Crypto World
DeepSnitch AI Holders Capitulate to Join Digitap ($TAP) Presale: Best Crypto to Buy
Market behavior during drawdowns often forces a hard reset. Tools that help traders react faster lose relevance when volatility compresses opportunity, and liquidity dries up. This is why attention is moving away from analytics-heavy platforms toward structures that preserve value and generate utility regardless of market direction.
For DeepSnitch AI holders, the current environment has created a clear inflection point. Capital is rotating out of signal-based products and into fixed-entry opportunities with real usage and cash-flow logic.
That rotation explains why Digitap ($TAP) is seen as the best crypto to buy now, positioned as a defensive crypto presale built for recessionary conditions. As risk appetite contracts, the conversation around altcoins to buy favors platforms that move money, not just data.
Why DeepSnitch AI Holders Should Move to Digitap
DeepSnitch AI was built to solve information asymmetry. Its AI-driven agents monitor wallets, contracts, liquidity shifts, and sentiment across multiple chains, delivering alerts designed to improve trading outcomes. In active markets, that value proposition resonates. In slow, risk-off conditions, actionable signals become scarce, and analytics lose leverage as capital prioritizes preservation over precision.
The platform’s reliance on constant market activity creates a dependency on volatility. When fewer trades occur and narratives stall, demand for premium alerts softens. Token utility becomes concentrated around access rather than economic throughput, leaving holders exposed to sentiment cycles rather than structural demand.
Digitap operates from a different foundation. Instead of optimizing decision-making within the market, it serves as infrastructure for price discovery outside the market. Payments, settlements, conversions, and storage continue regardless of volatility. That distinction matters when trading edges compress and capital seeks stability over timing.
For holders exiting signal-based exposure, Digitap represents a pivot from observation to utility. It facilitates day-to-day financial operations, creating demand that does not rely on speculation. This independence is why capital migration is accelerating.
How Digitap Works and What It Actually Is
Digitap is the world’s first omni-bank, designed to unify crypto and traditional finance within a single platform. It allows users to quickly exchange crypto for fiat and fiat for crypto, bridging on-chain assets with real-world banking rails through a live, downloadable app.
At the core of the ecosystem sits the $TAP token, built around fixed supply and utility-driven demand. Total supply is capped at 2 billion tokens, with no inflation, no buy or sell tax, and no hidden minting mechanisms. Circulating supply is engineered to move in one direction only: downward, as buyback and burn activity removes tokens from the market.
$TAP is woven directly into platform functionality. The token powers staking programs, unlocks fee discounts, enables governance participation, and grants access to premium account tiers. $TAP functions as the economic engine of the ecosystem.
Demand for $TAP is tied to usage of the platform itself, not to market sentiment or trading frequency. As the app scales, token utility scales alongside it.
Crypto Presale Structure, Fees, and Real Usage
Digitap’s relevance increases in recessionary conditions, where fees and friction compound financial stress. Traditional remittance channels often charge more than 6% per transfer. Digitap compresses cross-border costs to under 1%, keeping more value in circulation and reducing erosion during periods of economic pressure.
The platform also serves freelancers and remote earners who receive income in crypto. Funds can be converted to cash and routed toward rent, utilities, or daily expenses without navigating multiple applications or intermediaries. This turns crypto into spendable income rather than dormant capital.
Privacy and flexibility are embedded through a tiered KYC structure. No-KYC wallet options coexist with higher-limit accounts, allowing different levels of access without forcing a single compliance model. Offshore banking partnerships further reduce geographic concentration risk.
The current crypto presale price stands at $0.0467, with the next stage set at $0.0478 and a defined listing price of $0.14. This staged structure introduces predictability at a time when most assets lack clear valuation anchors. Nearly $5 million has been raised, with more than 213 million tokens sold.
Why $TAP Is the Best Altcoin to Buy Now
The market is no longer rewarding speed or signal density. It is rewarding resilience. Platforms that generate economic value outside price speculation are gaining ground as liquidity remains constrained and volatility fails to translate into opportunity.
Digitap fits this environment precisely. It replaces high-frequency decision-making with structural utility, positioning itself as a financial layer that functions regardless of market direction. That is why it continues to surface in discussions around the best crypto to buy now.
Compared to analytics-driven tokens, $TAP benefits from real usage cycles tied to payments, remittances, and income conversion. This creates persistent demand and separates it from assets dependent on trader sentiment.
As capital rotates out of reactive tools and into foundational infrastructure, Digitap’s presale structure amplifies its appeal. With fixed pricing, growing adoption, and clear economic logic, $TAP defines what a crypto to buy now looks like in defensive conditions.
Presale https://presale.digitap.app
Website: https://digitap.app
Social: https://linktr.ee/digitap.app
Win $250K: https://gleam.io/bfpzx/digitap-250000-giveaway
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Kraken has frozen its multibillion-dollar initial public offering plan, citing difficult market conditions just months after confidentially filing with the SEC.
Kraken has halted its plans to go public, according to CoinDesk reporting. The move comes despite the company’s parent filing a draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC in November 2025, signaling serious preparation for a U.S. listing at a $20 billion valuation.
Market headwinds have forced crypto companies to reassess public market entry timelines. Kraken had previously been exploring debt financing options and focusing on financial strength and regulatory compliance as preconditions for an IPO, but current conditions have made the path forward uncertain.
Sources: Coindesk
This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis, a lawmaker at the center of talks on the crypto industry’s top policy goal to pass a market structure bill, said the talks have probably reached the necessary compromises to move the legislation forward.
“We think we’ve got it,” Lummis, the chairwoman of the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee, said at the Digital Chamber’s DC Blockchain Summit on Wednesday. “We really are going to get it out of the banking committee in April.”
Lummis has been deeply involved in months of talks over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act language. After the process was derailed by bank lobbyists who’d argued that stablecoin yield would threaten their industry’s deposit accounts, much of the debate centered on stablecoin rewards programs that the crypto industry believed were still allowed under last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
The Wyoming Republican said she believes the final compromise will disallow crypto platforms from offering rewards that use any language that equates them with deposit yield or ties the rewards to the amount of assets a user holds.
“Anything that sounds like banking product terminology will not appear,” she said. She added that she hasn’t seen the most recent language, but she said that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been “really pretty good about being willing to give on this issue.”
Armstrong and his U.S. exchange, which has leaned heavily into stablecoin rewards programs, had opposed an earlier compromise effort, which had initially helped derail the legislative process on this bill.
Senator Bernie Moreno, another Republican on the committee, said in a video statement at the same event that two of his colleagues on the panel, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and Republican Thom Tillis are in the final stage of the stablecoin talks, which also involves the White House. Once they all sign off, it’s “go time” for the bill.
Previous disagreements over language governing the security of decentralized finance (DeFi) has also been worked out, Lummis said.
Lummis suggested the legislation will get a hearing after the Senate’s Easter break, pointing to late April. If it does clear such a hearing, known as a markup, that will mark the second necessary committee approval (after the Senate Agriculture Committee had already passed a version earlier this year). Then it gets reworked into a combined version that could eventually face a vote by the overall Senate.
The Senate’s schedule, however, is very much in flux. Both parties are threatening unrelated legislative tussles over other legislation and the war in Iran, which could occupy valuable floor time in the coming weeks. And the Senate’s 2026 session will also be shortened by the midterm congressional elections later in the year.
“We’re going to have this thing done, come hell or high water, before the end of the year,” Lummis said.
UPDATE (March 18, 2026, 15:18 UTC): Adds comments from Senator Bernie Moreno.
Not all voters are sold on crypto, and in Illinois, the crypto industry lobby failed to secure a victory, despite spending millions.
On Tuesday, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won a primary election for a rare open US Senate seat in her state. She is expected to win in the general election and take the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.
In the primary, she won over two other candidates, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who currently represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional district, and Representative Robin Kelly from Illinois’ 2nd.
The crypto lobby spent millions on ads supporting Krishnamoorthi. But ties to the industry may have been more of a liability among progressive voters.
“MAGA-backed crypto bros” finance Krishnamoorthi
In the months leading up to the election, Stratton ran on a progressive platform to oppose US President Donald Trump, and according to the Chicago Sun Times, was the only candidate to openly oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She also supported a higher minimum wage than Krishnamoorthi or Kelly.
As the primary race got closer, political action committees (PACs), notably Fairshake and Protect Progress, began to pour millions of dollars into the election.
Their motivations were clear. Ensuring that the industry has another crypto-friendly senator could be crucial as the Senate continues to work on the CLARITY Act.
Krishamoorthi was a strong supporter of the GENIUS Act, which provided favorable regulations for stablecoins. He also voted for the CLARITY Act and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. This earned him an “A” rating with Stand With Crypto, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization tracking legislative records and attitudes.
Stratton’s campaign drew particular attention to the crypto dollars in the final weeks of the election. The Chicago Sun Times estimated that Fairshake spent over $8 million.
In a March 3 video posted to X, Stratton said that Krishnamoorthi was “relying on his Trump-aligned allies” to tear her down with millions of dollars in attack ads. “His MAGA-backed crypto bros are dumping $7 million into this race to try to stop me. Illinoisans aren’t buying it,” she wrote.
The connection of crypto with Trump and Republicans more broadly is understandable. Marc Andreesen, one of the founders and major donors to Fairshake, has previously expressed his support for Trump, and said he’d be voting for him in 2024. Trump and his family members are themselves part of crypto investment schemes.
And the money doesn’t lie. Fairshake is technically non-partisan, but it has spent more in support of Republican candidates. According to Open Secrets, some 62% of its expenditures support Republicans and oppose Democrats, while 37% of its expenditures support Democrats and oppose Republicans.
This didn’t appear to sit well with voters, nor with other officials representing Illinois. Senator Tammy Duckworth claimed that Krishnamoorthi could be “compromised” by industry interests, an idea the representative denied.
A 2025 poll found that Illinois voters held largely favorable opinions about cryptocurrencies, but many also supported restrictions. Some 47% of Democratic voters would support “policies restricting the growth of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.”
Overall, 36% of Illinois voters “would be more likely to support elected officials who support restrictions on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.”
Some election observers pointed out that Stratton had taken significant donations from current Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. But one Chicago voter told The Washington Post, “How many billionaires are supporting Raja?” The governor, by contrast, was “supporting his own lieutenant governor. That’s a nonissue for me. He should be doing it.”
Crypto lobby ramps up as midterms approach
The Illinois primary is just one of many races in which the crypto industry will spend money on ads and other support materials this year.
At the end of 2025, Fairshake alone had $190 million in cash on hand, $131 million of which it raised in the last half of the year.
Lawmakers and activists alike are concerned about the undue influence this could have on the midterm election outcomes. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a noted skeptic of the crypto industry, said that the Illinois primary would be “the test case for whether or not they can buy whatever candidate they want for Senate in Illinois and many of the congressional seats.”
Saurav Ghosh, the director of the Campaign Legal Center, previously told Cointelegraph, “This kind of influence buying ultimately undermines the democratic process by marginalizing everyday Americans, ensuring that their voices and interests take a backseat to the crypto industry’s deregulatory desires.”
Related: Crypto PACs secure massive war chests ahead of US midterms
The increasing association with crypto, MAGA and Trump could also prove problematic for keeping industry interests in Washington. Trump has negative approval ratings in all but 8 of the 50 states. Republicans are also facing predominant disapproval in the polls. If crypto becomes a byword for a Republican economic agenda, it may not work favorably in the midterms.
Political operatives have noted that, for the crypto lobby to retain influence, it needs to remain bipartisan. Democratic Representative Sam Liccardo told Politico last year, “I don’t think anybody in this town would recommend that an industry put their eggs in one party’s basket.”
In Congress, there are still a significant number of Democrats who are pro-crypto, or at the very least, not entirely opposed to the blockchain industry.
Filecoin Foundation chair Marta Belcher said, “Many policymakers on both sides of the aisle support crypto. I don’t think crypto is a partisan issue, just like ‘the internet’ isn’t a partisan issue. I don’t think, in 2025, either party can be ‘anti’ an entire technology if they’re thinking seriously about America’s future.”
Magazine: Big Questions: Can Bitcoin save you from the dreaded Cantillon Effect?
Oil tops $100 as the Hormuz blockade chokes 20% of global supply, forcing a rare Jones Act waiver and stoking inflation that threatens Fed cuts and crypto risk appetite.
Summary
- Brent trades above $104 and WTI near $97, more than 70% above January levels, as the U.S.-Israel war on Iran effectively shuts the Strait of Hormuz.
- The Trump administration’s 60‑day Jones Act waiver lets foreign tankers move fuel between U.S. ports, but estimates suggest only modest relief for gasoline prices.
- Surging energy costs flow into PPI and future CPI, keeping Fed cuts on hold and adding macro pressure to Bitcoin and broader crypto as risk assets reprice.
Oil markets remain in a state of acute stress on Wednesday, with Brent crude trading above $104 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate crossing $97, as the geopolitical fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran continues to reverberate through global energy supply chains. The moves represent a price surge of more than 70% since early January, when Brent was hovering around $60 a barrel — and come as the Trump administration reached for one of its most unconventional policy levers yet: a waiver of the century-old Jones Act.
The White House confirmed Wednesday that it had temporarily authorised foreign-flagged vessels to transport energy commodities — including crude oil, refined oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, fertilizers, and other derivatives — between U.S. ports for a period of 60 days. The Jones Act, formally the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, ordinarily mandates that goods shipped between American ports be carried exclusively on U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, and U.S.-crewed vessels. Waivers have historically been reserved for acute national emergencies such as hurricanes or severe supply crises.
The root cause is the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 21 million barrels of oil per day — roughly 20% of global supply — normally flow. Since U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggering a sweeping Iranian retaliation, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has mined the strait, attacked commercial vessels, and vowed to maintain the blockade. The IEA has characterised the disruption as the largest to global oil supply in modern history.
The consequences for physical markets have been severe. Middle Eastern Gulf oil exports have dropped by over 60% in under a week, with producers including the UAE forced to cut output as onshore storage fills and export routes remain blocked. War-risk insurance premiums have surged to levels that make commercial transit economically prohibitive for most vessels, while over 50 million barrels of Gulf crude is now stranded in floating storage. The IEA’s emergency release of 400 million barrels from member-state strategic reserves has done little to reassure markets.
Reuters reported that Brent futures settled up $3.21, or 3.2%, to $103.42 on Monday — before extending gains further through Tuesday and into Wednesday’s session. Analysts at Energy Intelligence have warned of no near-term ceiling if the blockade persists.
The Jones Act waiver is the administration’s domestic response to soaring pump prices, which have risen roughly 60 cents per gallon to $3.60 since the war began. By allowing cheaper foreign tankers to ferry Gulf Coast oil to refineries on the U.S. East Coast and West Coast — routes where the Jones Act constraint is most acute — Washington hopes to ease regional supply bottlenecks. However, the measure’s macroeconomic impact is widely expected to be modest. Bloomberg cited a JP Morgan estimate suggesting the waiver could save East Coast motorists roughly 10 cents per gallon, while OilPrice.com analysts noted it is unlikely to offset the broader global shock driven by the Hormuz blockade itself.
For crypto and financial markets, the oil surge carries compounding implications. Higher energy prices feed directly into the U.S. Producer Price Index — which already printed at double its expected rate on Wednesday — further entrenching the inflation stickiness that is keeping Federal Reserve rate cuts off the table and suppressing risk appetite across asset classes.
Crypto exchange Kraken, which announced four months ago that it planned to go public, has put its plan on hold, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The company is still considering an initial public offering, but probably not until market conditions improve, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private.
A Kraken spokesperson said, “As we announced in November, we filed confidentially with the SEC, and that is all we can really share.”
The downturn in crypto markets since October, when bitcoin touched a record high, has made companies more cautious about going public or raising fresh capital as declining asset prices and weaker trading volumes weigh on valuations and investor sentiment.
Payward, Kraken’s parent, said it confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with a proposed initial public offering of common stock on Nov. 19.
That was the day after Kraken said it was valued at $20 billion when it raised $800 million in new funding, including a $200 million investment from Citadel Securities, to support its push to bring traditional financial markets onto blockchain infrastructure.
Last year, a more favorable environment at the SEC helped several major companies, including Circle Internet (CRCL), CoinDesk parent Bullish (BLSH), and Gemini Space Station (GEMI), successfully list their stock. PitchBook data shows that at least 11 crypto IPOs raised a combined $14.6 billion in 2025, a sharp increase from just $310 million in 2024.
In 2026, crypto IPOs are shaping up to be a pivotal test for the sector, with more infrastructure companies planning to go public. So far, however, crypto custodian BitGo is the only digital asset company to have listed, and has seen its stock price slump 44%, partly as a result of a messy market.
Unlike Kraken, Securitize, a tokenization firm that works closely with asset management giant BlackRock (BLK), said it still plans to go public. The firm plans to IPO as soon as it receives the SEC’s green light, likely in the second quarter.
“We already raised $225 million through a PIPE as part of our SPAC merger when market conditions were better and interest in tokenization continues to be strong in spite of market conditions,” Securitize founder and CEO Carlos Domingo told CoinDesk.
If 2025 was defined by listings linked to digital asset treasuries (DATs), 2026 is emerging as a year centered on financial infrastructure, according to White & Case partner Laura Katherine Mann.
In an interview with CoinDesk, she said the next wave of IPO candidates is likely to highlight compliance maturity, recurring revenue and operational resilience, qualities that align more closely with traditional public-market expectations.
Crypto World
The S&P 500 is officially coming to crypto with its first-ever 24/7 perpetual futures product
S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Wednesday that it is bringing the S&P 500 to the blockchain via the Hyperliquid platform, making it easier for investors to trade the most widely tracked equity index 24 hours a day.
The company said it licensed its flagship stock index to Trade[XYZ], which is launching the first officially approved S&P 500 perpetual contract on the Hyperliquid blockchain.
In simple terms, this means eligible non-U.S. investors can trade the S&P 500 onchain, around the clock, without using traditional stock exchanges.
Perpetual futures contracts, or “perps,” are derivative instruments without expiration dates that allow investors to place bets on an asset’s price without owning it, using funding rates, typically every few hours, to keep prices aligned with spot markets. Their infinite duration (perpetual futures contracts never expire, unlike traditional contracts), high-leverage options, and round-the-clock access have made them extremely popular in the crypto space and have generated billions in daily trading volume across exchanges.
For the S&P 500, it is the first time it has been turned into a perpetual product with official backing from S&P. It also uses the firm’s real-time index data, bringing a more traditional finance standard into crypto trading. This guarantees the accuracy of index trading while the traditional market remains closed.
S&P says the goal is to expand where and how its indexes can be used. “This collaboration expands access” to its benchmarks in digital markets, said S&P’s Chief Product Officer Cameron Drinkwater.
24//7 trading
The move opens the door for non-U.S. investors to get leveraged exposure to the S&P 500 through a blockchain-based platform.
For example, if big macro news hits on the weekend, when the market is closed, traders traditionally need to speculate on how the S&P 500 will move on Monday, when the market opens. However, with these new perpetual contracts, traders can place bets immediately and with accuracy as soon as news breaks. Recently, crypto traders were able to trade oil futures on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid on a weekend, when the first missile hit Iran, while traditional oil markets remained closed.
Trade[XYZ] runs on Hyperliquid, a decentralized network built for fast trading. The platform says its markets are always open, unlike stock exchanges that close after hours and on weekends. XYZ markets have exceeded $100 billion since October, with an annualized run rate of more than $600 billion.
The news seems to have helped HYPE, the native token of the Hyperliquid platform. The token is up 2.2% over the past 24 hours, 14.2% over the past 7 days, and 35.5% over the past month. Hyperliquid has recently become a crypto trader’s favorite platform for trading markets outside traditional finance.
Recently, Maelstrom CIO and BitMEX Co-Founder Arthur Hayes said traders are increasingly using Hyperliquid to access markets unavailable on traditional platforms, noting that the HYPE token could reach $150, citing the platform’s strong revenue, real trading activity, and disciplined token supply.
Trade[XYZ] said the S&P 500 is just the starting point as it looks to bring more traditional assets onchain. “The S&P 500 is a natural starting point. It represents the most widely tracked equity index on earth and has been the defining benchmark for global equities for decades,” said Collins Belton, chief operating officer and general counsel of Trade[XYZ]’s parent company.
The announcement builds on S&P DJI’s prior decentralized finance initiatives, including its recent launch of the S&P Digital Markets 50 index, the company said.
Read more: 2026 Marks the Inflection Point for 24/7 Capital Markets
The move follows the EF’s first deployment into the DeFi lending protocol in October, and is part of its updated treasury policy.
The Ethereum Foundation has deposited another 3,400 ETH — worth roughly $7.5 million at today’s prices, near $2,220 — into DeFi lending protocol Morpho, with 1,000 ETH allocated specifically to Morpho Vaults V2, according to a X post from the EF today, March 18.
The move follows an initial deployment in October 2025, when the EF put 2,400 ETH (~$5.3 million) and approximately $6 million in stablecoins into the protocol — bringing the Foundation’s total Morpho commitment to just under $19 million to date.
According to the post, the DeFi deployments are a direct expression of the EF’s refreshed treasury policy, first unveiled in June 2025, which codified a new “Defipunk” framework to guide on-chain capital allocation.
As The Defiant reported at the time, the policy signaled that DeFi was no longer a sideshow for the Foundation — it was putting its ETH where its mouth is, prioritizing permissionless, immutable, audited protocols aligned with cypherpunk values over passive ETH sales to cover operations.
The EF also elaborated on why it chose to deploy in Morpho, and in particular praised Morpho Vaults V2, which launched in September. The Foundation cited the product’s GPL-2.0 open-source license — a deliberate choice, it noted, that makes the codebase permanently able to be audited and forked.
Crucially, Vaults V2’s core contracts are immutable: no admin keys, no upgrade mechanisms, no emergency switches. “The true cypherpunk infrastructure doesn’t ask you to trust its builders, and it removes the need entirely,” the Foundation wrote in its X announcement.
According to DefiLlama, Morpho is currently the second-largest DeFi lending protocol behind Aave, with a total total value locked (TVL) of over $6.9 billion. The protocol has attracted significant institutional interest in recent months, including a deal for Apollo Global Management — which manages nearly $940 billion in assets — to acquire up to 9% of Morpho’s 1 billion total token supply over four years.
The EF framed the Morpho allocation as a question of ecosystem direction:
“What kind of DeFi ecosystem is Ethereum aiming to support, and how should it weigh short-term performance against long-term resilience and openness? Choices like licensing and architecture may seem small, but they shape which of these paths remain viable over time.”
The treasury move comes amid a busy stretch for the Foundation. Just last week, the EF published its 38-page EF Mandate, which sparked debate in the community over whether the Foundation risks taking a backseat at a critical moment for institutional adoption.
In February the EF also pledged to deepen its support for privacy-first, permissionless DeFi, forming a dedicated internal unit to support builders adhering to those principles. The Morpho deposit suggests the commitment is more than rhetorical.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Construction work continues at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, on Dec. 30, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
A hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation reading for February had traders contemplating the possibility that the Federal Reserve won’t be lowering interest rates at all this year.
Following a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the producer price index posted its biggest gain in a year, futures markets took any realistic chance of a cut off the table until at least December.
Even then, odds of a reduction at the final Fed meeting of the year fell to about 60% as persistently higher inflation — brought on by tariffs, the Iran war and elevated services costs — will keep the central bank on hold. The PPI report came just hours before the Federal Open Market Committee was to release its latest interest rate decision.
The wholesale inflation reading “likely reinforces a hold decision by the Federal Reserve later today but tilts the risk toward a more hawkish tone in today’s FOMC” statement, said Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James. “Even if rates are left unchanged and we see multiple dissents, the messaging may lean toward ‘higher for longer,’ especially with energy inflation set to re-enter the picture in coming months.”
Prior to the war that began Feb. 28, traders had been looking for interest rate cuts in both June and September, with an outside possibility of one more in December as the Fed sought to balance its dual mandate of stable prices and low unemployment.
But odds for a June cut have now slumped to just 18.4%, July is down to 31.5% and September to 43.6%, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool, which calculates probabilities using 30-day fed funds futures contracts.
Low conviction
Chances for a December reduction were at 60.5%, indicating that traders are leaning toward a cut, though with a relatively low level of conviction. Historically, the 60% level or above has been associated with Fed moves in either direction.
Futures are implying a 3.43% fed funds rate by the end of 2026, compared to the current level of 3.64%.
To be sure, trading in fed funds futures is volatile, and the Fed could be pushed back into an easing stance if the labor market weakens further. Fed Governors Stephen Miran and Christopher Waller have been advocating for immediate cuts, though the rest of the committee seems more inclined to hold rates where they are until the economic picture clears.
Correction: The Iran war began Feb. 28. A previous version misstated the country’s name.
SBI Holdings’ digital asset arm, SBI VC Trade, said it will launch a USDC lending service in Japan on Thursday, allowing retail users to lend stablecoins to the platform under fixed-term agreements in exchange for returns.
On Wednesday, the company said users will be able to lend Circle’s USDC (USDC) stablecoin to the platform and receive interest payments, with a maximum application of 5,000 USDC per offering. The product is structured as a loan to SBI VC Trade rather than a deposit, meaning users take direct counterparty risk. SBI said it may also re-lend the borrowed USDC as part of its operations.
The launch marks a further step in Japan’s stablecoin rollout, bringing a consumer-accessible USDC yield product to market through a licensed domestic platform.
SBI said the product is intended as an alternative to traditional US dollar deposits in Japan, though, unlike bank deposits, segregation protections do not cover user assets and may not be fully recoverable in the event of insolvency. Users are also unable to withdraw or transfer funds during the fixed lending term, limiting their ability to respond to market conditions.
SBI expands stablecoin footprint
The launch follows an initial announcement in November, when SBI VC Trade said it planned to launch a USDC lending product and was exploring exchange-traded fund (ETF) products, according to Reuters.
The development comes as SBI has been expanding its stablecoin strategy. SBI VC Trade began a full-scale USDC launch in Japan on March 26, 2025, after receiving regulatory approval earlier that month. Circle said the approval made USDC the first approved global dollar stablecoin for use in Japan.
Related: SBI Holdings targets majority stake in Singapore crypto exchange Coinhako
On Aug. 22, SBI announced the establishment of a joint venture with Circle, aiming to promote the use of USDC in Japan and create new use cases for the stablecoin in digital finance.
On Dec. 16, the company partnered with Startale to develop a regulated yen-denominated stablecoin aimed at tokenized assets and global settlement, with a planned launch in the second quarter of 2026.
Magazine: Metaplanet’s Japan Bitcoin bet, Bithumb ordered suspension: Asia Express
[PRESS RELEASE – Tel Aviv, Israel, March 18th, 2026]
Today, Playnance has officially launched GCOIN trading, marking a significant milestone in the expansion of its Web3 entertainment ecosystem. The token is now live on MEXC, with GCOIN/USDT trading opening on March 18, 2026, at 13:00 UTC following the project’s Token Generation Event earlier the same day.
The listing introduces GCOIN to the open market, unlocking broader access to the Playnance ecosystem and opening the door to a potentially enormous global user base. The launch follows strong early momentum, including high participation in MEXC’s Kickstarter campaign, where users competed for a share of a 50,000 USDT airdrop.
Ahead of the Token Generation Event, the GCOIN community demonstrated strong demand, with over 1 billion GCOIN locked in staking within hours of the staking program going live.
As the Exosystem’s native token, GCOIN powers transactions, rewards, and participation across a rapidly growing Web3 entertainment network. Beyond adoption metrics, GCOIN is designed to bridge Web2 and Web3 by offering seamless, Web2-like on-chain experiences that lower the barrier to entry for mainstream users. This approach is already enabling Playnance to onboard large volumes of new users, converting them into active participants within the ecosystem. The ecosystem already includes over 300,000 GCOIN holders, reflecting strong early adoption and continued expansion at scale.
The exchange debut represents a major step forward in accessibility, allowing global users to engage with the ecosystem through a liquid and scalable market environment. Deposits for GCOIN are already open on MEXC, with withdrawals scheduled to begin on March 19, providing users with full flexibility to trade and manage their holdings.
“Today marks a defining moment for Playnance,” said Pini Peter, CEO of Playnance. “We identified early the opportunity to bring real scale into Web3 entertainment, and we’re building one of the leading ecosystems to support it. With GCOIN now live, we’re opening the door to what comes next – a new wave of users, new models, and a much larger shift in how entertainment moves on-chain. This is just the beginning.”
Playnance has built its token model around ecosystem-driven rewards, linking value distribution directly to platform activity rather than relying on fixed emissions. The platform already supports more than 10,000 on-chain games and processes over 2 million on-chain transactions daily, reflecting strong user engagement and growing adoption across its network.
With GCOIN now live, Playnance is entering a new phase focused on accelerating growth, expanding its global reach, and driving deeper participation across its Web3 entertainment ecosystem.
About Playnance
Founded in 2020, Playnance is a Web3 infrastructure company developing live, non-custodial, on-chain products designed to onboard mainstream Web2 users into blockchain environments. The company develops consumer-facing platforms built on shared wallet systems and high-volume on-chain execution, currently processing approximately 2 million transactions per day. Playnance focuses on reducing friction between user experience and blockchain infrastructure by abstracting complexity while maintaining full on-chain transparency and non-custodial architecture.
Binance Free $600 (CryptoPotato Exclusive): Use this link to register a new account and receive $600 exclusive welcome offer on Binance (full details).
LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!
Israel is openly ethnically cleansing Lebanon
Don’t Let a Lack of Boundaries Turn Into a Money Crisis | March 17, 2026
‘We help homeless people but London’s rough sleeping problem is too much to handle’ | News UK
-
Crypto World4 days agoHYPE Token Enters Net Deflation as HyperCore Buybacks Outpace Staking Rewards
-
Fashion5 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Addict Lip Glow
-
Tech3 days agoYour Legally Registered ‘Motorcycle’ Might Not Count Under Proposed US Law
-
Sports4 days ago
Why Duke and Michigan Are Dead Even Entering Selection Sunday
-
Sports7 days agoPWHL, Senators discussing plan to keep Charge in Ottawa
-
NewsBeat7 days agoResidents reaction as Shildon murder probe enters second day
-
Business3 days agoSearch for Savannah Guthrie’s Mother Enters Seventh Week with No Arrests
-
Business4 days agoUS Airports Launch Donation Drives for Unpaid TSA Workers as Partial Government Shutdown Enters Fifth Week
-
Tech23 hours agoAre Split Spacebars the Next Big Gaming Keyboard Trend?
-
Crypto World4 days ago
Coinbase and Bybit in Investment Talks: Could Bybit Finally Enter the US Crypto Market?
-
Business4 days agoCountry star Brantley Gilbert enters growing non-alcoholic beer market
-
Business2 days agoAustralian shares drop as Iran war enters third week
-
Crypto World2 days agoCrypto Lender BlockFills Enters Chapter 11 with Up to $500M in Liabilities
-
Sports5 days agoCollege Basketball Best Bets: Conference Tournament Semifinal Picks
-
Politics6 hours agoThe House | The new register to protect children from their abusers shows Parliament at its best
-
Crypto World7 days agoThree Binance Charts May Be Hinting at Bitcoin’s Next Move
-
Business6 days agoTrump demands Powell cut rates as Iran conflict raises energy prices
-
Crypto World6 days agoSenate Votes to Include CBDC Ban in Bipartisan Housing Bill
-
Fashion2 days ago25 Celebrities with Curly Hair That Are Naturally Beautiful
-
NewsBeat6 days agoDeane Road crash near Bolton colleges and university
You must be logged in to post a comment Login