Oil Prices surpass $100 as Iran Conflict ignites fears

Crude prices have officially surged past the $100-a-barrel threshold for the first time since the 2022 energy crisis. This marks a massive 50% rally following the joint US-Israeli strikes on February 28, as the market braces for a prolonged supply shock.

Asian markets faced a brutal sell-off on Monday morning, with the Nikkei 225 and KOSPI plunging over 7% and 8% respectively as investors reacted to soaring energy prices. This downward spiral extended to the West, where US stock futures dropped nearly 2% in pre-market trading, signaling a global retreat from risk assets.

​​Coinbase has launched futures trading in Europe

Futures contracts trading is now available to Coinbase Advanced users in 26 countries in Europe, offered by its MiFID entity. Traders can access up to 10x leverage on select contracts (such as BTC, ETH, and equity indices) and up to 4x-5x leverage on other products.

👉 coinbase.com/blog/futures-contracts-europe

KAST raises $80M to expand global stablecoin payments

Stablecoin payments startup KAST has raised $80 million from QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, bringing its valuation to roughly $600 million. The company is targeting an annual revenue run rate of around $100 million this year.

The capital will support global expansion, regulatory licensing and further development of its stablecoin payments platform.

KAST is building a platform designed for storing, earning and spending stablecoins, targeting the growing market for digital-dollar transactions.

👉 bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-09/stablecoin-payments-firm-kast-raises-80-million-in-funding

Nasdaq join hands with Kraken in Tokenization Push

Nasdaq and Kraken are developing infrastructure for tokenized stocks, enabling traditional equities to be issued as blockchain-based tokens and distributed globally through Kraken’s platform.

The move reflects a wider trend among major financial institutions exploring tokenization of real-world assets, which could enable faster settlement, global access, and potentially 24/7 trading of traditional securities.

👉 wsj.com/finance/stocks/nasdaq-partners-with-kraken-in-tokenization-push-135e8112

Prediction Markets Race Toward $20 Billion Valuations

Prediction market rivals Kalshi and Polymarket are reportedly targeting $20B valuations in upcoming funding rounds, roughly doubling their late-2025 valuations. The sector is gaining momentum despite regulatory scrutiny, as platforms scale revenue and expand toward regulated global markets.

The move follows strong growth across prediction markets, with Kalshi crossing $1B+ annualized revenue and Polymarket preparing a U.S. regulatory expansion.

​​Treasuries & ETFs Board. Crypto Accumulation and Capital Flows

Strategy picked up 17,994 BTC for $1.28B, lifting its total to 738,731 BTC ($56.0M). Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $568M in net inflows last week, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $87M in net outflows.

Bitcoin continues to dominate corporate treasuries and institutional flows, despite ongoing volatility and recent cumulative ETF outflows.

Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) Raises $25M to Advance Zcash Development

ZODL, a startup formed after former employees of Electric Coin Company departed following a board dispute, has raised $25M in seed funding from major crypto investors including Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, Winklevoss Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.

The startup now oversees the Zodl Zcash wallet, previously known as Zashi, along with its related technology and intellectual property. Since October, the wallet has facilitated $600M+ in ZEC swaps and helped expand Zcash’s shielded pool supply by over 400%, with shielded assets now accounting for ~23% of the total token supply.

👉 theblock.co/post/392878/zcash-open-development-lab-raises-25-million-crypto-investors-paradigm-a16z-others

Arthur Hayes Publishes HYPE Man, Bullish Notes on Hyperliquid

Hayes argues that exchange tokens tend to outperform during sideways or bearish markets, as trading platforms continue generating fees even when prices stagnate.

According to Arthur Hayes, Hyperliquid is currently the largest revenue-generating crypto project outside stablecoins, with 97% of protocol revenue used for $HYPE buybacks. If the platform continues to gain DEX market share and reaches $1.4B annualized revenue, Hayes estimates $HYPE could reach $150 by August 2026, about x5 its ~$30 price at the time of writing.

Hayes also pointed to several catalysts that could drive Hyperliquid's growth. Key factors include:

– DEX market share gains from centralized exchanges
– Rapid adoption of HIP-3 permissionless perpetual markets
– Expansion into commodities, indices, and other synthetic assets
– Upcoming HIP-4 prediction markets

Hayes noted that Hyperliquid’s ADV/OI ratio suggests it has some of the highest organic trading volumes among perp DEXs.

👉 cryptohayes.substack.com/p/hype-man

OpenAI Acquires AI Security Platform Promptfoo to Boost Enterprise AI Safety

OpenAI is acquiring Promptfoo, a leading AI security platform that helps enterprises identify and remediate vulnerabilities in AI systems during development. Promptfoo’s technology will be integrated into OpenAI Frontier, the platform for building and operating AI coworkers.

1️⃣ Built-In Security. Frontier adds automated testing to detect prompt injections, jailbreaks, leaks, misuse, and out-of-policy behavior

2️⃣ Workflow Integration. Security checks are embedded in AI development pipelines for early risk remediation

3️⃣ Oversight & Compliance. Reporting and traceability support governance and risk management

4️⃣ Proven Adoption. Trusted by 25% of Fortune 500, with an open-source CLI for evaluating LLM applications

ℹ️ Promptfoo raised $18.4M Series A funding to build a comprehensive AI security stack for enterprises. They released a widely adopted open‑source CLI and library for testing and red‑teaming LLM applications. Recently, they open‑sourced ModelAudit, a tool to scan AI models for vulnerabilities without executing them.

👉 x.com/OpenAI/status/2031052793835106753?s=20

Nvidia plans open-source AI agent platform – NemoClaw

NemoClaw is an open-source platform for autonomous AI agents aimed at enterprise developers and software companies. The system would allow organizations to deploy AI agents that can automate tasks and workflows for employees across different apps.

The move comes as Nvidia prepares for its annual developer conference in San Jose next week, which is expected to include announcements and roadmaps on the company’s hardware and software offerings.

👉 cnbc.com/2026/03/10/nvidia-open-source-ai-agent-platform-nemoclaw-wired-agentic-tools-openclaw-clawdbot-moltbot.html

Sonic rolls out USSD, a native stablecoin built with Frax

Sonic Labs has introduced USSD, a network-native USD stablecoin built on Frax Finance infrastructure. The token is designed to provide stable liquidity for trading, lending, payments and settlement across the Sonic ecosystem.

USSD is backed 1:1 by high-quality U.S. dollar assets, with reserves including tokenized Treasury products from BlackRock, Superstate and WisdomTree.

Users can mint USSD through non-custodial smart contracts by depositing supported assets such as USDC, USDT or PYUSD at a 1:1 ratio. The system also supports cross-chain minting from 10+ blockchains, allowing external liquidity to flow into the Sonic network.

👉 x.com/SonicLabs/status/2031006467571298594

Brevis introduces Vera to verify media in the AI era

Vera is an end-to-end system designed to verify that images and videos originate from real devices and have only undergone legitimate edits.

The system combines hardware capture signatures with ZK proofs generated by Brevis Pico zkVM, allowing authenticity to be verified without exposing the original content or editing workflow.

ℹ️ How Vera verifies media authenticity:
– Uses the C2PA standard to cryptographically sign media at capture
– Generates ZK proofs for the full editing process
– Verifies that the final output derives from the original signed media
– Allows independent verification without revealing raw files or edits
– Reference implementation released as open-source

Vera is now live, with an interactive demo allowing users to test the system with basic image editing libraries.

👉 x.com/brevis_zk/status/2030976988174041325

​​Web3 Privacy Ecosystem. Key Projects & Infrastructure

As blockchain adoption grows, privacy solutions becoming essential for finance, identity & data security. This overview maps the projects shaping the next generation of cryptographic infrastructure.

Trust Wallet (TWT) launches Address Poisoning Protection

Address Poisoning Protection scans transactions for suspicious lookalike addresses and alerts users before they accidentally send funds to scammers. The feature will be available on Trust Wallet for mobile across 32 EVM chains, with additional chains planned.

The tool will use aggregated intelligence from HashDit and Binance Security to cross-check known scam and lookalike addresses. It will also create a side-by-side comparison to show where the addresses differ.

👉 theblock.co/post/392749/trust-wallet-launches-automatic-address-poisoning-protection-prevent-common-attack

​​Valuation vs Activity: Measuring Network Efficiency

All chains in this comparison exceed $1B in FDV, representing major players in the crypto ecosystem. Comparing valuation with transaction activity reveals which networks truly operate at scale.

Meta acquires Moltbook, the Social Network for AI Agents

As part of the deal, Moltbook creators Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr will join Meta’s Superintelligence Labs led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Moltbook is a viral social network designed specifically for autonomous AI agents rather than human users.

The acquisition signals Meta’s growing focus on agent-driven ecosystems, where AI systems can collaborate, share info and perform complex tasks on behalf of users and businesses.

👉 axios.com/2026/03/10/meta-facebook-moltbook-agent-social-network

Polymarket Partners With Palantir To Build AI Monitoring Tool For Sports Markets

The platform will leverage Palantir’s Vergence AI engine (a joint venture with TWG AI) to monitor trades, screen restricted users, generate compliance reports, and detect suspicious activity such as market manipulation or insider trading in real time.

The initiative aims to establish a new standard for sports prediction market integrity as the sector continues to scale. The move comes as both Polymarket and Kalshi expand into sports markets, facing growing competition from traditional betting platforms like DraftKings. According to reports, both platforms are also exploring funding rounds at valuations close to $20B.

👉 theblock.co/post/393009/polymarket-x-palantir-to-develop-ai-monitoring-tool

Hyperliquid Launches Prediction Markets on Testnet

Hyperliquid has rolled out HIP-4, introducing prediction markets in its testnet. This new market type allows trading on the probability of asset-related events.

Hyperliquid’s new prediction markets are fully collateralized, have fixed settlement dates, and feature no leverage or liquidations, with contract prices reflecting market-implied probabilities. The first markets on testnet focus on mark price movement predictions for BTC and HYPE, with 1-day markets planned for mainnet.

This week, Hyperliquid surpassed $4 trillion in cumulative perpetual contract volume, while Assistance Fund hit $1B in total buybacks, permanently burning 41.7M HYPE (4.17% of total supply).

👉 app.hyperliquid-testnet.xyz/trade/btc-above-69070-yes-mar-11-0300

X Money Early Public Access To Launch Next Month

Elon Mask revealed that early public access for X Money, the payments system being built inside X, is expected to launch next month. X Money is designed as a native digital wallet within the X app, enabling peer-to-peer payments, creator tipping, and fund storage directly on the platform.

ℹ️ The product is currently running in a closed internal beta and will first roll out to a limited group of external users before a broader launch

The initiative is part of Musk’s plan to transform X into an “everything app.” The platform has already secured multiple U.S. money transmitter licenses and partnered with Visa to support transfers and account funding.

👉 x.com/elonmusk/status/2031363107839438939

​​Bitcoin Supply Milestone: 20 Million BTC Mined

Bitcoin has now mined over 95% of its total supply, leaving fewer than 1 million BTC left to be mined. The final coins are expected to be issued gradually over the next century, with the last Bitcoin projected around 2140.