1. Top 10 CEX Cryptocurrencies and 24-Hour Price Changes:
BTC: + 0.53%
ETH: + 1.24%
SOL: + 0.10%
XRP: + 2.29%
ADA: + 10.99%
TRUMP: + 1.34%
DOGE: -0.53%
SUI: -6.12%
PEPE: -2.10%
BNB: + 1.52%
24-Hour Gainers (Data from OKX):
PRQ: + 19.86%
GOAL: + 15.34%
AAVE: + 14.38%
ADA: + 11.14%
ZBCN: + 8.23%
CATI: + 7.15%
COMP: + 6.72%
VELODROME: + 6.68%
SNX: + 6.68%
SAMO: + 6.64%
2. Top 5 On-Chain Meme Coins (Data from GMGN):
Sammy
DARKLON
GREE D3
JAILGAY
IRIDIA
3. 24-Hour Trending Cryptocurrencies
WANCE: A Meme Coin related to the recent performance of US Vice President JD Vance during his meeting with the President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, which was seen as highly Meme-worthy and led to the creation of related Memes, including the PWEASE token launched yesterday.
Headlines
US Senate Overwhelmingly Votes Against DeFi Broker Bill, Moves to House Vote
The US Senate voted 70-27 to pass a resolution to repeal the IRS's expanded broker rules, which were originally intended to cover DeFi. The bill now moves to the House for a vote, and if passed, the President can sign it into law, repealing the provision and preventing the IRS from implementing similar policies in the future.
Blockstream Raises Billions for Three Funds, Two Focused on Crypto Lending
According to sources, Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream Corp. has raised billions of dollars to launch three funds, two of which will be focused on crypto lending. The funds are set to launch on April 1, and the company plans to start accepting additional outside capital from July 1. Blockstream declined to comment.
Industry News
Circle's USDC to Become Japan's First US Dollar Stablecoin
Circle's USDC will become Japan's first US dollar stablecoin, with SBI VC Trade set to list the stablecoin under Japan's new payment framework.
El Salvador Buys 1 More BTC, Total Holdings Reach 6,101 BTC
El Salvador purchased 1 more BTC in the early hours of today, bringing its total holdings to 6,101.18 BTC. The country had previously accumulated 5 BTC yesterday.
Aave's High-Risk Lending Plummets by $1 Billion, Liquidations Decline
According to IntoTheBlock data, Aave's high-risk lending on the mainnet has decreased by nearly $1 billion since the large-scale liquidation event on February 3, and liquidations have also significantly declined. Despite the current market volatility being more severe than in February, the actual liquidation volume has decreased substantially. This phenomenon can be partially attributed to the previous forced liquidations, but a more important factor may be the overall shift in market sentiment, with many large-position holders adopting more cautious strategies and actively deleveraging to reduce risk exposure in the face of potential price pressure and market uncertainty.
JPMorgan: 14 Listed Mining Firms' Market Cap Fell 22% in February, Weakening Bitcoin Mining Economy
JPMorgan's tracking of 14 listed mining firms shows their total market cap declined 22% in February, highlighting the weakening Bitcoin mining economy. The bank noted that Bitcoin mining stocks with high-performance computing (HPC) exposure saw price declines following DeepSeek AI's announcement and concerns over recent data center capacity demand. Core Scientific (CORZ) performed the best, declining 9%, while Greenidge Generation saw the worst performance, dropping 36% in the month.
Project Updates
Monad: Airdropped Over 10 MON Test Tokens to Wallets Holding Various NFTs
Monad announced that it has airdropped over 10 MON test tokens to wallet addresses holding the following NFTs: cryptopunks, milady maker, bored ape yacht club, pudgy penguins, autoglyphs, chromie squiggles, mutant ape yacht club, doodles, fidenza, azuki, lil pudgys, meebits, captains, redacted remilio babies, parallel avatars, sappy seals, digidaigaku, max pain xcopy, cool cats, mfers, moonbirds, forgotten runes wizard cult, cryptoadz, beanz, rektguy, opepen, the plague, checks, schizoposters, and pudgy rods.
Aave Community Proposes Updates to AAVE Token Economics and More
Aave DAO service provider Marc Zeller has published a governance proposal seeking approval to implement the first part of the updated Aavenomics, including updates to the AAVE token economics, protocol surplus re-allocation, LEND token retirement, and updates to the Aave secondary liquidity protocol management. This proposal is a natural continuation of the "TEMP CHECK" Aavenomics update proposed and approved by governance in August 2024. The proposal focuses on implementing Aavenomics and is more concise than the "TEMP CHECK" to improve readability. The proposal suggests using Umbrella as a protection mechanism for Aave users and re-allocating a portion of Aave DAO's surplus revenue to Umbrella aToken stakers as a growth tool.
MARA: Bitcoin Holdings Increase to 46,374 BTC
US-listed crypto miner MARA released its February 2025 operational data, reporting 706 BTC mined in February, a 4% increase in daily production, and an increase in its Bitcoin holdings to 46,374 BTC.
Sony's L2 Network Soneium Has Distributed OG NFT Credentials to Early Users
Sony's Layer 2 network Soneium has distributed Soneium OG Badge (requiring at least 45 transactions) and Soneium Premium OG Badge (requiring bridging 1 ETH, 2500 USDC, or 70000 ASTR) NFTs to early users, which can be viewed on block explorers like Blockscout. The total number of addresses holding these two OG NFTs is 426,992.
Investment and Financing
Across Protocol Completes $41 Million Financing, Led by Paradigm
Across Protocol, focused on interoperability, raised $41 million by selling its ACX token to investors. The round was led by Paradigm, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and angel investor Sina Habinian. The latest round brings its total financing to $51 million.
Infrared Completes $16 Million Series A Financing, Led by Framework Ventures
Infrared, a Berachain on-chain liquidity proof (PoL) staking protocol, announced the completion of a $16 million Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Citizen X, Halo Capital, No Limit Holdings, NGC Ventures, and Selini Capital. The total financing raised by Infrared has reached $18.75 million.
Metaplanet Completes Approximately $87 Million Financing to Increase Bitcoin Holdings
According to Metaplanet's announcement, the company has completed the large-scale exercise of the 13th and 14th series of stock subscription rights through third-party private placement, raising a total of approximately 12.97 billion yen (about $87 million). This financing was supported by EVO FUND, and a portion of the funds has been used to redeem the previously issued 7th ordinary bonds in advance. Metaplanet plans to use the funds to continue increasing its Bitcoin holdings, strengthening its digital asset investment strategy.
French crypto trading company Flowdesk has successfully raised $102 million, with approximately 90% being equity financing and 10% being debt financing. The new funds will be used to expand services, including establishing a crypto lending division and opening an office in the United Arab Emirates.
Flowdesk focuses on market making and liquidity provision, and has achieved an eight-fold increase in revenue growth by 2024. This round of financing was led by European investor HV Capital and also involved French private equity firm Eurazeo. The debt financing came from a fund managed by BlackRock.
Flowdesk plans to use the funds to expand its OTC derivatives business and provide competitive lending and borrowing solutions. The company will also increase its headcount and open more offices in the next year. Additionally, Flowdesk is actively preparing to meet the compliance requirements of the EU's MiCA regulation.
Endless Web3 Genesis Cloud, a distributed intelligent component protocol, announced the completion of a strategic financing round, with Foresight Ventures and other well-known institutions and investors as the main participants.
The financing will be used to accelerate the development of Endless' component-based development platform, AI Agent toolchain and ecosystem building, as well as key aspects of project product R&D, ecosystem development support, long-term development reserves, marketing and strategic cooperation, to help Endless become a super connector between Web2 and Web3, AI and Web3.
Endless is a distributed intelligent component protocol aimed at lowering the threshold for Web2 applications to transform to Web3, providing developers with a one-stop Web3 application development platform and users with Web2-level experiences. Endless is built on a public chain supporting the Move language, and integrates various AI large model capabilities and plugins, committed to becoming the best connector between AI and Crypto, allowing developers to build Crypto AI applications more easily and quickly.
FastLane Labs Completes $6 Million Financing, Led by Figment Capital and DBA
FastLane Labs announced the completion of a $6 million financing, led by Figment Capital and DBA, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and CHORUS ONE.
Previously, in May 2023, FastLane Labs, the developer of the Polygon ecosystem MEV solution FastLane, announced the completion of a $2.3 million seed round financing, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Shima Capital, Delphi Ventures, Everstake Ventures, a41 Ventures, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal's venture capital fund Symbolic Capital.
The FastLane protocol focuses on creating revenue for validators and improving the efficiency of algorithmic traders, while minimizing redundant transactions on the network for participants, without the need to install or manage custom software on validator nodes.
Regulatory Developments
According to an announcement from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. government has added 49 cryptocurrency addresses to its sanctions list. These addresses are controlled by Iranian citizen Behrouz Parsarad, who is alleged to be the administrator of the dark web marketplace Nemesis. The sanctioned addresses include 44 Bitcoin and 5 Monero addresses. Nemesis had 30,000 active users before being shut down, and facilitated nearly $30 million in drug transactions over its three-year operation. OFAC revealed that Parsarad profited millions of dollars by charging user transaction fees, and was involved in money laundering for drug traffickers and cybercriminals. Nemesis traded a wide range of items, including drugs, personal data, forged documents, ransomware, and cybercrime tools.
U.S. SEC Agrees to Withdraw Lawsuit Against Cumberland DRW
Crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW has stated that it has signed a joint application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to withdraw the SEC's lawsuit against it. The agreement was reached in principle on February 20 and is currently awaiting approval from the SEC Commission. The SEC had sued Cumberland DRW last October, alleging that it operated as an unregistered securities broker-dealer and sold over $2 billion in unregistered securities.
Voices
Salvadoran President: Will Not Stop Buying Bitcoin Due to IMF Agreement
Nayib Bukele of El Salvador stated that the country has no intention of stopping its Bitcoin (BTC) purchases, regardless of any demands from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bukele posted on the X platform: "'This will all stop in April.' 'This will all stop in June.' 'This will all stop in December.' No, it won't stop. If the world rejects us, if most 'Bitcoin users' abandon us, we won't stop now, and we won't stop in the future. Proof of Work > Proof of Complaint." Earlier that day, the IMF had released more details on its $3.5 billion agreement with the Latin American country, stating that as part of the loan program, the IMF prohibits "the voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector."
US Commerce Secretary Lutnick said on Tuesday that the Trump administration could announce as early as tomorrow a path to tariff relief for goods from Mexico and Canada. Lutnick told Fox in an interview: "Mexican and Canadian officials have been on the phone with me all day trying to show that they will do better, and the president is listening, so I think he will reach some kind of agreement with them, which will not be a suspension of tariffs or anything like that, but I think Trump will compromise with them in some ways, and we will likely announce this tomorrow." Lutnick said the tariffs could be set at "some middle level," with Trump making some concessions to Canada and Mexico, but not fully backing down. Lutnick was skeptical of the prospect of a full tariff rollback, citing the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal negotiated during Trump's first presidential term. "If you comply with those provisions, then the president will consider giving you a reduction," he said, "If you don't comply with those rules, then you have to pay the tariffs."
Polymarket data shows a 70% probability that the US-Canada trade war will end before May. The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, but Lutnick subsequently hinted at the possibility of negotiations, easing market sentiment, and the relevant forecast probability has risen by 20% in a short period of time. Lutnick said Trump wants to reach an agreement with Canada and Mexico, rather than simply suspending tariffs. Affected by this news, the crypto market has risen, with Bitcoin breaking through $87,000. (CoinDesk)
Previously, US Commerce Secretary Lutnick said on Tuesday that the Trump administration could announce as early as tomorrow a path to tariff relief for goods from Mexico and Canada. Lutnick told Fox in an interview: "Mexican and Canadian officials have been on the phone with me all day trying to show that they will do better, and the president is listening, so I think he will reach some kind of agreement with them, which will not be a suspension of tariffs or anything like that, but I think Trump will compromise with them in some ways, and we will likely announce this tomorrow." Lutnick said the tariffs could be set at "some middle level," with Trump making some concessions to Canada and Mexico, but not fully backing down.
Cynthia Lummis: The door to punitive regulation of the crypto industry is closing
US Senator and Chair of the Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Cynthia Lummis posted on X platform commenting on the dismissal of the lawsuit against crypto exchange Kraken, saying: "This is a huge victory for the digital asset industry, and we are closing the door to punitive regulation, welcoming the return of American innovation."
