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The U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has published a 43-page blockchain white paper on the need for interoperability in the DeFi ecosystem, The Block reported. The report, co-authored by DTCC, Clearstream, and Euroclear with advisory from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), argues that data standardization, process integration, and clearly defined participant roles are necessary to expand the digital asset securities market. It warns that growing fragmentation between distributed ledger technology (DLT) networks could trap assets in isolated pools, increasing operational costs and regulatory risks. The paper proposes standardization across five key areas of capital markets: assets and liabilities, ownership, asset lifecycle and transfer protocols, ledgers, and regulatory compliance. Nadine Chakar, head of digital assets at DTCC, explained that interoperability is the core foundation for the adoption and expansion of digital assets. She added that traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi must be connected through common goals for data, standards, and risk management.

Decentralized derivatives exchange GMX has unveiled a token value enhancement strategy recently approved by the GMX DAO, according to an official announcement. Under the new strategy, GMX staking rewards will be redirected from stakers to the treasury, effective this week. Approximately 600,000 GMX, valued at around $4.55 million, will be withdrawn from liquidity pools on Uniswap and Trader Joe and integrated into GMX's own infrastructure. Additionally, 27% of protocol fees collected in the GMX treasury will continue to fund GMX buybacks on the open market. Staking rewards will only be distributed to stakers once the GMX price surpasses $90, which is approximately 12 times its current value. Furthermore, stakers are required to maintain a balance of at least 80% of their maximum staked amount. Failure to do so will result in the permanent forfeiture of all accumulated rewards.

Binance has announced that it will list Fabric Protocol (ROBO) at 4:30 p.m. UTC on March 4. The listing will include the Seed Tag, which is applied to tokens that may exhibit higher volatility and risk compared to other listed tokens.

Open interest in Bitcoin and major altcoins has risen rapidly over the past few hours, CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn reported on X. He explained that high open interest signifies increased leverage, which could in turn lead to greater price volatility. Currently, open interest for Bitcoin stands at approximately $22.2 billion, while the figure for altcoins is around $25.7 billion.

The recent 90% plunge in Power Protocol (POWER) over the past 24 hours may be linked to dumping from an address associated with the project's team, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN. The analyst noted that from yesterday evening to this morning, the team-related address 0x9D70054a57798bc255D8F866F006744fB3A09d63 deposited 30 million POWER, valued at $16.23 million at the time, into exchanges including Bitget and MEXC. EmberCN explained that the token's 90% crash began after these deposits, with its price falling from $1.86 to $0.17. POWER had previously experienced a significant rally starting on Feb. 15, surging approximately 1400% to a peak of $2.57 on March 2. The token has since erased all of its recent gains and is currently trading at $0.17764, down 90.4% over the last 24 hours.

The Israeli military has launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Walter Bloomberg reported via X.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs are continuing to see solid fund inflows, with almost every product recording net inflows this year. He added that this level of inflow is surprising, considering Bitcoin is down 22% for the year and 50% from its peak.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump has a vision for the war with Iran and that everyone needs to take a step back, Walter Bloomberg reported via X. Bessent also commented on a potential trade halt with Spain, stating that any action that slows the ability to wage war could put American lives at risk. Regarding tariffs, he said he expects a measure to raise rates to 15% to be implemented this week, adding that they would return to their previous levels in about five months.

A NATO spokesperson has strongly condemned Iran's attack targeting Turkey, Walter Bloomberg reported. The statement follows Iran's launch of a ballistic missile aimed at Turkey, which was intercepted by NATO air defense systems over the eastern Mediterranean. There is speculation that the missile may have been targeting Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, where U.S. troops are stationed. Iran has been attacking U.S. military bases in the Middle East in response to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on the country that began on Feb. 28.

Bitcoin's rebound today reflects the rising probability of the CLARITY Act's passage in the U.S. and growing expectations for an early end to the war with Iran, CoinDesk reported. The outlet explained that Bitcoin had already entered oversold territory, having fallen nearly 50% from its high last year. Consequently, it performed well compared to other assets amid heightened Middle East risks following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. This resilience has renewed investor interest and could be a factor in drawing institutional investors back to spot ETFs. CoinDesk also noted that Bitcoin could benefit from a potential decline in fiat currency values as the war worsens global government finances. Hopes for a swift resolution to the conflict were fueled by reports that Iran's intelligence ministry contacted the U.S. CIA to discuss ending the war. The increasing likelihood of the CLARITY Act, a bill aimed at creating a market structure for cryptocurrencies and legalizing stablecoins, is also acting as a positive catalyst for Bitcoin.

The World Liberty Financial (WLFI) team deposited approximately 146.4 million WLFI, worth $15.38 million, to OKX and Bitget, Onchain Lens reported. Deposits to exchanges are typically interpreted as an intent to sell.

Morgan Stanley has designated BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody Trust Company as custodians for its upcoming product, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust. According to a recent filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) EDGAR system, the two firms will serve as "Bitcoin Custodians," holding the Bitcoin that underlies the trust.

Tether has announced a strategic investment in sleep technology company Eight Sleep. The company was valued at $1.5 billion, though the investment amount was not disclosed. Eight Sleep is a health-tech company that uses AI and sensors to analyze personal biometric data and provide customized sleep management features. The two companies plan to jointly develop healthcare technology using Tether's QVAC architecture and AI technology. Tether previously launched QVAC Health, a health app that integrates and tracks various data points, including step counts, sleep patterns, and exercise records.

CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn has observed a high correlation between the price of Bitcoin and the Coinbase Premium Gap, suggesting that U.S. institutional investors are driving the current market rally. In a post on X, he noted that the gap, which measures the price difference for BTC between Coinbase and other global exchanges like Binance, is a key indicator. A positive value is typically interpreted as a sign of strong buying pressure from the United States. According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin is trading at $71,257, up 6.59% over the past 24 hours.

Kraken Financial, the banking division of U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has won approval for a "master account" with the U.S. Federal Reserve, giving it access to the central bank's core payment system, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. The approval allows Kraken to move funds on the same payment rails used by thousands of banks and credit unions, making it the first cryptocurrency company to gain such access. In response, Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis described the move as a watershed milestone in the history of digital assets.

A significant increase in the trading volume of MicroStrategy's perpetual preferred stock (STRC) on March 3 suggests the company is actively using it to fund Bitcoin purchases, CoinDesk reported. On that day, STRC trading volume reached approximately $198.7 million, far exceeding its 30-day average of $123.3 million. Of this total, $177 million was traded above the stock's par value of $100, a level at which MicroStrategy can activate its at-the-market (ATM) program to issue and sell new shares. According to CoinDesk, this indicates the company could be selling additional STRC to raise capital for more Bitcoin buys, noting that a simple calculation suggests the funds raised could have been sufficient to purchase 1,000 BTC. MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, announced the purchase of 3,015 BTC on March 2. On March 4, company founder Michael Saylor stated that he was currently buying BTC.

Advanced models from six major artificial intelligence (AI) developers overwhelmingly chose Bitcoin (BTC) as a long-term store of value and stablecoins for daily payments, according to a report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute cited by The Block. The study tested 36 models from Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google, MiniMax, OpenAI, and xAI across 9,072 scenarios covering four functions: store of value, unit of account, medium of exchange, and payments. Out of all responses, Bitcoin was the most frequent choice with 4,378 selections (48.3%), followed by stablecoins with 3,013 (33.2%) and fiat currency (8.9%). In scenarios involving storing value over several years, Bitcoin was selected in 1,794 of 2,268 responses (79.1%), showing the highest consensus. Conversely, for payments, microtransactions, and cross-border remittances, stablecoins were preferred 53.2% of the time, ahead of Bitcoin at 36%. Preference for Bitcoin varied by developer: Anthropic (68%), DeepSeek (52%), Google (43%), xAI (39%), and OpenAI (26%). Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 showed the highest preference at 91.3%. Overall, 90.8% of responses favored digitally native assets like Bitcoin and stablecoins, and no model selected fiat currency as its top overall choice.

In a recent interview with WuBlockchain, Rich Rines, an early contributor to the Core Foundation, identified yield on Bitcoin and leverage using the asset as collateral as the top demands from institutional investors in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The Core Foundation is focused on building a decentralized finance ecosystem based on Bitcoin (BTCFi). Rines noted that while other use cases like Bitcoin payments and privacy-focused transactions exist, they have not yet reached mainstream adoption and require more time to deliver tangible results. He added that Core is concentrating on building infrastructure to utilize large-scale Bitcoin capital, specifically through protocols for Bitcoin-collateralized yield and asset management. The foundation aims to create a neutral yield infrastructure that serves both institutional and retail clients, fostering the expansion of various BTCFi protocols on the Core ecosystem.

A hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner has increased its investment in Bitcoin mining companies to $5.52 billion, Cointelegraph reported. In a recent filing with the U.S. SEC, the fund, Situational Awareness, disclosed that its holdings in these firms grew from $383 million in early 2025. The fund's portfolio includes a total of 29 stocks, with notable investments in Bitcoin mining infrastructure companies such as CoreWeave and Core Scientific. However, Cointelegraph noted that many of these companies are pivoting from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, suggesting the investment may be more focused on AI than on Bitcoin.

Iran's intelligence ministry indirectly contacted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through a third country's intelligence agency just one day after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes began, proposing talks on terms to end the war, The New York Times (NYT) reported. According to sources familiar with the matter, both the U.S. administration and Iran are highly skeptical about their readiness to establish a short-term exit strategy, or "offramp." The NYT added that Israeli officials reportedly favor a multi-week military operation to inflict maximum damage on Iran's military and potentially destabilize the regime, and have urged the U.S. to ignore Tehran's approach. The U.S. is currently not taking the proposal seriously, the report noted.

Decentralized prediction market Polymarket has deleted a publicly traded prediction market on a potential nuclear explosion following strong criticism from social media and market participants, The Block reported. The market was a contract on whether a nuclear explosion would occur within the year. Polymarket had previously posted on its official X account that traders were predicting a 22% chance of such an event, a post that has since been deleted. Industry observers noted that these types of markets raise ethical issues and social sensitivities, with some suggesting that prediction contracts related to war and violence have a high potential for insider trading.

Binance has announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for THORChain (RUNE) starting at 4:00 p.m. UTC on March 5 to support a network upgrade.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, stated on X that the fundamentals of cryptocurrency are stronger than ever. He made the comment while citing a post from John D'agostino, a strategic advisor at Coinbase Institutional. D'agostino argued that the crypto market remains strong despite volatility and sharp shifts in investor sentiment. He emphasized that infrastructure has continued to improve even during general downturns, pointing to faster crypto payments, increased institutional investor participation, regulatory clarification, growing ETF-related fund activity, and engagement at the nation-state level.

Coupang Pay, the payment arm of South Korea's largest e-commerce company Coupang, has sparked speculation that it is preparing to introduce a stablecoin after a recent job posting for its legal team. According to the Korea Economic Daily, the posting listed "review of services and business structures related to stablecoin issuance, utilization, and distribution" as a key responsibility. Industry observers reportedly view this move as Coupang beginning a serious review of the business case for stablecoins. The primary incentive is the potential to significantly reduce payment processing fees. Industry estimates suggest that large e-commerce firms like Coupang could save hundreds of billions of won annually by replacing traditional payment systems with a stablecoin.

Bitcoin payment app Strike has launched a service allowing users to borrow cash against their Bitcoin, the company announced on X. Founder Jack Mallers said the loans carry an annual interest rate of 13%. The service is currently available only in Massachusetts and Georgia, with plans to expand across the U.S. and to global markets.