According to The Block, the newly established cryptocurrency task force of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold its first roundtable later this month as part of a series of meetings. The SEC said in a statement on Monday that the meeting, titled "Our Past and Future-Defining Securities Status," will be held on March 21 at the agency's headquarters in Washington, DC. This roundtable is part of the "Spring Sprint, Seeking Cryptocurrency Clarity" series of meetings. Hester Peirce, a Republican commissioner who leads the cryptocurrency task force, said in a statement: "I look forward to using the public's expertise to develop a workable regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies." Peirce said she plans to prioritize classifying some tokens as "non-securities."
SEC drops lawsuit against Kraken, Kraken calls this a turning point for the US crypto industry
According to Kraken's announcement, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to withdraw its lawsuit against Kraken without paying a fine or admitting violations, and Kraken's business model will not be affected. Kraken said that the withdrawal of the lawsuit is not only a legal victory for the company, but also a key turning point for the U.S. crypto industry to move towards fair regulation. Kraken criticized the SEC's previous "regulation is enforcement" strategy, saying it hindered innovation and investment and put the United States at a disadvantage in the global crypto market competition. The company thanked the White House and the new SEC leadership for promoting this change, and said it would continue to support Congress and the "Crypto Task Force" led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to promote a clear digital asset regulatory framework. Kraken believes that a stable and predictable regulatory system will help attract investment, promote industry growth, and maintain the competitiveness of the United States in the global digital asset economy. The company reiterated that it will continue to promote innovation while protecting consumer rights and working with regulators to ensure that the "regulation is enforcement" model will no longer appear in the future.
Trump: Reciprocal tariffs will take effect on April 2
According to Jinshi, US President Trump said that reciprocal tariffs will be implemented on April 2. Tariffs on Canada and Mexico will be implemented on Tuesday.
Yuga Labs announces that the US SEC has officially concluded its investigation
Yuga Labs posted on the X platform: “After more than three years of investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially ended its investigation into Yuga Labs. This is a huge victory for the NFT field and all creators who drive the development of our ecosystem. NFT is not a security.”
Tencent Yuanbao APP tops the free list of App Store in China, surpassing DeepSeek
Tencent Yuanbao APP rose to the first place in the free app download rankings of Apple App Store in China, surpassing DeepSeek.
Nasdaq Files 19b-4 Filing for Grayscale Hedera ETF
According to Cointelegraph, Nasdaq submitted a 19b-4 application to apply for listing and trading the Grayscale Hedera ETF (HBAR).
NYSE Arca Files 19b-4 Application for Bitwise Dogecoin ETF
NYSE Arca has filed a 19b-4 application for the Bitwise Dogecoin ETF. In the "Text of the Proposed Rule Change" section of this document, it is stated that pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, NYSE Arca proposes to list and trade shares of the Bitwise Dogecoin exchange-traded fund on the NYSE Arca market pursuant to NYSE Arca Rule 8.201-E (Commodity-Based Trust Shares).
Strategy: As of March 2, it holds 499,096 bitcoins, with no increase in holdings in the past week
According to the latest 8-K report submitted by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the company did not sell any Class A common stock or purchase new Bitcoins between February 24 and March 2. As of March 2, 2025, Strategy and its subsidiaries hold a total of 499,096 Bitcoins, with a cumulative purchase cost of approximately US$33.1 billion and an average purchase price of US$66,357 per Bitcoin. In addition, the company's board of directors announced that each share of 8.00% Series A perpetual preferred stock (STRK) will pay a quarterly cash dividend of US$1.24, with a payment date of March 31 and an equity registration date of March 15.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, said in his latest blog post that although the US stock market index is still close to its historical high, Bitcoin has sent a signal that a liquidity crisis is approaching. Based on this, Hayes believes that the US stock market will experience a severe correction due to recession concerns. Hayes pointed out that if Bitcoin leads the trend when the market falls, it will play a similar role when it rises. Due to the huge leverage in the system, a slight financial disturbance can quickly evolve into a full-scale panic. If his prediction is accurate, the Federal Reserve will act soon. Bitcoin will bottom out first, and the fiat financial system dominated by the US stock market will then fall into trouble. Hayes firmly believes that we are still in a bull market cycle, so the worst case scenario for Bitcoin is to fall back to the historical high of $70,000 in the previous cycle. But he is not sure whether it will fall to this level. A positive sign is the decline in the total account balance of the US Treasury, which is equivalent to a liquidity injection. Based on his confidence in Trump's financial policies and his goals, Hayes increased his risk exposure when Bitcoin traded in the $80,000 to $90,000 range. If the current situation is just a "dead cat bounce", he expects Bitcoin to drop to the low of $80,000 again. If the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100 falls 20% to 30% from their all-time highs, and a large financial institution is on the verge of bankruptcy, global markets may fall synchronously, all risk assets will be frustrated together, and Bitcoin may fall below $80,000 or even $70,000. Regardless of market fluctuations, Hayes said he would be cautious about buying on dips, not using leverage, and waiting for the final shock of the global (especially US) fiat financial market, which will drive Bitcoin to $1 million or even higher. He concluded: "Stay focused and buy Bitcoin."
Layer1 blockchain Cronos is facing strong opposition over a proposal to restore 70 billion CRO tokens destroyed in 2021. Early voting results on Mintscan show that 95.7% of participants voted to reject the plan. The vote is expected to end on March 17. In addition, Cryptoslate reported that CRO advocate Wyll Bilderberg said on the X platform: "Destruction is destruction, and destroyed tokens should not be resurrected. I almost never oppose anything that happens on Cronos, but today, I strongly oppose it! If this bill passes, it will only confirm that Cronos is highly centralized and therefore untrustworthy." Earlier yesterday, Cronos proposed to reissue 70 billion destroyed tokens to "create Cronos Strategic Reserves."
AI company CoreWeave files for IPO, plans to raise $4 billion at a $35 billion valuation
According to CoinDesk, CoreWeave, an AI company that works closely with Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific, submitted an IPO application today, expecting to raise $4 billion and be valued at over $35 billion. The prospectus shows that the company achieved $1.9 billion in revenue in 2024, but suffered a net loss of $863 million due to AI-related investments. The company's cumulative losses have now reached $1.5 billion. CoreWeave has invited Core Scientific to assist in building a 500 megawatt (MW) AI infrastructure. When CoreWeave was still engaged in Ethereum mining, the latter was the former's largest GPU supplier.
Well-known online anchor Amouranth said that he was robbed by a gunman and asked for cryptocurrency
According to Cointelegraph, late at night on March 2, the well-known network anchor Amouranth (real name Kaitlyn Siragusa) posted a series of posts on the X platform, saying that she had been robbed and the robbers asked for cryptocurrency. On March 3, hours after posting on the X platform for the first time, she posted another update saying that there were three gunmen and attached a video suspected to be from a surveillance camera. It is said that after she took the three men to another part of the property, there were three loud noises, and then the three men ran out of the picture. In November 2024, Amouranth posted a screenshot of her Coinbase account, showing that she held about 211 Bitcoins, which were worth $20 million at the time, equivalent to $86,535 per Bitcoin. The screenshot also showed that she held about $80,000 worth of Ethereum, when the price of Ethereum was $2,161. Amouranth is known for being open about her financial situation. She once participated in a YouTube personal finance show and shared her income on various platforms.
Zora announces launch of Meme coin “for fun only”, with airdrop planned for spring 2025
According to The Block, the universal media registration protocol Zora announced in an announcement on Monday that it will launch its eponymous Meme coin on the Optimism-based Base network in the coming months. The upcoming token is "for entertainment only" and will not give holders governance rights. The first snapshot of ZORA was conducted on Monday, and the second snapshot is scheduled for three days before the official airdrop of ZORA, which is expected to take place sometime in the spring of 2025. The total supply of the token is 10 billion, of which 26.1% is allocated to contributors, 20% is used for incentives, 20% belongs to the treasury, 18.9% is allocated to the Zora team, 10% is used for retroactive airdrops, and 5% is used to maintain liquidity. It is reported that Zora is a universal media registration protocol built using the Optimism technology stack. The company was founded in 2020 and launched the decentralized, creator-centric Zora network in 2023. In May 2022, Haun Ventures led a $50 million round of financing for Zora, when the protocol was valued at $600 million.
AI startup Anthropic completes $3.5 billion financing, with a valuation of $61.5 billion
According to Zhitong Finance, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic announced that it has officially completed $3.5 billion in financing, with a company valuation of $61.5 billion. This round of financing was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which invested $1 billion. Other investors include General Catalyst, Jane Street, and Fidelity Management & Research Company. In addition, existing investors such as Menlo Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also made additional investments in this round of financing. Anthropic's valuation has soared, partly due to the rapid expansion of the company's business. According to people familiar with the matter, the company's annual revenue run rate will be about $1 billion by the end of 2023, but it has increased by 30% so far this year. However, Anthropic did not comment on specific revenue. The new financing will be used to develop the next generation of AI models, expand computing power, strengthen AI safety research, and promote market expansion in Asia and Europe. Last week, Anthropic launched a more advanced AI model Sonnet and released a new AI agent that can automate software programming tasks. This move further demonstrates its cutting-edge innovation capabilities in AI research and development.
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 achieved a net profit of $331 million in 2024 and annual revenue of $162 million, benefiting from the rise in Bitcoin prices. As of the end of 2024, Hut 8 held 10,171 BTC, currently valued at approximately $905 million, most of which have been used as collateral to purchase ASIC mining machines. The company manages 1,020MW of energy and plans to expand to 12,300MW. At the same time, it has reached a hosting cooperation with Bitmain, which is expected to generate $125 million in revenue each year and jointly develop the next generation of ASIC mining machines. Hut 8 is also increasing its investment in AI infrastructure. Its subsidiary Highrise AI signed a 5-year GPU cloud computing service agreement and received a $150 million strategic investment from Coatue to support the development of its AI business. Despite strong performance, the company's stock price fell 7.25% today, and its market value fell to $1.5 billion.
February’s market crash triggered $500 million in ETH liquidations
According to The Block, in February, the Ethereum lending market experienced the worst liquidation event in 12 months, with nearly $500 million in collateral liquidated. This is the second-highest monthly liquidation amount in DeFi history, second only to the $670 million liquidation during the market crash in May 2021. The surge in liquidations coincided with a sharp drop in the market value of the entire cryptocurrency market, triggering a series of forced liquidations. These liquidations were mainly concentrated on the two major lending platforms Aave and Compound, which together handled most of the liquidation volume in February. While lending protocols are designed to handle liquidations through automated processes, the scale of the February event highlights how quickly market conditions can deteriorate when overall market sentiment shifts. For borrowers, this emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy collateral ratio and sufficient buffers to withstand market downturns. Despite the huge amount of liquidations, major lending platforms have demonstrated resilience and operated as designed even under pressure. This operational stability represents an important maturity point for DeFi infrastructure, showing that these protocols can handle large-scale deleveraging events without systemic risk.
Tether Appoints Simon McWilliams as CFO, Pushes Forward with Comprehensive Financial Audit
According to Tether's announcement, it has appointed Simon McWilliams as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to advance the company's historic comprehensive financial audit. McWilliams has more than 20 years of experience in financial auditing and will push Tether to further improve transparency and strengthen cooperation with regulators. Tether has previously established a transparency benchmark through quarterly audits with BDO, one of the world's top five accounting firms, but this comprehensive audit will further verify its reserve assets and enhance market trust. At the same time, Tether has moved to El Salvador and obtained a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license. Tether's former CFO Giancarlo Devasini will move to the position of Chairman of the Group, focusing on macroeconomic strategy to promote Tether's deepening application of digital assets worldwide.
Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, said in a post that the crypto market is gradually becoming a tool for the United States to pursue national interests. Since Trump's election, global moral standards have declined, and any behavior that is in the interests of Trump and the United States is no longer considered illegal. He pointed out that the United States opened the market in the absence of regulation, and although it did not strictly crack down on fraudulent projects, it clearly sent a signal: projects that follow the Trump administration's agenda and are beneficial to the national interests of the United States will be supported. The issuance of Trump-themed coins is a symbol of this trend. Ki Young Ju believes that this strategy may lead to "tokens that serve the national interests of the United States" being disadvantageous to other countries. At the same time, this trend is also not conducive to assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that are committed to globalization and neutrality. He speculated that judging from Trump's recent remarks, Bitcoin and Ethereum are in a delicate position of "neither allies nor enemies."
SlowMist: STAR10 token owners have given up contract ownership
According to SlowMist monitoring, the latest on-chain data shows that the STAR10 project has given up the ownership of the contract. Despite this, security agencies still remind investors to remain vigilant and conduct adequate due diligence (DYOR) when trading or holding the token to prevent potential risks. The STAR10 token issued by football star Ronaldinho was exposed to security risks due to excessive contract permissions, and the assets of the holders may be destroyed at will.
Infini proposes white hat protocol that allows hackers to keep 20% of stolen funds
According to on-chain news, Infini founder Christian has just transferred 0.1 ETH to the hacker's address, and added a note that he recognizes his ability to discover protocol vulnerabilities and hopes to reach a white hat agreement. Christian proposed that the hacker can keep 20% of the stolen funds as a bounty, and the rest must be returned to the official designated wallet (0x7e857de437a4dda3a98cf3fd37d6b36c139594e8). If the hacker accepts this proposal, Infini said it will no longer pursue legal responsibility. It is not clear whether the hacker will accept the agreement.
CoinShares: Digital asset investment products saw a net outflow of $2.9 billion last week
According to the latest report from CoinShares, digital asset investment products have seen capital outflows for the third consecutive week, with outflows hitting a record high of $2.9 billion last week, and a total outflow of $3.8 billion in three weeks. Bitcoin was hit the hardest, with outflows of $2.59 billion last week, and short Bitcoin products saw a small inflow of $2.3 million. The outflows mainly came from the United States ($2.87 billion), Switzerland ($73 million) and Canada ($16.9 million), but German investors took advantage of the lows and inflows of $55.3 million. Ethereum set a record for the largest outflow in a single week, reaching $300 million, while Solana and Ton had outflows of $7.4 million and $22.6 million, respectively. Sui performed best, with an inflow of $15.5 million, and XRP had an inflow of $5 million. Blockchain stocks were not spared, with an outflow of $25.3 million. CoinShares analysis believes that the Bybit hack, the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance, and the total inflow of $29 billion in the previous 19 weeks have led to a weakening of market sentiment and triggered some profit-taking.
According to Ember's monitoring, a whale/institutional address that had hoarded 40,000 ETH since September 2022 cleared its holdings 40 minutes ago and transferred 37,000 ETH (about 86.94 million US dollars) to Binance. The address has bought a total of 48,800 ETH at an average price of 1,651 US dollars, and the average price transferred to Binance was about 2,430 US dollars, with an overall profit of about 38.06 million US dollars.
FTX/Alameda unstaked 3.03 million SOL and transferred them to multiple wallets
According to Lookonchain monitoring, FTX/Alameda released the pledge of 3.03 million SOL (approximately US$431.3 million) and transferred it to multiple wallets.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a whale wallet holding more than 110,000 ETH ($235 million) appears to be selling ETH. In the past 14 hours, the wallet has transferred 30,000 ETH ($68.55 million) to FalconX and Galaxy Digital, and received 7.76 million USDC from FalconX. The wallet may be related to Genesis Trading.
Hackers have cleaned up all 499,000 ETH stolen from Bybit in 10 days
According to on-chain analyst Ember, the hacker has cleaned up all the 499,000 ETH ($1.39 billion) stolen from Bybit, and the whole process took 10 days. The price of ETH fell by 23% during this process (from $2,780 to the current $2,130). THORChain, the main channel used by the hacker to launder money, also received $5.9 billion in transaction volume and $5.5 million in handling fees due to the hacker's money laundering.
