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Bitcoin outpaced major US stock indices on Tuesday as investors assessed the risk of a prolonged military conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran. The cryptocurrency was recently trading at 68,783 dollars, roughly flat over 24 hours but about 2,000 dollars higher since US markets opened, after dipping earlier in the day to 66,300 dollars. Although Bitcoin has struggled in recent months, it moved back towards 70,000 dollars amid expectations of higher US inflation linked to rising energy prices and the prospect of increased military spending. On the prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, traders trimmed expectations of a fall to 55,000 dollars before a rise to 84,000 dollars, though broader sentiment remained cautious as the Nasdaq fell 1 percent and the Dow Jones dropped 369 points.
Escalating hostilities have added to market volatility, with President Donald Trump stating that Operation Epic Fury could last four to five weeks as US strikes on Iranian targets continued following the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Traders on Myriad saw a 45 percent chance of a ceasefire before April and a 38 percent chance that Iran’s regime could fall by October. Analysts pointed to oil as a crucial factor for crypto markets, with Brent crude rising 4.5 percent to 81 dollars per barrel; if it remains above 80 dollars, expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve rate cut could fade further, with markets pricing in only a 2.6 percent chance of a reduction at the next meeting. Despite geopolitical uncertainty, gold fell 3.6 percent to about 5,119 dollars per ounce and silver slid 6.2 percent to around 83 dollars per ounce as the conflict showed no sign of easing. Source
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation has added Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC to its NSCC Market Participant Identifiers directory, paving the way for Ripple Prime to route institutional post-trade volumes directly onto the XRP Ledger from 2 March 2026. The update, listed under clearing broker code 0443 with executing broker alpha HRFI for OTC trades, connects traditional clearing infrastructure with blockchain settlement. By linking NSCC’s centralised clearing, risk management and settlement services with the XRP Ledger’s speed and low transaction costs, the integration could shorten settlement times and improve capital efficiency across a system that processes more than 2 quadrillion dollars annually.
The move follows Ripple’s 1.25 billion dollar acquisition of Hidden Road in April 2025, one of the largest deals in digital assets, with the business rebranded as Ripple Prime later that year to offer multi-asset prime brokerage services including clearing, financing and OTC spot trading for XRP and the RLUSD stablecoin. Before the takeover, Hidden Road cleared 3 trillion dollars each year for over 300 institutional clients, and Ripple now intends to migrate post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger, using RLUSD as collateral to streamline cross-margining between traditional and crypto markets. Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz said the development seemed important for adoption, while industry observers pointed to faster settlement and deeper integration of blockchain within US financial infrastructure. Source
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest increased its holdings in Coinbase and Robinhood Markets as global equities weakened amid escalating tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran. Across the ARK Innovation ETF, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF, the firm bought 22,452 shares of Coinbase, worth about 4.1 million dollars based on its closing price of 182.36 dollars. It also acquired 158,587 shares of Robinhood, valued at roughly 12 million dollars at a closing price of 76.07 dollars. Both stocks declined during the session, with Coinbase falling 1.55 percent and Robinhood dropping 3.44 percent as broader markets came under pressure.
The trades formed part of wider portfolio adjustments, with Ark also adding positions in Roblox, Shopify, Amazon, DraftKings, CoreWeave, Genius Sports, BioNTech and Eli Lilly, while trimming holdings in Roku, Baidu, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Nextdoor, PagerDuty and several healthcare names. The buying follows renewed activity in Coinbase shares after earlier sales, including disposals in early February, and comes as the exchange reported a 667 million dollar net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025, snapping eight quarters of profitability as revenue fell 21.5 percent year on year to 1.78 billion dollars. Source
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said the recent US-Israel attack on Iran marked the weekend that changed finance, after investors turned to crypto platforms to trade tokenised assets while traditional exchanges were closed. He highlighted how the perps futures platform Hyperliquid became a focal point for trading real-world assets such as crude oil and tokenised gold, recording more than 11.5 billion dollars in volume across Saturday and Sunday. Hougan noted that when Bloomberg reported on oil’s reaction to the bombing, it referenced Hyperliquid’s crude oil contract, underscoring how on-chain markets briefly became the primary source of price discovery.
Hougan said he had previously expected traditional finance to take five to 10 years to move on-chain but now believes the transition will happen far sooner, arguing that blockchain’s 24/7 trading rails make conventional stock exchanges and T+1 settlement appear outdated. He also pointed to a surge in trading of Tether Gold and rising activity on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. In January, the New York Stock Exchange and its parent Intercontinental Exchange outlined plans for a blockchain-based system enabling round-the-clock trading and instant settlement of stocks and exchange-traded funds, though no launch timeline has been given, leaving crypto-native platforms as the immediate option for institutions seeking continuous market access. Source
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Barclays have all taken concrete steps towards offering crypto custody, signalling that major banks are no longer debating whether to enter the space but how quickly they can scale. Morgan Stanley has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter to launch Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, which would bring custody, trading, swaps, staking and stablecoin issuance under a single federally regulated structure. Citigroup plans to roll out institutional Bitcoin custody this year, allowing clients to hold digital assets alongside equities, bonds and cash within existing accounts, while Barclays is exploring a blockchain payments platform supporting stablecoins and tokenised deposits. Executives at each bank have emphasised integrating crypto into core financial services rather than relying on third-party infrastructure.
The significance lies in the scale and seriousness of these moves. Morgan Stanley oversees 8 trillion dollars in assets under management and appears to be targeting clients who already hold crypto elsewhere, aiming to bring those holdings in-house while competing directly with established crypto custodians. Citi’s approach could allow institutions to use crypto as collateral against traditional positions, reshaping how portfolios are managed across asset classes. A surge in applications for new national trust bank charters, including from both traditional finance and crypto-native firms, underlines that this is more than another headline cycle. The involvement of global banking giants suggests they see digital assets as a maturing sector with long-term viability, reinforcing a broadly bullish outlook for the industry. Source
Bybit has reported recovering 300 million dollars for more than 4,000 users in 2025 through an AI-powered fraud detection system designed to intervene before funds are lost. The exchange said it intercepted 300 million dollars in impersonation scams and fraud during the fourth quarter alone, after flagging 500 million dollars in withdrawals for review. The effort comes amid persistent industry-wide losses, with data from Chainalysis indicating that 17 billion dollars in digital assets was drained through scams and fraud last year. In addition to recoveries, Bybit identified 350 high-risk investment fraud addresses using on-chain analysis, protecting around 8,000 users from potential losses, and blocked more than 3 million credential-stuffing attempts linked to account takeovers.
According to David Zong, the firm’s head of group risk control, the company has sought to turn risk management into an active defence system by combining AI-driven on-chain monitoring with intelligence from partners including TRM Labs, Elliptic and Chainalysis. Its three-tier framework escalates responses based on risk level, from automated detection of suspicious withdrawal patterns and blacklisting of questionable addresses, to real-time alerts for medium-risk cases, and immediate withdrawal blocks with a mandatory cooling-off period for confirmed scam-linked wallets. The system also includes automatic and manual tagging of suspicious addresses, preventing a further 1 million dollars in imminent losses, and sets out broader monitoring standards aimed at strengthening fraud detection across the sector. Source
BitGo Europe GmbH has rolled out its crypto-as-a-service platform across all 30 countries in the European Economic Area, allowing banks and fintechs to integrate regulated custody, trading and fiat on- and off-ramps under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework. The API-based infrastructure enables institutions to embed multi-asset wallets, onboarding and settlement services directly into their existing platforms, with support for SEPA payment rails. Custodial wallets are insured up to 250 million dollars, subject to terms, and include configurable policy controls alongside round-the-clock operational support. The service, previously available in the United States through BitGo Bank & Trust, now operates in Europe via the firm’s locally regulated entity.
The expansion reflects wider growth in regulated digital asset custody across Europe following MiCA’s implementation, as financial institutions increasingly formalise crypto offerings under the bloc’s licencing regime. Rather than building infrastructure in-house, several major banks have partnered with specialist providers. Deutsche Bank has pursued custody through collaborations with Bitpanda’s technology arm and Taurus, while BBVA has opted to use Ripple’s institutional custody platform for Bitcoin and Ether services. At the market infrastructure level, Clearstream, part of Deutsche Börse, is offering Bitcoin and Ether custody and settlement via its Swiss subsidiary, and Standard Chartered has established a Luxembourg-based entity to deliver digital asset custody directly within the EU. Source
Markethive has introduced Sitemaker as an all-in-one platform designed to help marketers, entrepreneurs and businesses build high-converting websites and landing pages with minimal technical complexity. The system enables users to create and manage multi-page websites, focused sales funnels and conversion-driven landing pages within a single environment, while also offering a dedicated WordPress plugin for seamless integration with existing sites. Users can connect custom domains for branding and SEO benefits or deploy pages quickly through a Markethive subdomain. Features include insured custodial infrastructure, integrated e-commerce tools, Shopify synchronisation, reusable widget creation, group marketing functionality and built-in analytics displayed directly on dashboard thumbnails to streamline performance monitoring and workflow efficiency.
A key differentiator is Sitemaker’s community-driven A/B testing model, which combines social polling with Hivecoin incentives to gather rapid qualitative feedback before public deployment, aiming to accelerate optimisation and improve conversion rates from launch. The platform operates on a tiered subscription model, including a free entry-level option, with higher tiers unlocking landing pages, hosting, custom domains, WordPress integration and advanced AI-powered tools for content creation, design suggestions, video production and data-led optimisation. Positioned as a central hub for digital asset management, Sitemaker integrates publishing, marketing, analytics and decentralised engagement within the wider Markethive ecosystem to provide users with greater strategic control, targeted traffic access and collaborative growth opportunities. Source
Ethereum’s validator entry queue has climbed to around 3.4 million ETH, creating an estimated 60-day backlog as large investors rush to stake rather than sell into recent price strength. The figure has risen sharply from roughly 904,000 ETH in early January, signalling a significant wave of demand for staking across the network. Validators must commit 32 ETH to help secure Ethereum, and because new validators can only join at a capped rate, excess demand leads to lengthy queues. The surge marks one of the longest entry backlogs since Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake and reflects a notable shift in behaviour among major holders.
Industry feedback suggests corporates and crypto exchanges are driving much of this demand as they seek to generate yield on sizeable crypto reserves instead of positioning for short-term sales. The increase follows a contrasting period in late 2025 when the validator exit queue swelled to nearly 2.7 million ETH before gradually unwinding, indicating that capital which previously left staking is now returning. For institutions with large balance sheet exposure, staking provides a relatively lower-risk way to earn yield while retaining price upside, with broader narratives around payments infrastructure and AI-related use cases also reinforcing renewed confidence in Ethereum’s prospects. Source
Michael Selig, chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said the regulator is preparing to introduce guidance that would allow true crypto perpetual futures to be traded in the United States within the next month or so. Speaking at a Milken Institute panel in Washington alongside SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Selig said the move would mark a significant step in bringing products that have largely operated offshore back under US oversight. He argued that policies under the previous administration had pushed firms and liquidity abroad, and indicated the CFTC would also soon clarify its approach to prediction markets, maintaining that the agency holds exclusive jurisdiction over event contract platforms.
Selig is currently the only Senate-confirmed commissioner at the CFTC, with four seats vacant and no immediate sign of nominations to fill them. During the discussion, Atkins stressed that progress on crypto regulation ultimately depends on Congress passing a market structure bill to provide clear statutory authority for both the SEC and CFTC, saying regulators can only go so far without legal certainty. The proposed legislation has yet to be scheduled for markup in the Senate Banking Committee, and although the White House recently held further talks with industry leaders on issues including stablecoin yield, it remains unclear when or whether the bill will advance. Source
A study from the Bitcoin Policy Institute found that artificial intelligence models, including Claude, GPT, Grok, and Gemini, overwhelmingly favoured Bitcoin over traditional fiat currencies and other digital assets when acting as autonomous economic agents. In simulations designed to reflect core functions of money, 22 out of 36 models selected Bitcoin as their top monetary preference, while no model chose fiat as a first choice. Researchers placed models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, and MiniMax into 28 scenarios covering saving, payments, and settlement, allowing them to freely select monetary instruments without prior guidance. Anthropic models showed the strongest Bitcoin preference, followed by DeepSeek and Google, while some models, including GPT and Grok, showed a tendency towards stablecoins for medium-of-exchange and settlement purposes.
The study generated 9,072 responses, with results analysed by a separate AI system to avoid bias. Bitcoin tended to be preferred in long-term value scenarios, whereas stablecoins were more commonly chosen for transactions and settlements. Researchers emphasised that these preferences reflect patterns in model training data rather than real-world market predictions, cautioning against interpreting the findings as investment guidance. Nevertheless, the consistent pattern across multiple labs with different training methods suggests that AI agents independently converge on a coherent monetary hierarchy, offering insights into how autonomous systems might evaluate economic instruments in the future. Source
Stafford Masie, executive chairman of Africa Bitcoin Corporation, described Bitcoin as a functional currency in parts of Africa, used directly in daily transactions rather than merely as a store of value. On the Coin Stories podcast, he explained that some merchants will only accept satoshis rather than dollars, reflecting a reality of rapid inflation and severe currency debasement. Masie contrasted the modest inflation experienced in developed markets with the extreme volatility in parts of Africa, noting that losses equivalent to 4 to 5 percent can occur in a single afternoon. He linked the adoption of Bitcoin to the continent’s young and tech-savvy populations, arguing that digital assets offer a stable alternative to legacy financial systems and “broken money.”
Blockchain data supports Masie’s observations, showing Sub-Saharan Africa received over $205 billion in onchain value from July 2024 to June 2025, a 52 percent increase year-on-year, with Nigeria driving significant monthly volumes following a currency devaluation. While retail transfers under $10,000 account for a larger share of activity compared to global averages, institutional flows are also notable, particularly in cross-border trade using stablecoins. Experts have highlighted that stablecoins are increasingly used for remittances and settlements, offering a lower-cost alternative to traditional transfers in countries with high inflation and large unbanked populations. Source
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is advocating for the network to expand its role beyond purely financial applications, promoting what he calls “sanctuary technologies.” These would include privacy tools, decentralised coordination systems, and open infrastructure that remain resilient to corporate or government control. Buterin emphasises that the aim is not to remake all systems on Ethereum, but to reduce the risk of any single actor gaining total control over digital life. He encourages developers to build a comprehensive ecosystem that spans wallets, applications, operating systems, hardware, and security infrastructure, creating stable digital environments that foster interdependence without centralised oversight.
While some experts warn that focusing too broadly could dilute Ethereum’s core strengths in decentralised finance, others argue this approach aligns with the network’s original vision of open systems for identity, communication, and coordination. Observers note that the success of such applications will depend on balancing complexity with accessibility for non-crypto users, ensuring privacy and autonomy are preserved. Buterin’s push reflects a growing interest in blockchain infrastructure that addresses real-world digital resilience beyond finance, potentially creating tools that function even if traditional institutions or platforms fail. Source
Australia could see only 710 million Australian dollars in annual economic gains from crypto by 2030 unless regulatory frameworks are improved, according to the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC). Researchers say the nation has the potential to generate 24 billion Australian dollars annually from tokenized markets and digital assets, but current uncertainty, limited pilot pathways, and coordination challenges are holding the sector back. The report recommends creating a regulatory sandbox to test innovations like tokenized government bonds and a wholesale central bank digital currency, fostering collaboration between regulators and industry while improving licencing structures.
Economic benefits are expected mainly from broader market access, deeper liquidity, and higher participation, along with tokenized money such as stablecoins and CBDCs that could make transactions more efficient and reduce reliance on costly correspondent banks. Tokenisation is predicted to enhance transparency, usability, and flexibility of assets, enabling automated trading, lending, and collateral management. Without improved regulation, Australia risks realising only a fraction of the potential gains, limiting its position in the global digital finance landscape. Source
President Donald Trump has accused major banks of undermining the administration’s crypto agenda, urging Congress to advance legislation defining regulatory oversight of digital assets. The dispute centres on whether stablecoin platforms should be allowed to offer yield to users, a point of contention that has stalled the CLARITY Act, which aims to establish a comprehensive market framework. Trump called for swift action to ensure the United States maintains leadership in crypto, while noting that the GENIUS Act, already enacted, created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. Banks, led by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, argue that companies offering stablecoin rewards should operate under banking regulations to prevent systemic risk.
The stalemate has delayed progress on broader market-structure legislation, with lawmakers struggling to reconcile the opposing positions of traditional banks and crypto firms. Senator Cynthia Lummis has encouraged banks to embrace stablecoins as a business opportunity, while regulators such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are moving forward with rules to implement the GENIUS Act. Industry participants warn that without a timely resolution, passing the CLARITY Act this year could become increasingly unlikely, limiting the growth and clarity of the U.S. digital-asset sector. Source
Indiana has enacted legislation allowing certain state retirement and savings plans to include cryptocurrency investments, with Governor Mike Braun signing House Bill 1042 into law. The bill requires public retirement and savings plans, including the Hoosier START plan, defined contribution plans for legislators, certain public employees’ funds, and specified teachers’ retirement funds, to offer self-brokerage accounts with at least one crypto option by July 2027. This move aligns with growing institutional adoption of digital assets, as companies, ETFs, and governments now hold billions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The law also strengthens protections for crypto users by preventing most public agencies from enforcing bans on crypto payments, self-custody, or mining, while clarifying that money transmitter licences are not needed for non-custodial transfers. Local governments are barred from imposing special restrictions on crypto mining not applied to comparable businesses, addressing concerns seen in other states over noise and regulation. Analysts note that providing retirement account access to crypto could attract substantial investment, with even small allocations potentially bringing in billions of dollars to the market. 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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