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Bitcoin is trading around $69,000 after briefly touching $70,000 as markets rebound despite ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Meanwhile, U.S. federal government ties to Anthropic are reportedly winding down as OpenAI secured a partnership with the Pentagon, and a developer stored a 66KB image in a single Bitcoin transaction to further challenge claims surrounding BIP-110.
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News Roundup
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic ‘Retires’ Claude Opus 3, Then Launches It as a Blog Author (Decyrpt)
OpenAI Secures Pentagon Partnership Amid U.S. Government Break With Anthropic (Forturne)
ChatGPT Nears 1 Billion Weekly Active Users (TechCrunch)
Samsung Unveils Plan to Convert Global Manufacturing Into AI-Driven Factories (Samsung)
US Military Reportedly Used Anthropic’s Claude AI in Iran Strike Hours After Trump Ban (Cointelegraph)
AI Tools That Actually Respect Your Privacy (Decrypt)
Anthropic’s Claude Restored After Hours-Long Outage (Decrypt)
“Energym” AI Dystopia Goes Viral as Crypto Projects Tout User-Owned Agents (Cointelegraph)
Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance
Morgan Stanley Seeks OCC Trust Charter For Crypto Custody Ambitions (Cointelegraph)
Aave DAO Vote Narrows as Aave Labs Backtracks Plan to Sideline v3 (DL News)
OCC Proposal on Stablecoin Yield Rules Sparks Debate Over Impact on Coinbase (Decrypt)
Aave’s “Aave Will Win” Proposal Clears Temp Check, Moves to ARFC (The Defiant)
Russian Central Bank Warns Pyramid Schemes Operators Have Turned to Crypto (DL News)
Hong Kong and Shanghai Launch Blockchain Trade Finance Platform (CoinDesk)
European Banks Line Up Exchange Partners for 2026 Euro Stablecoin Launch (Cointelegraph)
Anchorage Publishes First USAT Attestation Showing $17.6M in Reserves (The Block)
Nasdaq Seeks to Launch Binary Bets on Nasdaq-100 Amid Prediction Market Boom (CoinDesk)
St. Cloud Financial Launches Hybrid Self-Custody Digital Asset Vault (SCFCU)
Exchanges
Exchange-Traded Products
$436 Million Stake in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Linked to Low-Profile Hong Kong Investor (CoinDesk)
U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $787.13 million in net inflows from Feb. 23-27.
From Feb. 23-27, U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs saw $80.46 million in net inflows.
U.S. Solana spot ETFs posted $44.44 million in net inflow from Feb. 23-27.
From Feb. 23-27, U.S. XRP spot ETFs saw $9.55 million in net inflows.
Global Digital Asset Products See $1B Inflows Last Week (CoinShares)
Infrastructure
Mt. Gox’s Former CEO Floats Hard Fork to Recover $5.2 Billion in Bitcoin (The Block)
Trust Wallet Debuts AI Tools Including MCP Server and Open-Source Claude Marketplace (Trust Wallet)
Developer Stores 66KB Image in Single Bitcoin Transaction, Challenging BIP-110 Claims (Knots Lies)
AI Significantly Accelerating Ethereum Development (Vitalik Buterin)
EIP-8141 to Finalize Ethereum’s Account Abstraction Upgrade (Vitalik Buterin)
Vitalik Proposes Binary State Tree and EVM Replacement to Break Ethereum’s Proving Bottleneck (The Block)
Solana Mobile Unveils Solana Mobile Stack for OEM Partners and Hardware Manufacturers (PR Newswire)
Vitalik Buterin Proposes New Plan to Prevent Ethereum Block Builder Centralization (CoinDesk)
Markets
Uniswap Token Rallies as DAO Moves to Expand Fee Switch Across Eight Layer-2 Networks (DL News)
Tokenized Gold Drives Weekend Price Signals as CME Futures Are Closed (Cointelegraph)
XRP Slides 9% After Key Support Break (CoinDesk)
Polymarket Sets Trading Volume All-Time Highs as Geopolitical Bets Surge (DeFi Oasis)
Major Tokens Jump as Crypto Erases War-Driven Weekend Losses (CoinDesk)
Six Polymarket Traders Net $1 Million on Iran Strike Bets, Spark Insider Concerns (Cointelegraph)
Kalshi CEO Addressed Ali Khamenei Contract Fallout, Pledges Fee Reimbursements (The Block)
Hyperliquid’s HYPE Token Climbs as Traders Flock to Always-On Perps During Iran Shock (Decrypt)
$572 Million in Token Unlocks Loom This Week as HYPE, ENA, SOL and Others Face Supply Surge (Tokenomist)
Ether Down 60% From Peak, but Institutions Double Down on Ethereum’s Infrastructure (Cointelegraph)
Bitcoin Holds Near $66K as Asian Stocks Slide and Oil Surges on US-Iran Escalation (The Block)
Altcoins Jump Double Digits as Bitcoin Stabilizes, but Rally Seen as Technical (Decrypt)
CME Group Expands Crypto Futures Lineup, Now Covers 75%+ of Market Cap (CME Group)
Bitcoin Briefly Taps $70K as Markets Rebound Amid Ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran Conflict (Decrypt)
Politics & Regulation
Trump Orders Federal Agency Phase-Out of Anthropic AI (Decrypt)
South Korea’s Finance Minister Orders Review After Seized Crypto Mishandling (Decrypt)
Turkey Proposes 10% Crypto Income Tax With Flexible Presidential Powers (CoinDesk)
Japan’s FSA Enlists Private Sector in Crypto AML Pilot Program (DL News)
CFTC Appoints David Miller to Lead Enforcement Division Amid Expanding Crypto Oversight (The Block)
Treasuries & Reserves
Hyperliquid Strategies Emerges as the Only Profitable Digital Asset Treasury (Artemis)
Bitcoin Treasury Trade Unravels as Firms Sell Holdings and Investors Revolt (DL News)
Strategy Raises STRC Dividend to 11.5% as MSTR Logs Eighth Straight Monthly Drop (CoinDesk)
AEHL Completes $1 Million Bitcoin Buy, Activates Long-Term ‘Genius Plan’ Strategy (Business Insider)
Strategy Buys 3,015 BTC for $204M, Holdings Rise to 720,737 Bitcoin (Strategy)
ProCap Financial Buys 450 BTC, Steps Up Share Buybacks (CoinDesk)
BitMine Purchased 50,928 ETH Last Week, Total Reaches 4,473,587 ETH (PR Newswire)
Venture Capital
Other News
SpaceX Weighs Confidential IPO Filing in March (Bloomberg)
Tether Freezes $4.2 Billion in USDT Tied to Illicit Activity (Reuters)
X Lifts Ban on Financial Products and Crypto Paid Promotions, Requires “Paid” Disclosure Label (X)
Steak ‘n Shake Introduces Bitcoin Bonus for Hourly Workers (Crypto Briefing)
Crypto Hack Losses Drop to $26.5M in February: PeckShield (The Block)
White Hat Recovers $1.84M After $2.26M Foom Cash Exploit (Cointelegraph)
Check This Out!
U.S. data center construction has overtaken general office construction for the first time on record.
Source: ZeroHedge
Meme of the Day
Source: Crypto Tea
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