volume during 2024 alone. An April 2025 U.S. Treasury report estimated stablecoins could drain as much as $6.6 trillion from the banking system.

Regional banks bear the sharpest exposure to this shift. Their profitability depends directly on retaining deposit volume.

Previous solutions each failed in a different way. Private chains like JPMorgan Coin offered strong internal control but reached only a limited network.

Public blockchains connected any counterparty but exposed sensitive transaction data on a public ledger. Proprietary shared protocols introduced a trusted third party to order and confirm transactions.

That third-party dependency was the critical flaw. Settlement integrity rested on an operator behaving honestly, not on verifiable math.

For institutions managing hundreds of billions in deposits, that was not an acceptable foundation. A new kind of infrastructure was needed, one governed by cryptography rather than contractual trust.

Why ZKsync Is the Architecture These Banks Chose

Zero-knowledge proofs change the equation entirely. A ZK proof confirms that a transaction was processed correctly without exposing the underlying data. No operator is needed to validate the result.

The cryptographic proof itself carries the guarantee, removing the need for any trusted intermediary. This property makes private settlement on a neutral public chain possible for the first time.

Prividium is built specifically around this capability. Each participating bank operates its own chain under its own compliance and governance rules.

Settlement proofs are posted to Ethereum, with no centralized party controlling the process. Control stays with the institution, while settlement remains neutral and verifiable.

Cari Network’s founder, Eugene Ludwig, served as the 27th U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. His background shaped the network’s regulatory-first approach. As Alex Gluchowski noted on X, “Regulated finance is moving to ZKsync.”

For banks of this scale, building on rails controlled by a private company would have traded one dependency for another.

The settlement layer had to answer to math, not to a corporation’s discretion. ZKsync, through Prividium, is the infrastructure that finally meets that standard.

The post Why Five Major U.S. Banks Just Chose ZKsync to Settle $600B in Deposits appeared first on Blockonomi.

After successfully implementing several consecutive protocol updates, the Core Team behind the controversial project noted earlier today that the next one is already in the works.

At the same time, the underlying token has posted a minor gain since yesterday. However, its broader performance continues to be quite underwhelming.

Next Update Coming Soon

The team announced the first protocol update of the year on February 20, which brought it to version 19.6. The next one, v19.9, followed suit on March 4, and the highly anticipated v20.2 was successfully migrated before the community’s Pi Day (March 14). This one was particularly important as it laid out the fundamentals for enabling smart contract capabilities.

This rollout will occur gradually, the team said, as they aim to prioritize categories that align with utility-based product innovation and operations. The specifics will depend on the needs arising from the utility creation process, they added.

Without providing a clear deadline this time, Pi Network’s official X channel indicated that the v21 upgrade is coming, and node operators must ensure their systems are “up to date.” They added that more instructions will be coming shortly.

The Pi Mainnet has successfully upgraded to Protocol 20, laying the foundation for supporting smart contracts. Node operators, please ensure your systems are up to date and stay tuned for instructions regarding the upcoming v21 upgrade.

— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) March 19, 2026

PI Resists Dropping Further

Aside from the aforementioned updates, all announced in the past month, the other big news in the Pi Network community came last week from Kraken. The veteran US exchange said it would list the underlying token for trading starting March 13.

The combined effects for PI were instant and rather mind-blowing. The token exploded by almost 100% in the span of just days, and tapped a five-month peak of around $0.30. However, once it indeed began trading on Kraken, it suffered the consequences of another classic buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news event.

It plummeted by over 30% at one point, and kept losing value to under $0.17 marked yesterday. Interestingly, it has rebounded slightly in the past day (3%), while most other altcoins have suffered 3-5% losses.

The post Pi Network Gears Up for Another Major Upgrade as PI Resists Market Drop appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The former CEO of the derivatives giant BitMEX has made several multi-million-dollar trades over the past six months or so, but his latest purchase raised some eyebrows in the cryptocurrency community.

This is because it preceded a major listing of the token he bought, which pushed its price up by double digits.

Did He Know?

Lookonchain data from earlier today shows that Hayes received over 132,000 ETHFI tokens from Anchorage Digital at $0.55 per one. Shortly after, news emerged on social media that one of the largest South Korean exchanges, Upbit, had listed the asset for trading against the local won.

Similar listings by the Asian giant have led to immediate price pumps for the underlying asset on almost all occasions. One of the latest examples involved ICP, whose price skyrocketed by over 16% last week.

Although ETHFI is a much smaller altcoin, its pump was essentially similar, going up by 18% from $0.54 before the announcement to $0.64 minutes after it. However, it was halted there and has lost almost all gains, perhaps driven by the overall market-wide correction today.

Even though some comments below the original post indeed questioned whether Hayes indeed had some insider knowledge, the amount of ETHFI he received seems rather negligible compared to what he sold a month ago – $72.8K now vs. $2.15 million back then.

Interesting — just 5 hours after Arthur Hayes(@CryptoHayes) bought $ETHFI, #Upbit announced its listing.https://t.co/QEgAyVQ4lz pic.twitter.com/9jorCuAHuX

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 19, 2026

Previous Sell-Offs

CryptoPotato reported in February, shortly after the market tumbled, that Hayes had disposed of a large number of DeFi-linked tokens, including ETHFI. Aside from a $950,000 ETHFI selling spree, he also dumped $1 million worth of ENA and $1.1 million worth of PENDLE.

Hayes even sold ETH last August, suggesting at the time that the asset’s price is likely to tumble. However, the largest altcoins went on a run instead, jumping by double digits in weeks. As such, Hayes explained that he had to rebuy at higher prices and asked for forgiveness from the Ethereum community.

The post Arthur Hayes Bought ETHFI Just Hours Before Major Upbit Listing – Insider Edge? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price has nosedived once again in the past 24 hours, dropping below $71,000 for the first time since the weekend.

While the blame has been placed on the US Federal Reserve, certain OG whales have been disposing of large BTC portions, which can also be attributed to the correction.

OGs Selling

Lookonchain reported that an ancient BTC wallet sold another 1,000 units in the past day, worth around $71 million. The entity received 5,000 BTC (worth around $1.66 million at the time) over 12 years ago, but began selling off its assets in November 2024.

The unknown market participant has disposed of 3,500 BTC at an average price of over $96,000. According to the analytics company’s estimations, the whale profited around $442 million, or a 266x return.

A #BitcoinOG with 5K $BTC($356M) sold another 1,000 $BTC($71.57M) 8 hours ago.

This OG received 5K $BTC(cost $1.66M) at $332 12 years ago, and started selling $BTC on Nov 26, 2024, selling a total of 3,500 $BTC($337M) at ~$96,262.

Total profit: $442M — a 266x return.… pic.twitter.com/oErv0KccjN

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 19, 2026

In another post on X, Lookonchain indicated that one more BTC OG wallet, flagged as belonging to Owen Gunden, has sold 650 BTC in the past day as well. This one followed a previous big dump of 11,000 BTC, worth over $1.1 billion at the time.

These substantial market sell-offs coincided with or even preceded bitcoin’s notable price drop in the past 24 hours. The asset traded above $74,000 by yesterday afternoon, when it nosedived to $71,000. Although it bounced at first after the Fed’s decision to maintain the interest rates, it dropped further in the following hours toward $70,000.

One Is Buying

It’s not all doom and gloom on the bitcoin whale scene, though. The analytics resource explained that another such market participant has been buying BTC “every day since Mar 10,” and splashed another $37 million yesterday to acquire over 500 units.

The post noted that the entity has accumulated a total of 2,656 BTC at an average price of just over $72,000 since March 10, worth around $190 million as of press time.

Whale bc1qfs has been buying $BTC every day since Mar 10, and bought another 500.78 $BTC($37.16M) ~30 minutes ago.

Since Mar 10, he has bought a total of 2,656 $BTC($191.43M) at an average price of $72,063.https://t.co/eaqtA9hwE4https://t.co/ZwV8QZ7eh9 pic.twitter.com/gOTfLItqLU

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 18, 2026

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Total market capitalization has declined by almost $100 billion in less than 24 hours before and after the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday. The metric is now at around $2.52 trillion after falling from just below a six-week high of $2.61 trillion on Wednesday.

Over the past 24 hours, around 136,000 traders were wrecked, with total liquidations coming in at $452 million. The majority, or around 85% of them, were leveraged long positions in Bitcoin.

The big slump has sent markets back towards the middle of their six-week range-bound channel, wiping out most of the gains from the recent rally.

Hawkish Fed Rattles Traders

The dump began before the meeting but continued after Fed chair Jerome Powell’s comments that there may only be one rate cut this year. The US central bank kept rates the same at 3.5% to 3.75% in a widely expected move yesterday.

Fed policymakers maintained their forecast for an additional rate cut this year, but Powell suggested that the central bank remains concerned about stubbornly elevated inflation even before the conflict’s impact on fuel prices, reported the Associated Press.

“The rate forecast is conditional on the performance of the economy, so if we don’t see that progress, then you won’t see the rate cut,” Powell said.

“FOMC events act as volatility catalysts, but their impact depends on the underlying risk regime,” stated Swissblock on Thursday, adding, “In high-risk environments, FOMC days tend to trigger rejection or accelerate downside.”

Rate decisions tend to “amplify the existing regime,” they added, explaining that the current regime is “transitioning toward low risk, but it is not fully confirmed yet.”

“That means FOMC can still trigger volatility, but in the end, Bitcoin depends more on its own internal strength, flow, and momentum than on macro events alone.”

FOMC events act as volatility catalysts, but their impact depends on the underlying risk regime.

In high-risk environments, FOMC days tend to trigger rejection or accelerate downside.

In stabilizing regimes, they often mark local bottoms or continuation points.

The last three… pic.twitter.com/uWnVkjpHm4

— Swissblock (@swissblock__) March 18, 2026

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for “too slow” Powell to reduce rates, but his own actions have had the opposite effect. Trump’s tariffs and now the war in Iran have caused prices to increase, which is likely to result in inflation figures going back up.

Inflation is one of the two Fed mandates for policy decisions on rates; the other is the labor market.

Crypto Market Outlook

Bitcoin is down 4.3% on the day, dropping below $71,000 on Wednesday, where it currently struggles.

Ether prices dumped 5.6% and fell below $2,200 while struggling to reclaim that level. Meanwhile, the altcoins were bleeding heavily with larger losses for Dogecoin, Cardano, Chainlink, and Zcash.

“For now, traders are expecting a bullish relief rally in spite of no changes being made,” reported Santiment. “This is likely due to the fact that the bearish price action related to the lack of cuts already occurred yesterday.”

The post Crypto Markets Tank $100B Amid Hawkish Fed Projections appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitrefill disclosed that it was targeted in a cyberattack on March 1, which resulted in the theft of cryptocurrency funds, and said its investigation found multiple indicators linking the incident to tactics used by the DPRK-associated Lazarus/Bluenoroff group.

The company stated that similarities in the attackers’ methods, malware, on-chain tracing patterns, and the reuse of IP and email addresses are consistent with previous operations attributed to the group.

Bitrefill Cyberattack

According to the company, the breach originated from a compromised employee’s laptop, where a legacy credential was extracted. That credential allowed access to a snapshot containing production secrets, which the attackers then used to expand their access across Bitrefill’s systems. This enabled them to reach parts of the database and certain cryptocurrency wallets.

In its latest tweet, Bitrefill said it first identified the incident after detecting unusual purchasing patterns involving some suppliers, which indicated that its gift card inventory and supply flows were being misused. At the same time, it observed that some hot wallets were being drained, and funds were sent to addresses controlled by the attackers. Once the breach was confirmed, the company shut down all systems to contain the situation.

Following the incident, Bitrefill confirmed that it has been working with external cybersecurity experts, incident response teams, blockchain analysts, and law enforcement.

The company said there is no indication that customer data was the main focus of the attack. According to its logs, the attackers ran a limited number of database queries consistent with probing activity to identify what could be extracted. This included cryptocurrency and gift card inventory. Bitrefill added that it stores minimal personal data and does not require mandatory KYC, with any verification information held by an external provider.

However, it confirmed that about 18,500 purchase records were accessed, including email addresses, cryptocurrency payment addresses, and metadata such as IP addresses. In roughly 1,000 cases where customers had provided names for specific products, the information was encrypted, but the company is treating it as potentially accessed due to possible exposure of encryption keys. Those users have been notified.

Bitrefill said it does not currently believe customers need to take specific action, but advised vigilance regarding any unexpected communications related to Bitrefill or cryptocurrency.

The company added that it has strengthened its security measures, including conducting further external cybersecurity reviews and penetration testing, tightening internal access controls, improving monitoring and logging systems, and refining incident response procedures. It said the financial losses will be covered from its operational capital, and that most services, including payments and inventory, have been restored.

Lazarus Havoc

Even as many crypto platforms have ramped up their security frameworks in recent years, threat actors continue to bypass protections. The Lazarus Group remains the sector’s most persistent and dangerous adversary, responsible for the largest crypto hack on record after stealing $1.4 billion from Bybit in February 2025.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT previously said that breaches involving platforms such as Bybit, DMM Bitcoin, and WazirX saw stolen funds laundered with ease. The on-chain investigator had added that the laundering groups have “seemingly won the battle” over enforcement.

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