TLDR:

• Tether engaged a Big Four accounting firm for its first full independent audit in digital asset market history.
  
• The audit covers over $184 billion in USD₮ market cap, making it the largest inaugural audit in financial markets.
  
• CFO Simon McWilliams confirmed Tether already meets Big Four audit standards ahead of the formal review process.
  
• The audit moves Tether beyond standard stablecoin attestations, raising the accountability bar for all digital asset issuers.

Tether has engaged a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full independent financial audit. The stablecoin issuer, managing over $184 billion in market capitalization, made the announcement on March 24, 2026.

This move positions the company beyond standard attestation practices common among stablecoin issuers. With more than 550 million users globally, the audit is expected to be the largest inaugural audit in financial market history.

Tether Sets a New Benchmark for Stablecoin Transparency

The engagement followed a competitive selection process involving several major accounting firms. Each firm conducted a thorough assessment of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting.

Multiple stakeholders participated during the onboarding phase, which concluded weeks before the announcement. The level of interest from audit firms reflects how closely the industry is watching this development.

CEO Paolo Ardoino spoke directly to the weight of the decision. “Tether’s mission has always been to build trust through action, not promises,” he said.

He further noted that trust is built when institutions are willing to open themselves fully to scrutiny. For users and businesses relying on USD₮ daily, this process is about accountability, resilience, and long-term confidence in the infrastructure they depend on.

CFO Simon McWilliams, appointed in early 2025, has been central to preparing the company for this process. He stated clearly that “the organisation is already operating at Big Four audit standard; the audit will be delivered.”

His appointment marked a turning point in the company’s internal governance and financial architecture. His leadership helped build the systems needed for a fully independent review.

Tether has consistently retained earnings within its ecosystem rather than distributing profits externally. Capital remains available in affiliated proprietary holding companies to support USD₮ stability.

As part of the audit process, the company will move listed securities in the coming days. The ongoing audit will provide full visibility into how those reserves are positioned.

Currently, attestations remain the industry standard for stablecoin issuers. Tether is moving beyond that floor toward a full audit that carries far greater scrutiny.

This shift reflects a broader push for institutional-grade accountability across the digital asset sector. Other issuers are now likely to face increased pressure to follow suit.

What the Audit Means for USD₮ Users and the Broader Market

Ardoino described the audit as representing “years of work to strengthen our systems so that Tether can meet the highest standards applied in global finance.”

That preparation involved expanding governance structures, tightening financial controls, and aligning reporting processes with Big Four expectations. The result is a company that entered the audit engagement from a position of readiness rather than obligation.

The audit process covers a uniquely complex mix of digital assets, traditional reserves, and tokenized liabilities. Few institutions outside major sovereign entities operate at a comparable scale.

That complexity makes the review one of the most technically demanding audits ever attempted. Completing it successfully would mark a major milestone for digital asset infrastructure.

Tether has also worked with global law enforcement to identify illicit activity and freeze unlawful funds. These efforts have strengthened USD₮’s reputation as a reliable digital dollar.

Combined with robust compliance systems, the audit adds another layer of credibility to its reserve management practices.

Tether’s broader mission centers on financial access in regions where traditional banking systems are limited or fragile. Open digital dollars, in the company’s view, are essential to enabling economic opportunity.

The audit supports that mission by reinforcing the trustworthiness of the underlying infrastructure. Users in underserved markets stand to benefit directly from greater institutional confidence in USD₮.

The company has invested heavily in governance, risk management, and internal controls over recent years. Those investments laid the groundwork for meeting Big Four audit requirements.

Moving forward, Tether aims to use this audit as a foundation for continued transparency efforts. The result could reshape how the broader market evaluates stablecoin issuers going forward.

Around 96% of crypto wallets trading Pump Fun-launched tokens have made less than $500 in the past month, with over 50% posting a loss.

That’s according to Dune analytics compiled by analyst @oladee.

Oladee’s data shows that 45.6% of traders made profits up to $500, while 50.6% suffered losses. 

The figures were apparently misreported by market analyst Ted Pillows who claimed that they showed 96% of Pump Fun token traders on decentralised exchanges had suffered PnL losses this month. 

On the contrary, two wallets made over $1 million trading Pump Fun tokens this past month. On the other end of the scale, two lost anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million. 

Read more: X Creators $1M prize winner exposed as memecoin pump-and-dumper

It’s worth noting that the data just shows the number of wallets, and that individual traders can create multiple wallets if they want to. 

Pump Fun token launchers are making bank

While the majority of individuals trading these tokens aren’t making bank, the ones deploying them certainly are. 

According to crypto analyst Dethective, the top 250 deployers of Pump Fun tokens have extracted $79 million from traders.  

Dethective added that these 250 wallets only deployed around 10 tokens that managed to exceed a market cap of $5 million. The wallets also launched 194,000 tokens over the past six months.

Read more: Binance token listing no longer a ‘bullish’ event, research

Dethective notes that his findings don’t necessarily represent 250 different people, but are specifically 250 crypto wallets. 

Pump Fun token down 80%, and there’s still no airdrop

Pump Fun has recently pivoted towards AI and the emerging sector of agentic trading that involves AI software trading on your behalf.

In this spirit, the memecoin platform announced a system of automated buyback options for third-party AI agents. 

This feature wasn’t well received by Pump Fun traders on X who are still restless over the platform’s reluctance to roll out an airdrop that it said, 258 days ago, would be coming “soon.”

Read more: Crypto firms cut jobs as bear market and AI shift bite

Pump Fun hasn’t addressed its airdrop on X since then, and it’s unclear what its current status is.  The price of its $PUMP token is down 80% from it’s all-time-high of $0.008819 in September last year.

One factor that might be delaying things is the ongoing crypto bear market and the wider economic fallout from the US-Israel war against Iran.

Indeed, last week, crypto exchange Kraken announced that it was delaying the launch of its initial public offering until “market conditions improve.”

NFT platform OpenSea also announced that it would delay launching its $SEA token due to the “challenging” market conditions across crypto. 

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

BitMine pushed the corporate crypto race forward after it spent more on Ethereum than Strategy spent on Bitcoin last week. Arkham‑linked data put BitMine’s weekly ETH purchase at $140.74 million, while Strategy’s weekly Bitcoin buy reached $76.6 million. As a result, the week highlighted stronger balance-sheet demand from institutions across the two largest cryptocurrencies.

BitMine Drives Ethereum Treasury Higher

BitMine accelerated its Ethereum strategy and pushed its treasury closer to another major supply milestone in March. The company said it held 4,660,903 ETH on March 22, valued at about $10.03 billion. That stockpile represented 3.86% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million token supply and kept BitMine ahead in the treasury ranking.

Moreover, BitMine said its combined crypto, cash, and related holdings totaled $11 billion after the latest accumulation round. Those assets included $1.1 billion in cash, 196 Bitcoin, and several equity stakes outside its token reserves. Meanwhile, the company kept Ethereum as its primary treasury reserve asset and its main accumulation target.

TOM LEE JUST BOUGHT MORE CRYPTO THAN SAYLOR pic.twitter.com/1GSFLdvKdS

— Arkham (@arkham) March 24, 2026

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BitMine also expanded staking, and that move strengthened its Ethereum exposure beyond simple token accumulation. As of March 23, the company had staked 3,142,643 ETH, worth about $6.5 billion at stated prices. That total equaled roughly 67% of BitMine’s ETH holdings and added another revenue stream from network validation.

Strategy Adds Bitcoin but Trails on Weekly Pace

Strategy still added Bitcoin last week, but its reported pace trailed BitMine’s Ethereum buying by a wide margin. Market reports said the company bought 1,031 BTC for about $76.6 million during the same period. Consequently, BitMine’s weekly purchase exceeded Strategy’s by more than $64 million and led the week’s treasury comparison.

Even so, Strategy remained the largest treasury holder across the public-company crypto market by overall asset size. BitMine’s latest company update valued Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings at about $52 billion, keeping Bitcoin ahead on scale. That position preserved Bitcoin’s lead in corporate reserves, while Ethereum gained ground through BitMine’s faster buildup.

The contrast reflected different treasury timelines, and it highlighted different methods of corporate crypto accumulation. Strategy built its Bitcoin position over the years, whereas BitMine scaled its Ethereum treasury within several recent months. Therefore, Ethereum treasury companies now command more attention in public-market coverage and treasury strategy discussions.

Institutional Adoption Broadens Across Both Assets

BitMine did not begin as an Ethereum treasury company, and that background adds context to its rapid expansion. The firm operated as a Bitcoin miner before it redirected excess capital into Ethereum reserves and staking activity. By August 2025, it had become the largest publicly disclosed Ethereum treasury, according to market reporting.

Now, BitMine aims to acquire 5% of Ethereum’s supply, and that target frames its current buying campaign. Arkham-linked reporting estimated another $359 million of ETH would take holdings to the 4% threshold. Accordingly, the latest purchase kept BitMine within reach of another symbolic marker in the Ethereum market.

Together, the latest moves showed institutional adoption through direct treasury allocation rather than passive market products. Ethereum gained a sharper corporate benchmark, and Bitcoin kept its established treasury leader in public markets. For now, public companies continue to widen crypto treasury competition across both assets and across balance sheets.

BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, signaled a shift in how large investors view crypto, pointing to artificial intelligence (AI) as a more meaningful driver than the expansion of new tokens.

Speaking about client behavior, Mitchnick described a market that has moved away from broad exposure to smaller assets. He said the turnover among top tokens has been “pretty ferocious,” with only bitcoin BTC$70,215.47 and, later, ether (ETH) maintaining consistent positions. Many newer tokens, he suggested, fail to hold long-term relevance.

That pattern has shaped investor demand. “The majority of that is nonsense,” Mitchnick said at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on Tuesday, referring to the vast number of tokens in circulation. As a result, clients now focus on a narrow set of assets rather than building wide portfolios. Bitcoin and Ethereum dominate allocations, with limited interest beyond those names.

Against that backdrop, Mitchnick pointed to AI as a more significant force shaping crypto’s future role. He stressed that AI is a larger theme than digital assets, but said the two intersect in ways that could matter.

“AI agents are very unlikely to use, you know, Fedwire and SWIFT,” he said. “What is crypto? Crypto is computer-native money… AI is computer-native data and intelligence. And so there’s a natural symbiosis there.”

That framing casts crypto less as a speculative asset class and more as infrastructure. A growing number of bitcoin miners have begun shifting resources toward AI workloads, drawn by steadier revenue and rising demand for computing power. Several listed miners, including Hut 8 (HUT), Core Scientific (CORZ) and Iren (IREN), are either repurposing data centers or signing hosting deals tied to AI and high-performance computing. Others have signaled similar plans, even if mining remains their core business.

Mitchnick also linked AI-driven disruption to bitcoin’s appeal. As new technologies reshape industries and create uncertainty, he suggested bitcoin may serve as a stabilizing allocation. It can act as a diversifier during periods of rapid change.

“There are intersection points that are relevant… there’s clearly an advantage and an opportunity to play a role in the AI economy,” he said.

Circle is expanding the use of its USD Coin (USDC) across Africa through a strategic partnership with Sasai Fintech. The collaboration aims to weave USDC into Sasai’s payments fabric, covering cross-border transfers, enterprise payments, and consumer wallets, with the goal of lowering costs and shortening settlement times for users across multiple markets.

In a Business Wire release, Circle and Sasai described integrating USDC into Sasai’s infrastructure to unlock practical on-chain use cases for the stablecoin within Sasai’s network. Sasai operates digital payments services across several African markets, and the partnership would connect Circle’s on-chain rails with Sasai’s cross-border and mobile-payment ecosystem.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the collaboration as part of the company’s broader focus on high-growth payment corridors in emerging markets, while Cassava Technologies Chairman Strive Masiyiwa highlighted the potential to broaden access to digital financial services for both businesses and consumers.

Data from DefiLlama shows USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, at roughly $78.6 billion, trailing only Tether’s USDT, which sits around $184.1 billion. The size of USDC liquidity underscores the potential scale that could flow into Africa’s payments rails as the ecosystem grows.

The rise of crypto and stablecoins in Africa

Africa has witnessed a notable uptick in crypto activity, with Sub-Saharan Africa showing a 52% year-over-year increase in on-chain activity in the 12 months through June 2025, tallying more than $205 billion in on-chain value, according to Chainalysis data cited in recent market coverage. Nigeria accounted for the largest share of that activity—over $92 billion—followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Remittances, cross-border payments, and hedging against currency volatility are among the leading use cases driving this surge.

The region’s crypto expansion is drawing attention from global players expanding into Africa. For example, Blockchain.com announced Ghana-focused expansion as part of its broader push across the continent, reflecting growing demand for retail and institutional access to digital assets and stablecoins as a payment and settlement layer.

Regulatory developments are also beginning to mature alongside growth. Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 crypto trading platforms to operate within a regulatory sandbox framework under the country’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, signaling a structured pathway for crypto services to scale with oversight.

Beyond the technology itself, policymakers and industry participants emphasize stablecoins as a faster, lower-cost alternative to traditional remittance routes. The World Bank continues to highlight an urgent cost challenge: while the global target is to bring average remittance costs below 3%, many economies in Sub-Saharan Africa still register higher levels. A World Bank analysis noted that in 2023 several economies, including Sierra Leone, Uganda, Angola, Botswana, and Zambia, faced remittance costs above 7%.

What this partnership signals for investors and users

The Circle–Sasai collaboration arrives as Africa’s payments ecosystem matures, with an emphasis on onboarding more people into digital finance through stablecoins and mobile-first services. For investors, the deal highlights a growing preference among builders and operators to anchor on-chain liquidity with regionally relevant rails. By anchoring USDC into Sasai’s breadth of services—cross-border transfers, enterprise payments, and consumer wallets—the collaboration could reduce settlement times and processing costs for a broad set of use cases, from small-business payments to worker remittances.

For users, the on-ramp to digital finance in Africa can become more accessible and affordable as stablecoin rails are integrated with everyday payment flows. The combination of Sasai’s regional reach and Circle’s global on-chain platform could create a more seamless experience for individuals and businesses moving money across borders or paying suppliers in other countries, with USDC serving as the common settlement asset.

On the regulatory front, the Ghana sandbox move demonstrates how governments are approaching crypto infrastructure with a combination of oversight and opportunity. This framework can help standardize participation for exchanges and wallets while preserving consumer protections, a development that could encourage broader adoption and more predictable interoperability between on-chain assets and traditional payment rails.

Another dynamic to watch is the broader regional push by established crypto firms into Africa. The combination of rising adoption, improving regulatory clarity, and the entry of global players into local ecosystems could accelerate the velocity of stablecoin use, especially in corridors where remittances and cross-border payments have historically been costlier and slower. If the trend continues, we could see more enterprise-grade solutions built on USDC that specifically target Africa’s fragmented payment landscape, potentially unlocking new business models for remittance corridors, supplier payments, and consumer wallets alike.

The next few quarters will be critical for measuring impact. Key questions include how quickly Sasai can operationalize USDC rails across its markets, what the actual cost savings look like for end users, and how regulators across the region balance supervision with innovation. Market participants will also be watching for concrete usage metrics—volume, settlement times, and cross-border transaction costs—as real-world adoption begins to take hold. As Africa’s crypto infrastructure evolves, collaborations like Circle and Sasai’s could lay the groundwork for a more inclusive digital economy where stablecoins help bridge traditional finance and mobile-first financial services.

Readers should watch for updates on deployment milestones, regulatory progress, and early usage data from Sasai’s network as USDC-enabled services begin to roll out across the continent. The collaboration represents more than a single partnership; it signals a notable shift toward scalable, on-chain payment rails tailored for Africa’s distinctive market dynamics.

The Ethereum Foundation on Tuesday launcheda dedicated website consolidating the organization’s post-quantum (PQ) security work into a single public resource.

The site represents the public-facing culmination of what the EF describes as an 8-year effort that began with early STARK-based signature aggregation research in 2018.

“Ethereum is designed to serve as resilient, self-sovereign infrastructure — not for decades, but for centuries,” the site reads. The EF frames the transition as an opportunity to strengthen the protocol’s security, simplicity, and decentralization rather than simply swapping one primitive for another.

The resource brings together several strands of work. It breaks down how post-quantum cryptography affects each protocol layer — execution, consensus, and data — and maps out a phased migration across named forks onthe EF Architecture team’s living draft roadmap.

The team’s current assessment places Layer 1 (L1) protocol upgrades as potentially complete by 2029, with full execution-layer migration taking additional years beyond that.

On the threat timeline, the FAQ states that most engineering roadmaps place cryptographic relevance in the early-to-mid 2030s, but that upgrading decentralized global infrastructure will take many years, making early preparation essential.

The PQ milestones are part of the EF’s broader strawmap. Post-quantum L1 is one of five “north stars” alongside fast L1, gigagas L1, teragas L2, and private L1. The strawmap outlines seven forks through 2029 on a roughly six-month cadence, though the document notes that AI-accelerated R&D could compress timelines.

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

TLDR:

• RHEA Finance integrates TRON, giving 370 million users access to cross-chain liquidity via one wallet.
• NEAR Intents and Chain Signatures power seamless cross-chain execution without extra wallets or bridges.
• TRON processes over $20 billion daily and holds $85 billion in USDT, making it a key DeFi target.
• Intent-based architecture lets users state financial goals while solvers handle all cross-chain execution.

RHEA Finance has announced its integration with the TRON network, extending chain abstracted liquidity to one of blockchain’s most active ecosystems.

Built on NEAR Protocol’s intent-based architecture, the cross-chain DEX and lending protocol now enables TRON users to trade, lend, and borrow across multiple chains.

Users can do this without bridges, extra wallets, or technical knowledge of underlying chain mechanics.

TRON Users Gain Seamless Multi-Chain Access

The integration is powered by NEAR Intents and NEAR Chain Signatures. Together, these tools allow TRON users to express financial goals, such as lending USDT or swapping TRX. A decentralized solver network then handles execution across supported blockchains automatically.

Users sign transactions using only their existing TRON wallet through the RHEA PassKey experience. This removes the need for NEAR, EVM, or any additional wallet setup. The process is designed to be straightforward and accessible to users of all experience levels.

TRON has built a strong presence in global stablecoin payments over the years. The network holds over $85 billion in circulating USDT supply and supports more than 370 million user accounts.

Additionally, TRON processes over $20 billion in daily transfer volume, making it a natural fit for cross-chain DeFi.

RHEA Finance aggregates liquidity across multiple blockchains through its core architecture. By adding TRON, the platform extends its infrastructure to a vast and active user base. Assets can now move between blockchains without fragmentation or added complexity.

Intent-Based Architecture Addresses Long-Standing DeFi Challenges

NEAR Protocol Co-Founder and RHEA Finance advisor Illia Polosukhin spoke directly to the value of the integration. “With RHEA’s TRON integration, the massive user base of TRON gains access to broad cross-chain liquidity through a single wallet,” he said.

He further noted, “This is the power of NEAR Intents and chain abstraction. The user states their intent and it just works, no need to think about infrastructure.”

TRON DAO Community Spokesperson Sam Elfarra also weighed in on the development. “RHEA Finance’s integration represents a meaningful step in further driving cross-chain DeFi accessibility to TRON’s global user base,” Elfarra stated.

He added that users can now transact across ecosystems without leaving TRON, enhancing interoperability across the broader Web3 landscape.

The integration directly addresses fragmented liquidity and complex bridging workflows in DeFi. It also removes the persistent need for multiple wallets when operating across chains. Users simply express their desired outcome, and the infrastructure manages execution on the backend.

Native settlement workflows are designed to keep collateral and proceeds within the TRON ecosystem. This approach maintains the security and familiarity that existing TRON users expect.

As blockchain interoperability grows, intent-based systems like this show how decentralized finance can scale to meet the needs of a global user base.