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Major Wall Street banks are considering legal action against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its decision to grant national trust bank charters to crypto and fintech firms. The move, led by OCC head Jonathan Gould, effectively lowers the barrier for these companies to operate nationwide with bank-like privileges. Firms including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial have either applied for or received conditional approval for such charters, enabling them to offer certain financial services across all US states.
Banking groups argue the policy could allow crypto companies to provide services similar to traditional banks without being subject to the same level of regulation, potentially creating systemic risks and undermining the credibility of the national banking charter. Industry bodies such as the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America have urged caution, citing past crypto industry failures like FTX and Celsius and warning that regulatory frameworks for digital assets remain incomplete. Source
Thailand’s digital asset sector has intensified its fight against money laundering by freezing more than 10,000 suspected mule accounts under a newly introduced measure known as the Speed Bump. The rule, implemented by the Thai Digital Asset Operators Trade Association, targets criminal networks that move illicit funds through multiple bank accounts before consolidating them and transferring the money onto crypto platforms. Once on an exchange, the funds are typically converted into digital assets and quickly moved overseas. The association said mule accounts remain one of the most significant weaknesses in the system, and in 2025 alone operators froze nearly 48,000 such accounts as part of broader anti-money laundering efforts.
The Speed Bump mechanism imposes a 24-hour delay on transfers of 50,000 baht or more, requiring users to complete additional identity checks, including video verification, before funds can be released. The pause is intended to slow transactions enough to detect suspicious activity and disrupt the rapid movement of illicit funds. While the measure has led to the suspension of thousands of accounts, exchanges face rising compliance costs and criminals have attempted to bypass controls by recruiting new individuals to open replacement accounts. Authorities are also linking risk databases with the Bank of Thailand and law enforcement systems, while wider initiatives include strict identity checks for crypto-to-baht tourist payments and preparations for global digital asset data sharing under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Source
Aave founder Stani Kulechov has argued that decentralised autonomous organisations need to evolve rather than be abandoned, saying their current governance structures are often difficult to manage. He said DAOs can become bogged down by long decision-making processes that involve extensive forum debates and multiple votes, while participation rates among token holders typically sit between 15 percent and 25 percent. This can lead to power concentrating among a small group and discussions becoming politicised, with participants aligning with louder voices or alliances to push proposals through.
Kulechov believes DAOs should keep the elements that work, such as rules embedded in code, transparent treasuries and token holder input on major decisions, while reducing voting on day-to-day operational matters. He argues that running a protocol requires dedicated teams and leaders who can make informed decisions, with accountability maintained through on-chain transparency that allows token holders to remove them if needed. His comments come amid governance tensions within the Aave community, including debate over a failed proposal to transfer the protocol’s brand assets and intellectual property to its DAO and the planned departure of a major governance delegate following disputes over voting dynamics. Source
The UK government’s Fraud Strategy covering 2026 to 2029 has identified cryptocurrency as a growing risk within the wider fraud landscape. The report notes that digital assets have become part of everyday financial activity alongside social media, telecommunications and online payments, but warns that emerging technologies are continuing to reshape how fraud is carried out. In particular, it highlights crypto’s role in investment scams and calls for stronger coordination between government bodies, law enforcement, private companies and civil society to tackle the threat. Planned measures include the creation of a public-private Online Crime Centre, an expanded Stop! Think Fraud awareness campaign and the rollout of the Report Fraud service.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said the scale of crypto-related fraud means digital asset flows can no longer be treated as a peripheral issue, estimating that up to $17 billion in cryptocurrency was sent to scam-linked addresses globally in 2025. The firm argued that the transparency of blockchain transactions actually gives investigators powerful tools to track criminal activity, describing it as a flywheel that can help disrupt fraud networks. The report also emphasises the international nature of the problem, with around three-quarters of fraud affecting UK individuals and businesses believed to originate overseas, often involving organised crime networks linked to money laundering, human trafficking and large-scale scam operations. Source
Trust Wallet has launched a new address-poisoning protection feature designed to help users avoid sending cryptocurrency to fraudulent wallet addresses that imitate legitimate ones. The tool automatically checks destination addresses against a database of known scam and lookalike wallets before a transaction is completed. The protection is being introduced across 32 Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Base. The company described address poisoning as one of the fastest-growing threats in the crypto sector, reporting more than 225 million attacks and around $500 million in confirmed losses linked to the tactic.
Address poisoning typically involves scammers sending small transactions to victims so their malicious address appears in the recipient’s transaction history, hoping users later copy and paste it by mistake when sending funds. The risks were highlighted recently when two investors collectively lost $62 million through such attacks, including a $50 million loss in December 2025. Industry figures have called for stronger wallet protections, while security experts also advise users to avoid copying addresses from transaction histories. Several wallets already offer transaction filtering tools, and Trust Wallet itself previously faced security challenges when its Chrome extension was compromised in December 2025, leading to about $7 million in user losses that the company said it would reimburse. Source
Michael Saylor’s Strategy purchased 17,994 Bitcoin worth $1.28 billion between March 2 and March 8 at an average price of $70,946 per coin, continuing its aggressive treasury accumulation strategy. The purchase was partly funded through the company’s ongoing capital raise programme, including $377.1 million generated from its STRC “Stretch” preferred share issuance. With this latest acquisition, Strategy now holds 738,731 BTC with an average cost basis of $75,862, strengthening its position as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Tom Lee’s crypto firm BitMine expanded its Ethereum treasury to around $9.14 billion after adding 60,976 ETH, worth about $123 million, bringing its total holdings to more than 4.5 million ETH.
Elsewhere, Nasdaq announced a partnership with Kraken’s parent company Payward to develop tokenised equities trading using Kraken’s xStocks framework, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027 to allow eligible users worldwide to trade blockchain-based versions of public shares. In the US, the Treasury acknowledged that crypto mixers can have legitimate privacy uses, such as protecting sensitive financial data, although it maintained they remain widely used by criminals. Other developments included stablecoin payments platform KAST raising $80 million in a Series A funding round to expand globally, while broader crypto markets moved higher as oil prices fell, pushing Bitcoin above $70,000 and Ethereum back towards $2,000. Source
Crypto-related theft dropped significantly in February, with around $49 million lost to exploits, according to a report by Nominis. The decline follows a much higher $385 million stolen in January and suggests that large-scale protocol breaches were less common during the month. A major share of February’s losses came from a single incident involving Step Finance, a Solana-based portfolio dashboard and analytics platform, where attackers drained roughly $30 million. While the reduced total points to fewer major exploits, security researchers caution that a single month’s data does not necessarily signal a lasting downward trend.
Security firms say attackers are increasingly turning to phishing and social engineering tactics rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Many of the incidents involved victims unknowingly granting wallet permissions that allowed hackers to move funds, a method known as authorisation abuse. Private individuals were the most common targets, rather than exchanges or decentralised finance protocols. Separate data from PeckShield estimated February losses at about $26.5 million, the lowest monthly total since March 2025, partly due to improved industry security practices, although large-scale attacks remain a persistent threat, with Chainalysis estimating $3.4 billion lost to crypto hacks last year. Source
Markethive has introduced Sitemaker, a visually driven platform designed to simplify the creation and management of websites and conversion-focused landing pages. Built for marketers, entrepreneurs and businesses, the platform aims to reduce the technical barriers associated with web development while allowing users to focus on marketing strategy and performance. Sitemaker enables the creation of full multi-page websites, targeted landing pages and marketing funnels within a single environment, while also offering integration with WordPress so existing site owners can incorporate its designs and tools without migrating their entire platform. Users can connect custom domains for branding and SEO benefits or launch quickly using a Markethive subdomain.
The platform also includes tools aimed at improving marketing performance and collaboration, such as reusable widgets, group marketing features and built-in analytics that display key metrics like traffic and conversion rates directly on dashboard previews. A notable feature is its community-driven A/B testing system, where different page versions can receive feedback from the Markethive community, with participants incentivised through Hivecoin to provide input before public launch. Sitemaker further supports integrated e-commerce, third-party platforms like Shopify, and a tiered subscription model that ranges from a free entry plan to advanced tiers with hosting, custom domain support and AI-powered tools for content creation, design suggestions and conversion optimisation. Source
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token climbed to an intraday high of $35.28 as trading activity surged on the decentralised exchange, driven largely by demand for tokenised crude oil perpetuals. Oil trading volume reached $1.39 billion in 24 hours, making it the second most traded asset on the platform behind Bitcoin and well ahead of Ethereum. The token has risen 5% over the past day and more than 120% over the past year, outperforming many major altcoins that remain significantly below their previous highs. The rally coincides with plans to upgrade Hyperliquid’s portfolio margin system from a pre-alpha stage to an alpha phase, aimed at accounts with portfolios under $500,000 and requiring users to meet certain trading volume thresholds.
The margin upgrade is designed to improve cross-collateral management and dynamic margin scaling, reducing the risk of large liquidation cascades during volatile market conditions. At the same time, geopolitical tensions following a US-led strike on Iran have fuelled interest in oil trading on the platform, with $56 million in crude oil positions liquidated in the past day. Hyperliquid’s growth has also been driven by its permissionless market programme, which has expanded trading beyond crypto assets. Only seven of the top 30 markets on the platform are crypto pairs, while the rest focus on commodities and equities such as oil, gold, silver and the S&P 500, helping push total open interest above $5 billion and daily trading volume to $5.71 billion. Source
BitGo will provide custody and trading services for StableX Technologies as the company builds a digital asset treasury of up to $100 million focused on tokens tied to the stablecoin sector. BitGo Bank & Trust will hold the assets while the firm’s trading platforms and over-the-counter desk will support the acquisition of the tokens. StableX, a Nasdaq-listed company that develops stablecoin infrastructure and related technologies, saw its shares rise during trading after the announcement before ending the day 1.6% higher. The company has already begun building its treasury, previously purchasing tokens including FLUID and Chainlink’s LINK.
The partnership highlights growing institutional interest in the broader stablecoin ecosystem rather than solely Bitcoin-focused treasury strategies. Demand for infrastructure around stablecoin-related assets has increased as the sector’s market capitalisation surpasses $314 billion. Investment activity is also expanding into companies and technologies supporting stablecoins, including exchange-traded funds and specialised indices targeting tokenisation and payment infrastructure, while major financial and payments firms continue to explore blockchain-based settlement systems and dollar-pegged digital tokens. Source
X Money, the financial services arm of Elon Musk’s social media platform, is preparing to enter public beta in April, offering features such as peer-to-peer transfers, direct deposits, and the ability to earn yield within the app. Early beta testers have shared previews of the interface, and actor William Shatner has promoted early access through charity auctions. The app aims to rival existing payment platforms like Venmo and Cash App, providing secure account funding through a partnership with Visa and leveraging over 40 money transmitter licences across U.S. states to expand its financial capabilities.
Despite Musk’s long-standing support for Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency does not currently appear to play a role in X Money’s launch. While speculation has suggested future crypto integration, the app’s early access focusses on conventional financial services rather than digital assets. X Money follows the social media platform’s broader push into financial tools, including features like smart cashtags for trading and market analysis, although it does not act as a brokerage executing trades on behalf of users. Source
Shares of Circle Internet Financial have risen sharply in 2026, gaining 49% year-to-date and more than doubling since early February, outperforming broader market indices. Analysts at Bernstein have maintained an “Outperform” rating on CRCL stock with a $190 price target, signalling potential upside of around 60% from current levels. The rally comes despite a volatile end to 2025 for the cryptocurrency market, reflecting growing investor confidence in Circle’s stablecoin offerings and the company’s position within the evolving digital dollar ecosystem.
Bernstein’s positive outlook is closely linked to accelerating stablecoin adoption, particularly following the passage of the GENIUS Act in 2025, which established federal regulatory standards for reserve backing, disclosure, and oversight of stablecoins. Circle’s USDC stablecoin, the world’s second-largest with approximately $78 billion in circulation, benefits directly from clearer regulatory guidance. The company has also built credibility with traditional financial institutions, with backing and reserve management involving firms such as BlackRock and BNY Mellon, while attracting investment from Fidelity and Goldman Sachs, highlighting growing interest from mainstream finance in stablecoin infrastructure. Source
Advances in quantum computing are raising concerns that encrypted messaging platforms could be at greater near-term risk than Bitcoin, as adversaries could record communications now and decrypt them later when powerful quantum computers become available. IBM is working with Signal and Threema to develop messaging systems resistant to quantum attacks, including upgrades like PQXDH and the Sparse Post-Quantum Ratchet (SPQR) protocol to protect ongoing messages, calls, and media. Threema is exploring the integration of the ML-KEM algorithm to make its platform quantum-safe, while research also targets metadata protection for encrypted group chats, highlighting the complexity of redesigning secure messaging protocols for a post-quantum world.
While current classical computers cannot break end-to-end encryption used by Signal and Threema, quantum computers could theoretically exploit underlying cryptographic weaknesses, posing a long-term threat to secure communications used by governments, journalists, and millions of users. Researchers note that historical intelligence cases demonstrate the risk of recorded communications being decrypted years later, emphasising the urgency for quantum-resistant encryption. The pace of development in quantum computing is accelerating, prompting ongoing efforts by messaging platforms to future-proof their systems even as attacks on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin remain further off. Source
Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia, has argued that artificial intelligence will generate vast employment opportunities rather than causing widespread job losses. He emphasised that AI is becoming essential infrastructure, comparable to electricity and the internet, and that constructing and maintaining the necessary facilities requires a huge workforce. With trillions of dollars in AI infrastructure still to be built, Huang highlighted that roles in areas such as electricians, plumbers, steelwork, network operation and technical support are in high demand and well paid, but currently in short supply. Nvidia, as a leading supplier of AI hardware, has benefited greatly from this surge, with its share price rising dramatically since the introduction of ChatGPT.
Huang described AI development as a complex, multi-layered system, involving energy, chips, infrastructure, AI models and applications, and noted that much of the supporting infrastructure and workforce is still undeveloped. He stressed that the AI buildout is unprecedented, impacting multiple industries and countries, and creating opportunities across the global economy. This perspective comes amid reports of companies reducing staff and citing AI efficiency gains, yet analysts indicate that AI-driven job losses have so far been moderate, with only a slight effect on overall unemployment rates. Source
Ripple is pursuing an Australian Financial Services License through its acquisition of BC Payments, a move that would integrate the crypto firm into the country’s regulated financial framework. The licence would enable Ripple to manage settlement, connect with local payout partners, and streamline cross-border transactions through a single system rather than multiple intermediaries. This expansion aims to strengthen Ripple’s presence in Asia-Pacific, adding to its more than 75 regulatory licences worldwide, and follows a near doubling of its APAC payments volume in 2025. The company already serves Australian clients such as Hai Ha Money Transfer, Stables, Caleb & Brown, Flash Payments, and Independent Reserve.
The move raises broader questions about how blockchain-based settlement will operate within regulated banking systems, with experts noting that adoption will depend on regulation, competition, and tangible advantages over existing payment rails. Observers suggest the licence could serve as a model for mainstream crypto integration, particularly for cross-border settlement and global liquidity management, though challenges remain around consumer understanding and banking friction. While Ripple’s technology is positioned to compete in higher-friction areas, the ultimate uptake will rely on clear regulatory guidance and effective distribution, as many potential users still lack a full understanding of crypto payment products. Source
Nasdaq is partnering with crypto exchange Kraken to create a gateway that allows traders to move tokenized equities from regulated markets into decentralised finance ecosystems. The collaboration will use Kraken’s xStocks, digital representations of real-world equities and ETFs, and aims to link permissioned equity markets with permissionless DeFi networks in jurisdictions where xStocks are available. Nasdaq plans to launch a new equity token design in the first half of 2027, signalling a broader push to integrate traditional stock markets with blockchain-based financial systems.
Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi highlighted that tokenized equities can serve as collateral for spot markets, derivatives, cross-margin trading, perpetual futures, and financing, emphasising the importance of liquidity, risk management, and robust infrastructure for these markets to function effectively. By combining Nasdaq’s regulated market expertise with Kraken’s trading platform and Payward’s digital asset infrastructure, the partnership aims to build a global, continuous, and capital-efficient financial system. xStocks have already recorded over $25 billion in transaction volume since their launch last year, demonstrating growing adoption and interest in tokenized equity products. Source
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
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