Today's news tips:
1. Trump did not mention the new policy at the White House Crypto Summit, but attendees praised it
2. Binance optimizes the coin listing mechanism and adds a new "community co-governance" vote
3. Kraken plans to IPO as early as the first quarter of 2026
4. Gemini has submitted an IPO application and is working with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup on the offering
5. Financial Times: Trump made at least $350 million from $TRUMP meme coin
6. Market News: SBF was not approved by the prison administration for an interview in prison, resulting in solitary confinement
7. Safe{Wallet} has fully resumed normal operation
8. Coinbase adds Aethir (ATH) and Syrup (SYRUP) to its coin listing roadmap
9.Solana SIMD-0228 proposal has now started voting, with 7.4% of votes in favor
Regulatory/Macro
According to an announcement on the White House official website, Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, formally establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the US Digital Asset Stockpile to strengthen the government's management of digital assets.
The executive order requires the Treasury Department to set up a special agency to manage and control escrow accounts to manage Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets held by the government, which are mainly derived from criminal or civil forfeiture. Initial funds will not be added to the budget, and BTC can be further accumulated in the future without increasing taxpayer costs. The executive order also restricts the government from selling or disposing of these assets unless it involves legal requirements, compensation for crime victims, or law enforcement purposes.
Federal agencies will be required to submit reports on their digital asset holdings within 30 days, and the Treasury Department will assess management and legislative needs within 60 days.
According to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States, Germany, and Finland jointly took action to shut down the online infrastructure of the Garantex crypto exchange, which was suspected of money laundering for transnational criminal and terrorist organizations and violating sanctions, processing at least $96 billion in crypto transactions since 2019. The Department of Justice also announced the indictment of two Garantex managers, including Aleksej Besciokov (46), a Russian resident of Lithuania, and Aleksandr Mira Serda (40), a Russian resident of the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of conspiracy to launder money, violate sanctions, and operate an unlicensed remittance business.
Case details:
- Garantex has long provided funding channels for criminal activities such as hacking, ransomware, and drug trafficking, and has taken measures to cover up illegal transactions.
- In April 2022, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Garantex, but it continued to trade with US companies and evaded sanctions by changing its cryptocurrency wallet address.
- U.S. law enforcement agencies have frozen $26 million in funds involved in the case and seized Garantex-related domain names (Garantex.org, Garantex.io, Garantex.academy) on March 6.
- German and Finnish police seized its servers, and US law enforcement agencies obtained copies of Garantex's customer and financial databases.
Besciokov and Mira Serda face up to 20 years in prison for money laundering conspiracy, and Besciokov faces additional charges of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carry up to 20 years and five years in prison, respectively.
Yesterday, Tether froze $28 million USDT of Garantex , a Russian sanctioned exchange .
Senior White House officials confirmed that Trump’s cryptocurrency summit on March 7 (US time) will not involve tax issues, but will focus on revoking the restrictive policies of the former Biden administration and listening to industry feedback on regulation.
Officials said Trump has pledged to set up a crypto commission and promised during his campaign to end "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," the previous administration's "de-banking" strategy against crypto companies.
Additionally, Bitcoin (BTC) will receive special treatment on the U.S. government’s balance sheet, in line with Trump’s March 6 executive order that establishes a strategic Bitcoin reserve to ensure the government’s long-term holdings of BTC and allows the Treasury and Commerce departments to find ways to increase their holdings without increasing the burden on taxpayers.
In contrast, other government-held crypto assets (such as ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA) will be included in the "Digital Asset Reserve" with the goal of managing these assets responsibly.
White House official: US will begin auditing existing cryptocurrency holdings
A senior White House official said before today's cryptocurrency summit that after the United States establishes a strategic reserve of Bitcoin and other digital assets, the first step will be to audit the amount of cryptocurrency held by the government. The person said that after the closure of the cryptocurrency exchange Silk Road, the United States once had about 400,000 Bitcoins, about half of which have been sold. According to data from research firm Arkham, the United States currently has about $17.5 billion in Bitcoin and about $400 million in several other tokens in its known digital wallets.
Trump did not mention the new policy at the White House Crypto Summit, but attendees praised it
U.S. President Trump did not mention any new developments or policies in his speech at the White House Crypto Summit. He reiterated the executive order on crypto asset reserves signed earlier, and said that the Treasury and Commerce Departments will explore new ways to accumulate more Bitcoin for reserves without costing taxpayers anything.
Afterwards, participants of the White House Cryptography Summit took turns speaking, but most of them praised the series of developments in the encryption field since Trump took office, as well as Trump himself.
Related reading: The first White House digital asset summit ended, no new policies were released, and the market fell after Trump reiterated previous policies
Trump plans to “revoke and modify” US crypto tax rules and sign stablecoin bill by August
The Trump administration detailed how the United States plans to establish its leadership in the cryptocurrency space at the first White House cryptocurrency summit. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant talked about establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset inventory, "regulatory weaponization against digital assets," and a federal framework for stablecoins.
Bessant said former President Joe Biden’s policies had caused undue harm to innovators in the digital asset space. The Treasury Department will work closely with the IRS and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to “revoke and modify” guidance that has harmed the ability of digital asset companies to do business in the United States.
Bessant mentioned stablecoin legislation. As lawmakers in both houses of Congress weigh a path to legalizing stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle, Bessant said clear rules would help preserve the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. “We will maintain the dollar’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency, and we will use stablecoins to achieve that goal.”
Trump himself said he expects the House and Senate to pass stablecoin legislation “before the August recess.”
OCC clarifies banks’ rights to engage in certain cryptocurrency activities
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretative letter reaffirming that a range of cryptocurrency activities are permitted in the federal banking system, confirming that national banks and federal savings associations can conduct crypto asset custody, certain stablecoin activities, and participate in independent node verification networks such as distributed ledgers. The letter also revoked the requirement that institutions regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency must obtain a no-objection opinion from regulators and prove that they have implemented adequate control measures before engaging in these cryptocurrency activities.
“The OCC expects banks to implement the same strong risk management controls to support new types of banking activities as they do for traditional banks,” said Rodney E. Hood, Acting Comptroller of the Currency. “Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks engaging in crypto-related activities and ensure that the OCC treats these banking activities consistently, regardless of the underlying technology. I will continue to work to ensure that regulation is effective and not excessive, while maintaining a strong federal banking system.”
The US non-farm payrolls in February were 151,000, and the unemployment rate was 4.1%.
The seasonally adjusted non-farm payrolls in the United States in February were 151,000, with an expected value of 160,000 and a previous value of 143,000. The unemployment rate in the United States in February was 4.1%, the highest since November 2024. The expected value was 4.0%, and the previous value was 4.0%.
Project News
SlowMist: 1inch's Fusion v1 parser vulnerability caused more than $5 million in losses
According to a warning from the SlowMist security team, 1inch discovered a vulnerability in the Fusion v1 parser smart contract . Although user funds were not affected, some users of this version of the parser were attacked.
SlowMist analysis shows that the incident resulted in a loss of approximately 2.4 million USDC and 1,276 WETH, totaling more than 5 million US dollars.
According to Yu Xian, the founder of SlowMist, this incident did not directly affect ordinary users, but the parser using Fusion v1 (the role that processes Fusion Swap orders) was severely impacted.
According to Axios, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to David Sacks, the Trump administration's director of encryption and artificial intelligence affairs, asking him to disclose information about potential conflicts of interest and disclose transparency in the policy-making process.
Warren questioned whether policymakers could benefit from the government's deep support for the blockchain industry. She specifically pointed out that Sachs was a partner at Craft Ventures, which invested in Bitwise, and the top five assets of the Bitwise 10 Index Fund (BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA) are exactly the assets that the Trump administration plans to include in the strategic reserve.
After Trump announced the strategic Bitcoin reserve, the market briefly rose by $300 billion, and then fell sharply due to the statement that the government would not purchase additional assets. Warren asked Sachs to make public his financial reports to prove that he had withdrawn from the relevant investments and disclose whether policymakers had related transactions before the announcement.
It is worth noting that Bitwise CEO confirmed yesterday that David Sacks, the White House AI and encryption director, has sold the company's shares . David Sacks also said that he has sold Multicoin holdings and cleared all crypto assets .
Safe{Wallet} is fully operational again
According to the Safe.eth announcement, Safe{Wallet} has been fully restored, including all networks and Safe APIs, which are now fully repaired and can be used normally.
Previously, due to the ByBit theft, the multi-signature wallet Safe suspended the Safe function and conducted an inspection .
Grok: Web3 needs a more user-friendly interface to drive mainstream adoption
Grok, launched by Musk's AI company xAI, responded to Ankr's question and said that Web3 needs a more user-friendly interface to promote the mainstream adoption of blockchain. Grok pointed out that blockchain systems are usually complex, and lowering the threshold of use through intuitive design and education will help Web3 technology integrate into daily life.
Robinhood Crypto EU Launches Pudgy Penguins ($PENGU) Trading
According to the Robinhood Crypto EU announcement, European users can now trade Pudgy Penguins ($PENGU) on the Robinhood platform.
PENGU is a meme coin on the Solana chain, inspired by the Web3 brand Pudgy Penguins, which covers content creation, merchandise, toys, and digital collectibles.
Binance optimizes coin listing mechanism and adds “community co-governance” voting
According to Binance’s announcement, Binance will optimize the coin listing mechanism, add “voting for coin listing” and “voting for coin delisting” community governance models, give users more decision-making power, while not making profits from coin listing. It will also announce project marketing expenses and airdrop tokens in batches.
Coin listing optimization and adjustment:
- Voting for listing: Users vote to support projects. Projects with high votes and passing due diligence can be listed (holdings must be ≥ 0.01 BNB).
- Voting to delist: Users can vote to delist projects that have no product updates, no community maintenance, additional issuance, or significant risks.
- Binance Governance: Launchpool, Megadrop, HODLer, Direct Listing and Pre-market.
- Binance Wallet Alpha Listing Observation Pool: Exclusive TGE projects can directly access the observation pool, and the Binance team will screen projects for community voting or direct listing.
Binance said that after the adjustment, the interests of users, project parties and platforms will be fairer, and market transparency will be improved. At the same time, it will support growth projects and promote sustainable development of the industry.
BNB Chain will hold a Pascal hard fork upgrade on March 20 to support EIP-7702
BNB Chain will conduct a mainnet Pascal hard fork on March 20, 2025, improve EVM compatibility, and become one of the first public chains to adopt EIP-7702. This upgrade will introduce features such as Gas abstraction, EOA wallet smart contract, and batch transactions, providing users with a smoother experience and bringing greater flexibility to developers.
Through the EIP-7702 proposal, BNB Chain will allow externally owned accounts (EOA) to temporarily have smart contract functions during transactions while maintaining account security. This upgrade will significantly lower the threshold for users to enter Web3. For example, the gas fee abstraction allows users to complete on-chain interactions without holding native tokens for gas fees in their accounts; at the same time, dApps are allowed to sponsor gas fees for users, batch transactions and other functions to enhance the user on-chain experience.
Previously, the Pascal hard fork has been completed on the testnet. For the upcoming mainnet upgrade, node operators and validators need to update to v1.5.7 (BSC) or v0.5.2/v0.5.6 (opBNB) before March 20; exchanges and infrastructure providers need to ensure compatibility before the hard fork, and developers need to test and update dApps to support new transaction types.
According to BNB Chain's 2025 technical roadmap, the community plans to conduct a Lorentz hard fork in April and implement a Maxwell hard fork upgrade in June to increase the block generation speed to 0.75 seconds. Currently, the proposal is open for community comments.
Bloomberg: Kraken plans IPO as early as Q1 2026
Kraken, formally known as Payward Inc., is seeking to go public as early as the first quarter of next year, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Kraken reported earlier this year that its revenue would more than double to $1.5 billion in 2024, with adjusted earnings of $380 million. Kraken was founded in 2011 and raised only about $27 million in initial capital.
Kraken is one of many cryptocurrency companies preparing to go public as the crypto industry’s initial public offering market opens. Other companies considering listings include stablecoin issuer Circle, digital asset custodian BitGo, and cryptocurrency exchanges such as Gemini and Bullish.
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that cryptocurrency exchange and custodian Gemini has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO). The company, founded by billionaire Cameron Winklevoss, is working with Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup for the offering. An article published by Cameron Winklevoss on X said that Gemini will go public after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ends its investigation into the exchange. A document in January showed that the company paid $5 million to end the lawsuit of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Coinbase Adds Aethir (ATH) and Syrup (SYRUP) to Listing Roadmap
Coinbase announced that it will add Aethir (ATH) and Syrup (SYRUP) to its listing roadmap.
According to market sources, SBF’s prison interview with Tucker Carlson was not approved by the Bureau of Prisons, resulting in solitary confinement.
Related reading: "FTX bankruptcy caused great harm, but I am not a criminal", Trump's close friend Carlson interviewed SBF full text
Solana SIMD-0228 proposal is now open for voting, with 7.4% of votes in favor
The Solana SIMD-0228 proposal has now started voting. Dune data shows that the current votes in favor account for 7.4% and the votes against account for 1.1%.
Related reading: Solana Inflation Revolution: SIMD-0228 Proposal Sparks Community Controversy, 80% Reduction in Issuance Leads to a “Death Spiral” Risk
Viewpoint
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT said that according to an asset forfeiture lawsuit filed by US law enforcement yesterday, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen suffered a hacker attack worth approximately US$150 million (283M XRP) in January 2024 because the private key was stored in the password manager LastPass that was hacked in 2022 .
Previously, Larsen did not disclose the specific reason why the wallet was stolen. Law enforcement agencies found that the data breach of LastPass in 2022 allowed attackers to steal encryption private keys, and then illegally accessed the victim's electronic account and stole assets.
CZ shared his thoughts on KOLs tokenizing their time on Binance Square:
“Time-based tokens, where KOLs tokenize their time, have recently re-emerged. Despite various attempts in the past, none have been successful. I have always wanted to optimize for communication, not time. LinkedIn and X provide this capability, but the threshold is too low, resulting in a lot of spam, making them unusable. This is the idea of a platform for serious people to connect with each other.
A celebrity (KOL) connects his X (or LinkedIn) to the platform, verifying who they are. Then he sets a price for people to send messages, like 1 or 0.1 BNB. Anyone can first pay that amount to send him/her a message. If the KOL does not respond within 5 days, 50% of the paid amount will be returned to the requester. The requester still has to bear a certain fee, which prevents spam and encourages them to write messages efficiently. KOLs are incentivized to respond. Their rewards are 50% higher. Default settings based on my personal preferences:
- The maximum message length should be limited to 2000 characters, which is approximately two pages.
- No images allowed. No attachments allowed. (No virus downloads allowed)
The requester can include his contact details in the message. If the KOL contacts them directly, he (and the platform) will receive 50% less compensation.
If the KOL wishes, he can reply with his contact information and the conversation can then continue on a free messaging app.
The platform charges a 10% fee on all transactions. In terms of payment, the requester pays the platform in cryptocurrency, which then distributes 90% to the address provided by the KOL.
No new tokens are needed.
Non-time-based tokens.
Hopefully there will be enough demand for such a platform to make it a sustainable business.
This could be a great way for KOLs or professional consultants to get paid for their responses.
I would use a platform like this. I would donate the crypto I receive to charity. This would help filter out only the serious people who contact me. When the other party has something serious to offer, I might move the conversation off-platform, refund the payment, or even offer a reward (like security advice, etc.). I would then be able to open my DMs to everyone and adjust the price based on how unpopular I am.
This model doesn’t solve all problems. I’m not being arrogant, I think a lot of scammers are willing to pay 1 BNB to contact me.
YZi Labs may invest in a project that develops a good MVP using BNB/BSC as the main payment option. It should take a few days or a week to write the code and do a security review. If the platform is secure enough, I will be the first user.
X, LinkedIn, or Square could build this as a feature, but big companies move slowly. New sites might be faster.”
Important data
Financial Times: Trump made at least $350 million from $TRUMP meme coin
According to the Financial Times, Trump's cryptocurrency project has made at least $350 million in profit by launching the $TRUMP meme coin. Blockchain data analysis shows that within three weeks of the project's launch in January 2024, the operating entity earned $314 million in revenue by selling tokens and collected $36 million in fees. In addition, Trump may have also earned additional income by selling some tokens through exchanges such as Binance.
The project's website Gettrumpmemes.com shows that "Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC" and Delaware company Fight Fight Fight LLC jointly hold 80% of the tokens. Although the project is officially endorsed by Trump, it is operated by Fight Fight Fight LLC and is not distributed or sold directly by Trump or his affiliates.
Some investors and ethics experts warned that the project could provide a channel for anonymous donations and take advantage of retail investors. Tim Massad, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and professor at Georgetown University Law School, said that the president should not profit from such means while in office and believed that this practice was "very inappropriate."
Fold Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLD) increased its holdings of 475 Bitcoin (BTC) through convertible notes, increasing its Bitcoin reserves to 1,485 BTC, an increase of nearly 50%. This increase makes Fold one of the top ten Bitcoin holdings of US listed companies.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, in the past 9 hours, Galaxy Digital withdrew about 282,500 SOL (US$40.5 million) from OKX, Bitstamp, Coinbase and Binance, and then pledged 274,253 SOL (US$39.15 million).
