Month: March 2026

Bitcoin rally hits wall as Iran clowns US talks

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Bitcoin’s push toward $72,000 stalled after Iran rebuffed ceasefire chatter, insisting that no talks have occurred since the war began in late February, state media FARS reported Wednesday. These comments directly oppose President Donald Trump’s claim on Monday that diplomatic talks were underway. Citing the discussions’ positive tone, Trump announced a five-day pause on any military strikes against Iran’s power and energy facilities while negotiations continue to move forward. Despite offers from regional and international mediators, Iran said it would continue its military defenses. Bullish momentum faltered as Iran shot…

UK Review Calls for Temporary Ban on Crypto Political Donations

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Philip Rycroft, a former senior civil servant, recommended that the UK government impose a temporary moratorium on political donations made in crypto assets in an independent review published on Wednesday. “The government should legislate in the Representation of the People Bill to introduce a moratorium on political donations made in cryptoassets,” Rycroft wrote in the report, which was commissioned by the government in December 2025. The review said crypto assets could provide a route for foreign money to enter the UK political system because of incomplete regulation, the difficulty of…

STS Digital Launches Structured Crypto Products With Kraken

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Crypto derivatives firm STS Digital said on Wednesday it had launched a structured products platform for digital assets, with Kraken as its first distribution partner. STS Digital said the platform allows clients to access options-based strategies packaged into predefined payoff structures. Kraken has integrated the platform via an API and is using it to power its Dual Investment product, which offers eligible clients fixed returns on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).  The launch reflects a broader trend of firms packaging derivatives into structured products that can offer yield or downside…

Bitcoin Rallies After Iran Strikes but Safe Haven Role Unproven

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Before the Iran war broke out, Bitcoin spent months trading sideways while gold rallied to record levels. At the time, gold was seen as the go-to safe haven; inflation concerns remained persistent and geopolitical tensions continued to build, while Bitcoin (BTC) failed to live up to that role. Nearly a month after the US and Israel launched the first strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, that view is being challenged. Bitcoin initially fell to $63,176 on the news of the attacks but has since risen about 12% to $71,012, as…

Tom Lee’s Bitmine debuts MAVAN staking, stock advances

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Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), led by Fundstrat Global Advisors’ co-founder Thomas “Tom” Lee, is rolling out its MAVAN staking solution after months of infrastructure preparation. MAVAN, short for Made-in-America Validator Network, is a proprietary staking platform built to dominate institutional Ethereum staking and expand into broader blockchain infrastructure services. It was first teased in late 2025 earnings reports for a Q1 2026 debut. The company reports multi-billion-dollar ETH holdings already staked and expects significant annual staking rewards as it continues deployment. Backed by major investors, Bitmine aims to grow MAVAN into…

Governments Need CBDCs To Improve Financial Inclusion Among Citizens

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Opinion by: Xin Yan, co-founder and CEO of Sign. Financial exclusion remains one of the most persistent challenges for national governments. World Bank data highlights how more than 1.3 billion adults remain unbanked, without access to a financial account. These people rely on cash, creating a ‘cash-digital divide’, which excludes them from the formal economy. To bridge the divide, governments need to promote CBDCs actively. As a trusted, risk-free alternative to physical cash, CBDCs are ideal instruments for the financially excluded demographic. With a seamless entry point to the financial…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta launches new AI initiative after metaverse retreat

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Mark Zuckerberg is launching Meta Small Business as a company-wide initiative to support entrepreneurship and accelerate AI adoption, Axios reported Wednesday. The effort, led by Dina Powell McCormick, Meta’s president and vice chairman, and Naomi Gleit, who heads product development, will focus on building tools across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to help small businesses grow and scale more easily in the AI era. “In the AI era, it should be easier than ever for people to build new businesses,” Zuckerberg wrote in an internal post shared with employees. “We want…

Peter Thiel-backed Bitpanda unveils Vision Chain to connect EU banks with tokenized assets

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Peter Thiel-backed digital asset broker Bitpanda has launched Vision Chain, an Ethereum layer 2 network designed to provide a regulated infrastructure where financial assets and institutions can operate safely onchain. Created with the Vision Web3 Foundation and built on the Optimism stack, Vision Chain delivers a compliant, resilient environment for financial institutions to issue and manage digital assets in line with MiCAR, MiFID II, and DORA, while minimizing volatility through euro-based stablecoin fees. The network aims to address critical infrastructure gaps that have limited the adoption of tokenized assets across…

ECB’s Cipollone Targets Summer for Digital Euro Standards

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European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Tuesday that the ECB expects by this summer to announce the European standards it will use for a potential digital euro, a step aimed at helping payment providers and merchants prepare their systems ahead of any issuance decision. Cipollone told European Union lawmakers that, once those standards are announced, the ECB will work with market participants so they can begin embedding them into payment terminals and other solutions as soon as possible. Cipollone said finalizing the rulebook would let new…

Bitcoin Rebounds 4% on Iran Ceasefire Hopes but Faces $72K Resistance

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Bitcoin (BTC) rose back above $71,000 during the early Asian trading hours on Wednesday after Trump’s administration offered a 15-point plan to Iran to end the war, sparking short-term optimism across risk assets. Key takeaways: Bitcoin bounces 4% to $71,500 after President Trump sent Iran a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war.  Bitcoin faces stiff resistance above $72,000.  Bitcoin jumps 4% on ceasefire hopes Data from TradingView showed BTC price rose as much as 4% to an intraday high of $71,300 from Tuesday’s low of $68,890, recouping all the…