Crypto

More than 85 partners will work with Mastercard to connect on-chain payments with banks, merchants and global commerce as part of the payment giant's recent crypto program.

Binance filed a lawsuit after the Wall Street Journal reported a Justice Department probe into Iran’s alleged use of the exchange to avoid sanctions. Update, March 11, 1:00 pm UTC: This article has been updated to add a statement by Binance that the exchange filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. Binance said Wednesday it is suing the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper reported that the US Justice Department was investigating whether Iran used the crypto exchange to evade US sanctions. Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against the Journal in the Southern District of New York, seeking damages and legal fees, and demanding a jury trial. Read more

The infrastructure race for agentic commerce is already producing winners. Anthropic's Model Context Protocol now runs on more than 10,000 public servers and pulls 97 million monthly SDK downloads, connecting AI applications to external tools and data. Google's Agent-to-Agent protocol launched in April 2025 with 50 partners and scaled to more than 100 supporting companies […] The post Is crypto needed to protect the security of AI agents paying each other online? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The European Central Bank has launched Appia to guide Europe’s tokenized financial ecosystem anchored in central bank money, with early Pontes pilots planned for 2026. The European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday published its Appia roadmap, setting out a long-term plan for building tokenized wholesale financial markets in Europe anchored in central bank money. The roadmap is built around two linked initiatives. Pontes is the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger technology settlement solution, while Appia is the broader strategic framework for developing a future tokenized financial ecosystem. The ECB said Pontes is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2026. “With Appia, we are building a road from today’s financial system to tomorrow’s tokenized markets, firmly grounded in central bank money,” ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said. Read more

XRP's weekly chart mirrors the 2017 setup that projects a massive upward rally, but bulls must first break resistance around $2. XRP’s (XRP) weekly price chart is starting to resemble a technical pattern that previously marked a major cycle low and preceded a sharp upside reversal. Key takeaways: XRP's weekly chart fractal resembles the 2017 cycle low before a 1,577% surge. Read more

Your day-ahead look for March 11, 2026

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have moved to forfeit 3.44 million USDT linked to an alleged text-based crypto investment fraud.

Congress just put prediction markets like Polymarket US and Kalshi directly in its crosshairs, and the market is spooked. House Democrats introduced the ‘Banning Games on Deaths and Elections Act’ this week.It is a bill that would explicitly prohibit event contracts tied to elections, war, and death on platforms including Polymarket and Kalshi. The legislation […] The post Democrats Introduce Bill to Ban Polymarket US Prediction Market Contracts appeared first on Cryptonews.

[PRESS RELEASE – Johannesburg, South Africa, March 11th, 2026] VALR, the largest crypto exchange in South Africa by trade volume, today announced the launch of its newest Crypto Bundle, the VALR Bitcoin and Gold Bundle (BITGOLD). This bundle provides investors with simplified exposure to both Bitcoin and tokenised gold (XAUT) in a single, balanced product. […]

BTC traded near $69,500 after failing to hold $71,000 as the Iran war kept markets cautious. AI tokens including ICP, FET outperformed on strong retail demand.

US prosecutors moved to forfeit $3.44 million in USDt allegedly tied to a crypto investment scam that tricked victims into sending Ether to wallets controlled by fraudsters. US federal prosecutors have filed a civil forfeiture action to recover roughly 3.44 million USDt tied to an alleged online crypto investment scam that targeted victims across several states. According to a Tuesday announcement from the US Attorney’s Office in Boston, the funds were linked to a scheme that persuaded victims to send cryptocurrency to wallets controlled by scammers. Authorities said they seized the USDt (USDT) in February and March 2025, and are now asking a court to authorize the permanent forfeiture of the assets. “In such fraud schemes, scammers obtain funds from victims using manipulative tactics,” prosecutors said, adding that they establish a level of trust with a victim and then entice the victim into investing in a fraudulent investment scheme. Read more

Capo, an external oracle solution used by Aave, triggered around $27 million in liquidations after a pricing glitch, but the lending platform said it is stepping in to cover the losses. A configuration error in a risk-oracle system used by crypto lending platform Aave triggered the liquidation of about $27 million in wrapped staked Ether (wstETH) positions, prompting the protocol to move to compensate affected users. In a post-mortem published Tuesday, Aave said about 10,938 wstETH worth around $27.1 million was liquidated after the protocol applied an exchange rate that was 2.85% below the live market rate for wstETH and Lido staked Ether. The issue stemmed from a mismatch between pricing parameters and timestamp data in the oracle configuration, which caused the system to calculate a maximum allowed exchange rate below the actual rate onchain. Read more

Cloud and AI growth beat expectations while investors grow less worried about Oracle’s debt plans and software disruption.

Ethereum USD perpetual futures funding rates dipped into negative territory on Tuesday, signaling a decisive shift in dominance to bearish traders. This metric confirms that active short sellers are currently paying longs to keep positions open.The slide into negative funding coincides with renewed institutional skepticism, evidenced by -$210M in net outflows from Ethereum ETFs between […] The post Ethereum USD Funding Rate Turns Negative as Bears Regain Control appeared first on Cryptonews.

Charles Hoskinson speaks about the 2026 funding agenda and how the Cardano ecosystem should evolve going forward.

Washington sent two messages about crypto privacy in the same week. Treasury told Congress that lawful users of digital assets may leverage mixers to protect personal wealth, business payments, charitable donations, and consumer spending habits from public view on transparent blockchains. Days later, SDNY prosecutors filed a letter proposing to retry Tornado Cash co-founder Roman […] The post Prosecutors push to retry Tornado Cash founder even after Washington said crypto mixers have legal uses appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Traders' optimism surges as energy shocks and geopolitical uncertainty dominate macro narratives.

Whether Antalpha plans a full exit or simply a partial realization remains to be seen, but the latest transfer suggests the firm is beginning to actively manage its highly profitable gold position.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs continued their March rally, with cumulative monthly inflows reaching $1.56 billion, while XRP ETF selling eased as top holders were revealed. US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw increased inflows on Tuesday, even as BTC dipped below $70,000. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs recorded $251 million in inflows, building on Monday’s $167 million in gains, according to SoSoValue data. The inflows continue a positive trend in March, with cumulative monthly gains now at $1.56 billion versus $576.6 million in outflows. Read more

Tokenized real-world assets have surged 66% in 2026, with funds, gold and equities driving growth across public blockchains. The value of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) on public blockchains has climbed about 66% in 2026, reaching roughly $23.6 billion as of Wednesday, according to DeFiLlama data. The market stood at around $14.1 billion on Jan. 1 before steadily rising through early March. Tokenized funds, including products backed by US Treasury bills, bonds and money market funds, account for the largest share of the sector. DeFiLlama data shows tokenized funds represent about 44.5% of the total market with $10.5 billion in value, followed by tokenized gold and commodities at roughly $6.5 billion and tokenized equities at nearly $4 billion. Other segments, including private credit and yield-generating products, make up smaller portions of the onchain RWA ecosystem. Read more