Cryptopolitan

The Ethereum Foundation has sold 5,000 ETH, worth just over $10.2 million, to publicly traded treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies, marking the second time the foundation has offloaded part of its holdings to an Ethereum treasury company.

This move is part of the Foundation’s ongoing treasury management strategy, funding core operations such as protocol research, ecosystem development, and community grants. The sale comes as Ethereum’s price has rebounded over the past week, climbing above the $2,000.

The Ethereum Foundation announced the sale in a post on X, stating it sold 5,000 ETH at an average price of around $2,042.96 per coin. That puts the transaction above $10.2 million. 

The foundation said the sale is intended to assist its work throughout the Ethereum ecosystem. The funds will go toward core activities, including protocol R&D, community grants, developer assistance, and other project- and network-related areas. 

This is not the first time the foundation has sold ETH directly to a corporate treasury company. The foundation sold 10,000 ETH, valued at around $30 million at the time, to Sharplink in July last year, making the company the second-largest holder of Ethereum by value. 

Selling portions of its treasury across different market cycles allows the Ethereum Foundation to directly fund development without relying solely on donations or other sources.

BitMine remains the largest ETH treasury holder

The buyer of the latest transaction, BitMine Immersion Technologies, has built one of the world’s largest corporate Ethereum holdings. As of early last week, the company said it owned more than 4.5 million ETH. 

From recent market prices, those holdings are worth about $9.4 billion. And that makes BitMine the largest known Ethereum treasury company, surpassing other firms that hold the cryptocurrency as a balance-sheet asset. 

BitMine is chaired by investor Tom Lee, who has repeatedly expressed strong long-term confidence in Ethereum. While there has been recent price volatility, the company has continued to add ETH to its reserves. 

BitMine has positioned itself as a corporate vehicle that accumulates and holds Ethereum, just as some companies have built large Bitcoin reserves. 

The strategy assumes that Ethereum will gain value over time as its blockchain continues to power decentralized applications, financial services, and digital infrastructure.

Corporate crypto treasuries face massive paper losses

Even as Ethereum recently moved back above $2,000, companies that purchased the asset around its peak are currently sitting with significant unrealized losses. 

ETH peaked around $4,946 last August. The price of the cryptocurrency has plummeted since then and has, in fact, lost significant value alongside much of the broader crypto market. 

Since many treasury firms accumulated ETH near those highs, the market value of their holdings is down significantly. It is estimated that BitMine alone carries $7.5 Billion of unrealized losses due to the gap between its acquisition price and market value. 

But these losses are only felt on paper, since the company has not sold its holdings. An unrealized loss occurs when an asset’s value declines below what an individual paid for it. 

The loss is “real” only if the asset is sold at the lower price. This is a well-established idea in financial markets. Investors in stocks, commodities, or bonds often experience similar swings in value without actually selling their investments. 

Crypto markets magnify this effect, in large part because digital assets often shift more quickly than traditional investments. As a result, companies with large cryptocurrency treasuries can see their balance sheets exposed to extreme market swings. BitMine and its leadership continue to hold positive insights into Ethereum’s long-term outlook, despite the swings. 

The cryptocurrency market might be approaching the final phase of what Lee called a “mini crypto winter,” and recent market data also point to a bit of recovery. ETH has increased about 5% over the last week and about 9% over the last month.

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Aave Labs has put forward a governance proposal to deploy Aave V4 to Ethereum Mainnet, betting that a security-first rollout and a revamped modular architecture can restore confidence in the protocol.

The proposal, filed on March 13, 2026, on Aave’s governance forum, describes a system built around Liquidity Hubs and Spokes, which are shared pools of capital that lending markets, each with their own risk parameters, can draw on through bounded credit lines.

The governance event comes after integral members of the platform’s DAO announced that they won’t be renewing their contracts, signaling misalignment in goals, which are also connected to the proposed V4.

The AAVE token is down to $110 as of the time of writing, after trading very close to $120 the day before.

Aave price is down to $110 after trading close to $120 the day before. Source: CoinMarketCap

Zeller critizes $50 million trade return that returned almost nothing

A transaction executed through CoW Protocol via Aave’s interface on March 12 was meant to convert the user’s $50 million aEthUSDT to Aave. Instead, the order hit trading pools with very thin liquidity and produced a near-total price impact, leaving the user with approximately $36,000.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the interface had presented warnings about extraordinary slippage to the user and required them to confirm via a checkbox before proceeding with the transaction.

“The transaction could not be moved forward without the user explicitly accepting the risk,” he said on X, adding that CoW Swap’s routers had functioned as intended. However, he acknowledged that the outcome was far from optimal.

Aave said it would return approximately $600,000 in fees collected from the transaction and was attempting to contact the affected user.

Marc Zeller, the founder of Aave Chain Initiative (ACI), who has been vocal in his recent criticisms of Aave, stated that the previous Aave frontend had enforced a hard 30% slippage ceiling, reverting any swap that exceeded it. “Users can now enjoy the big DeFi energy of 99% slippage,” he wrote on X.

Zeller went on to write in a separate post the following day that Aave was originally designed by people who placed user protection at the center of product logic.

However, he ponders that this philosophy appears to have shifted. “Aave has now new cooks in the kitchen,” he wrote, “and mindset seems different.”

The V4 upgrade has divided the Aave ecosystem

The governance tensions surrounding V4 run deeper than the recent incidents.

In February, BGD Labs, the firm that served as Aave’s principal technical contributor for four years, announced it would not renew its engagement with the DAO after its contract ends by April 1, 2026, citing centralization concerns with Aave Labs and what it described as an unfair portrayal of Aave V3’s track record in order to build the case for V4.

That announcement followed a turbulent snapshot vote on an Aave Labs proposal known as “Aave Will Win”, which sought approval for up to roughly $51 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens to fund product development and marketing with a heavy focus on V4.

The vote passed with around 52.6% in favor, but Zeller and the ACI did not support the proposal. Its passing led to the Aave DAO delegate announcement that it won’t be renewing its engagement with the DAO, a decision that removes one of the protocol’s most active governance contributors.

What is the next step for V4?

On the protocol’s commercial fundamentals, the picture is less gloomy. Monthly active users on Aave’s lending markets reached roughly 155,000 in February, close to double the level six months earlier and an all-time high.

As of late 2025, 86% of Aave’s revenue was generated on Ethereum Mainnet, and to date, a large chunk of that revenue continues to come from where V4 is now proposed to launch.

The Aave Labs team says that the new architecture, developed over a year of security review spanning some 345 days of cumulative audits, formal verification, and a public security contest backed by a $1.5 million DAO budget.

The proposal is currently at the Aave Request for Comment stage, where it must clear a Snapshot vote before proceeding to a formal on-chain governance vote, or AIP, which would include the finalized risk parameters prepared by Aave’s risk service providers.

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As the United States continues to be involved in the Middle East crisis and voters are ready to cast ballots in less than eight months, pressure to impeach President Donald Trump is intensifying.

However, the figures indicate that the road ahead is far from simple.

Democrats and political rivals have turned up the heat in recent weeks. Still, the data make clear that removing Trump from office is a tall order.

Betting platforms are beginning to reflect the tension. On Polymarket, 14% of bettors think Trump will be impeached before the end of 2026, and 17% believe he will leave office before 2027. Rival platform Kalshi puts the odds of impeachment by June 1, 2026, at just 2%, rising to 13% by January 1, 2027, and reaching 71% by January 1, 2028.

The midterm elections, scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2026, will put all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats up for a vote.

Democrats are positioned to flip the house

In a generic ballot survey conducted by RealClearPolling, 47.8% of respondents said they would vote Democratic and 43.1% said they would support Republicans. Democrats have an 85% chance of winning the House, according to Polymarket.

Republicans have a slim chance of maintaining the Senate’s 53% majority. A full Democratic sweep is valued at 48%, a Republican sweep at just 17%, and the most likely divided outcome, a Republican Senate and Democratic House, at 35%.

Democrats would be able to impede Trump’s policy program, make negotiations over the debt ceiling more difficult, and forward the impeachment process if they were to win the House.

The war in the Middle East has become the loudest trigger for those calls. Several Democratic congressional candidates, including Christian Menefee in Texas and Illinois candidates Kat Abughazaleh, state Senator Laura Fine, and Mayor Daniel K. Biss.

Abughazaleh has not held back. In one post, she wrote that the Trump administration had “partnered with another morally bankrupt authoritarian to declare an unprovoked war on Iran, already killing scores of civilians.”

She called on Congress to vote on a War Powers Resolution and then move to articles of impeachment. In another post, she said that the obsession of the U.S. and Israel with regime change was “abhorrent.”

Kat Abughazaleh blasts Trump’s “morally bankrupt” administration
Source: @katmabu.bsky.social

The question of who holds the constitutional power to take the country to war sits at the heart of the debate. Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

Before starting hostilities, Trump did not confer with Congress. Rather, he worked directly with Israel while U.S. politicians mostly stood by as the violence intensified and American service members were slain.

War rattles oil markets and growth forecasts

Financial markets have also been severely impacted by the turmoil. Oil prices have increased due to threats to the Strait of Hormuz, and experts are already lowering their growth projections.

Real GDP growth for the fourth quarter is now forecast at 2.2%, down from 2.6% just a month ago. About half of that drop is being blamed on rising energy costs.

Furthermore, inflation has been steadily rising once more. January figures are expected to be significantly higher, sustaining price increases well over the Federal Reserve’s 2% objective.

The government has imposed a 15% charge on all countries using Section 122 of the US tariff law.

Gold has increased by more than 8% as investors look for safer havens, indicating general anxiety about the future. In January 2027, the House will have a significant impact on whether Congress ultimately exercises its right to declare war or keeps that power in the hands of the president.

Growing chances of impeachment indicate more political unrest in 2026, which could significantly raise economic uncertainty. A Democratic takeover of the House is likely to result in impasse on fiscal and debt-ceiling matters due to impeachment.

This would increase the likelihood of a recession, erode investor confidence, and prolong market volatility past the midterm elections.

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Tracking data from Follow The Crypto shows that the cryptocurrency industry has spent $271 million on causes expected to improve the odds of candidates that align with the sector’s interests ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

With the elections slated for later this year coming up fast, a Paradign study found that 36% of American voters now use prediction markets to trade on outcomes or browse for information, with about 35% of voters believing that prediction markets should be legal. 

Why is crypto money flooding the 2026 midterm races?

The scale of intervention by the cryptocurrency industry in politics has reached historic levels during the 2026 midterm elections. Tracking data from Follow the Crypto shows that industry-linked groups have spent more than $271 million to influence this cycle. 

Crypto-focused super PACs, such as Fairshake and the Digital Freedom Fund, now rank among the most well-funded political committees in the United States.

These groups are currently holding $221 million on hand, with another $100 million reportedly committed by major industry players. 

In preparation for the March 17, 2026, Democratic primary in Illinois, crypto PACs have spent nearly $10 million to oppose Juliana Stratton for the Senate. Similarly, they have poured over $2.4 million into opposing La Shawn Ford for Illinois’ 7th House District. 

Meanwhile, Barry Moore in Alabama has received over $5 million in support for his Senate run, while Christian Menefee in Texas has seen over $1.5 million in backing for his House race. 

In Florida, Randy Fine won a special election for the State House after receiving $1.6 million in crypto-linked support.

Are prediction markets replacing traditional polling for voters?

Crypto interests have gone from the fringes of American politics to becoming a key manifesto item, highlighting how the electoral landscape has evolved since 2024. 

To that effect, a new poll conducted by Echelon Insights for Paradigm in February 2026 found that 36% of likely voters now use prediction markets. 11% of these voters actively put money on outcomes. 19% browse the odds for information but do not trade, and 6% do both. 

38% of voters aged 18-34 have put money down on prediction markets, but only 3% of those 65 or older have done the same. 

Interestingly, the poll found that users of these markets are more socially active than those who don’t use them. About 87% of prediction market users talk to their family members weekly, and they are much more likely to host guests or participate in sports, disproving the idea that digital finance leads to social isolation.

Despite the high usage of prediction markets, only 35% of voters believe these markets should be legal, and many of them want guardrails. For instance, 15% believe that contracts involving war or terror should be prohibited. Still, the voters generally view prediction markets more favorably than “short selling” in the stock market.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to ask for public feedback on how to regulate prediction markets. They also released a “Staff Advisory” to guide platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket on how to legally list event contracts.

The SEC and CFTC recently agreed to work together to protect customers while allowing lawful innovation in the crypto and prediction market sectors.

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The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, says investor demand for cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remains overwhelmingly focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum, even as new crypto investment products enter the market.

Speaking about the firm’s digital asset strategy, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said most clients show meaningful interest only in the two largest cryptocurrencies. He noted that while there are “pockets of interest” in other tokens, investor allocations continue to concentrate on Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Mitchnick described Bitcoin as an emerging “digital gold” and monetary alternative, while Ethereum is increasingly viewed as a technology-focused investment tied to blockchain innovation and decentralized applications.

Nonetheless, he claimed the firm still sees selective interest in other digital assets and will continue to review them as their ecosystems mature, gain liquidity, and expand into real-world applications.

He emphasized that the firm applies a very “discerning approach” when deciding which assets to include in an iShares ETF.

BlackRock launched a new Ether ETF, ETHB, this Thursday

When asked what the future might hold for crypto ETFs, including the potential for sophisticated structures like staking or conventional fund structures to bring in new investors, Mitchnick said both are likely.

He said that in his firm’s case, he expects the new Ether ETF, iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB), to appeal to some investors, and the earlier-established IBIT, with a more conventional structure, to remain a preferred option for investors.

He added, “Will we see some more exotic structures coming into the space? I think no question. Some of those will be interesting. Some of them will resonate with investors.” He maintained, however, that his firm will proceed carefully before deciding how else to expand and what to incorporate.

BlackRock just launched the Ether ETF, ETHB, this Thursday. The fund has pulled in over $43 million in net inflows. Moreover, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart, the fund generated nearly $16 million in trading volume since its debut with $100 million in assets under management. 

He commented, “The vast majority of the trading is done, and we are at $15.5 million in trading volume for the BlackRock staked Ethereum ETF — ETHB. Very, very solid for a day 1 ETF launch.”

The new ETF offers staking, introducing an income element that portfolio managers view as a meaningful incentive and a potential driver for faster adoption compared to Bitcoin products.  It still provides users with a traditional brokerage account

Mitchnick says BTC ETF investors have maintained a steady accumulation approach

In his interview with CNBC, Mitchnick also noted that over 90% of Bitcoin ETF investors have consistently been accumulating the token. He stated that most retail investors think long-term and thus often purchase holdings when asset prices fall.

On the other hand, he pointed out that short-term trading is largely limited to the roughly 10% of demand represented by hedge funds. 

He also asserted that even with Bitcoin’s price drop, IBIT still ranked fourth globally for ETF inflows in 2025, pulling in about $26 billion.

He remarked, “There’s clearly been a lot of selling pressure elsewhere in the Bitcoin ecosystem, on crypto exchanges, on these offshore levered perps platforms. But the ETF investor base has taken a much steadier, longer-term fundamental view of things.”

Meanwhile, the asset manager is still planning to introduce a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF that uses covered call strategies on Bitcoin futures to provide yield. The steady payouts, however, might come at the expense of potential gains in IBIT, which tracks Bitcoin’s market price.

If you want a calmer entry point into DeFi crypto without the usual hype, start with this free video.

Iran’s most significant oil infrastructure was struck by a significant American airstrike, escalating the already expensive military conflict that is rocking international markets and hurting ties with vital U.S. allies.

On Friday, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Central Command to bomb Kharg Island, describing it as one of the most powerful assaults in Middle Eastern history.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump asserted that every military objective on the island had been eliminated.

Trump announces U.S. strike on Iran’s Kharg Island. Source: @realDonaldTrump via Truth Social

He had spared the island’s oil infrastructure “for reasons of decency,” but he warned that this decision may be altered if Iran disrupts commerce via the Strait of Hormuz. Before flying to Florida, Trump told reporters that the military campaign would continue “as long as necessary.”

Kharg Island is essential to Iran’s economy, handling almost 90% of the nation’s crude oil exports. Any attack on the complex bears significant risks for both regional stability and global energy costs. Since the start of the confrontation with Iran, oil prices have already increased by more than 40%.

Crack in the White House

Trump seemed confident, but there was a rift within his own inner circle. The first senior administration official to openly challenge the course of the conflict was David Sacks, the White House’s AI and cryptocurrency advisor.

In an interview with the All-In podcast, Sacks stated that it was time to “declare victory and get out,” describing it as “clearly what the markets would like to see.”

Sacks also raised alarm about further strikes on energy infrastructure. He said continued attacks could prompt Iran to target oil and gas facilities across Gulf states, rendering the Gulf “almost uninhabitable.” He called it “a truly catastrophic scenario.”

The Trump administration has also been promoting “Iran Tariffs,” a series of trade sanctions that were first made public on social media and threaten to impose an instant 25% tax on any nation doing business with Iran.

These sanctions are part of a larger pattern of protectionist trade strategy that began in 2025 with the goal of severing ties with Iran.

The secondary sanctions have alarmed both European countries and Gulf allies, and economists caution that this could lead to an increase in consumer prices.

Trump has presented the tariffs as a means of “enriching our citizens” by transferring expenses to other nations.

However, his assertion that the war is “nearly won” runs counter to reports that advisors are secretly pressuring him to find a way out of the conflict out of concern about the potential political harm that rising oil prices and inflation could cause.

Costs mount at home and abroad

The toll in the U.S. is already evident. Trump traveled to Kentucky on March 11, 2026, a state hit hard by his trade policies.

The state’s historic sectors of horse breeding and bourbon production are faltering due to growing supply chain costs and oil prices that are close to $100 per barrel. Local companies are “bracing for impact.”

The battle is also changing decisions made outside of the United States. Pakistan is currently cutting back on its commerce with Iran, while the United States accounts for about 18% of its total exports, or $5.8 billion in 2024–2025.

The country’s Commerce Ministry referenced a U.S. executive order dated February 6, 2026, allowing the 25% tariff to be applied to imports from any country that buys Iranian goods.

Pakistani officials have warned that such tariffs could hurt the country’s ability to compete with rivals, including India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, in the American market.

Islamabad seems reluctant to jeopardize access to its largest economic partner, given the significance of textile and IT services exports to the United States.

The upcoming days will determine if Washington can handle the damage or whether the cost of the battle keeps rising as strikes persist and economic pressures increase.

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The Trump Justice Department is fighting a court ruling that stopped grand jury subpoenas sent to the Federal Reserve in the criminal investigation involving Chairman Jerome Powell.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocked the subpoenas in a decision that became public on Friday.

But the main deal of this [slightly embarrassing] case is for us all to see whether prosecutors can force the central bank to hand over material as part of that probe in the so-called Democratic capital of the world.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the Justice Department would appeal what she called an “outrageous” ruling.

Pirro, in a Friday press conference, said the judge’s ruling wrongly let Powell be “bathed in immunity” from investigation.

As you certainly know, this fight over Powell is now tangled up with Donald Trump’s effort to install Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, as the next chair.

Tillis blocks Warsh and leaves Trump stuck with Powell longer

This latest ruling has nonetheless been yet another mortifying setback for the Trump government and an immediate win for Chair Powell, who now only has mere weeks left in his term.

Boasberg’s decision is likely to keep Powell in the chair longer because Sen. Thom Tillis has said he will not support Kevin’s confirmation until the investigation ends, which creates a real obstacle for Republicans, the cohort that currently controls the Senate.

But the thing is, their edge on the Banking Committee is only 13 to 11. Without Tillis, the road gets messy(ier) fast. Democrats on the committee (led by Elizabeth Warren, naturally) have since made clear they are not going to help push any of Trump’s Fed picks through.

And Tillis said the ruling showed how weak the case against Powell really was. In his statement, he said, “This ruling confirms just how weak and frivolous the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell is, and it is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence.” He also said:-

“We all know how this is going to end, and the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office should save itself further embarrassment and move on. Appealing the ruling will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair.”

That delay hits a president who has spent years attacking Powell over interest rates. Since returning to office, Trump has kept trying to steer the Fed and test how far the law lets him go.

What he wants is not hard to see. He wants a chair who will be more open to lower borrowing costs. Powell, whom Trump first elevated to the top job during his first term, has been a repeated target because he did not cut rates the way Trump wanted.

In late January, Trump named Kevin to succeed Powell. At the time, he wrote that Kevin would “go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairman, maybe the best.”

Kevin is of course well liked by many Republicans. But the criminal probe changed the political math around his nomination almost immediately.

Fed fights back in court as Warren joins the Senate blockade

Republicans had been searching for a way to move Kevin forward despite the investigation. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, had tried to calm things down last month, saying, “We’ll see where the investigation goes with Jeanine Pirro’s office.”

He added, “There were subpoenas issued. But that doesn’t have to mean that there are charges.”

The court filings released Friday showed the Fed making its hardest legal case yet against a sitting president. In a reply brief, outside lawyers for the central bank listed 100 public statements made by Trump and his allies attacking Powell between 2018 and this year.

The Fed said that record pointed to one conclusion: the subpoenas were meant to help Trump “seize for himself a power specifically denied to him by federal law.”

But even if the Fed keeps winning in court, that may not be enough on its own. Federal law gives the Fed control of its own budget, gives officials long staggered terms, and protects them from being removed over policy disputes.

That legal structure is meant to protect monetary policy from politics. Countries where leaders took hold of central bank policy, including Turkey and Argentina, have dealt with chronic inflation, weaker living standards, and unstable economies.

On Friday, Warren said no Fed nominations should move until the investigations into Powell and Governor Lisa Cook are dropped. Trump has also tried to fire Cook, and that separate case is now before the Supreme Court.

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Only two of the 11 people who started xAI with Elon Musk in 2023 are still there. Merely a few weeks after Elon merged SpaceX and xAI in a deal he valued at $1.25 trillion, he admitted the AI company had problems from the start.

Writing on X (because of course), Elon said xAI “was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up.” He posted that as more co-founders kept leaving the company that he launched to chase the AI race.

The latest departures came this week, when Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang left. Before them, Jimmy Ba said last month that he was leaving and wrote, “Grateful to have helped cofound at the start.” Earlier, Tony Wu had already said he was out.

Toby Pohlen then left later in February. Those exits came after Tesla said a month earlier that it would invest $2 billion into xAI as part of a previously announced $20 billion funding round.

Now the company has far less founding firepower at a time when SpaceX is getting ready for a stock market debut that could become one of the biggest IPOs ever if it happens this year.

SpaceX prepares its IPO while Elon watches xAI lose founders

Amidst it all, SpaceX has already started lining up lawyers for the IPO process, hiring Gibson Dunn to represent it through the listing work just yesterday.

The banks expected to underwrite the deal picked Davis Polk & Wardwell as their legal adviser. That matters because companies usually bring in their own lawyers before they formally choose the investment banks that will lead the offering.

Of course, Gibson Dunn also advised SpaceX on its acquisition of xAI, so the same company is already tied to the merger that put both businesses under one roof.

At the same time, SpaceX has been interviewing major banks for leading roles on the offering. The names through the door [naturally] include Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. As you are probably tired of hearing, this IPO is expected to be one of the richest public listings ever for Wall Street.

Elon launches Project Macrohard, reopens old hiring files

Meanwhile, during the week, Elon also announced a supposed joint project between Tesla and xAI called “Macrohard” or “Digital Optimus.” The busy guy said the system could emulate the functions of software companies.

In his post on X, Elon said the project combines xAI’s Grok large language model, which acts as a high-level “navigator,” with a Tesla AI agent that reads real-time computer screen video and tracks keyboard and mouse actions.

He said the system would run on Tesla’s AI4 chip together with xAI’s Nvidia-based server hardware, and he described that setup as cost-competitive.

The project arrives as software investors worry that agentic AI could hit existing business models after the launch of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, which can carry out a range of computer tasks on its own.

Elon said xAI had earlier been building Macrohard so developers could simulate software creation by companies such as Microsoft. He wrote, “In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies.

That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft.” Records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show xAI filed a trademark application for “Macrohard” in August 2025.

Early Friday, Elon wrote, “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.” He added that he and Baris Akis, who oversees engineering talent at xAI, were reviewing interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates.

All this is happening while Grok continues to face government investigations in multiple jurisdictions after users generated non-consensual sexual deepfake images of adults and children, and while xAI keeps spending billions on power and data infrastructure around Memphis and has now secured a Mississippi permit for one of the region’s largest natural gas turbine plants to supply its data centers.

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Iran is squeezing the Strait of Hormuz so hard that tanker traffic has nearly vanished, sending the message that if you hit the country that directly controls more of the oil market than any other, global prices get hit next.

Since Israel and America started their war against Iran on February 28, traffic through Hormuz has fallen by 97%, according to United Nations data.

As Cryptopolitan has been saying from the beginning, about a fifth of the entire world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally moves through that route, and Iran sits on its northern coast.

To be fair, for years, we’ve heard Iran say that if it got dragged into a bigger fight with the U.S., it would immediately go after tanker flows in the Strait. These guys have historically loved fulfilling their promises. Well, the bad ones anyway.

Still, this threat mattered because the Strait of Hormuz is where rivals are badly exposed. Around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes through it.

Iran, which sits on the northern coast, has now effectively shut that lane down. Tehran has taken the Gulf’s biggest economic asset and turned it into its hardest pressure tool.

Iran spreads missile and drone attacks across the Gulf

This is not the first time Iran has used shipping pressure in the Gulf. Recall the chilling days of the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, when the infamous ‘Tanker War’ turned the area into literally the most dangerous waterway on earth… at least for a little while.

Ships were attacked, commercial traffic came under threat, and Washington ended up escorting tankers through the Strait.

That old playbook is back, but this version is nastier because Iran now has more reach and cheaper weapons.

This month, Iran showed it can choke traffic quickly without leaning heavily on sea mines. It now has large stockpiles of low-cost missiles and drones that can threaten shipping over a much wider area. Instead of piling forces into one front, Tehran has spread attacks across the Gulf with repeated drone and missile strikes.

These are the kinds of attacks once pushed through Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon. This time, Iran is running the campaign itself.

That approach comes out of a long-built IRGC doctrine. The idea is simple. If a stronger enemy goes to war, it will likely try to kill the leadership and break the command structure right away. So the answer is to spread the fight, keep striking, and make the cost rise outside the battlefield too.

After years of shadow conflict with the United States, the Guards are now using those lessons directly instead of relying mostly on regional proxies that once served as Iran’s forward defense line.

Trump alleges that he is preparing Navy escorts in the Hormuz

The goal is to create economic pain inside the United States and abroad and make Donald Trump face rising pressure to stop the war. U.S. strikes did not hit Kharg Island’s oil infrastructure, and that matters because Kharg is central to Iranian oil exports.

A senior provincial governor, quoted by IRNA, allegedly said exports from Kharg Island were continuing normally despite the American attack.

But Trump also drew a line. He wrote, “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

Just yesterday, Mr. Trump told reporters that the U.S. Navy will “soon” begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which he is once again going to find out is easier said than done, much like the rest of this unnecessary war.

On the Iranian side, pressure is not easing. A defense ministry spokesperson, quoted in state media, said Iran would increase the use of upgraded weapons, especially ballistic missiles and other missiles with greater destructive power.

Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, who replaced his slain father, has said the strategic waterway should stay closed as a pressure tool.

Late Friday, before boarding Air Force One for Florida, Trump said the military campaign would last “as long as necessary.” Asked how long the war would go on, he said, “I can’t tell you that. I mean, I have my own idea.” He added, “I won’t give you a time but we are way ahead of schedule.”

When reporters asked what he meant by “unconditional surrender,” Trump answered, “To me it means very simply that we are in a position of dominance that nobody has seen before, whether or not they’re able to say the words … .”

In an early Saturday post on Truth Social, Trump said:-

“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal – But not a deal that I would accept!”

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Germany is ramping up pressure on crypto investors to properly report their profits this year, with new European rules requiring exchanges to share user info with the state.

What’s more, tax offices across the Federal Republic have been improving their expertise in the field and are now employing special tools to track down evaders and their assets.

Germany implements latest EU regulations in crypto taxation

The times when cryptocurrency holders could keep their operations secret and conceal income from the German government are coming to an end, the local press reported.

This year’s tax season brings changes that should make investors more diligent when filling out their tax returns, as authorities become more capable of verifying the declared data.

Starting from 2026, crypto platforms are obliged to collect and submit details about clients and their transactions to the tax administration.

This is directly resulting from the implementation of the European Union’s DAC8 directive in Germany, which entered into force on January 1.

The document mandates the automatic cross-border exchange of information on cryptocurrency flows between EU member states.

The eighth amendment enlarged the scope of the EU’s Directive on Administrative Cooperation in Direct Taxation to cover digital assets.

It requires crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) active in the Union to report on users and their transactions with the aim of boosting the fight against tax fraud and evasion while reducing tax avoidance and ensuring transparency in the space.

All such businesses in Germany, and those based abroad but serving German customers, must now share this kind of data with the country’s federal and regional tax bodies. This includes popular platforms such as Bitpanda, Bison, Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.

Crypto investors targeted by German tax authorities

The new regulation is going to significantly expand the transfer of tax-related info between entities such as cryptocurrency exchanges and tax authorities in Germany and across the 27-strong bloc.

In an article devoted to the matter published Friday, the business daily Handelsblatt remarked:

“The risk of being caught for tax evasion is therefore increasing many times over.”

Meanwhile, relevant expertise within tax offices is growing, BTC Echo noted, adding that the authorities are already deploying tools, developed by companies like the blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, to link transactions and wallets to taxpayers.

“This puts more pressure on investors to properly document their transactions,” the leading German crypto news outlet pointed out in its own report.

While many of them may have registered losses during the past year, those that have made some gains need to pay attention to potential pitfalls when estimating their tax liabilities, the portal warned.

For example, investors who used multiple exchanges, transferring coins between different wallets, can sometimes find it hard to reconstruct their full transaction history and correctly calculate their profits, experts say.

Another common mistake is the failure to report crypto-to-crypto swaps or the use of cryptocurrencies for payments that may be taxable events as well.

What taxes are due for crypto transactions in Germany?

The good news for German crypto investors is that taxation can still be legally avoided under certain circumstances.

Digital currencies in Bitcoin are treated in Germany as other assets. They are not subject to withholding tax like classic capital investments, but to the rules for private sale transactions.

Annual profits under €1,000 from such deals are tax-free. The same is valid for gains from coins that have been held for more than a year after purchase, which means they are sold outside the one-year “speculation period.”

The threshold for income from activities such as staking, lending or mining is just €256 a year. In case of surpassing the free limits in both cases, however, the full amount is taxed, because these are not allowances, as noted by the crypto tax service Waltio.

Personal income tax, in accordance with Germany’s progressive tax scale, is due for all taxable crypto profits. Rates vary between 0% and 45%, depending on the size of the income. And if the total tax exceeds €18,130, a levy called “solidarity surcharge” is applied, and it can reach a maximum of 5.5%.

It’s worth noting that under current German tax law, losses resulting from cryptocurrency transactions can be offset against profits obtained from other private divestment transactions. Tax returns for 2025 must be filed by the end of July 2026.

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People have been calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme for over 16 years. Shouldn’t it be dead by now? Or is this a long con Satoshi Nakamoto brought about in 2008? Strategy’s Michael Saylor and Trump’s son, Eric Trump, have defended Bitcoin in the face of a recent attack, calling it not a Ponzi scheme.

Saylor and Eric Trump’s remarks come on the heels of former UK’s PM Boris Johnson’s remarks. Boris Johnson has labeled Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies a “giant Ponzi scheme,” stating that the digital asset sector is largely based on beliefs rather than true worth.

Why is Bitcoin being called a Ponzi scheme? Boris Johnson’s claims

In his new column for the Daily Mail, Johnson wrote that Bitcoin’s true value depends on the constant influx of new investors buying into the system.

I have always suspected from the outset that all cryptocurrencies were basically a Ponzi scheme. Like all such schemes, they depend on a constant supply of new and credulous investors.

Boris Johnson

Johnson based his criticism on the personal experience of someone from the local village where he resides, who had invested in Bitcoin after being influenced by someone he met at the local pub.

The individual initially invested £500 (approximately $661) in Bitcoin, with the promise of doubling the investment. However, after years of confusion and various fees involved in recovering the funds, the individual ended up losing around £20,000 (approximately $26,446)

The former prime minister explained that such cases are becoming more common, especially among older people who may not be aware of the workings of the crypto market. “The more elderly people get ripped off — in the name of Bitcoin — the faster that disillusion will set in,” Johnson wrote.

Strongly as he feels about this, X community notes has fact-checked his claims.

Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme X community note check. Source: X.

On top of that, Michael Saylor adds, “Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme […] has no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return—just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand.”

To which Eric Trump added, “Totally disagree.”

Is Bitcoin a pyramid scheme? Investors on Reddit do see BTC as a pyramid scheme, not a Ponzi scheme. According to one, “Pyramid schemes are based on network marketing,” and such is BTC. Another adds, “It’s a greater fool scheme.” 

To which this user states, “Similar to a victimless crime, but buying BTC, then bankrupting the US with a national debt of $37T is the ultimate offender-less crime. No one did it. No one held accountable. No one to prosecute.”

Boris pits BTC against gold

Apart from scams and speculation, Johnson also expressed doubts over whether Bitcoin actually had any real value.

While gold and collectibles like Pokémon cards, Johnson said, had at least some level of “appeal,” Bitcoin is only “a string of numbers stored in a series of computers.”

Johnson used the example of Roman Empire coins bearing Caesar’s image to illustrate that trust in currency is based on the strength of the “institutions that back it.”

Scam or not, BTC is currently worth over $70K. According to on-chain data from CoinMarketCap, BTC is down 0.76% to $71,025.71 in 24h, closely tracking a broader risk-off move in markets. It shows a strong correlation (85%) with the S&P 500, indicating a macro-driven move primarily driven by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Bitcoin price movements in the last 24 hours. Source: TradingView.

Strategy is currently the biggest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. At the moment, they own 738,731 BTC. This represents roughly 3.52% of the entire Bitcoin supply, which totals 21 million.

On the other hand, Eric Trump has been an active participant in BTC and crypto through business ventures, particularly as a co-founder and chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin Corp.

As of early March 2026, American Bitcoin had surpassed 6,500 BTC in its treasury, accumulating more than 500 BTC in just 21 days, making it the 17th largest public Bitcoin holder in the world.

Eric Trump’s participation is part of the broader crypto portfolio of the Trump family, which includes World Liberty Financial, co-founded with family members, focusing on DeFi, stablecoins such as USD1, and other platforms.

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Chip giant NVIDIA is preparing to unveil a powerful new artificial intelligence processor designed to speed up how chatbots and other AI tools generate responses, potentially making today’s systems like ChatGPT appear sluggish by comparison.

The new platform, expected to debut at NVIDIA’s annual GTC developer conference, is optimized for AI inference, the stage when trained models produce answers to user prompts. Unlike traditional GPUs built to handle both training and inference, the upcoming processor focuses specifically on delivering responses faster and more efficiently.

The product, if launched, will mark the first tangible result of December’s deal that brought Groq’s founders into the fold, whose company specializes in high-speed AI processing hardware.

Late last year, NVIDIA reportedly spent about $20 billion to license technology from the chip startup Groq and recruit key personnel, including its CEO. Around the same time, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told employees, “We plan to integrate Groq’s low-latency processors into the NVIDIA AI factory architecture, extending the platform to serve an even broader range of AI inference and real-time workloads.”

Now, the new inference chip is expected to handle complex AI queries at high speed, with OpenAI and other leading clients likely to adopt it, according to The Wall Street Journal. Its report also showed that the new chip may handle close to 10% of OpenAI’s inference workload.

The Groq-style chip will use SRAM, sources say

During a recent earnings call, NVIDIA CEO hinted that several new products will be unveiled at the upcoming GTC event, often described as the “Super Bowl of AI.” He had remarked, “I’ve got some great ideas that I’d like to share with you at GTC.” 

Most analysts agree the Groq-style chip could be part of the lineup. They also stated that its design could shed light on how NVIDIA aims to address memory constraints in inference computing. Such platforms typically run on high-bandwidth memory (HBM). However, HBM has been difficult to source lately.

Insiders have claimed the firm plans to use SRAM in the chip rather than the dynamic RAM associated with HBM. Ideally, SRAM is more accessible and can improve the performance of AI reasoning workloads.

If the chip is unveiled, it could be a great step forward for the chip company and AI-trained models. However, speaking on its possible launch, Sid Sheth, founder and CEO of d-Matrix, cast a shadow on its development. He noted that while NVIDIA remains the clear leader in AI training, inference represents a very different landscape. He shared: “Developers can turn to competitors other than NVIDIA because running finished AI models doesn’t require the same kind of programming as training them.” 

Nevertheless, other tech giants are also advancing inference computing. Meta this week unveiled four processors tailored for inference, prompting a Silicon Valley investor to say the industry may be entering a non–“NVIDIA-dominant” phase.

However, more recently, June Paik, chief executive of FuriosaAI, a NVIDIA rival, commenting on the benefit of easily deployable inference computing, cautioned that most data centers can’t accommodate the latest liquid-cooled GPUs.

Nonetheless, despite his worries, the Bank of America analysts expect inference workloads to represent 75% of AI data center spending by 2030, when the market reaches about $1.2 trillion, up from about 50% last year. Ben Bajarin, a tech analyst at Creative Strategies, also asserted that data centers of the future won’t conform to a one-size-fits-all model, anticipating that companies will take different approaches to chip and facility development.

NVIDIA is expected to release the Vera Rubin chips later in 2026

NVIDIA has also recently rolled out its next-gen AI chips, Vera Rubin AI chips, anticipating that the rise of reasoning AI platforms such as DeepSeek will fuel even greater computing demand. It claimed the chips would help train larger AI models and provide more sophisticated outputs to a broader user base. 

According to Huang, Rubin will also hit the market in the second half of 2026, with a high-end “ultra” version coming in 2027.

He also explained that a single Rubin system would combine 576 individual GPUs into a single chip. Currently, NVIDIA’s Blackwell chip clusters 72 GPUs in its NVL72 system, meaning Rubin will feature more advanced memory.

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According to on-chain data, XRP Ledger daily transactions have surged to approximately 3 million in March 2026. This is nearly a triple spike from 1 million in mid-2025, driven by tokenized real-world assets exceeding $460 million in value.

According to the data presented by XRPSCAN, the network currently processes between 2 and 2.8 million transactions daily, reaching a peak of 20 to 26 transactions per second. In addition, the number of automated market maker pools has exploded to 27,000 active pools, supporting over 16,000 unique tokens.

XRP Ledger daily transactions bring Ripple adoption home

As shown by the data, the rising XRPL activity is being driven by RLUSD and other assets using XRP as a bridge. However, it doesn’t create demand for the token.

While there are a lot of transactions, it doesn’t compare to ETH or SOL. According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked for XRPL is at $48.41 million. This represents the entire DeFi system on the network. The token has a market capitalization of $84 billion.

XRPL’s total value locked. Source: DeFiLlama.

The reality of the AMM pool growth, as evidenced by 27,000 pools and 12 million XRP deposited, is present. However, the dollar value of the same pools and deposits represents a thin figure relative to the size of the token’s market.

Nonetheless, a key indicator suggests a different reality. Trading and transferring activities far outweigh the staking or locking of the token.

The evidence points to a reality where the value of the XRP token is a function of external speculations. The XRP army remains the backbone of price movements and loud social media presence.

Ripple’s $50bn valuation stirs up more questions among users

While the price of XRP is down by over 60%, Ripple’s financials have never looked better. Ripple is now worth almost twice as much as stablecoin behemoth Circle.

This comes after Ripple’s valuation rose to $50 billion following the purchase of shares from employees and shareholders for $750 million.

On the other hand, Ripple is no longer focusing just on tokens. After acquiring several companies in 2025, Ripple is now offering prime brokerage services, crypto custody, and payment rails.

The company, now called Ripple Prime, acquired the crypto prime brokerage firm called Hidden Road. It went on to acquire a stablecoin infrastructure company called Rail, GTreasury, a company that offers treasury services, and Palisade, a crypto custody company.

Ripple’s treasury, as of March 2024, had a combined valuation of $27.5 billion, most of it locked in escrow. The company stopped reporting its XRP holdings in May 2025.

As of now, Ripple has about 75 licenses and registrations worldwide. Ripple’s business aspect hardly relies on its coin, which leaves investors worried that they are the only ones pushing for XRP’s recovery.

XRP price dips amid network growth

According to CoinMarketCap data, XRP is currently trading at $1.40 after declining by 0.60% over the last 24 hours. This decline is underperforming the slightly softer market. This dip is caused by the lack of any significant positive drivers at the moment, as well as some sector rotation and technicals.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, XRP price prediction suggests that the coin’s price will rise to $2.43 by the end of 2026.

XRP price movements in the last 24 hours. Source: TradingView.

Currently, no significant negative or positive news is pushing the XRP market. Recent positive developments—like Ripple’s $750M share buyback and XRPL upgrades—are already priced in or occurred earlier. As the broader market cap is down 0.36%, the slightly deeper decline of the XRP market suggests that it didn’t have any unique factor to move differently from the market.

Also, the Altcoin Season Index declined by 4.76% within the last 24 hours, which might be a sign that capital is being redistributed away from altcoins such as XRP. In addition, the price is facing resistance near the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement price of $1.42. 

The near-term outlook will be determined by whether XRP can maintain its current position above the region between $1.36 and $1.38. This region coincides with the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement. Holding this region will allow XRP to retest the region between $1.42 and $1.45. 

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Binance’s CZ has criticized block explorers like Etherscan for displaying spam transactions from address-poisoning scams. This follows a warning Etherscan sent to users after a victim received 89 address-poisoning emails in under 30 minutes. 

According to Changpeng Zhao, existing filters are a viable solution to such problems. He asserts that solutions found on Trust Wallet “should be simple to filter them out completely.” He has also highlighted future worries about microtransactions between AI agents.

Etherscan warns users of address poisoning attacks on Ethereum

Market analysts have linked the increase in address poisoning attacks to the Fusaka upgrade, which was activated on December 3, 2025. The upgrade, meant to reduce Ethereum transaction costs, is now enabling scammers to send large volumes of poisoning transactions at a lower cost. 

Transaction spike after the Fusaka upgrade. Source: Etherscan.

According to on-chain data, 90 days after the upgrade, Ethereum’s daily transaction volume surged by 30% compared to 90 days prior. In addition, the number of new daily addresses rose by about 78%, and small-value dust transfers increased by a noticeable amount.

According to Etherscan, “Address poisoning has existed on Ethereum for several years. But incidents like this highlight how automated and high-volume these campaigns have become.”

A study analyzing address poisoning picked out 17 million poisoning attempts targeting about 1.3 million users on Ethereum, with confirmed losses of at least $79.3 million in roughly 2 years.

The scale of address poisoning activity across Ethereum and BSC. Source: Etherscan.

One unexpected discovery made by the 2025 research is that different attack groups often compete with one another. In many poisoning attacks, many attackers send their respective poison transfers to the same address at roughly the same time.

“Whoever succeeds first increases the chances that their address will later be copied,” Etherscan reports. The address below is an example of the level of competition. In this case, 13 poison transfers were sent shortly after a legitimate USDT transfer. 

Address poisoning competition scale against users. Source: Etherscan.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, initially, it may seem that address poisoning does not work, since most users will not fall for this trick. However, economics play a role in this.

In fact, the success rate for each attempt to conduct address poisoning on the Ethereum blockchain is ~0.01%. In this case, only 1 out of 10,000 users will successfully send money to the attacker.

This means that the cost of thousands of failed attempts can be easily covered by a single successful attack involving large sums.

CZ predicts AI can handle spam detection in the near future

Etherscan has provided users with tips to avoid being scammed. However, CZ has other thoughts and plans. Per Etherscan, users should first have private name tags for frequently interacted addresses. “Using a domain name such as ENS can also make addresses easier to recognize across the explorer,” they advise.

However, CZ highlights Trust Wallet’s existing filters as a model solution. He predicts AI can handle spam detection for future micro-transactions among AI agents.

A few days ago, Trust Wallet introduced address poisoning protection. Per design, this is “a new security feature that checks every destination address before you send, and warns you when something looks wrong.”

Trust Wallet runs an automatic real-time check using a database of known scams and lookalike addresses. For high-severity threats, users receive a blocking warning before a transaction is submitted. The warning includes a side-by-side comparison of the address traders are about to send and the legitimate address it mimics.

Address poisoning protection protocol. Source: Trust Wallet.

Address Poisoning Protection is available on 32 EVM chains at launch: Ethereum Mainnet, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, Avalanche, Base, among others.

Trust Wallet’s mechanism is the same reason CZ pointed it out as a good example that other wallets/explorers could emulate, especially as AI might handle more of the microtransaction spam in the future.

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TRON has joined Mastercard’s Crypto Partner Program as the payments company expands coordination with blockchain, fintech, and banking participants working on digital asset payments.

The move places TRON among more than 85 companies participating in a Mastercard-led initiative to link blockchain-based payment infrastructure with existing financial networks.

According to statements from TRON DAO and Mastercard, the program is designed to support collaboration on practical use cases, including cross-border remittances, business-to-business transfers, payouts, and settlement.

Mastercard expands partner network for on-chain payments

Mastercard said the Crypto Partner Program was created to bring together crypto-native firms, payment providers, and financial institutions as digital assets move toward broader real-world use. 

TRON has joined the @Mastercard Crypto Partner Program reflecting a shared belief that the next phase of onchain payments will be built through collaboration.

As digital assets move toward real-world use, connecting blockchain infrastructure with existing payment networks… pic.twitter.com/eZMyEa3M8j

— TRON DAO (@trondao) March 13, 2026

The company explained the endeavor as a place to engage in dialogue and collaborate as blockchain-based payment activity increasingly works in tandem with traditional finance, providing the background support to real-world financial activities.

In its release, Mastercard reported that enterprise and institutional applications are becoming increasingly popular, especially for payments out, cross-border money movement, settlement, and B2B transfers. According to the company, it is aimed to integrate the speed and programmability of digital assets with the current card rails and global trade flows.

TRON DAO claimed that its involvement was based on the view that the next stage of on-chain payments will be collaborative. The organization also stated that integrating blockchain infrastructure with payment networks is increasing in importance as digital assets come to closer to usefulness.

The program expands upon previous Mastercard Bitcoin program activities, such as its Start Path accelerator track to blockchain and digital asset startups and its Engage platform, which includes a crypto card program.

Stablecoins and settlement tools form core of program

At the center of Mastercard’s broader crypto strategy is its Multi-Token Network, or MTN, which the company uses as a private settlement layer connecting tokenized bank deposits and regulated stablecoins across financial institutions. Mastercard also highlighted its Crypto Credential tool, which replaces wallet addresses with human-readable identifiers and automates compliance checks intended to reduce transaction errors.

The partner program includes exchanges and digital asset firms such as Binance, PayPal, Ripple, Circle, Gemini, Paxos, Crypto.com, OKX, and Bybit. It also includes infrastructure providers such as Fireblocks, Chainalysis, MoonPay, and Worldpay.

Mastercard’s recent product rollouts also connect to this strategy. In late February, the company launched the MetaMask Card in the United States in partnership with ConsenSys and Monavate. The card allows users to make payments with USDC, USDT, mUSD, and yield-bearing tokens, such as aUSDC, via Aave. Mastercard said the product is also active in Switzerland, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.

Earlier in March, Mastercard also announced that it had secured SoFi Technologies as a stablecoin settlement partner. Under that arrangement, SoFiUSD, a fully backed U.S. dollar stablecoin launched in December 2025, will serve as a settlement option within Mastercard’s payment network.

Broader strategy shift follows acquisition talks

The new partner model comes after the previous Mastercard acquisition talks with blockchain infrastructure firm Zerohash. Until late 2025, Mastercard was in the final stages of acquiring the company in a deal estimated to cost between $1.5 and $2 billion. Zerohash declined the transaction and subsequently sought a $250 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation.

Based on the information presented, Mastercard is considering a strategic investment in Zerohash, but no results have been validated. The company had also expressed interest in purchasing BVNK, a London-based stablecoin payments platform.

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Amazon Web Services said Friday it will put processors from Cerebras inside its data centers under a multiyear partnership focused on AI inference.

The deal gives Amazon a new way to speed up how AI models answer prompts, write code, and handle live user requests. AWS said it will use Cerebras technology, including the Wafer-Scale Engine, for inference tasks.

The companies did not share the financial terms. The setup is planned for Amazon Bedrock inside AWS data centers, putting the partnership right inside one of Amazon’s main AI products.

AWS said the system will combine Amazon Trainium-powered servers, Cerebras CS-3 systems, and Amazon’s Elastic Fabric Adapter networking.

Later this year, AWS also plans to offer leading open-source large language models and Amazon Nova on Cerebras hardware. David Brown, vice president of Compute and ML Services at AWS, said speed is still a major problem in AI inference, especially for real-time coding help and interactive apps.

David said, “Inference is where AI delivers real value to customers, but speed remains a critical bottleneck for demanding workloads like real-time coding assistance and interactive applications.”

Amazon splits prefill and decode across separate chips

AWS said the design uses a method called inference disaggregation. That means splitting AI inference into two parts. The first part is prompt processing, also called prefill. The second part is output generation, also called decode.

AWS said the two jobs behave very differently. Prefill is parallel, compute heavy, and needs moderate memory bandwidth. Decode is serial, lighter on compute, and much more dependent on memory bandwidth. Decode also takes most of the time in these cases because every output token has to be produced one by one.

That is why AWS is assigning different hardware to each stage. Trainium will handle prefill. Cerebras CS-3 will handle decode.

AWS said low-latency, high-bandwidth EFA networking will connect both sides so the system can work as one service while each processor focuses on a separate task.

David said, “What we’re building with Cerebras solves that: by splitting the inference workload across Trainium and CS-3, and connecting them with Amazon’s Elastic Fabric Adapter, each system does what it’s best at. The result will be inference that’s an order of magnitude faster and higher performance than what’s available today.”

AWS also said the service will run on the AWS Nitro System, which is the base layer for its cloud infrastructure.

That means Cerebras CS-3 systems and Trainium-powered instances are expected to operate with the same security, isolation, and consistency that AWS customers already use.

Amazon pushes Trainium harder as Nvidia faces another threat

The announcement also gives Amazon another opening to push Trainium against chips from Nvidia, AMD, and other big chip companies. AWS describes Trainium as its in-house AI chip built for scalable performance and cost efficiency across training and inference.

AWS said two major AI labs are already committed to it. Anthropic has named AWS its primary training partner and uses Trainium to train and deploy models. OpenAI will consume 2 gigawatts of Trainium capacity through AWS infrastructure for Stateful Runtime Environment, frontier models, and other advanced workloads.

AWS added that Trainium3 has seen strong adoption since its recent release, with customers across industries committing major capacity.

Cerebras is handling the decode side of the setup. AWS said CS-3 is dedicated to decoding acceleration, which gives it more room for fast output tokens. Cerebras says CS-3 is the world’s fastest AI inference system and delivers thousands of times greater memory bandwidth than the fastest GPU.

The company said reasoning models now make up a larger share of inference work and generate more tokens per request as they work through problems. Cerebras also said OpenAI, Cognition, Mistral, and others use its systems for demanding workloads, especially agentic coding.

Andrew Feldman, founder and chief executive of Cerebras Systems, said, “Partnering with AWS to build a disaggregated inference solution will bring the fastest inference to a global customer base.”

Andrew added, “Every enterprise around the world will be able to benefit from blisteringly fast inference within their existing AWS environment.”

The deal adds more pressure on Nvidia, which in December signed a $20 billion licensing agreement with Groq and plans next week to unveil a new inference system using Groq technology.

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A US appeals court moved ahead to reject a request submitted by Custodia Bank to reconsider its legal challenge against the Federal Reserve. The push was over the access to the central bank’s payment system. The dismissal marks another setback in the bank’s long-running attempt to obtain a master account.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit voted 7–3 against granting Custodia’s petition for a rehearing before the full court. The request was filed to overturn an October ruling that Reserve Banks have legal discretion to deny master accounts to institutions that are seeking direct access to the Fed’s payment infrastructure.

Fed misread the Monetary Control Act?

On Dec 15, 2025, Custodia filed its petition for rehearing. It argued that the panel misinterpreted the Monetary Control Act of 1980. The bank mentioned that the law grants eligible institutions the right to a master account. However, it also warned that the earlier ruling undermined state banking authority while raising constitutional concerns.

In a split view, Judge Timothy Tymkovich stated that the case carried major implications for financial regulation. He even argued that allowing Reserve Banks unreviewable discretion over master account approvals could conflict with federal statutes and potentially the Constitution. As of now, Custodia hasn’t issued any statement. But it is expected that the bank might continue to pursue access to the Fed’s payment system.

🚨NEW: The 10th Circuit has rejected @custodiabank’s request for a full court rehearing in its master account fight with the @federalreserve, after a panel ruled in October that Reserve Banks have legal discretion to deny master account access.

Active judges voted 7–3 against… https://t.co/SXE4qf5TBH pic.twitter.com/O9pQ9zrH5h

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 13, 2026

The decision comes in when another crypto-linked institution moves closer to the US financial system. Recently, Kraken announced that it had been granted a master account through its Wyoming-based banking entity. This allowed the exchange to connect directly to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails.

According to reports, Kraken will be able to access systems such as Fedwire through the account. This will enable the exchange to transfer US dollars directly to institutional clients. It added that the system will allow real-time settlement of transactions. This will eventually reduce the need for intermediary banks. The access would initially support institutional client activity. However, it would be rolled out in phases under a one-year approval term.

The approval has now placed Kraken’s banking arm alongside traditional financial institutions that already maintain accounts with the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the company highlighted that it would not receive the full range of privileges typically granted to conventional banks.

New framework for crypto on the way?

Crypto firms have been trying to get direct access to the Federal Reserve accounts, as this would allow them to settle payments without relying on intermediary banks. It will lower costs and speed up transactions. At the same time, banks argue that granting payment system access to a crypto-linked entity could introduce new risks into the system.

Custodia even acknowledged the Kraken’s approval in a public statement. It noted that both companies applied for Federal Reserve master accounts in late 2020. Kraken was the first crypto-native firm to apply, while Custodia filed its application shortly after it.

The Wyoming-based bank stated that it has been building stablecoins from inside the bank regulatory perimeter since 2020. It will continue down a dual path of pursuing a Fed master account. This will be done while expanding its collaborations with traditional banks in the tokenized deposit and stablecoin markets.

The Fed is reportedly working on a broader policy framework that could allow crypto companies and other nontraditional financial institutions to access so-called “skinny” master accounts. The proposal remains in early development, and regulators have not said when applications might open.

Amid approvals and rejections, the crypto market posted a mild recovery. Its cumulative market cap surged marginally over the last 24 hours to stand at $2.42 trillion. Bitcoin price is up by more than 3% over the last 7 days. BTC is trading at an average price of $70,789 at the press time.

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After days where every mention of President Trump was linked to Iran strikes and oil prices, headlines about the $TRUMP memecoin and the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files have returned to the headlines. 

It was a positive update for holders of the Trump memecoin, which returned to the green after it was announced that President Trump would invite the top 297 holders to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

The other update about the House Oversight Committee’s show of intent to keep digging into the Epstein files is a more ambiguous issue, especially for people like Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, who believe that the Trump administration is using the Iran military conflict as a distraction from criticism of its handling of the files.

Why is the $TRUMP token gaining value despite the war?

Since the military conflict in Iran began, conspiracy theorists and political critics have suggested that the Trump administration leaned into the “war machine” to distract people from the long-awaited release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

However, today’s news headlines were dominated by prison guard testimonies and Mar-a-Lago luncheons, showing that the public’s demand for accountability is as active as ever.

The Solana-based memecoin $TRUMP witnessed a massive surge of over 50% earlier today after it was announced from the token’s team that the top 297 holders of the coin would be invited to an exclusive Gala Luncheon at the Mar-a-Lago residence on April 25, 2026.

The $TRUMP meme is back trading in the green after news of a Mar-a-Lago dinner with President Trump for top holders. Source: CoinMarketCap

The event has been explained as a high-level crypto and business conference featuring President Donald Trump as the keynote speaker. A previous dinner held last year at a Trump-owned golf club also caused a significant price increase.

Lawmakers concerned about the President profiting from the crypto industry criticized the dinner.

Prior to this spike, $TRUMP was trading near an all-time low of approximately $2.75, a 96% drop from its January 2025 peak of $75.35. However, despite this poor performance, Cryptopolitan reported that whales have been quietly accumulating the token.

Is the Iran conflict being used to hide the Epstein files?

The House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced on national television that the committee intends to bring in Tova Noel for a transcribed interview. Noel was one of the two Metropolitan Correctional Center guards on duty the night Epstein died.

Records show that Noel made a $5,000 cash deposit just ten days before Epstein’s death, which is a major red flag, but the Department of Justice allegedly never investigated it.

Comer noted that suspicious activity reports are rarely filed for sums under $10,000.

Documents suggest Noel searched Google for the “latest on Epstein in jail” just minutes before he was found dead. Comer stated that “most people on the committee aren’t confident 100% that Epstein’s death was by suicide,” and they are seeking answers on whether the government was involved in destroying or hiding evidence.

A second batch of Epstein-related documents containing FBI interview materials that allegedly implicate several high-level elites was released on March 5, but public interest in these files plummeted almost immediately as U.S. and Israeli air campaigns against Iran began dominating the news.

Senator Jeff Merkley suggested that the two events are connected, claiming the administration wanted to get the files “off the front page.”

Iran has continued to threaten that it will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, which could drive oil prices to $120 a barrel.

General Michael Flynn, who briefly served as national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration, made it clear that a reckoning would come for the “degenerates” that Epstein enticed.

“Make Accountability Great Again” has become a rallying cry for those who believe the still unnamed contacts of the disgraced financier must finally face the consequences of their actions.

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After the initial uproar from a March 11 report that claimed that Coinbase was lobbying Capitol Hill against a de minimis tax exemption for Bitcoin, the rhetoric has since been dialed as strong denials and context have been applied to the legislative conversation around the CLARITY Act — Armstrong and Coinbase may simply not prioritize the Bitcoin de minimis exemption because it is not its business. 

Within hours of the allegation, Coinbase’s entire policy executive bench had issued categorical denials, Jack Dorsey had nudged Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly for a response, and swaths of the Bitcoin community had drawn their conclusions.

Armstrong responded to a TFTC post that stated that Coinbase was trying to kill the Bitcoin de minimis exemption, calling the allegations “totally false.” He wrote, “I’ve spent a bunch of time lobbying for Bitcoin’s de minimis tax exemption, and will continue doing so. It’s obviously the right thing.”

What is the de minimis exemption, and why does it matter for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is currently classified as property under the United States tax law. That means every time a holder spends it, including on routine purchases, it constitutes a taxable disposal event, requiring cost-basis tracking and capital gains reporting. 

That classification makes Bitcoin impractical as everyday money. A de minimis exemption would carve out small transactions from this requirement, treating them similarly to minor foreign currency exchanges, which already receive such relief. 

Senator Cynthia Lummis has been the most prominent champion of this reform. Her bill, introduced last July, proposed a $300 per-transaction threshold with a $5,000 annual cap on everyday crypto transactions. 

The current House framework, the CLARITY Act discussion draft, includes a stablecoin-only exemption capped at $200 for regulated, dollar-pegged tokens; however, there was no provision for Bitcoin. 

Advocacy platforms like the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) called out the absence of Bitcoin in this draft. The BPI has been active in their engagement with Congress, reaching an understanding that a de minimis exemption for stablecoins is not sufficient. The nonprofit organization is working to get the Hill to consider the exemption for Bitcoin. 

Did Coinbase actually lobby against the Bitcoin exemption?

So far, there’s no concrete evidence that Coinbase was lobbying against the Bitcoin de minimis exemption other than reports attributed to Marty Bent. 

Bent responded to Armstrong’s denial on X, stating, “I have sources that say otherwise, not you personally, but your team and/or lobbyists. Will you commit to walk away from the market structure bill if it doesn’t include the de minimis exemption for bitcoin like you did stablecoin yield?”

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad called it “a total lie.” Vice President of US policy at Coinbase, Kara Calvert, said the claims were “categorically false,” adding that Coinbase has advocated for a de minimis exemption covering all digital assets since 2017. 

Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated that Coinbase had never lobbied against Bitcoin.

So far, Bent has not retracted the claim.

Frank Corva, content producer and strategist at Fedi, writing on X, may have the most logical opinion in this wildly swinging situation. 

He stated that Armstrong simply may not prioritize the Bitcoin de minimis exemption because it does not benefit Coinbase or the businesses he has interests in. Corva recalled Armstrong’s stated view that “stablecoins are the best form of money,” which would explain why Bitcoin’s inclusion in a US payments tax exemption may not be top of mind for him. 

Corva noted separately that from conversations with people close to the negotiations, the de minimis question was not even the central focus; the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) was the bigger fight.

The BRCA, which would protect non-custodial software developers from Bank Secrecy Act obligations, is the legislation that Coinbase and much of the industry have staked as a red line, as Corva says it seems to potentially be on the chopping block in the bill.

Where does Tether stand in this fight?

Through the entirety of the controversy, Tether, the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, has said nothing on the matter.

Tether does not share yields with USDT holders, unlike Circle with its USDC, so it doesn’t “have much beef in this fight.” It has no direct financial stake in whether Bitcoin gets a de minimis exemption or not, either, unlike The Bitcoin Policy Institute, Jack Dorsey’s Block, whose “Bitcoin is Everyday Money” campaign has invested in Lightning Network infrastructure, and Senator Lummis. 

The fury directed at Coinbase came from an unstated assumption that it is obligated to champion Bitcoin’s cause in Washington at all times, at the expense of its own commercial priorities.

The truth may be that you can’t run a successful company in the crypto industry while being your brother’s keeper all the time, every time.

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