Bitcoin has crossed a historic threshold: 20 million of its 21 million total supply has now been mined. The milestone leaves fewer than 1 million coins remaining to be extracted over the next 114 years, according to available data. The achievement underscores how close Bitcoin is to its absolute supply cap.

The extended timeline to extract the final 1 million BTC poses a critical challenge for miners. After the last halving around 2140, miners will depend entirely on transaction fees rather than block rewards to sustain operations—a fundamental shift that may force many current participants out of the industry before the network reaches completion.

Sources: Decrypt | Bitcoin Magazine | Yahoo Finance

This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

Moreover, the overall negative streak stretches out to March 5.

The demand for the spot XRP ETFs in the United States has seemingly evaporated as the funds have not seen a single day of net inflows for over one whole week.

Nevertheless, the underlying token managed to post some gains over the past week before it was halted at $1.45.

XRP ETFs See Investor Exodus

The exchange-traded funds tracking the performance of the cross-border token enjoyed their initial honeymoon period that lasted roughly a month, in which they attracted over $1 billion in cumulative net flows. However, they began to slowly disappear from investors’ radar. The first two warning signs were observed on January 7 and 20 when $40.80 million and $53.32 million were pulled out of the funds.

January ended with another mass withdrawal of $92.92 million on January 29, and the overall month was just slightly in the green – $15.59 million; a figure significantly lower than the $666.61 million seen in November and $500 million in December.

February picked up the pace, as the total monthly inflows stood at $58.09 million. However, more warning shots were seen as there were days with zero net inflows. Such trading days returned in the previous week – SoSoValue shows $0.00 reportable inflow data for March 11 and March 13. Moreover, the other three trading days were in the red, with $18.11 million leaving the funds on Monday, $3.88 million on Tuesday, and $6.08 million on Thursday.

This negative streak extends to the previous business week. In fact, the funds have not seen a green day since March 4.

XRP Price Ascent Halted

Despite the investor exodus, XRP’s price fared rather well in the past week, jumping from a Monday low of $1.34 to a multi-week peak of just over $1.45. However, it was stopped there and now struggles below $1.40.

You may also like:

Its most recent price moves have been contained in a relatively tight trading range, which has prompted many analysts to suggest that there’s a big move in the making. Ali Martinez, for example, noted a few days ago that XRP’s Bollinger Bands have been squeezing, hinting at a major breakout soon.

He doubled down earlier today, saying that XRP’s current triangular consolidation is approaching its tipping point, with a 30% price move brewing.

$XRP is consolidating in a triangle, hinting at a 30% price move. pic.twitter.com/lgjOWKUBHU

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) March 14, 2026

Sky, the successor to MakerDAO, is off to a strong start this month, with its total value locked (TVL) climbing to $7.52 billion, a 38% increase since March 1, according to DefiLlama.

This makes Sky the fourth-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL, trailing Aave, Lido, and EigenCloud. The sUSDS savings pool alone accounts for approximately $6.5 billion in deposits and has attracted nearly $1.3 billion since the start of the month.

As DeFi yields have dried up in the wake of the market downturn, Sky’s fixed 3.75% savings rate is higher than stablecoin supply rates on major protocols like Aave and Morpho. For example, supplying USDT or USDC on Aave’s Ethereum markets currently yields less than 2%.

“Yield is definitely the main factor, but it’s also one of the lowest risk, liquid yield sources in DeFi,” Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, told The Defiant.

Sky founder Rune Christensen also emphasized that users are prioritizing safety amid the market turbulence.

“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,” Christensen told The Defiant.

The SKY token has rallied alongside the surge in TVL. The token is up approximately 4% over the past seven days and 12% over the past month, according to CoinGecko.

The token remains about 26% below its all-time high, per CoinGecko, with a market capitalization of roughly $1.7 billion.

Brazil’s leading cryptocurrency and fintech industry groups have warned that expanding a financial transaction tax to stablecoin operations could harm innovation and violate existing law.

In a joint statement shared with CoinDesk, industry associations ABcripto, ABFintechs, Abracam, ABToken and Zetta said recent discussions about extending a tax on financial operations (locally known as Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras, or IOF) to stablecoin transactions raise legal and economic concerns.

The organizations represent more than 850 companies across Brazil’s financial technology, virtual asset and market infrastructure sectors, the statement reads.

The debate centers on a levy applied to certain financial transactions, including foreign exchange operations. According to the associations, applying the tax to stablecoin transactions would conflict with Brazil’s current legal framework and harm the country’s crypto industry.

They argue that the Constitution defines the IOF as applying only to the settlement of currency exchange transactions involving the delivery of national or foreign fiat currency. Stablecoins, they said, do not meet that definition.

Brazil’s Virtual Assets Law, enacted as Law No. 14,478 in 2022, explicitly states that virtual assets are not considered national or foreign fiat currency, the statement says. The industry groups say this distinction means stablecoins cannot legally be treated as instruments representing foreign currency under the IOF rules.

As a result, the organizations say any attempt to extend the tax through a decree or an administrative rule would be unlawful. Under Brazil’s constitutional framework, new taxes or expanded tax triggers must be approved through the legislative process.

“In this context, any expansion of tax incidence on operations with stablecoins through a decree or administrative rule is illegal, since acts of this nature cannot create or expand a tax triggering event,” the document reads.

The groups also cautioned against conflating monitoring rules from Brazil’s central bank with taxation policy. They said oversight of digital asset transactions does not automatically justify applying the IOF tax to those activities.

Industry representatives argue that policy missteps could damage a rapidly expanding sector. Brazil has emerged as one of the world’s largest crypto markets, with an estimated 25 million people participating in the ecosystem.

Brazil’s stablecoin adoption

The associations said the country’s crypto sector has grown alongside a broader wave of financial innovation, including fintech platforms, digital payments, and blockchain infrastructure. They also noted that similar taxes on stablecoin transactions are not widely used in other major economies.

Stablecoin usage in Brazil has surged dramatically in recent years, turning the country into one of the largest markets for the assets in Latin America and globally.

Dollar-pegged tokens like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC now dominate crypto activity as Brazilians use them to hedge volatility in their fiat currency, the real (BRL), move money across borders at lower cost, and provide liquidity for trading.

Brazil’s crypto market, according to an auditor at Brazil’s tax authority, Receita Federal, is moving between $6 and $8 billion per month, with 90% of that being stablecoin flows.

Not all of them are U.S. dollar stablecoins, as BRL-pegged stablecoins are gaining traction. Trading in tokens linked to the Brazilian real reached about $906 million in the first half of 2025, according to Dune data.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Strategy (MSTR) could be the owner of 1 million bitcoin — or nearly 5% of the 21 million bitcoin that will ever be created — by the end of 2022.

The company currently holds 738,731 BTC, meaning it would need to acquire another 261,269 BTC to reach the milestone. With roughly 297 days, about 42 weeks, remaining in 2026, that implies an average purchase pace of around 6,158 BTC per week.

Assuming an average bitcoin price of $85,000, Strategy would need to deploy roughly $523 million per week, or about $22.2 billion in total, to reach the 1 million BTC mark by year’s end.

Led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company’s recent purchases suggest that pace may be achievable. Just last week, Strategy added 17,994 bitcoin. This week’s acquisitions (likely to be disclosed on Monday) are likely to also be deep into the thousands. The company’s STRC preferred stock issuance alone from Monday to Thursday suggested as much as 11,000 BTC purchases. And this doesn’t account for common stock issuance, which may have facilitated thousands more in bitcoin buys.

Longer-term, since launching its bitcoin treasury strategy in August 2020, Strategy has purchased an average of about 10,700 BTC per month, equivalent to roughly 128,000 BTC per year.

So far in 2026, the company has already acquired about 64,948 BTC, putting it well ahead of its historical annual average pace of accumulation.

TLDR:

• KRAKacquisition raised $345M in January, launching a two-year hunt for a crypto acquisition target.
  
• The SPAC is evaluating firms valued between $2 billion and $10 billion across crypto sectors.
  
• Target sectors include stablecoins, DeFi, asset tokenization, and payments-related crypto firms.
  
• Kraken filed a confidential SEC registration statement as it pursues its own IPO this year.
  

KRAKacquisition Corp., a SPAC tied to crypto exchange Kraken, is searching for an acquisition target. The firm is evaluating companies with valuations ranging from $2 billion to $10 billion.

KRAKacquisition raised approximately $345 million through its IPO in January, starting a two-year search window. The SPAC is targeting crypto-native firms in stablecoins, DeFi, tokenization, and payments. This search runs parallel to Kraken’s own plans for a public offering later this year.

KRAKacquisition Targets Small- and Mid-Cap Crypto Firms

Director Ravi Tanuku confirmed to Decrypt that KRAKacquisition is evaluating companies valued up to $10 billion. However, he noted that the final valuation could land closer to $2 billion.

The range shows the firm’s openness to companies of varying sizes. Ultimately, KRAKacquisition is focused on helping smaller firms access public markets.

Taking smaller companies public has become increasingly difficult, according to Tanuku. “It’s not easy to take a company in that smaller market cap range public anymore,” he told Decrypt.

The SPAC structure offers these firms an alternative route to public markets. This makes KRAKacquisition a practical vehicle for smaller companies exploring Wall Street.

Wall Street’s appetite for stablecoin and tokenization companies grew considerably last year. Tanuku pointed to this trend as a strong market signal.

“The market is clearly paying up for those and starting to realize there’s big changes afoot,” he said. He added that this was a good signal for the firm to keep in mind.

Beyond stablecoins, KRAKacquisition is also open to companies in DeFi and payments. “We’re looking at things related to crypto, but also stablecoins, DeFi, and all kinds of areas in payments,” Tanuku said.

The firm is casting a wide net across multiple crypto-related sectors. Tanuku described the SPAC as a strategic investment tool for Kraken.

Kraken Moves Toward Its Own IPO Amid SPAC Search

The SPAC search comes as Kraken also prepares to go public through its own IPO. In November, the exchange confidentially filed a registration statement with the SEC.

This filing followed an $800 million fundraising round completed earlier. That round valued Kraken at $20 billion.

Kraken’s decision to lend its brand to KRAKacquisition reflects genuine commitment to the venture. The exchange expects to hold a reasonably meaningful stake in any company the SPAC acquires.

This would create a direct economic link between Kraken and the acquired firm. Any acquisition would also strengthen Kraken’s broader market presence.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has also weighed in on the stablecoin opportunity. “I assume our whole payments systems will be stablecoins in 10 or 15 years,” he said in an interview with Morgan Stanley.

His comments reinforce the growing institutional confidence in stablecoin infrastructure. This sentiment aligns closely with KRAKacquisition’s sector focus.

With a two-year clock running, KRAKacquisition must act within its timeframe. The firm continues to evaluate a range of crypto-native companies across multiple sectors.

Tanuku noted that Wall Street interest in these areas remains strong. The SPAC’s flexible target range gives it room to pursue the right deal.

To get an idea of how big a deal AI-based commerce could be for crypto, ask entrepreneurs and developers involved in digital assets, particularly stablecoins. They’ll happily tell you blockchain-based money is the natural fit, an essential element in the mix and so forth.

Their logic is simple. Over the past few years, stablecoins — mostly digital versions of the dollar on public blockchains like Ethereum — have begun eating into the global payments industry. And while they’ve proven to be faster and cheaper than traditional bank transfers, it’s in the new world of autonomous, micro-transacting AI agents that they will shine.

That, at least, is the view of companies like Circle Internet (CRCL), the creator of the second-largest stablecoin, and technicians at crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), which has led engineering on x402, a payments protocol designed for use by autonomous AI agents in a field becoming known as agentic finance.

Just as 24/7, frictionless, cross-border payment has been a growth area for stablecoins, agentic commerce has particular requirements that the dollar-pegged tokens meet, according to Dante Disparte, Circle’s chief strategy officer and head of global policy. Those include the ability to program the coins so they transfer only when particular conditions are met and to daisy chain, or compose, a set of actions that occur on receipt of a token.

“Firstly, you have to be able to exploit the otherwise really innocuous features of stablecoins, which is programmability and composability,” Disparate said in an interview. “Number two, where the stablecoin lives, the physical blockchain ledgers themselves, are the common reference point the agents will turn to.”

The crypto industry, however, is viewed with, if not suspicion, then at least circumspection, among some AI developers. For example, Peter Steinberger, the creator of AI agent OpenClaw, is publicly opposed to crypto, so much so that he refuses to engage in any further commentary on the subject and declined to comment for this article.

While crypto’s bullishness on AI is one end of the spectrum, consider the other side, said Sean Neville, co-founder of Catana Labs, a builder of agentic finance infrastructure that last year raised $18 million in seed funding led by a16z.

“I’ve worked with people who are more in the AI developer and engineering community that have a very low opinion of crypto,” said Neville, who is also a co-founder of Circle, in an interview. “I think stablecoins have achieved some escape velocity, but the AI developer community in particular has a negative view of crypto, because of things like memecoins and Ponzi schemes and whatnot.”

Untouched by human hands

A key feature of agentic finance is that it involves micro-transactions, or nano-payments, some of which take place between AI agents with humans somewhere in the background.

This is quite different from using Chat GTP as a front-end for a shopping cart and plugging a credit card into it, though, in the near term, agentic systems will access both crypto and cards, Neville said. Agentic payments are likely to be high-frequency transactions in the fractions-of-a cent range that credit card networks will struggle to handle.

“Over time, I do think that there are significant advantages in stablecoins and blockchain rails that are much more natural fits for agentic flows beyond just the retail commerce use case,” Neville said. “If AI is doing things like leveraging 24/7, programmable rails to stream different kinds of money around the world, across borders, it’s just difficult to do that with anything other than stablecoins.”

With clear regulatory guidance for stablecoins finally coming in the U.S., there are potentially more pressing questions for AI agents around fragmentation and conflicting protocols jockeying for position, Neville said.

“There’s a bunch of different ways for agents to pay each other, but if they can’t all agree on how payments should work, then it’s difficult to bootstrap marketplaces, whether they’re using micro payments or not,” he said. “I would love to see something like an SSL equivalent emerge for agents, and it would be great to see a standard that nobody owns, so that we could all kind of build on the same interoperable standard.”

SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a standard technology that encrypts the connection between a web server and a browser.

Stablecoin-friendly option x402, which is often cited in the debate, has caused some people to get hung up on the protocol’s transaction volume from one month to another, said Erik Reppel, head of engineering for Coinbase Developer Platform and an x402 founder. He said his focus is firmly on looking ahead at a whole category of commerce that will hugely disrupt the internet’s existing advertising marketplace.

“I think the thing people haven’t quite realized is that we’re going to break the fundamental economic model of the internet, moving from browsers and you visiting the website of the person who’s publishing content, to consuming things through your agents and your chat interface,” Reppel said in an interview.

The few cents paid by an agent crawling a website, equivalent to the value of an advert flashed before a human’s eyes, could in theory be accomplished by spinning up lots of virtual cards, if a developer has a relationship with, for example, Visa, Rappel said.

“But anyone can program stablecoins,” he said. “Anyone in the world can spin up as many wallets as they want, and then just use wallets as the way to fully isolate funds for an agent. What we want is agents to have isolated, programmable funds, where your agent can’t spend into your credit card limit and can’t access your credit card.”

Catena’s Neville said the company is grappling with squaring regulated money transmission with a sea of agents and bots that have no financial identity. The goal is to keep the bad bots out, he said, while identifying and allowing the ones you want, while giving them specific guidelines and policies they can’t escape.

“The way to handle that is programmable money, because we can leverage cryptography to ensure verifiability and auditability and so on,” Neville said. “It’s effectively identity and policy controls so agents can operate within the rules, regardless of which protocol or which wallet or account infrastructure they happen to be using.”

Tech investor Balaji Srinivasan, a former Coinbase chief technology officer, is urging the crypto industry to forge more financial tools for refugees and stateless populations. In a Saturday X post, he emphasized that global conflicts and economic migration can swell displacement figures, pointing to Ukrainians fleeing war and workers departing Gulf states amid mounting regional tensions as illustrative cases. He argued that cryptocurrency infrastructure could supply essential financial rails when traditional institutions falter or become inaccessible, offering livelihoods and liquidity to those cut off from conventional banking networks. The moment signals a broader conversation about crypto’s potential humanitarian role, beyond speculative trading and borderless payments.

Key takeaways

• Balaji Srinivasan frames crypto as a critical tool for refugees, advocating product development tailored to stateless populations.
• The argument hinges on crypto’s resilience in adverse conditions, described as a “wartime mode for the internet.”
• Andi Duro of TwoCents cautions that the industry has rarely built refugee-focused solutions, citing misaligned incentives in the market.
• Progress exists in stablecoins’ reach, with USDC emerging as a borderless digital currency; reported metrics show large supply growth amid regional capital movements.
• Analysts connect stablecoin dynamics to capital flight, including in the UAE, where real estate volatility has influenced crypto flows.

Tickers mentioned: $USDC

Sentiment: Neutral

Price impact: Neutral. The discussion centers on humanitarian finance and infrastructure, not immediate price moves.

Market context: The discourse sits at the intersection of humanitarian needs, macro capital flows, and evolving stablecoin dynamics, a period when liquidity and trust in borderless digital rails are being stress-tested against geopolitical risk and regulatory scrutiny.

Why it matters

The propositions raised by Srinivasan underscore a broader reckoning within crypto: its potential to serve as a life-supporting financial layer when fiat rails are stressed or severed. Refugees and stateless individuals often rely on untrusted or fragile payment systems, and a decentralized, permissionless network could in theory offer access to savings, remittances, and basic liquidity where traditional banks fail to operate. By reframing crypto as a humanitarian technology rather than solely a speculative instrument, the industry could expand its utility and widen its social license among policymakers, aid organizations, and displaced communities.

On the substance of progress, there is acknowledgement that crypto has already seen some utility growth through stablecoins, especially a dominant USD-pegged token that has achieved widespread use across borders. As cited in industry reporting, the stablecoin market has surged in recent weeks, with circulating supply and market capitalization tracking toward record levels. In particular, the ecosystem’s borderless digital money concept has started to gain traction among users who need fast, low-cost transfers that do not depend on traditional correspondent banking networks. This development is not purely transactional; it also signals a broader shift in how communities facing disruption think about access to financial services. See the USDC price index for current data and context, and related analyses documenting the stablecoin’s expanding footprint, including discussions about capital movements in the Middle East and beyond.

Meanwhile, the UAE has figured prominently in conversations about capital flight and crypto usage. A Dubai-based analyst noted that turbulence in the real estate sector has contributed to shifting capital flows, which some observers link to heightened activity in borderless digital currencies. The real estate market index referenced in regional analyses has trended downward since the onset of regional tensions, a dynamic that dovetails with broader questions about how crypto can provide liquidity channels in volatile markets. These observations echo a wider debate about how policymakers should approach stablecoins and cross-border payments while ensuring consumer protection and financial stability.

Beyond humanitarian implications, the discourse is also framed against a broader crypto policy backdrop. For instance, discussions about how digital assets intersect with national security, monetary sovereignty, and financial inclusion are amplifying in legislative forums. A separate policy thread has examined the potential use cases for prediction markets related to geopolitical events, underscoring how technology platforms could influence risk assessment and decision-making in crisis contexts. The tension between fostering innovation and maintaining regulatory guardrails remains a defining feature of the current landscape. The link to related policy discussions provides additional context on how lawmakers view the balance between experimentation and oversight.

Ultimately, the conversation centers on whether crypto developers and entrepreneurs can translate a doctrine of resilience into real-world tools that assist people who are most vulnerable to disruption. The call to action is not merely to build faster payments or cheaper transfers, but to design interfaces and fiducial structures that can function under duress, with clear governance and robust privacy protections. If the industry can align incentives around humanitarian use cases, the result could be a more inclusive crypto ecosystem that extends its benefits beyond early adopters to those who have historically been excluded from formal financial systems.

What to watch next

• Announcements of refugee-focused crypto tooling or pilots from wallets, remittance platforms, or humanitarian organizations.
• Regulatory developments shaping stablecoins and cross-border payments, particularly in regions with rising displacement pressures.
• Updates on USDC and other stablecoins’ global supply dynamics, including any official disclosures about new markets or regulatory compliance arrangements.
• Further commentary from Balaji Srinivasan and other industry voices on wartime internet resilience and humanitarian finance.
• Regulatory or legislative steps related to prediction markets or crisis-related financial instruments that could influence crypto-backed risk transfer tools.

Sources & verification

• Balaji Srinivasan’s X post referenced in discussion of refugee-focused crypto tooling.
• Andi Duro, founder of TwoCents, on crypto’s deployment for refugees and the critique of current product focus.
• USDC price index for current stablecoin metrics and liquidity context.
• USDC market cap near $80B and related analysis on UAE capital flight and capital dynamics.
• Article on Bitcoin’s geopolitical stress test and price movement referenced in related context.

Balaji Srinivasan calls on crypto builders to serve refugees amid rising displacement

In the current climate of intensified conflicts and ongoing economic migration, Balaji Srinivasan argues that crypto should advance beyond hype and toward practical humanitarian applications. He frames this as a strategic shift for an industry often defined by rapid innovation and speculative sentiment. By urging developers to focus on refugee-accessible financial tools, he positions crypto as a potential backstop for people who lose reliable access to conventional financial rails during crises. The call aligns with a broader conversation about the role of public blockchains in sustaining economic activity when centralized systems face disruptions, emphasizing that decentralization can offer continuity in the face of cyberattacks, infrastructure outages, or regulatory constraints.

Amid the debate, Srinivasan acknowledges that progress already exists in the form of stablecoins expanding their global reach as borderless digital money. While the industry has not yet delivered a full suite of refugee-centric products, the potential is clear: non-custodial wallets, transparent governance, and cross-border settlement rails could empower displaced individuals to store value, send remittances, and access identity-linked financial services with fewer intermediaries. The discussion also touches on the human dimension—products that work for refugees must be usable, accessible, and trusted by communities that have often been underserved by traditional financial infrastructure. The evolving narrative urges builders to test and scale with a humanitarian lens, ensuring security, privacy, and user-centric design are not sacrificed for speed or novelty.

On this topic, Srinivasan points to the broader stability narrative around stablecoins, noting that a leading USD-pegged token is already achieving widespread circulation. The growth in circulating supply and market depth has implications for liquidity and cross-border transactions, potentially enabling refugees and stateless individuals to participate in the digital economy more reliably. Reports referencing the price index and market-cap trends illustrate how capital flows are shifting, sometimes in response to geopolitical developments such as regional tensions in the Gulf and the real estate market’s response to conflict. While the numbers provide a snapshot of the moment, the underlying takeaway is a call for intentional product development that centers humanitarian needs as a core use case for crypto.

In this context, the conversation intersects with regulatory and policy considerations. Acknowledging the tension between innovation and oversight, the discourse invites ongoing dialogue about how to design crypto tools that are compliant, secure, and accessible to those who stand to gain the most from resilient financial rails. The critique from Andi Duro—that refugee-focused crypto products have been historically underdeveloped due to consumer misalignment with gambling-centric segments—serves as a reminder that the market must reorient incentives to serve vulnerable populations. If the community can translate this critique into concrete product and governance innovations, the humanitarian potential of crypto could become a meaningful, verifiable outcome rather than a theoretical ideal.

Tech investor and former Coinbase chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan has called on the crypto industry to develop more financial tools for refugees and stateless people.

In a Saturday post on X, Srinivasan said the number of displaced individuals could grow as global conflicts intensify and economic migration increases. He pointed to examples ranging from Ukrainians fleeing war to workers leaving the Gulf countries amid regional tensions.

“We should build more crypto tools for refugees and stateless people,” Srinivasan wrote, suggesting that blockchain-based systems can provide financial infrastructure when traditional institutions fail or become inaccessible.

Srinivasan described crypto as “wartime mode for the internet,” arguing that decentralized networks were designed to operate even under hostile conditions such as cyberattacks, infrastructure failures or financial restrictions. He said that public blockchains can continue processing transactions even if centralized systems face disruptions.

Related: Bitcoin ‘passing geopolitical stress test’ as BTC price spikes above $72K

Crypto rarely builds for refugees despite clear need

His comments came in response to a separate post from Andi Duro, founder of research site TwoCents, who argued that while crypto could serve refugees effectively, the industry rarely builds products specifically for them.

“It’s very unfortunate that crypto is a great solution for refugees who are stateless and forced to interact with crumbling institutions and payment rails,” Andi wrote. “But nobody in crypto builds for refugees because they’re not useful consumers for gambling.”

However, Srinivasan noted that crypto has had some success in building such tools. He pointed out the growing role of stablecoins, which he said are already gaining global reach as a borderless form of digital money. “But we can do more,” he added.

Related: US Senate bill targets prediction markets on war and assassinations

UAE capital flight boosts USDC

As Cointelegraph reported, the market capitalization of the USDC (USDC) stablecoin is nearing a record $80 billion as supply surges in recent weeks. USDC’s circulating supply reaching roughly $79.2 billion, surpassing its previous high set in December after rising from about $70 billion in early February.

One Dubai-based analyst attributed the spike to capital flight from the United Arab Emirates amid turbulence in the real estate market. The DFM Real Estate Index has dropped sharply since the start of the war.

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author