Origins Network has secured $8 million in strategic financing to build a modular blockchain purpose‑built for AI agents, betting that verifiable compute will be the missing trust layer for the next wave of autonomous systems. The round, announced on March 23, 2026, features Animoca Brands alongside TBV, Candaq, Castrum Istanbul and Coinvestor Ventures, with the team describing the cap table as a blend of Web3, AI and cloud‑native backers.

In a statement, Origins said it wants to make AI “auditable, not mystical,” arguing that users should be able to check how an AI agent arrived at a result rather than accepting black‑box outputs. To do that, the network introduces Proof of Computation (PoC), a design where heavy AI inference runs offchain on GPU‑rich infrastructure, while succinct proofs of that work are verified and settled onchain. “We’re not trying to turn a blockchain into a data center,” the team said. “We’re turning blockchains into verifiers of AI behavior.”

Lead backer Animoca Brands has spent years assembling one of the broadest Web3 portfolios, with over 600 investments spanning gaming, NFTs, and infrastructure. Its chairman, Yat Siu, has often argued that Web3’s real unlock is “digital property rights at internet scale,” and Origins fits neatly into that thesis by trying to make AI‑generated outputs ownable and auditable rather than ephemeral. In a recent interview, Siu described Animoca as “a gateway to the utility tokens of Web3” — as opposed to pure memecoins — and said the firm is now backing infrastructure that brings institutional‑grade transparency and accountability into crypto.

For crypto markets, the bet is simple but ambitious: if AI agents are going to manage portfolios, underwrite loans, or trade on decentralized exchanges, they’ll need a chain where their decisions can be inspected and, if necessary, challenged. Origins Network wants to be that chain.

Key Highlights

• Apple is set to unveil advertising capabilities within its Maps application, with a formal reveal potentially happening before month’s end
• The advertising model mirrors Google Maps’ approach, enabling companies to purchase priority placement for specific search queries
• The feature is slated to debut in Maps during summer months, accessible on iPhone, additional Apple hardware, and web platforms
• Apple’s services division currently generates north of $100 billion annually, representing over 25% of the company’s overall revenue
• The European Commission determined Apple Maps doesn’t qualify for stringent Digital Markets Act regulations given its limited European market share

Apple is preparing to integrate advertising into its Maps platform, based on a Monday report from Bloomberg. The official announcement may arrive within the next few weeks.

The advertising framework will function similarly to Google Maps’ existing system. Companies will compete through bidding on relevant keywords — for instance, a dining establishment might purchase the term “sushi” — with the winning bidder’s location featured prominently when users conduct related searches.

The advertising functionality is anticipated to launch within Maps by summer’s end. Users will encounter these sponsored listings across iPhone devices, other Apple products, and web-based versions of the service.

This development represents a predictable evolution for the company. Apple has been systematically expanding its advertising operations. In late 2024, the tech giant introduced additional advertising positions within App Store search functionality and announced intentions to broaden advertising opportunities through 2026. Maps has reportedly been considered as the next expansion target in internal discussions.

Apple’s services category — encompassing the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud storage, and Apple TV+ — now produces over $100 billion in yearly revenue. This represents more than one-quarter of the company’s total income, a significant increase from less than 10% ten years prior.

European Regulatory Clearance

Apple received favorable regulatory news recently. The European Commission opted against applying stringent Digital Markets Act requirements to Apple Maps, acknowledging the application’s comparatively modest footprint in European markets versus rival services.

This determination removes a possible obstacle for launching an advertising product in Maps without encountering DMA-related complications in one of Apple’s most important geographic regions.

Upcoming Announcement Opportunities

Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is scheduled for June 8–12. The opening keynote presentation on June 8 at 1 p.m. EST typically showcases software innovations and product launches. This event would provide an ideal platform to officially announce the Maps advertising initiative.

AAPL shares advanced approximately 1.5% during Monday’s trading session. Analysts currently maintain an average price target of $304.66 for the stock, suggesting potential upside of roughly 21% from present trading levels.

Wall Street maintains a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL, derived from 14 Buy recommendations, nine Hold ratings, and one Sell rating issued during the previous three months.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals is changing its name to Stablecoin Development Corporation and its NYSE American ticker to SDEV, effective April 3, the company announced Monday. The rebrand completes a pivot from wound care to crypto that began with a $134 million private placement in January.

As of March 16, the company held approximately 2.06 billion SKY tokens — roughly 8.78% of the total supply of the Sky protocol’s governance token. SKY is currently trading at around $0.07, according to Coingecko, implying the position is worth roughly $144 million. The token is up 10% over the past month.

The Deal

The January private placement drew capital from R01 Fund LP, Framework Ventures, Tether Investments, and Sky Frontier Foundation. As part of the transaction, the company received approximately 943.6 million SKY tokens valued at around $58 million, along with $25 million in cash and $51 million in stablecoins. Since closing, it has spent an additional $70.7 million acquiring roughly 1.09 billion SKY on the open market at an average price of about $0.065.

The company has staked the majority of its holdings and reported cumulative staking rewards of approximately 26.6 million SKY.

The strategy mirrors Michael Saylor’s playbook of using a public equity vehicle to offer leveraged exposure to a single crypto asset. CEO Michael Kazley framed the approach around stablecoins broadly, calling them “the most compelling structural opportunity in digital finance.”

The bet comes at a pivotal moment for the Sky ecosystem.

Sky’s TVL has surged 38% this month to $7.52 billion, making it the fourth-largest DeFi protocol. The growth has been fueled by Sky’s fixed 3.75% savings rate exceeding yields on major lending platforms like Aave and Morpho in a risk-off environment.

“Honestly, it’s the classic story of how Sky, just like Maker used to, always does better in bear markets because it’s just focused on a solid product that can be trusted to be stable and deliver good returns,” Sky founder Rune Christensen told The Defiant.

NovaBay describes itself as an “on-chain holding company” focused on “long-duration participation in protocol-aligned digital asset ecosystems.”

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

A bipartisan effort in Washington is gearing up to curb the use of CFTC-regulated prediction markets for sports betting and casino-style contracts, intensifying a broader regulatory push around these platforms. The move comes as lawmakers weigh how to balance potential innovation with consumer protection and state gaming prerogatives.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis are expected to unveil a measure on Monday that would bar listing sports bets and other casino-style contracts on prediction markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The authors of the bill argue that such activities should be governed at the state level rather than under federal oversight. “Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators,” Curtis told the WSJ.

In a related development, Schiff has already introduced the DEATH BETS Act, which seeks to prohibit CFTC-regulated prediction markets from listing contracts tied to war, terrorism, assassination, and individual death. The bill text was released on March 10, and represents a more targeted expansion of the same policy impulse that informs the forthcoming bipartisan measure.

For readers tracking the broader regulatory arc, the evolving stance toward prediction markets intersects with renewed insider-trading concerns amid geopolitical volatility and a growing appetite in Congress to constrain markets tied to volatile events.

Key takeaways

• Lawmakers are preparing a bipartisan bill to bar CFTC-regulated prediction markets from listing sports betting and casino-style contracts, signaling a potential tightening of federal oversight.
• Senator John Curtis frames the move as protecting state sovereignty over gambling policy, while Senator Schiff’s DEATH BETS Act targets contracts linked to war, terrorism, assassination, and individual death.
• Sports-related contracts dominate activity on prediction-market platforms, with Dune data showing nearly half of Polymarket’s weekly notional volume and a substantial majority for Kalshi stemming from sports bets.
• CFTC activity is ramping up, including a staff advisory classifying event contracts as a financial asset class and an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that could reshape how the CEA applies to these markets.
• Judicial and regulatory developments across Ohio and Nevada illustrate ongoing friction between federal authority and state gambling laws, creating a rapidly shifting risk landscape for operators and users.

Bipartisan bid targets prediction markets

The forthcoming bill, described by sources as a bipartisan initiative, would bar listing sports betting and “casino-style” contracts on prediction markets that fall under CFTC regulation. If enacted, the proposal would add a significant federal constraint at a moment when prediction-market platforms are expanding offerings beyond traditional politics and current events into entertainment and sports-oriented contracts. The aim, as outlined by Curtis, is to keep certain activities within state purview while reducing exposure to what lawmakers view as harmful or addictive products.

The DEATH BETS Act, introduced by Schiff, takes a similarly restrictive stance but with a focused scope on contracts tied to deadly human events. The combination of these measures underscores a broader shift in how policymakers are approaching the intersection of prediction markets, risk, and public policy. Schiff’s office released the bill text, and the proposal is expected to shape conversations around the future of these markets in the federal legislative agenda.

Regulatory push broadens beyond Congress

Beyond proposed legislation, the regulatory climate for prediction markets has intensified in recent weeks. The CFTC, which oversees designated contract markets (DCMs) like Polymarket and Kalshi, issued a staff advisory on March 12 that classifies event contracts as a “financial asset class.” In parallel, the agency released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit input on how the Commodity Exchange Act should apply to prediction markets, signaling a potential overhaul of the regulatory framework governing these platforms.

These moves come amid a broader debate over federal versus state authority in the sector. While CFTC Chair Michael Seligman has argued that prediction markets fall under federal jurisdiction, lower courts have started to scrutinize that claim. An Ohio court ruling in early March found that Kalshi had not shown the CEA would necessarily preempt Ohio’s sports-gambling laws or that its contracts fell under the CFTC’s exclusive domain. Separately, a Nevada judge temporarily blocked Kalshi from offering sports, election, and entertainment event contracts for 14 days, citing the likelihood of violating state gambling statutes.

The regulatory climate thus blends rulemaking, judicial testing of preemption, and legislative action, creating a complex backdrop for operators as they navigate product design, compliance, and potential market exits or pivots. Kalshi and Polymarket remain under CFTC oversight as DCMS, but the ongoing legal and policy struggle injects a notable degree of uncertainty for market participants.

Sports markets drive trading volume and attention

Despite the policy spotlight, the economics of prediction markets continue to be driven by fast-moving event contracts—particularly in sports. Data from Dune Analytics highlights how sports bets dominate activity on major platforms. Polymarket’s weekly notional volume was heavily skewed toward sports contracts, accounting for about 47.7% of the week’s notional volume, while Kalshi’s sports-related contracts represented roughly 78.8% of its weekly activity. In raw figures, sports betting contributed approximately $1.2 billion in weekly notional trading for Polymarket and about $2.6 billion for Kalshi.

For investors and users, that concentration matters. A regulatory clampdown that constrains sports-related products could materially reduce liquidity, alter price discovery, and shift user interest toward other categories or away from prediction markets altogether. Operators might respond by adjusting product lines, tightening risk controls, or seeking additional state-level licenses to preserve some degree of activity within a more defined legal perimeter.

State and federal lines sharpened by courts and regulators

The tension between federal supervision and state-level gaming law has sharpened as courts weigh in on the reach of the CEA and the CFTC’s jurisdiction. The Ohio ruling suggested that federal preemption may not be as certain in practice as asserted in some regulatory circles, while Nevada’s temporary injunction against Kalshi underscores how state regulators can effectively pause or limit activity that touches local gambling statutes. These rulings do not settle the policy debate, but they do provide a glimpse into how turning points in law and regulation could shape the trajectory of prediction markets in the United States.

Meanwhile, the CFTC’s latest moves—namely the advisory and the open docket for public feedback—signal that the agency intends to be a central actor in shaping what is permissible. Market participants should monitor how the agency balances innovation with consumer protections and how courts continue to interpret the relationship between federal regulation and state gambling laws.

What happens next and why it matters

The unfolding story has clear implications for traders, developers, and investors in the prediction-market space. If Congress passes a bill restricting sports betting and casino-style contracts on CFTC-regulated markets, liquidity and product breadth could shrink, potentially pushing users toward state-regulated venues or other platforms with narrower offerings. Conversely, continued regulatory and judicial caution could preserve a larger role for prediction markets in information markets, research, and hedging across political and non-political events, albeit under tighter rules.

As lawmakers prepare to introduce the bipartisan measure and as CFTC rulemaking and court decisions proceed, industry participants should brace for a period of continued policy flux. The outcome will likely influence capital flows, platform strategies, and the pace at which prediction markets evolve from novelty to established financial infrastructure.

Readers should watch the forthcoming bill’s language, committee actions, and any amendments, alongside the CFTC’s rulemaking timetable and related court decisions. The convergence of policy, law, and market dynamics in the coming months will help define the operating landscape for prediction markets in the United States.

In the meantime, the market’s sensitivity to regulatory signals remains high, and investors should prepare for shifts in liquidity and product offerings as the regulatory framework takes clearer shape.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) failure to close the week above the 200-week exponential moving average (EMA) on Sunday put it at risk of another downward leg over the coming weeks or months.

Key takeaways:

• Bitcoin price signals “structural weakness” with failure to close week above a key trend line.

• Analysts say the next breakdown clears path for another sell-off toward $46,000.

• The $47,000 level features as a deep structural support for Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin price weakness sparks sub-$50,000 targets

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD trading at $71,190, or 6% higher than its intraday low of $67,300.

The pair had failed to produce a weekly close above the 200-weekly EMA on Sunday, currently at $68,300, suggesting that last week’s relief rally to $76,000 was a possible bull trap.

There is evidence of profit-taking every time Bitcoin rises to key accumulation levels, and commenting on the current market setup, many traders warned that any downside could snowball quickly.

Related: Bitcoin risks 50% drop as BTC’s positive correlation with US stocks grows

“$BTC broke down from the rising wedge over the weekend,” said analyst Jelle in a Monday post on X, adding:

“Consolidate here for a day or two, and those untapped lows look ripe for the taking.”

The analyst was referring to the area between the local low of $65,500 and the range low of $59,930 reached on Feb. 6.

“BTC has lost the EMA50 once again, and the global crisis feels more insecure today than it did 2 weeks ago,” fellow analyst Stockmoney Lizards said in the latest Bitcoin analysis on X.

Combined with the technical weakness, “it looks like we could be revisiting the sub-$60K area,” the analyst added.

“Bitcoin is getting close to taking that next leg lower into the mid-$40Ks,” analyst Michael J. Kramer said, referring to the measured target of a bear flag around $46,600.

These targets echo prediction market traders, who price in a 70% chance that Bitcoin drops below $55,000 in 2026, while placing the odds of a drop below $45,000 at 46%. 

“Deep structural” support for BTC is at $47,000

Bitcoin is trading near the 200-week EMA at $68,300, coinciding with the realized price of the “largest holder cohort (100-1K BTC),” according to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr.

“As long as the price holds above $68K, the largest cohort remains near its cost basis and maintains a more resilient position,” Adler Jr. said in a Bitcoin analysis on Monday, adding:

“A move below this level would signal deteriorating structure and increase the likelihood of a more nervous reaction from large holders.”

Meanwhile, the realized price of the 10-100 BTC holder cohort sits notably lower around $46,700, forming a “deep structural threshold that would become meaningful only in the event of a full-scale deterioration in market regime,” the analyst added.