BREAKING
- The Ethereum Foundation, together with partners (including MetaMask,** Google**, Coinbase (COIN)), publishes the new ERC-8004 standard for "trustless (AI) agents" and announces a mainnet launch on March 3, 2026.
MORE
- SEC & CFTC launch "Project Crypto" and clarify how securities law applies to tokenized securities.
- BlackRock (BLK) enables 24/7 onchain trading of BUIDL shares via Uniswap through Uniswap Labs and Securitize, and makes a strategic investment in the Uniswap ecosystem.
- SEC permits broker-dealers to apply a 2% net capital haircut instead of 100% for "qualifying payment stablecoins," lowering the capital hurdle for stablecoin holdings.
- FED analyzes Kalshi prediction markets and finds better forecast quality for the Fed Funds Rate and CPI versus futures/consensus.
- CLARITY Act clears a Senate committee for the first time; according to the CFTC chair, the law could be presented to the president in the coming months.
- CME Group (CME) intends to allow near-round-the-clock trading of crypto futures and options from May 29.
- Robinhood (HOOD) launches the public testnet of Robinhood Chain (Ethereum L2 on Arbitrum) with partners such as Chainlink, LayerZero, TRM and Alchemy in preparation for tokenized asset and DeFi apps.
- Robinhood plans 24/7 trading and self-custody for tokenized equities with DeFi usage and calls for greater US regulatory clarity.
- Coinbase (COIN) introduces USDC rewards, allowing Coinbase One customers to receive the distribution in Bitcoin.
- Coinbase (COIN) enables US users to borrow USDC up to $100,000 against XRP/ADA/LTC collateral via Morpho (Base).
- Metaplanet (MTPLF) plans a capital raise of up to ¥21 billion and additionally uses BTC-collateralized bridge financing to accelerate Bitcoin purchases.
- Terawulf (WULF) acquires two brownfield sites and expands power capacity by ~1.5 GW to ~2.8 GW.
- CleanSpark (CLSK) expands its power and data center pipeline by up to ~885 MW for mining and AI infrastructure through two Texas acquisitions.
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY) announces a $200 million share buyback program and maintains the timeline for the Helios data center expansion.
- Ethereum Foundation establishes a post-quantum security team and repurposes residual DAO funds into a ~$220 million security endowment for grants and incident response.
- Bitcoin developers merge BIP 360 into the official BIP repository, initiating the formal review/testing phase for transaction formats that mitigate quantum risk.
SPEAKERS’ CORNER
- Following the pronounced sell-off in Bitcoin & Co. at the end of January, February was largely characterized by sideways movement.
- Notable was the shift in correlation: Bitcoin recently moved less in lockstep with the NASDAQ-100 and considerably more closely with the software sector (iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF).
- The software sector came under pressure from new AI applications by Anthropic (Claude), prompting a reassessment of existing business models.
- In our view, this suggests that the weakness in digital assets was primarily triggered by traditional market participants with technology-driven cross-asset exposures.
- At the same time, development momentum within the native blockchain industry remains high. This discrepancy between market price and fundamental innovation should realign over the medium to long term.
Translated from the German original, which is the authoritative version. Read the German version
