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USAT, a U.S. regulatory-compliant stablecoin launched by Tether and issued by Anchorage Digital, has completed its first proof of reserves with Big Four accounting firm Deloitte, Decrypt reported. The report confirmed that as of Jan. 31, USAT's reserves of $17.6 million exceeded its circulating supply of $17.5 million. The stablecoin was launched in late January.

A provision banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been included in the '21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,' a bill recently announced by Republican members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, according to Eleanor Terrett, host of Crypto in America. Reporting on X, Terrett noted that the provision was previously excluded from last year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) discussions but has now resurfaced. She added that the CBDC ban within the current bill is structured to expire in 2030.

PayPay, Japan's largest non-cash payment service, is pursuing a U.S. listing on the Nasdaq with a target valuation of over $100 billion, CoinDesk reported. The company plans to issue 55 million shares at a price between $17 and $20, aiming to raise up to $1.1 billion. Its proposed ticker is PAYP. PayPay expanded into the cryptocurrency market last October by acquiring a 40% stake in Binance Japan. The initial public offering (IPO) was originally scheduled for Monday but has been postponed due to market volatility stemming from the political situation in Iran.

Thirty-eight percent of all altcoins have fallen to near their all-time lows, signaling an extreme deterioration in market conditions, crypto analyst Darkfost said in a contribution to CryptoQuant. He explained that market liquidity is flowing into more volatile stock and commodity markets, leaving the crypto market in a very fragile state. The pressure on altcoins this cycle is the most significant on record, Darkfost noted. The percentage of altcoins hitting new lows now surpasses the 35% seen in April of last year and the 37.8% recorded during the FTX collapse. This trend, he argued, indicates declining market interest and worsening sentiment toward altcoins, with investors maintaining a conservative stance and staying away from the market.

The Strait of Hormuz has not been closed, contrary to claims by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Fox News reported, citing the U.S. Central Command. Iran is reportedly not patrolling the strait, and there are no signs of any mine-laying activity. The IRGC had previously issued a formal warning that it would close the strait and burn any ships passing through. The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway through which approximately 20% of the world's oil supply passes.

The recent rebound in Bitcoin was primarily driven by the recovery of the Coinbase Premium, not geopolitical issues, according to a CryptoQuant contribution by an analyst from XWIN Research Japan. The Coinbase Premium Index measures the price difference between the U.S.-based exchange and the global market average, with a rising value indicating stronger U.S. buying pressure. The analyst noted that a recent recovery in demand for spot ETFs caused the premium to turn positive for the first time in about 40 days, helping BTC rebound above $68,000. While tensions in the Middle East caused a temporary drop in BTC, its rapid recovery alongside the stock market suggests that geopolitical factors were not the main driver of this rebound, the analyst explained. The contribution also pointed to derivatives data, noting that funding rates are neutral and leverage ratios are not high, which further suggests the rally is based on spot demand.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) achieved record-high performance driven by its diversification into artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, The Block reported. The company posted annual revenue of $647.4 million last year, while its Bitcoin mining output rose to 5,686 BTC from 4,828 BTC the previous year. Riot Platforms currently holds more than 18,000 BTC. The strong results were attributed to Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high last year and the company's successful business diversification.

Although Bitcoin has rebounded by approximately 10% since last weekend, demand in its futures market has fallen to the lowest level since 2024, according to an analysis by Cointelegraph. Open interest (OI) for BTC futures on major exchanges stands at $32 billion, down 20% from a month ago, with demand for long positions being particularly sluggish. The media outlet suggested that the sluggish OI indicates institutional investor interest has shifted to other markets, such as gold and stocks. However, it added that it is difficult to conclude that institutions have fully exited the market, considering the trading volume of spot ETFs and the BTC holdings of major corporations.

Cryptocurrency mining firm Core Scientific (CORZ) reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations, CoinDesk reported. Revenue was $79.8 million, down from $94.93 million in the same period a year earlier and below the market consensus of $122.08 million. The underperformance was attributed to profitability pressures from reduced mining rewards following the Bitcoin halving, a rising hashrate, and increased energy costs. Core Scientific is diversifying its business beyond mining into high-performance computing (HPC) and AI hosting.

The New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) potential entry into the tokenized stock market could mark a structural turning point for the industry, according to an analysis by Canadian investment bank TD Securities. In a recent report, the bank said the NYSE's pursuit of a tokenized stock alternative trading system (ATS) is already creating substantial changes in market structure, Cointelegraph reported. TD Securities noted that this approach, which integrates blockchain for settlement while adhering to existing regulations, will expand the tokenized asset market beyond its current focus on private credit and government bonds into the equities sector. This expansion is expected to accelerate the inflow of institutional liquidity.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed a class-action lawsuit against Uniswap (UNI) and its founder, Hayden Adams, concerning scam cryptocurrencies, The Block reported. The plaintiffs alleged they incurred losses from scam tokens traded on Uniswap and claimed the platform facilitated the fraudulent activity. However, the court ruled that merely providing a trading platform cannot be considered aiding and abetting fraud. Adams also stated that the responsibility should lie with the scam projects themselves, arguing it is unfair to hold a platform provider liable for such damages.

Tokenized securities platform Bitfinex Securities is resuming the issuance of a $10 million USDT-based tokenized bond on the Bitcoin sidechain Liquid Network, Cointelegraph reported. This marks the first such issuance since a $6.2 million offering in 2023. All processes, including fundraising, yield payments, and principal repayment, will be conducted on-chain. The media outlet noted that the move is significant as it comes amid controversy surrounding regulations on stablecoin yield payments within a proposed U.S. crypto market structure bill (CLARITY).

The EVM-compatible project Monad (MON) has integrated Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), Cointelegraph reported. This integration enables the transfer of Coinbase's cbBTC from the Base chain to the Monad chain.

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun (PUMP) has begun supporting competing cryptocurrencies such as Raydium (RAY) and Meteora (MET), along with wrapped assets like wBTC, The Block reported. The move is part of a strategy to prevent user churn and increase engagement time, signaling a plan to evolve from a memecoin-focused platform into an all-in-one trading app. Pump.fun has recently been expanding its business related to its proprietary decentralized exchange (DEX), PumpSwap.

A senior official from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that it will close the Strait of Hormuz and burn any ships passing through, according to multiple media outlets. The strait is a strategic waterway through which approximately 20% of the world's oil supply passes.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed mixed today. - S&P 500: +0.04% - Nasdaq: +0.36% - Dow Jones: -0.15%

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Ray Youssef, co-founder of peer-to-peer crypto exchange Paxful, on charges of violating anti-money laundering and licensing requirements. According to BeInCrypto, prosecutors allege that Paxful facilitated transactions linked to illegal activities, particularly payments related to a sex trafficking advertising platform. The indictment also claims the exchange lacked proper Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, a substantial internal compliance control system, and failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely manner. Youssef has denied the allegations, countering that the action is an escalation of the war on crypto. Meanwhile, Paxful recently pleaded guilty to three charges related to Backpage and agreed to a $4 million fine.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said a major inflation shock is unlikely unless the conflict in Iran becomes prolonged, Walter Bloomberg reported.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed an idea to prevent excessive centralization in block building, the process of gathering transactions before they are finalized on-chain. According to CoinDesk, while the upcoming Ethereum upgrade, Glamsterdam, is set to formalize the separation of proposers and block builders, Buterin argued that simply creating a market for block builders will not solve all the associated problems. He suggested an idea called FOCIL, which would act as a form of censorship resistance. The proposal involves a small, randomly selected group of participants choosing transactions that must be included in the next block. If any of these designated transactions are omitted, the block would be rejected. This idea aims to ensure that even if a single malicious block builder were to dominate the market, they could not permanently exclude specific users.

CME Group announced that its suite of cryptocurrency futures and options products, including BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP, had an average daily open interest of approximately $25 billion last year. According to The Block, the average daily volume (ADV) for CME Group's crypto product suite in the same period was 278,300 contracts, with a notional value of about $12 billion. The group explained that with the recent launch of its ADA, LINK, and XLM futures products, it can now offer coverage for over 75% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Bitcoin has rebounded to the $70,000 level amid geopolitical tensions, with analysis suggesting that selling pressure has significantly eased. Cointelegraph reported that, according to data from Glassnode, the volume of BTC transferred at a loss by short-term holders has decreased to around 3,700 BTC over a 24-hour period. This is a sharp decline from the 89,000 BTC transferred during a large-scale sell-off in early February. Deleveraging has also occurred in the derivatives market, with open interest on Binance shrinking by approximately 25% since the beginning of the year. With spot buying also confirmed, the market is now focused on whether BTC can break through the $70,000 to $71,500 range. The analysis suggests that if this zone is converted into support, a potential rally toward the $80,000s could follow.

Discussions in the U.S. Congress on a crypto market structure bill (CLARITY) are expected to resume this month, Crypto in America reported. The outlet noted that while a March 1 deadline set by the White House for an agreement on stablecoin rewards has passed, negotiations between the banking sector and the crypto industry are ongoing. The banking sector is demanding a ban on interest and similar rewards for deposits, whereas the industry is advocating for profits from rewards and staking. The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to resume its review of the bill as early as mid-March.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $69,000. BTC is trading at $68,994.99 on the Binance USDT market.

The correlation between Bitcoin and gold fluctuates significantly depending on the macroeconomic environment, according to an analysis by crypto research firm Kaiko. The firm noted that based on a 30-day moving correlation coefficient, the relationship between the two assets has lacked consistency over the past two years, alternating between strong positive and negative correlations. This suggests that the market's perception of Bitcoin shifts between it being a safe-haven and a risk asset, influenced by changing narratives around inflation expectations, interest rate outlooks, and appetite for risk assets.

A U.S. court has rejected the Trump administration's request to delay a lawsuit concerning tariff refunds, Solid Intel reported. The administration had previously asked the court to slow down legal proceedings over whether it must refund importers for tariffs that were invalidated by a Supreme Court ruling.