1. Trump: We Aspire to Lead in All Domains, and Cryptocurrency Stands Among Them link

Trump said at the Miami Future Investment Initiative Institute conference on Wednesday, “Bitcoin has hit multiple all-time highs because everyone knows I’m committed to making the United States the capital of cryptocurrency.” He added, “We want to be at the forefront of everything, and one of them is cryptocurrency. Miami seems to be the center of action. Come to think of it, maybe it will always be.” Trump also mentioned his executive order to keep the United States “at the forefront of artificial intelligence and end Biden’s war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.”

2. Howard Lutnick, a Champion of Cryptocurrency, Appointed as U.S. Secretary of Commerce link

Howard Lutnick, who is said to support cryptocurrency, has been confirmed by the US Senate to become the US Secretary of Commerce. It is reported that Lutnick, who holds Bitcoin assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, will be responsible for promoting the new cryptocurrency and tariff policies of the Department of Commerce. In addition, he will also lead Trump’s newly issued executive order to establish the US government’s sovereign wealth fund.

3. SoSoValue: Twenty States Across the Nation Advance Legislation for Bitcoin Strategic Reserves link

According to the statistics of SoSovalue, as of Thursday, twenty state-level administrative regions across the United States have initiated relevant legislative procedures. Among them, the bills in fifteen states have been officially accepted by the legislative chambers and entered the committee review stage, forming operational legal drafts. The Bitcoin strategic reserve bill is triggering a regional legislative wave in the United States. Take Utah as an example. Bill HB0230 will allow four public funds in the state (namely, the State Disaster Recovery Restricted Account, the General Fund Budget Reserve Account, the Income Tax Fund Budget Reserve Account, and the Medicaid Growth Reduction and Budget Stabilization Account) to invest up to 5% of their total assets in Bitcoin. Based on the data from Utah’s financial report in 2024, this implies a potential purchasing power of over $70 million.

4. Institutional Investors Significantly Boost Bitcoin ETF Holdings to $38.7 Billion link

According to the 13F report of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in the fourth quarter of 2024, large institutions such as pension funds and hedge funds tripled their holdings of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to $38.7 billion, far exceeding the $12.4 billion in the previous quarter. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said that currently, IBIT has 1,100 institutional holders, and typically, newly launched ETFs have a relatively small number of institutional holders in the first year.

5. Vitalik: Ethereum Embodies the Dual Philosophies of Bitcoin and the World Computer link

When responding to the question of whether Ethereum is closer to the existence of Bitcoin or a world computer, Vitalik stated that these two ways of thinking are compatible. He emphasized that it is a big mistake to give up decentralization and resilience in pursuit of TPS, because decentralization and resilience are crucial for creating a digital currency with long-term value and for being a world computer. Vitalik said that there is currently no “ETH 3.0”, and the relationship and balance between L1 and L2 are issues at the execution layer. It is necessary to strengthen the capabilities of L1, improve cross-L2 interoperability, and increase blobs. He also mentioned that “decentralization” does not mean “doing nothing”, but rather solving the problem of ecological imbalance through the foundation’s “philosophy of subtraction”.

6. Insiders: U.S. SEC Demonstrates Profound Interest in Staking Mechanisms link

Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett tweeted that sources revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shown a strong interest in staking and even asked the industry to provide a memorandum on different types of staking and their benefits. The source expects that the SEC will soon issue guidance on staking. Last week, staff from the SEC’s Trading and Markets Department participated in a staking webinar jointly held with industry participants.

On Thursday, Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, tweeted that the SEC has acknowledged the 19b — 4 filing submitted by Cboe, which seeks approval for the staking function in the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF.

7. Hong Kong Investment Promotion Agency Acknowledges BTC and ETH as Valid Assets for Investment Immigration Assessments link

Regarding the previous statement that BTC and ETH can be used for asset evaluation in investment immigration cases, King Leung, the head of the Invest Hong Kong, stated that any assets (such as BTC, ETH, or a painting) can be included in the net asset evaluation, on the condition that a written asset evaluation report is signed by a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) practicing in Hong Kong. Generally, the valuation report includes the following information: the valuation date, basic information of the asset (which may include the description and condition of the asset), the basis/method of valuation, recent transaction data of comparable items/projects; as well as relevant photos, etc.

8. Multiple Cryptocurrency Exchanges Plan to Launch Their Proprietary Stablecoins link

With the new European regulations requiring cryptocurrency service providers to delist unlicensed stablecoins, Kraken is exploring the development of its own stablecoin. The plan is to peg it to the US dollar, and it will be issued by Kraken’s Irish subsidiary. Although the development of this stablecoin is still in its initial stage, Kraken has announced that it will convert non-compliant currency types on its European platform into equivalent stablecoins by March 31st. At the same time, Crypto.com also plans to launch its own stablecoin in the third quarter of 2025 and promote it to the European market. ei

9. He Yi Addresses Rumors of “Binance Sale”: A Competitor’s PR Tactic, Open to Strategic Partnerships link

He Yi said that as the price of Bitcoin hits new highs, the business model of trading platforms as an ecological verification has been recognized. Binance has institutions approaching it for investment and cooperation every month. It does not rule out bringing in strategic partners and is also open to mergers and acquisitions. If other trading platforms have plans to be sold, they are welcome to get in touch. CZ responded to the “Binance sale” rumor, saying that an Asian competitor is spreading FUD and emphasizing that as a shareholder, Binance is not for sale. However, CZ also said that top investors have always been interested in Binance and may allow single-digit percentage investments in the future.

10. Milei Responds to LIBRA Incident: Information Shared in Good Faith, No Endorsement Intended link

Milei said in a TV interview, “I didn’t promote it. I just shared it. I acted in good faith but was hit. Are Argentines losing money? Maybe at most four or five. The vast majority of investors are Chinese and Americans.” He also said that it was wrong to claim that 44,000 people were affected — it was at most 5,000. The possibility of Argentines’ participation is very small. These people are highly specialized individuals in this financial instrument, and those who participated knew the risks very well — they are volatility traders. This is a private matter among individuals, and they participated voluntarily. I have not made any mistakes because I was acting in good faith. Unfortunately, this situation tells me that I need to improve my screening ability and not make myself so accessible.

Argentine lawyers filed fraud charges against President Milei in criminal court on Sunday, accusing him of promoting the LIBRA token on social media. The plaintiffs believe that this incident constitutes a “rug pull” operation in the crypto field and pointed out that Milei’s actions played a crucial role in this process. Lawyers Jonatan Baldiviezo, Marcos Zelaya, engineer María Eva Koutsovitis, and economist Claudio Lozano, who served as the governor of the Central Bank of Argentina during the government of former President Alberto Fernández, jointly signed the petition. It is expected that the criminal justice department will assign a judge to handle the case on Monday or refer it to prosecutors for further investigation.

Fundraising

• The stablecoin liquidity provider Mansa has completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Tether. link

• The cross-chain asset wrapping protocol Universal has completed a $9 million financing round led by a16z. link

• Cygnus has announced the completion of a $20 million pre-seed financing. link

• The founder of Curve has launched a new project, Yield Basis, and raised $5 million in financing. link

• Altius Labs has announced the completion of an $11 million Pre-Seed round of financing. link

• The crypto security company Blockaid has completed a $50 million Series B financing. link

• The crypto AI research company Frodobots Lab has completed an $8 million seed round of financing. link

• Maestro has announced the successful completion of a $3 million seed round of financing. link

• The blockchain developer Fluent Labs has completed an $8 million financing round (seed and seed extension rounds led by Polychain Capital). link

• The Bitcoin staking platform Acre has completed a $4 million financing. link

• Infinity Ground has announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing. link

• Gate io has announced the completion of a strategic investment in the on-chain trading platform DEXX. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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