Day: March 10, 2026

Republicans Could Hold Up Housing Bill Over CBDC Ban

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Republicans in the US Congress want to ban any possibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). To do so, they’re threatening progress on a bipartisan housing bill. A group of Republican members of the US House of Representatives wrote a letter dated March 6, expressing the “dire need to prohibit a Central Bank Digital Currency from ever happening in the United States.” The letter cited familiar arguments claiming a CBDC would threaten financial privacy and grant the US Federal Reserve unprecedented financial surveillance powers. Critics question why Republicans are…

Meta expands AI agent push with Moltbook acquisition

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Meta has acquired Moltbook, a viral social network designed for autonomous AI agents, bringing its founders into the company’s Meta Superintelligence Labs, according to an Axios report. The platform was created by entrepreneurs Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr and launched in January as an experimental online space where AI agents can post, interact, and coordinate tasks on behalf of their human operators. Meta did not disclose the purchase price, with the report saying the deal is expected to close in mid March, when Schlicht and Parr will join Meta Superintelligence…

French Couple Extorted for $1M in Bitcoin by Fake Police

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A French couple was forced to transfer about $1 million in Bitcoin during a fake police home invasion as wrench attacks keep rising, local media reported. A French couple in their late 50s was forced to transfer over 900,000 euros ($1 million) in Bitcoin during a fake police raid at their home west of Paris in the latest violent attack targeting cryptocurrency holders in France, according to TF1 Info and Agence France-Presse (AFP). Three suspects posing as police officers entered the couple’s home Monday morning in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, in the…

Trust Wallet Adds Address Poisoning Protection Across 32 EVM Chains

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Trust Wallet has introduced address-poisoning protection, adding a new screening feature designed to help users avoid sending cryptocurrency to scam wallets that mimic legitimate addresses. The noncustodial wallet provider said Tuesday that the new feature will automatically run a destination address check against a database of known scam and lookalike addresses to prevent malicious transactions. The rollout initially covers 32 Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Base. Trust Wallet called address poisoning attacks one of the “fastest-growing threats in crypto,” and claimed…

Polymarket partners with Peter Thiel’s Palantir to build AI-powered oversight tools

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Polymarket, the world’s premier prediction market, has partnered with Palantir Technologies and TWG AI to build an AI-powered, fully monitored, and compliant system that ensures sports prediction markets are safe, fair, and transparent for all participants. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan expects that the collaboration will help fans and teams engage confidently with sports markets. The partnership leverages expertise in AI, data integration, and security to promote transparency, trust, and reliability, as noted in a Tuesday press release. Vergence AI, developed last year with Palantir and TWG AI, will be the…

CFTC Chair Backs Blockchain-Powered Prediction Markets Despite Pushback

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US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig has voiced support for prediction markets paired with blockchain technology, claiming they could become powerful tools for discovering truth. Speaking at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, on Monday, Selig argued that prediction markets, also known as event contracts, can provide valuable signals about future events when participants put money behind their views, describing well-functioning markets as “truth machines.” “When participants express views on future events — and back those views with capital — they create accountability,…

Nvidia backs Thinking Machines Lab in multiyear strategic partnership

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Thinking Machines Lab, led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has secured a major investment and multiyear partnership with Nvidia, according to a Tuesday announcement. The deal includes deploying at least one gigawatt of Vera Rubin systems, designing AI training infrastructure, and expanding access to frontier models for enterprises and researchers. Discussing the move, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that AI represents humanity’s most powerful instrument for uncovering knowledge and that Thinking Machines has built an exceptional team to advance AI. “We are thrilled to partner with Thinking Machines to…

Strategy Posts Record STRC Sales After ATM Rule Change

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public holder of Bitcoin, sold a record amount of its perpetual preferred equity, Stretch (STRC), after amending its sales rules on Monday. Strategy is estimated to have bought 1,420 Bitcoin (BTC) in a single day after selling roughly 2.4 million STRC shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, according to data from STRC.live. The amount marks the largest estimated daily issuance of STRC and BTC purchases, surpassing the previous record of 1,069 BTC, according to a Monday X post from STRC.live. Strategy announced a major…

Belgian giant KBC taps Taurus to support country’s first regulated Bitcoin, Ether trading

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Major Belgian bank-insurer KBC Group has teamed up with Swiss fintech firm Taurus SA to provide institutional custody services for its new crypto asset offering, according to a Tuesday statement. The collaboration will enable KBC to deploy Taurus-PROTECT, a banking-grade digital asset custody platform, as the foundation for regulated crypto trading through Bolero, KBC’s self-directed investment platform. The service launched last month, making KBC the first Belgian bank to offer crypto trading within a fully regulated banking framework. At launch, retail investors will have access to Bitcoin and Ethereum on…

Babylon, Ledger Integration Expands Bitcoin Vault Access

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Bitcoin staking infrastructure developer Babylon Labs has integrated with Ledger, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet maker, in a move that could make it easier for holders to put their Bitcoin (BTC) to work in financial applications without giving up self-custody. In a Tuesday announcement, the companies said Ledger signers will be used for Babylon’s Trustless Bitcoin Vaults, also known as BTCVaults. The vaults allow BTC holders to lock their tokens into programmable contracts governed by onchain conditions while retaining self-custody of the underlying asset. Ledger devices will act as the secure…