Regulations and Permits

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has extended the decision deadline for Hashdex spot ETH ETF, ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF, and Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF until May, citing the need for more time to consider proposed rule changes and questions raised therein. Concurrently, the SEC has initiated an investigation against the Ethereum Foundation based in Switzerland. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart suggests that the likelihood of approval for a spot Ethereum ETF in May is decreasing, as there appears to be a lack of cooperation among potential issuers and US regulators, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco with Galaxy, Grayscale, VanEck, 21 Shares, Ark, and Hashdex.

The European Parliament has approved anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation that bans the use of unidentified, self-hosted crypto wallets for any size crypto transactions. The ban primarily applies to third-party service providers, such as central brokers offering hosted or custody crypto wallets.

Financial Institutions and Crypto Exchanges

OKX cryptoexchange announced that it will no longer support USDT trading pairs for traders in the European Economic Area. OKX justified its decision by preparing for the adoption of a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies accepted in the European Union.

Matter Labs has partnered with Sygnum, a digital asset bank, to tokenize $50 million in treasury reserves on the zkSync layer 2 blockchain. The tokens will be registered on the blockchain as security tokens of the Fidelity International Institutional Liquidity Fund (ILF).

Robinhood has officially launched its crypto wallet for Android users, following its availability to iOS users for a year. With this Android introduction, the company takes another step towards making cryptocurrencies accessible and integrable into everyday life for millions of people worldwide.

Wealth manager BlackRock is launching a new tokenized fund for real-world assets (RWA) on the Ethereum network. The USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund product will be represented by the BUIDL token, with its collateral consisting of US Treasury bonds, cash, and repurchase agreements. Securitize will act as the transfer agent and tokenization platform in the tokenization process, in which BlackRock has made a strategic investment.

Global asset manager WisdomTree, which includes the BTCW spot bitcoin ETF, has obtained permission from the New York State Department of Financial Services to conduct cryptocurrency services in the state. This allows the company to provide custody and wallet services, issue and trade stablecoins, and manage stablecoin reserves. WisdomTree has already established a new entity, WisdomTree Digital Trust Company, for managing stablecoin reserves.

OKX crypto exchange, together with the Ethereum-based gaming platform Immutable, has introduced a dedicated GameFi launchpad to operate on the OKX NFT marketplace. In addition to the launchpad, which will be used to introduce assets tied to games launched on the Immutable zkEVM network, the broker will also support Immutable zkEVM.

Project Investments

Immutable, Polygon Labs, and venture capital firm King River Capital have partnered to raise $100 million for a new gaming fund, the Inevitable Games Fund. The funds will be invested in early-stage web3 gaming startups with high growth potential. The first round of the fund, worth $30 million, has already been completed, with participants including Alpha Wave Ventures and Merit Circle.

Startup Succinct Labs announced that it has raised $55 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from investors such as Bankless Ventures, Geometry, as well as Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Daniel Lubarov, and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan. The startup aims to make zero-knowledge proofs technology accessible to every developer, as they believe it is currently one of the most defining technologies for blockchain scalability, interoperability, and data privacy, but still too complex for most developers.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

Cardano has announced the first fully fiat-backed, US dollar-denominated stablecoin, USDM, which joins the $146 billion stablecoin market. The stablecoin, founded by Mehen Finance, can be minted or exchanged for existing Cardano-based synthetic stablecoins like DJED and iUSD.

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has introduced the Soroban smart contract platform to the mainnet. Soroban now enables developers to deploy smart contracts, expanding the ecosystem of applications built on the Stellar blockchain. As a sign of support, SDF has allocated $100 million for developers building on the new platform.

Avalanche has announced a partnership with China’s largest payment provider, Alipay+. As part of the partnership, an Avalanche Subnet built and managed by AvaCloud has committed to launching an e-wallet and a web3-based voucher program. This opportunity could potentially bring a new user base of up to 100 million users to Avalanche from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The TON Foundation behind the TON blockchain has announced the launch of the first round of the community rewards initiative called The Open League, with a current value of over $115 million at the current exchange rate. As part of the pilot program, 650,000 Toncoins ($2.6 million) have already been distributed among users through liquidity pool boosts, and starting from April 1, 30 million Toncoins will be distributed among competing projects and users in the TON ecosystem.

Hedera has announced its official membership in the Cryptoasset Business Council operating in the UK. Industry leaders, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Uniswap Labs, under the UKCBC banner, aim to make the country the epicenter of cryptocurrencies and the web3 space. Their goals include supporting innovation, protecting consumers, and creating a regulatory environment conducive to the safe growth of the digital asset ecosystem.

Legal Proceedings

Dutch authorities have filed charges against Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash, alleging that he aided in laundering $1.2 billion in illegal funds through the cryptomixer platform. Pertsev is facing charges of money laundering and other financial crimes, with his court trial scheduled for March 26 in the Netherlands.