The Appia roadmap for a euro-based tokenized financial system is part of the European Union’s push to reduce reliance on foreign financial infrastructure.
Also: Nvidia’s rare blog, Aave liquidations, and Pudgy Penguins new game.
The appointment of Stephen Gregory comes as U.S. crypto exchanges intensify competition and broaden offerings beyond digital assets.
Binance has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) over a “false and defamatory” article. Why Binance Filed Following a WSJ reporting published on February 23, Binance has announced on a blog post today that they have filed a lawsuit against them, claiming that the article contained “false and defamatory statements”. The complaint seeks “vindication” of Binance’s reputation and “accountability for the harm those statements have caused”, citing amongst these consequences “baseless and unnecessary inquiries into the company” by government officials, referring to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Dugan Bliss, Binance’s Global Head of Litigation, assured in the blog post that Binance takes “immense pride” in their compliance program, reflected by the trust that more than 300 million users worldwide continue to place in the company. As stated by Bliss: We view this lawsuit as a necessary step to defend ourselves against misinformation, hold The Wall Street Journal accountable for prioritizing clicks over journalistic integrity, and address the significant reputational harm and business consequences that have resulted. Binance’s lawyers (Withers Bergman / Withersworldwide) sent a formal letter demanding immediate corrections, a full retraction, and removal of the WSJ piece. This clash follows Binance’s 2023 4.3 billion dollar U.S. settlement and guilty plea over anti‑money‑laundering and sanctions violations, still shaping the exchange’s monitorship today, which WSJ reportedly used as context to suggest ongoing compliance weaknesses. ????NEW: Just as the @WSJ reports the DOJ has begun investigating Iran’s use of @binance to evade sanctions, Binance has filed a defamation lawsuit against the publication in the Southern District of New York. Binance is seeking damages and legal fees and is demanding a jury… pic.twitter.com/XxjE8oxH1I — Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 11, 2026 Related Reading: Bitcoin Reclaims $70,000 as Iran War Jitters Ease and Volatility Cools Inside The WSJ “Defamatory” Article The 23th February WSJ article accused of being “seriously misleading” by Binance reported that Binance investigators identified around $1 billion in crypto moving through the exchange to a network tied to Iranian entities and groups under U.S. sanctions. WSJ claimed that internal investigators uncovered large transfers from Binance clients to Iran‑linked groups (including Houthi‑aligned entities) in 2024–2025 and that some staff who pushed the issue were sidelined or removed, as covered by an article on our sister’s website Bitcoinist. “Measurable Results” Binance argues that WSJ ignored extensive rebuttals and cherry‑picked ex‑employee claims, pointing to “measurable improvement over time” based on internal data, such as a 97%+ reduction in exposure to sanctioned entities and expanded sanctions screening after the 2023 settlement or their support on the freezing and recovery of hundreds of million of dollars linked to illicit activity in 2025. They clarified that while the way public blockchains work means the risk cannot be reduced to zero, they are responsible in monitoring possible illegal activity: As we have noted before, public blockchains allow any party to send assets to an exchange deposit address without the exchange’s prior approval. That reality means risk cannot be reduced to absolute zero on any blockchain platform. Responsible operators focus on detection, investigation, mitigation, offboarding, and reporting, backed by ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement. Related Reading: Bitcoin Robbery: French Couple Held Hostage As Fake Cops Steal €900K in BTC What This Case Means For Crypto Reputational and legal risk could still shape Binance’s access to banking partners and certain jurisdictions, which in turn can affect liquidity, listing confidence, and perceived counterparty risk. The case may also influence how aggressively big media outlets cover crypto compliance going forward: if Binance wins or forces corrections, other projects might be quicker to push back on critical narratives, but if WSJ prevails, expect even sharper investigative focus on exchanges’ sanctions controls. Following Binance’s today’s blog post announcing the lawsuit, WSJ took down another report published today claiming the Department of Justice is investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade sanctions. ???????? Department of Justice is investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade sanctions. pic.twitter.com/zc03U1J5rs — Ted (@TedPillows) March 11, 2026 BTC’s price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
Shredpay targets U.S. retail and institutional users looking for ease of use and a comprehensive risk rating.
The temporary relief from oil release and stable inflation offers risk assets a pause, but underlying geopolitical and economic challenges persist.
The post Oil relief and steady inflation give risk assets a breather appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Mastercard's crypto initiative signals stablecoins' shift to mainstream finance, potentially reshaping global payment systems and market dynamics.
The post Mastercard launches crypto partner program with 85 companies to reshape global payments appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Strive's Bitcoin acquisition signals a strategic shift in corporate treasury management, potentially influencing broader market dynamics and investor strategies.
The post Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive overtakes Tesla in Bitcoin holdings following new purchase appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Wednesday morning's U.S. inflation data was in line with forecasts, and markets continue to price out any chance of a Fed rate cut at either the March or April meetings.
Strive also added to its bitcoin holdings and boosted the dividend on its own SATA preferred stock.
Anchorage is partnering with and making a strategic investment in Immunefi, which will provide security services for the Porto wallet.
Central banks aren’t buying it. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio doesn’t trust it as a safe haven. And Bitcoin is trading 44% below its October peak while gold sits near all-time highs. Related Reading: Bitcoin Crosses 20 Million Coins Mined — And Only 1 In 20 Remains That’s the backdrop against which Bitwise Asset Management’s chief investment officer is making the case that Bitcoin could still reach $1 million a coin within a decade. A Different Way To Run The Numbers Most people who shoot down the $1 million forecast do so by pointing out what it would take for Bitcoin to swallow up half of gold’s current market value. Matt Hougan says that’s the wrong calculation. According to Hougan, the error is treating gold’s market cap as a fixed number rather than a moving one. Gold has grown at roughly 13% annually since 2004, climbing from $2.5 trillion to around $38 trillion — driven by rising government debt concerns, geopolitical tension, and loose monetary policy. Hougan projects that if gold’s trajectory holds, the broader store-of-value market will reach around $121 trillion within 10 years. At that scale, Bitcoin would only need to capture 17% of the total — about one-sixth — to be worth $1 million per coin. That’s a notably different ask than the 50% figure critics typically cite. Hougan also pointed to institutional investment as a driver. Exchange-traded funds, sovereign wealth funds, and growing portfolio allocations are all being cited as forces that could push Bitcoin’s market share higher over the next decade. “There are still miles to go,” he wrote in a blog post, “but capturing a sixth of the store-of-value market in 10 years doesn’t seem extreme.” The Gap Between Thesis And Charts The argument rests on Bitcoin behaving more like gold over time. Right now, it isn’t. Gold struck a record high above $5,327 per ounce in late January and remains within 2.2% of that level. Bitcoin, by contrast, has been sliding. It’s down sharply from its highs, even as the macroeconomic conditions — debt concerns, inflation uncertainty, geopolitical friction — that typically lift gold have remained very much in play. Research out of NYDIG addressed this gap directly in early March. Bitcoin does not appear to be getting priced as a macro hedge, a sovereign risk hedge, or an inflation trade, according to the firm’s global head of research. That disconnect explains the frustration around Bitcoin’s failure to track gold despite the “digital gold” label that has followed it for years, NYDIG said. Dalio’s Pushback Dalio added his voice to the skeptics’ side earlier this month, arguing that gold remains a far stronger long-term store of value. His reasoning: central banks are buying gold, not Bitcoin. And Bitcoin, he said, trades less like a commodity hedge and more like a tech stock — something that follows risk appetite rather than countering it. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Break 5-Month Streak With 2nd Consecutive Week Of Inflows Bitcoin & Iran-US War Bitcoin’s recent price action tells the story plainly. A US-Israeli military strike on Iran in late February triggered over $300 million in crypto liquidations, pushing Bitcoin lower before a partial recovery followed signals that the conflict could be winding down. It moved with risk appetite, not against it — which is exactly the behavior Dalio and others point to when they argue Bitcoin still has a long way to go before it earns the gold comparison. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Across Protocol posted a temp check proposal exploring a shift to a private company, where ACX tokenholders could exchange tokens for equity.
Investigators say the GainBitcoin case involves about 8,000 investors and losses estimated at roughly 6,606 crore rupees ($790 million).
How MSB registration, FBO structures, real-time USDT-to-USD conversion, and multichain support enable institutional-grade crypto-to-fiat flows for global users. The promise of cryptocurrency has always been financial sovereignty. But that promise breaks down when users try to pay rent, buy groceries, or handle real-world expenses in fiat currency. Traditional banks freeze accounts. Exchanges impose withdrawal limits. …
The lawsuit may intensify scrutiny on crypto exchanges, impacting regulatory approaches and stakeholder trust in the digital currency sector.
The post Binance sues The Wall Street Journal over allegedly false reporting that led to DOJ probe appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
February’s CPI delivered what the Federal Reserve had hoped for—but possibly too late. Inflation held at 2.4% YoY, while core CPI slowed to 0.2% MoM from 0.3% in January, signaling easing price pressures. However, the data reflects conditions before recent geopolitical shocks and the surge in oil prices. Meanwhile, the labor market is softening, with …
Stellar (XLM), down 1.6% from Tuesday, joined Hedera (HBAR) as an underperformer.
The companies will be able to run their products in a controlled environment while regulators monitor risks and compliance.
Kalshi's first move outside the United States is not London, not Singapore, not any of the financial centers that have spent years building crypto-friendly regulatory frameworks. It is Brazil, through XP International and its brokerage arm, Clear, offering prediction markets to Brazilian investors as a “new asset class” anchored at launch to economic events such […]
The post Kalshi’s Brazil prediction market launch lands in a country already fighting a betting addiction crisis appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff introduced a bill to ban prediction markets related to war, death and terrorism amid escalating insider trading concerns related to military operations.
Binance has sued The Wall Street Journal over a February report alleging the exchange halted an internal probe into Iran-linked crypto flows.
Binance has filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over a February 23 report alleging the exchange stopped investigating $1.7 billion in crypto flows linked to Iran-connected networks after Donald Trump pardoned founder Changpeng Zhao. Binance strongly denies the claims, saying it continued the probe, removed related accounts, and shared corrections before publication. The …
A fresh cluster of on-chain and fund-flow data is feeding a familiar XRP market question: are buyers using the recent weakness to accumulate? New figures highlighted by CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost suggest that Binance withdrawal activity has surged just as spot XRP ETFs continue to absorb capital despite the token’s pullback. XRP Accumulation In Progress? Darkfost framed the move against a broader altcoin backdrop that still looks selective rather than expansive. “Despite a period of uncertainty that has been quite detrimental to the cryptocurrency market, altcoins are starting to show some early signs of resilience,” he wrote. “Total3, which represents the market capitalization of altcoins excluding Ethereum, is currently consolidating within a range between $640B and $740B, with a performance of around +11% since the beginning of February.” That matters because his XRP read is not based on a broad-based altcoin revival. It is based on capital concentration. As Darkfost put it, “despite a complicated macroeconomic environment and still limited market liquidity, a portion of capital remains positioned in altcoins.” But with liquidity still constrained and the listed universe of tokens continuing to expand, he argued that “asset selection is becoming increasingly important.” Within that framework, XRP has started to stand out. A CryptoQuant chart tracking XRP Ledger exchange withdrawal transactions from Binance shows several sharp spikes in recent weeks, with the most notable move exceeding 14,000 transactions on March 6. Those bursts came while XRP’s USD price remained under pressure, a pattern some traders often read as coins leaving exchange inventory rather than moving onto venues for sale. Related Reading: Why XRP’s Long-Term Vision Lies In The Internet Of Value Stack Darkfost was careful not to overstate the signal, but his interpretation was clear. “At the moment, a few positive signals are emerging around XRP,” he wrote. “The number of XRP withdrawal transactions on Binance has shown several sudden spikes in recent days, including more than 14,000 transactions on March 6. This type of movement may indicate that some investors are accumulating and then choosing to transfer their tokens to private wallets rather than keeping them on the exchange.” The second leg of the story is ETF demand. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said spot XRP products “have actually held up pretty well despite the massive pullback in price” and have taken in roughly $1.4 billion in cumulative inflows since launch. A Bloomberg Intelligence chart shared by Seyffart shows flows rising from about $150 million on Nov. 13, 2025 to $1.44 billion by March 4, 2026, suggesting that allocations continued even as market conditions became less forgiving. Related Reading: Why XRP’s Infrastructure May Be Positioned For The Tokenisation Boom Seyffart also pointed to the limited visibility around who exactly is buying. “Who are these buyers/holders?” he wrote. “Well we only know a small portion of them because the vast majority don’t file 13Fs. But here are the holders as of 12/31/2025.” The Bloomberg Intelligence holder table shows Goldman Sachs Group at the top with $153.8 million in exposure, equal to 83.6 million XRP. Millennium Management follows with $23.1 million and 12.5 million XRP, while smaller positions appear across firms including Citadel Advisors, Jane Street, DRW Securities and others. That combination is what gives the current XRP setup its edge. On one side, there is exchange-withdrawal activity that may point to coins moving off Binance and into private wallets. On the other, there is steady ETF absorption and at least some evidence of institutional exposure building through traditional reporting channels. At press time, XRP traded at $1.3768. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
The pool is designed for institutional and public company miners, focusing on compliance and regulated infrastructure.
Ledger's Donjon team exposed a MediaTek Android flaw enabling attackers to extract PINs and wallet seed phrases in seconds.
Binance has sued the Wall Street Journal over what it termed "false and defamatory reporting" in a previous story from February.
Dogecoin price is once again attracting attention across the crypto market as traders look for the next major opportunity in the memecoin sector. After weeks of consolidation and broader market uncertainty, DOGE is showing early signs of renewed interest. But beyond the price action, analysts believe something more significant may be forming. A technical structure …
The price of bitcoin was trading at $69,500 following the news, down 1.2% over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin is holding up near the upper $60Ks–$70K region despite a sharp macro shock, showing relative resilience versus equities and other risk assets. Related Reading: Bitcoin Reclaims $70,000 as Iran War Jitters Ease and Volatility Cools Bitcoin Is Resilient Enough Bitcoin appears to have passed the first stress test of the Iran shock and its aftermath. As we covered yesterday, Bitcoin snapped back above $70,000 after Iran war jitters eased, oil backed off its spike, and derivatives stress started to cool, turning a brutal liquidation into a fast‑acting relief rally. Since then, BTC has absorbed another wave of macro nerves, briefly sliding below $63,000 on the latest risk‑off flush before clawing its way back into the high‑$60,000s/low‑$70,000s range. QCP Capital’s March 11 “Market Colour” note leans into that idea, arguing that Bitcoin has shown “notable resilience following the latest geopolitical shock”. A Tale Of Caution However, despite the recovery being encouraging, QCP’s Market Colour note also suggests that the price actions “looks more like stabilization than a full return to risk-on positioning”. This caution is reflected by the options markets. Implied volatility has cooled from the extreme spike after the last sell‑off and now sits in the mid‑50s, but 25‑delta risk reversals remain negative, showing traders still pay a premium for short‑dated downside puts versus upside calls. Spot BTC is holding up, but options desks don’t yet believe in an explosive upside; they are still hedging against another leg lower, in line with QCP’s observation that downside protection remains in demand. Related Reading: Bitcoin Robbery: French Couple Held Hostage As Fake Cops Steal €900K in BTC “Stagflation” Risk For Bitcoin QCP’s reading of BTC’s recent activity frames it in “stagflationary shock”. Stagflation is the worst possible macro mix for traders: growth is stalling, inflation is still hot, and the Fed can’t easily save risk assets without risking even more inflations. Since tensions escalated in the Middle East and oil ripped toward the $120 area, global markets have been trading a stagflation narrative: softer stocks, higher yields, and an inflation shock driven by energy rather than growth. As we recently highlighted, macro analyst Alex Krüger argues that the Iran‑driven oil shock of 2026 looks more transitory than the 2022 Russia shock, with futures pricing still suggesting markets expect supply chains to heal rather than a prolonged energy crunch that would force the Fed into panic hikes What Traders Should Look For Caught between its “digital gold” narrative and its behaviour as a high‑beta macro asset, bitcoin cannot amount to a clean safe‑haven victory lap just yet. Instead, the tape and the options surface are sending a more nuanced message: spot is resilient, but big players are still paying for downside protection and treating every bounce as a potential fade if the macro data breaks the wrong way. For traders, the setup is binary around the incoming CPI and the energy tape. A benign inflation print and calmer oil could finally flip this from “stagflation scare” to “soft‑landing hope”. A hotter‑than‑expected CPI, by contrast, would validate the stagflation narrative, reward those who stayed hedged, and reopen the door to a deeper retest of the mid‑$60,000s before any attempt at new highs. BTC’s price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview