Pi Network’s (PI) token stayed under $0.20 on Wednesday after several days of sideways trading, while the broader crypto market remained under pressure. 

PI has dropped about 37% from its recent peak near $0.29 to around $0.18, even as the project continued to post updates around its ecosystem and future events. The current setup shows that price pressure may continue in the coming weeks if supply rises faster than demand and market sentiment stays weak.

The wider crypto market has entered a cautious phase, and that has limited support for many altcoins. Bitcoin has fallen about 4% over the past seven days after failing to hold levels above $72,000, while Ether, Solana, and XRP have also moved in a narrow range.

That backdrop has affected Pi Coin as well. Tension between the United States and Iran has added another layer of uncertainty, and traders have remained careful even as reports pointed to possible diplomatic talks. In such conditions, risk assets often struggle to attract strong buying interest.

Another factor that may weigh on PI is the upcoming token release schedule. Around 154.2 million tokens are expected to enter circulation over the next 30 days, which equals about 5.1 million tokens per day.

A rise in circulating supply can pressure price when buyer demand does not grow at the same pace. Large unlock events have often triggered short-term volatility in other crypto projects, and PI may face the same risk if holders decide to sell part of the newly available supply.

In addition, PI posted a strong move in mid-March, but that rally lost pace quickly. Since then, the token has traded sideways and remained below the $0.20 mark, which shows that buyers have not fully regained control.

The pullback from $0.29 to about $0.18 also points to weaker short-term momentum. Mainnet-related optimism has not been enough to reverse that trend so far, and that may keep traders focused on downside risks instead of recovery.

Conference Exposure May Not Change Near-Term Price Action

Pi Network has also drawn attention after securing a sponsorship role at Consensus 2026 in Miami, which will run from May 5 to May 7. Supporters of the project viewed the development as a positive step, and one X user said the event includes a 20-minute main-stage session focused on PI and artificial intelligence.

Still, event visibility does not always lead to immediate price support. Last year, Pi Network also appeared as a Gold Sponsor at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, yet sponsorship activity alone did not remove market pressure. For now, traders appear more focused on supply, momentum, and market conditions than on conference exposure.

FET price rebounds toward key resistance as AI token rotation, exchange outflows, and progress on the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance roadmap drive renewed demand for the ASI-linked token.

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance’s FET (FET) price is trading near $0.23–$0.25 on March 25, 2026, with live dashboards placing it around $0.2499 at the latest update and showing a 24-hour range between roughly $0.2251 and $0.2538. Over the past day, FET’s price has risen by approximately 3.8% on one major tracker, while another source records a 15.5% daily surge to about $0.238 in a recent session, highlighting a sharp short-term reversal from a 7-day drawdown of around 6–7%.

FET price rebounds as AI rotation returns

That move has come alongside 24-hour trading volumes between roughly $150 million and $262 million, with circulating supply estimates between about 2.26 billion and 2.6 billion FET, implying a market capitalization in the $520–$650 million range at current prices.

FET functions as the native token of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, a decentralized AI ecosystem formed around Fetch.ai that aims to support autonomous agents, AI services and a dedicated AI-focused blockchain. In this role, FET is used for transaction fees, staking, and coordination of AI workloads, placing it firmly in the AI token category rather than pure DeFi, L1, or RWA. The alliance’s roadmap and token economics have been reshaped by a merger plan to combine FET with SingularityNET’s AGIX and Ocean Protocol’s OCEAN into a single ASI token, with a total supply targeted at 2,630,547,141 units following upgrades.

Market structure data points to significant positioning changes around FET’s latest bounce. A recent update notes that FET’s 15.5% daily surge to about $0.238 coincided with a net outflow of 1.5 million tokens from centralized exchanges, pushing exchange reserves to a new low for the cycle and signaling reduced immediate sell-side liquidity. At the same time, that report highlights that spot whale activity between roughly $0.20 and $0.22 remained predominantly on the sell side, creating a band of resistance where larger holders have been taking profit into strength. This combination of outflows and whale selling suggests the rally is being driven by broader AI inflows and on-chain scarcity, but still faces overhead supply that could cap upside if demand fades.

FET’s price action is also unfolding against a wider backdrop of renewed interest in AI-linked tokens such as Bittensor’s TAO and Render, with sector dashboards flagging parallel gains across AI infrastructure and compute assets. The alliance’s own development cadence reinforces that narrative: recent milestones include the ASI:Create closed alpha, a platform for building and deploying AI agents, and the ASI:Chain DevNet beta, a blockDAG-based layer-1 tailored to high-concurrency AI workloads. Looking further ahead, the roadmap calls for an ASI:Chain TestNet in 2026 and a mainnet launch by late 2026 or early 2027, alongside an open beta for ASI:Create, which collectively aim to convert the AI token narrative into concrete developer and user traction.

The merger mechanics underpinning this push are also critical: documentation and external analyses confirm that FET will be rebranded to ASI, with AGIX and OCEAN migrating into the new asset via fixed conversion ratios, bringing the unified supply to 2.63 billion tokens and tying three previously separate AI ecosystems into one economic base. As that process advances, FET sits at the center of a structural consolidation in the AI token space, leaving its price increasingly sensitive to both sector-wide risk appetite and the execution of the ASI roadmap.

Circle, the issuer behind the USD Coin (USDC), drew scrutiny after reportedly freezing 16 wallets tied to a civil case in the United States. On-chain investigator ZachXBT characterized the move as inappropriate, arguing the wallets belonged to legitimate business operations and were not connected to the case in any apparent way.

The wallets, ZachXBT noted, were used by a mix of crypto exchanges, online casinos, and foreign exchange businesses. He added that an analyst armed with basic on-chain tools could have recognized the wallets as ordinary business addresses from among the vast number of transactions Circle processes each day.

In a separate social post, the investigator asserted that the case appears sealed and that Circle had “zero basis” to freeze fiat-pegged USDC wallets. He described the freeze as potentially the most incompetent he has observed in years of investigations, suggesting the action reflected a governance process outsource to a default judicial mechanism rather than a defined, auditable internal procedure.

Cointelegraph approached Circle for comment on these claims, but the company did not provide a response by publication time.

Centralized stablecoins like USDC—where the issuer maintains reserves and has the ability to intervene—have long been debated for their contrast with the permissionless ethos of many crypto assets. Critics point out that, unlike cash, centrally issued stablecoins can be frozen, a point echoed by several industry figures.

“This is your 10th reminder that centrally issued stablecoins are not actually yours; they can be frozen, unlike cash,”

Mert Mumtaz, founder of RPC node provider Helius, reacted to the freezes by underscoring the governance risk inherent in centralized stablecoins. He framed the episode as a reminder that control rests with the issuer, with potential implications for user rights and privacy.

Jean Rausis, co-founder of the Smardex decentralized trading platform, linked Circle’s action to broader regulatory designs under discussion in the GENIUS stablecoin framework. He suggested that provisions within GENIUS could enable a privately managed central bank digital currency (CBDC) pathway, highlighting ongoing debates about how much visibility, oversight, and control such tokens might concede to authorities.

The discussion extends to broader concerns about the relationship between regulated stablecoins and the future cryptocurrency regulatory landscape. Critics have warned that frameworks like GENIUS may inadvertently normalize a centralized, surveilled form of money under the guise of stability and compliance, potentially steering markets toward a CBDC-like model. In May 2025, commentator and former lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene also raised alarms that regulated stablecoins could act as a “CBDC Trojan Horse.”

Key takeaways

• Circle reportedly froze 16 USDC-related wallets tied to exchanges, gaming, and FX businesses, a move disputed by crypto researchers as misaligned with the civil case context.
• On-chain investigator ZachXBT contends the wallets were clearly business instruments, not entities implicated in the ongoing case, and questions the governance process used to authorize the freezes.
• Industry voices stress that centralized stablecoins can be frozen by issuers, underscoring tensions between censorship-resistance ideals and regulatory compliance.
• Discussion around GENIUS signals concern that centralized infrastructure could nudge regulated stablecoins toward privately managed CBDC-like models, fueling ongoing CBDC debates.
• Circle did not provide a public comment at the time of reporting, leaving questions about internal processes and future safeguards unresolved.

Rethinking stablecoins in a regulatory era

The episode situates Circle’s actions within a broader discourse about the balance between stability, governance, and user sovereignty. Proponents of decentralized finance have long argued that censorship resistance and non-custodial control are core benefits of crypto. The ability of a stablecoin issuer to freeze funds—whether due to legal pressures, compliance programs, or other governance mechanisms—poses a direct challenge to that ideal.

Industry executives frame this moment as a test of how future stablecoins will operate under increasing scrutiny. The GENIUS framework, which aims to shape stablecoin regulation in the United States, is cited by several stakeholders as a potential pathway for more tightly controlled, centrally managed assets. Critics warn that such measures could drift toward CBDC-like systems, with implications for transparency, user consent, and financial privacy.

For investors and users, the key question is where risk management ends and user autonomy begins. If stablecoins remain fully centralized, ownership and access could hinge on issuer discretion rather than user rights. By contrast, a move toward more decentralized, algorithmic, or opt-in governance mechanisms might preserve censorship resistance but come with different liquidity and compliance trade-offs. The current situation with USDC highlights the practical tensions between these design choices and the real-world friction points that users and institutions must navigate.

What to watch next

Observers will be looking for any clarifications from Circle regarding the freeze process, internal governance criteria, and the safeguards—if any—that govern such actions. Regulators may also seek greater transparency around how stablecoins are managed, when freezes can be invoked, and how affected users can contest actions. The broader market will likewise assess how this incident influences confidence in centralized stablecoins and whether it accelerates calls for more robust, auditable frameworks that align with the industry’s long-standing push for transparency and resilience.

As the dialogue around stablecoins and CBDCs evolves, readers should stay tuned for updates on Circle’s official stance, forthcoming regulatory guidance under GENIUS, and any shifts in industry practices designed to prevent ambiguous, arbitrary freezes in the future.

Chainlink’s (LINK) price is changing hands around $9.42 today, with 1-hour gains of 0.13%, a 24-hour rise of 3.64% and a 7-day increase of 1.19%, putting its market capitalization at roughly $6.67 billion on a circulating supply of about 708.09 million tokens.

LINK price hovers near 3-month low

Over the last 24 hours, LINK’s spot trading volume has reached about $659,390,868 across tracked exchanges, giving the asset a volume-to-market-cap ratio close to 10%, a level consistent with heavy but orderly trading in a liquid large-cap altcoin. In earlier snapshots, the token traded near $14.28 with a market cap of $9.94 billion and daily volume of $687.78 million, showing how LINK has compressed in price from its late-2025 range while maintaining deep liquidity.

Historical data from market dashboards shows that LINK remains far below its all-time high near $52.70, leaving it down roughly 70–73% from peak even after the latest bounce, but with its full 696–708 million token circulating supply actively traded across major venues. That combination of long-term drawdown and persistent liquidity has made LINK a structural component of many portfolios that want oracle and interoperability exposure, rather than purely momentum-driven flows.

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle and interoperability network that connects smart contracts to off-chain data, computation and other blockchains, positioning LINK as a core infrastructure token rather than a pure DeFi coin, AI asset or layer-1. Its nodes deliver price feeds, proof-of-reserve data, random number generation and, increasingly, cross-chain messaging via the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). In this model, LINK is used to pay for oracle services and secure the network, making demand for tokenized assets, DeFi and institutional connectivity directly relevant to the token’s long-term economics.

Recent technical and ecosystem updates have reinforced this role. Chainlink’s own communication describes CCIP as an “end-to-end interoperability standard” that allows tokenized funds to keep their share register on one chain while using CCIP to process subscriptions and redemptions across others, including private bank networks and public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. A January 2026 deep dive outlines plans for CCIP v1.5 on mainnet, which will enable self-serve token integrations, customizable rate limits and support for EVM-compatible zk-rollups, expanding the protocol’s reach.

Adoption data around CCIP and related services helps explain why LINK continues to attract directional interest despite its long consolidation. Research cited in a March 2026 price outlook estimates that CCIP has been averaging around $90 million in weekly token transfers, hinting at steady cross-chain volume already moving through the protocol. Chainlink itself reports that its oracle infrastructure has enabled over $28 trillion in cumulative transaction value across DeFi, tokenized assets and other use cases, providing a track record that appeals to institutional users.

New partnerships add regional and sector depth. In early March 2026, the ADI Foundation announced that it would integrate Chainlink and use CCIP as the canonical bridge for ADIChain, a network focused on tokenization across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and reportedly backed by over $240 billion in assets through its institutional partners. Under that collaboration, Chainlink also becomes ADIChain’s official oracle provider for price feeds, reserve verification and NAV calculations for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, making LINK central to the network’s RWA and stablecoin stack.

More broadly, coverage of CCIP in banking and asset management circles highlights pilot projects in which major banks and asset managers use Chainlink to move tokenized fund shares and stablecoins across public and private chains, including experiments by ANZ and SBI Digital Markets to settle cross-border payments and manage subscriptions. In that environment, LINK’s current price level around $9–$10, coupled with hundreds of millions of dollars in daily volume and a multi-year consolidation structure around the $14 support region, positions it as a liquid, infrastructure-linked bet on the scaling of tokenization and cross-chain activity rather than a short-lived momentum trade.

Update (March 25 8:22PM UTC): This article has been updated to clarify the role of M1X Global in the first paragraph.

The technology provider building the infrastructure for the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ universal basic income (UBI) program which will use a US dollar-pegged sovereign financial instrument has attracted some significant crypto-tied backers.

In a Tuesday notice shared exclusively with Cointelegraph, M1X Global announced that it had launched following a $3 million angel investment round by current and former executives connected to crypto and financial services companies.

Backers for the M1X Global angel round included former Coinbase chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan and Cumberland Labs CEO Tama Churchouse.

According to the company, the funding will support the development and adoption of the USDM1 digital sovereign bond which allows citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to access the UBI program.