Key Highlights

• Super Micro Computer shares plunged 33% on March 20, settling at $20.53, following the unsealing of criminal indictments against three company-connected individuals, including co-founder Wally Liaw
• Federal prosecutors allege Liaw orchestrated the smuggling of approximately $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia-equipped AI servers to China in violation of U.S. export regulations
• Liaw stepped down from his board position immediately upon arrest; DeAnna Luna assumed the role of interim Chief Compliance Officer
• Northland Securities analyst Nehal Chokshi reduced SMCI’s rating to Hold while cutting the price target by 65%, from $63 down to $22
• Technical indicators show SMCI’s 14-day RSI dropping to approximately 24, indicating oversold territory, while short interest registers at 14.7%

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) experienced one of its worst trading sessions in recent memory. Shares collapsed 33% on March 20 following the Department of Justice’s unsealing of criminal indictments against three individuals connected to the server manufacturer.

Super Micro Computer, Inc., SMCI

The defendants include Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, one of the company’s co-founders, who was taken into custody by federal authorities. Liaw tendered his resignation from the board of directors immediately after his arrest.

According to federal prosecutors, the accused individuals facilitated the illegal export of roughly $2.5 billion in Nvidia-based artificial intelligence servers to China, circumventing strict U.S. export control laws. The scheme allegedly involved routing the hardware through a Southeast Asian intermediary company for repackaging before final shipment to Chinese destinations.

Super Micro was not identified as a defendant in the criminal case. In response to the allegations, the company terminated one contract worker and placed two employees on suspension.

Board and Executive Restructuring

SMCI finished trading at $20.53 on March 20, a dramatic fall from its 2024 peak above $100. During pre-market hours on Monday, the stock traded near that closing price, briefly declining 0.88% before recovering to slightly positive territory.

With Liaw’s exit, the board of directors now consists of eight members. The company tapped DeAnna Luna to serve as interim Chief Compliance Officer. Luna, who came aboard in 2024, brings more than two decades of trade compliance expertise from previous positions at Intel and Teledyne Technologies.

Super Micro also revealed it has divided the previously combined Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Financial Officer positions into separate roles. The company offered no explanation for Liaw’s departure and has not indicated whether it intends to appoint a replacement to fill the vacant board seat.

Wall Street Downgrades Price Expectations

Nehal Chokshi of Northland Securities lowered his rating on SMCI from Buy to Hold on Monday. His price objective was slashed 65%, dropping from $63 to $22.

Chokshi acknowledged the separation of the CCO and CFO roles as a constructive step but characterized it as “reactionary rather than proactive.” He cautioned that the stock would likely experience stagnant revenue and earnings until the company addresses the dual role of Charles Liang, who currently serves as both Chairman and CEO.

Argus Research likewise downgraded SMCI to Hold in response to the criminal charges. According to TipRanks, the consensus rating stands at Hold, based on two Buy recommendations, eight Hold ratings, and three Sell calls. The mean price target among analysts is $34.33.

This development compounds an already challenging period for the organization. Late in 2024, auditing firm Ernst & Young abruptly resigned, citing alleged independence issues between the board and executive management. Super Micro has additionally struggled with delayed regulatory submissions and received compliance notifications from Nasdaq during this timeframe.

From a technical perspective, the chart presents concerning signals. The 14-day Relative Strength Index hovers around 24, indicating oversold conditions while also reflecting continued selling momentum. The stock is trading beneath all significant moving averages, including the 50-day average, confirming a sustained downward trend. Current short interest is approximately 14.7%.

The analyst consensus price target of $34.33 suggests potential upside of 67.2% from present levels, although the route to that valuation remains uncertain given the ongoing federal legal proceedings.

Key Highlights

• Nebius successfully completed a $4.34 billion convertible debt offering divided between two separate note tranches maturing in 2031 and 2033
• The financing follows major agreements including a $27 billion data center supply partnership with Meta and a $2 billion investment from Nvidia
• The company intends to finance 60% of expansion through customer prepayments from partners like Meta and Microsoft
• Equity and debt instruments will cover the remaining 40% of funding requirements
• Nebius has established a $16–20 billion capital expenditure goal for 2026

Nebius Group (NBIS) has successfully finalized a $4.34 billion convertible debt offering, securing substantial capital as the company accelerates its AI infrastructure expansion strategy.

The financing package comprised two distinct components. Nebius issued $2.58 billion in 1.250% convertible notes maturing in 2031 — which included an additional $337.5 million tranche exercised by investors — plus $1.75 billion in 2.625% notes with a 2033 maturity date. Investors also have the opportunity to purchase an additional $262.5 million in the longer-maturity notes.

Nebius Group N.V., NBIS

Tom Blackwell, Chief Communications Officer, noted the offering was expanded because of robust investor appetite. “We’ve managed to achieve a large amount of funding while really minimizing the dilution,” he stated.

The capital raise arrives during an exceptionally active period for Nebius. Just this March, the company completed a $2 billion share warrant transaction with Nvidia at a strike price of $94.94 per share. Additionally, it finalized an agreement valued at up to $27 billion to provide Meta with data center infrastructure. This builds on a $17.3 billion supply arrangement with Microsoft that was signed last September.

Nebius stock finished trading on Friday at $117.62, while the convertible notes issued Monday were priced at a conversion premium of approximately 90% above that closing price.

Capital Allocation Strategy

Nebius has outlined plans to secure 60% of expansion funding through customer advance payments — mainly from Microsoft and Meta — while the balance of 40% will be sourced through a combination of equity issuances and debt financing. Blackwell indicated the company remains open to additional large-scale supply agreements if the terms align properly. “They can be a very efficient source of capital,” he explained.

The organization has committed to a 2026 capital investment range of $16 billion to $20 billion. According to Blackwell, Nebius is now “well-funded” to execute on these objectives.

He dismissed worries about excessive expansion. “As long as enterprise AI adoption does continue to increase… the need for what we’re doing is going to make sense,” he remarked.

Cloud Services Strategy

Beyond physical infrastructure, Nebius views AI-focused cloud services as a critical long-term revenue opportunity. The strategy involves building software service layers atop its data center infrastructure — creating sustainable recurring revenue streams that extend beyond current infrastructure demand cycles.

Blackwell emphasized that the major contract victories also demonstrate the company’s technical credentials, not merely its financial capacity.

Nebius revealed that both the Meta partnership and the Nvidia investment materialized within the past month, highlighting the accelerated pace of its strategic deal flow.

The company has not provided detailed allocation plans for the convertible debt proceeds, though the primary objective is financing ongoing data center expansion initiatives.

Monday marked the official completion of the financing round, concluding a significant capital-raising period that has elevated the company’s standing within AI infrastructure investment communities.

The 2033-maturity convertible notes featured a 2.63% interest rate, while the 2031 notes were priced at 1.250%.

Backpack Exchange, a Solana-based cryptocurrency trading platform, launched on Monday its native token, BP, detailing a token generation event (TGE) that includes a mix of user distribution, lockups and a mechanism tied to company equity.

At launch, 25% of the token’s 1 billion total supply—around 250 million BP—will be distributed, primarily through an airdrop to existing users. Most of that allocation is set aside for participants in Backpack’s points program, with a smaller portion reserved for holders of its “Mad Lads NFT collection.”

The company said no tokens have been allocated to founders, team members or investors at inception, a departure from many exchange token rollouts. The structure places a larger share of the initial distribution with users rather than insiders.

The remaining supply will be released through a multi-phase unlock schedule tied to company growth and potential public listing plans. About 37.5% of tokens are set to unlock over time based on operational milestones, such as market expansion or product launches, while another 37.5% will remain locked in a corporate treasury until after a potential IPO.

Backpack also said long-term stakers may be able to convert BP into company equity, representing a share of the firm’s ownership. The mechanism links the token to the company’s broader capital markets plans, rather than limiting its role to trading incentives or governance.

“Backpack was founded by former FTX and Alameda Research employees and faced early scrutiny following the collapse of FTX in 2022. The company later acquired the defunct exchange’s European arm, relaunching it as Backpack EU as part of its push into regulated markets.

Read more: Backpack Opens Regulated Perpetuals Exchange in Europe After FTX EU Acquisition

Key Highlights

• PepsiCo transitions from pilot programs to comprehensive AI implementation across China
• Artificial intelligence applications span precision farming, production facilities, and logistics networks
• Approximately 95% of Asia Pacific raw materials sourced locally; AI optimizes supply chain resilience
• PEP shares advance 1.8% in premarket sessions, reaching $152.70
• China initiative aligns with global AI partnership involving Siemens and NVIDIA

PepsiCo has launched a comprehensive artificial intelligence integration throughout its Chinese business operations. The beverage and snack giant has transitioned beyond experimental phases, implementing AI technology across its entire value chain in China — encompassing agricultural operations, production facilities, and consumer engagement strategies.

PepsiCo, Inc., PEP

This initiative represents a fundamental operational transformation rather than merely a cost-reduction exercise.

Within agricultural operations, PepsiCo deploys AI technology to enhance harvest productivity and ingredient quality for domestically sourced materials. Given that roughly 95% of Asia Pacific ingredients originate locally, optimizing this segment carries significant strategic importance.

At the manufacturing level, artificial intelligence drives enhanced operational efficiency and production capacity expansion — all while maintaining current staffing levels. However, the company continues recruitment efforts as new production facilities come online throughout China.

Enhanced Consumer Intelligence Through AI

PepsiCo leverages AI-powered analytics platforms to decode Chinese consumer preferences and behaviors. These insights inform product development and targeted marketing initiatives designed for local market sensibilities.

The corporation indicates these consumer insights drive portfolio evolution toward premium offerings with reduced sugar and sodium content that complement Chinese cooking traditions. Given the intense competitive landscape in China’s consumer goods sector, this localization strategy proves essential.

PEP shares reached $152.70 during premarket activity, representing a 1.8% advance. This positions the stock within its 52-week trading band of $127.60 to $171.48. Current shareholders receive a 3.8% dividend yield.

Strategic Partnerships with Siemens and NVIDIA

The Chinese AI deployment connects to an expansive global technology initiative. PepsiCo maintains a multi-year strategic partnership with Siemens and NVIDIA to implement AI systems and digital twin technology for facility optimization and supply chain redesign worldwide.

Initial testing phases from this collaboration have already demonstrated improved operational throughput alongside reduced capital investment requirements, per company reports.

The Chinese AI implementation follows this established framework — leveraging technology to maximize existing asset utilization while simultaneously pursuing strategic physical expansion opportunities.

PepsiCo characterizes the China AI initiative as fundamental to its regional expansion strategy rather than an ancillary project. The company emphasizes that artificial intelligence now permeates every segment of its Chinese value chain.

The stock’s 1.8% premarket advance to $152.70 demonstrates investor enthusiasm regarding the announcement, though final closing prices will reflect broader market dynamics.

• Ethereum price rose to above $2,170 after Trump delayed US strikes on Iran.
• An Ethereum OG whale sold 15,002 ETH for about $30.97 million via Coinbase.
• Ethereum price hovers in the $2,000-$2,200 range.

Ethereum price pumped more than 4% in a sharp U-turn as downside pressure quickly gave way to upside movement amid market reaction to a fresh announcement by President Donald Trump.

However, the altcoin’s price remained near the critical $2,000 level amid notable whale offloading in the hours prior to Trump’s post on Monday.

Ethereum bounces sharply amid Trump announcement

Ethereum traded higher in early US trading hours, moving sharply from around $2,060 to above $2,170 as bulls attempted to recover from intraday lows.

The altcoin hovered near $2,150, boasting a 24-hour trading volume of over $19 billion.

A look at the markets shows Ethereum’s move to highs of $2,170 coincided with Bitcoin’s sudden uptick to the $70,000 area.

BTC had dipped below $68,000 as the broader risk‑on mood suffered the sentiment around events in Iran and the Middle East.

However, President Trump’s announcement of a five-day pause in US strikes on Iran on Monday appeared to bolster buyers.

“The United States and Iran have had productive discussions over the past two days toward fully resolving hostilities in the Middle East. As talks continue this week, I’ve ordered a five-day pause on any military strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure, contingent on progress,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Stocks also saw an uptick, economist Mohamed El-Erian pointed out via X.

Market prices performed a massive U-turn just minutes after the post below as President Trump announced that the U.S. has held “very productive and constructive conversations” with Iran, resulting in a five-day postponement of “any and all military strikes against Iranian power… https://t.co/oSZ6Lvx7Gy

— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) March 23, 2026

ETH prices had dropped as OG whale sold $31M ETH

On Monday, an Ethereum OG wallet labeled “0xa2F…F85A” moved 15,002 ETH to US-based crypto exchange Coinbase.

The total value of the coins stood at about $30.97 million at the time, on‑chain analytics platform Lookonchain noted.

An #EthereumOG (0xa2F6) just sold 15,002 $ETH($30.97M)!

This OG previously received 172,700 $ETH 10 years ago (worth $2.2M at the time, now $356M) at a price of $12.83.https://t.co/RoESAs76xF pic.twitter.com/wZ4PdUGWwt

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— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 23, 2026

The wallet originally accumulated around 172,700 ETH about a decade ago, when each token traded near $12.83, implying an initial outlay of roughly $2.2 million.

At current prices near the low‑$2,000s, that full stash would be valued at roughly $353 million, indicating substantial paper gains realized over the years.

Despite the huge cash out, the address still holds over 14,800 Ether and is one of the network’s long‑term holders.

In a separate transaction, another whale sold 5,000 ETH worth about $10.3 million. The transfer happened at roughly $2,063 per token, slightly lower than the current price of ETH.

This whale still holds around 126,000 ETH, worth about $257 million, with this indicating overall long-term bullish sentiment.

Ethereum price key levels

From a technical standpoint, ETH is hovering within the short‑term support and resistance in the $2,000–$2,200 band.

As highlighted here, the $2,150 is a key level and upside momentum hinges on bulls keeping support intact.

The downside, key bearish targets lie around $1,800, while bulls fancy $3,000 and the August 2025 all‑time high of $4,953.

Opinion by: Nanak Nihal Khalsa, co-founder of Holonym Foundation

During the last crypto market cycle, airdrops were touted as a way to build community. In practice, they evolved into large-scale value-extraction schemes that rewarded automation and short-term surges over lasting commitment. The result was a structural misalignment: incentives that discouraged genuine belief and rewarded opportunistic behavior, leaving many participants feeling they were part of a competition rather than a community.

Between 2021 and 2024, token launches tended to favor low float and high fully diluted valuations, with point-based programs that rewarded activity more than intention or eligibility. The predictable outcome? Wallets multiplied, engagement was simulated, and shares of future supply were earmarked for rapid exit. Trust eroded as participation became transactional, loyalty proved transient, and governance started to feel like theater. When rewards hinge on volume rather than conviction, rare is the project that yields lasting, substantive communities.

Key takeaways

• Airdrops often functioned as extraction playbooks: low float, high fully diluted valuations, and point programs that rewarded surface-level activity over meaningful commitment.
• Points programs accelerated a race to automate and farm; real users with limited bandwidth were crowded out, undermining the integrity of early distribution.
• Token sales are re-emerging as an alternative distribution model, but with selective access, identity considerations, and allocation caps to curb dominance by automated actors.
• Privacy-preserving identity is being treated as infrastructure—needed to verify unique participation without revealing personal data, balancing openness with protection.
• Wallet design and identity are converging into a single system aimed at resisting manipulation and building longer-term relationships between users and protocols.

From open launches to curated access

The industry is increasingly approaching token launches with a fundamental shift in distribution logic. ICO-style events, once open to anyone with a wallet, exposed the ecosystem to whale dominance, regulatory blind spots, and accountability gaps. Today’s experiments introduce filters and signals designed to identify participants who are likely to stay engaged beyond a single speculative cycle. Identity signals, on-chain behavior analysis, and jurisdiction-aware participation are becoming more common, along with allocation limits intended to prevent runaway concentration.

These changes are not simply about nostalgia for the old days of broad access; they reflect a practical recognition that permissionless distribution without guardrails invites capital leaks to automation and rapid dumping. The aim is to ensure that new tokens reach users who will contribute to long-term health, governance, and stability, rather than a transient crowd animated by hype alone.

In this context, some token launches are edging toward a model where eligibility criteria and access controls are part of the fabric of the protocol, not constraints imposed after the fact. As a result, questions about what constitutes fair access, how to enforce limits, and which signals are trustworthy are moving from footnotes to central design considerations.

Identity, privacy, and the evolution of distribution

One of the most pressing tensions in crypto governance today is how to balance openness with accountability. The industry has spent years promoting permissionless participation, yet the most valuable moments increasingly depend on some form of admission control. Without it, automation can overwhelm the system; with it, there is a risk of recreating surveillance-heavy paradigms many projects sought to escape.

Privacy-preserving identity is emerging as essential infrastructure rather than a philosophical stance. If teams want to limit one person to one allocation, prevent bot-driven governance, and show basic compliance without collecting exhaustive personal dossiers, they need systems that prove properties about participants without revealing who they are. The alternative—full openness or heavy-handed KYC—either invites distortion or erodes trust. The goal is to build a framework where users can prove uniqueness across a suite of applications, maintain consistent accounts, and avoid managing fragile secrets with every new launch.

Related discussions have highlighted real-world frictions, such as Sybil attacks during presales. For example, Cointelegraph noted incidents where presales were hijacked by coordinated wallet clusters, underscoring the need for more robust identity and anti-abuse measures (reference coverage).

Beyond identity, the wallet layer itself remains a critical choke point. Fragmented accounts, recovery fragilities, and browser-based signing vulnerabilities amplify the risk of hacks, loss of access, and post-launch attrition. When distribution hinges on tools that are brittle or spoofable, the resulting ecosystem inherits those weaknesses. A more holistic design—where identity, wallets, and distribution are treated as an interconnected system—appears increasingly necessary for durable participation rather than one-off events.

Several projects are pursuing this integrated approach: a user could demonstrate uniqueness without doxing, transact across apps with a single, coherent account, and control sensitive data without exposing themselves to unnecessary risks. If these pieces lock into a coherent architecture, distribution may evolve from a single launch moment into an ongoing relationship, with participants who care enough to stay, contribute, and govern.

Ultimately, the shift is less about who gets in and more about shaping sustainable alignment. Projects that emphasize human-centric design—fewer, more engaged participants who remain for the long run—tend to show stronger retention, healthier governance participation, and more resilient markets. This is not a matter of ideology; it is observable in how users engage once incentives are aligned with genuine belief rather than short-term gain.

Looking ahead, the winners will be those that treat distribution as infrastructure rather than marketing. They will bake in defense against automation, design for provable integrity, and view identity as a tool to protect both users and ecosystems. Some friction, thoughtfully applied, can be a feature that sustains engagement rather than a barrier to entry.

Airdrops did not fail because users are inherently greedy. They failed because the system rewarded greed while penalizing commitment. If crypto wants broader, healthier adoption, it must shift incentives toward belonging and long-term value creation, not ephemeral wins. Token launches, as a visible facet of this evolution, will reveal who can translate that philosophy into durable practice.

Related context: For a contemporary look at how these dynamics play out in live launches, recent coverage highlights ongoing debates around identity, access, and control in new token distributions.

Author note: Nanak Nihal Khalsa is the co-founder of Holonym Foundation, focused on privacy-respecting, user-centric infrastructure for decentralized ecosystems.

Opinion by: Nanak Nihal Khalsa, co-founder of Holonym Foundation

For most of the last cycle, crypto teams convinced themselves that airdrops were community building. In practice, they became something else entirely: a large-scale training program that taught people how to extract value as efficiently as possible and leave.

That outcome was not an accident. It was a predictable result of how token launches were designed between 2021 and 2024. Low float, high fully diluted valuations and points programs that rewarded activity over intent and eligibility rules that could be reverse-engineered by anyone with enough time and scripts. We built systems where the rational behavior was to spin up wallets, simulate engagement and sell at the first opportunity.

The industry likes to talk about trust as an abstract concept. In reality, trust eroded because token launches stopped aligning incentives with belief. Participation became transactional.

Loyalty became temporary. Governance became theater. When users are rewarded for volume rather than conviction, you do not get communities — you get mercenaries.

Airdrops built extraction playbooks

Points programs accelerated this dynamic. They were often framed as a fairer way to distribute tokens, but in practice, they turned participation into a job. The more time, capital and automation you had, the more points you could farm. Real users with limited bandwidth were crowded out by people who treated points dashboards like yield farms.

Everyone knew this was happening while it was happening. Teams watched wallet clusters grow. Analysts published postmortems showing how a small number of entities captured outsized shares of supply. Still, the model persisted, largely because it looked good in growth charts and bought short-term attention.

The result is that airdrops lost credibility because the mechanism became predictable and gameable. By the time a token reached the market, a meaningful portion of supply was already earmarked for immediate exit. Price action after a launch started to feel less like discovery and more like cleanup.

Token sales are back because airdrops lost credibility

This is the context in which token sales and ICO-style launches are returning. Not as a nostalgia play, and not as a rejection of decentralization, but as a response to a structural failure. Teams are looking for ways to reintroduce selection into distribution. Who gets access, under what conditions and with what constraints has become just as important as how much capital is raised.

What is different this time is not the idea of selling tokens, but the way participation is being shaped. Early initial coin offerings (ICOs) were open to anyone with a wallet and fast fingers. That openness came with obvious downsides, including whale dominance, regulatory blind spots and zero accountability.

The new generation of token launches experiments with filters that did not exist before. Identity and reputation signals, onchain behavior analysis, jurisdiction-aware participation and enforced allocation limits are increasingly part of the design. The goal is not exclusion for its own sake; it is to ensure that distribution reaches humans who are likely to stick around.

This shift exposes a deeper fault line in the industry. Crypto has spent years positioning itself as permissionless, yet many of its most valuable moments now depend on some form of admission control. Without it, capital leaks to automation. With it, teams risk recreating the same surveillance-heavy systems they claim to be replacing. The tension between openness and protection is no longer theoretical; it shows up in every serious launch discussion.

Who gets in now matters more than how much is raised

The uncomfortable truth is that we cannot solve this problem by pretending identity does not matter. We already live in a world where identity exists everywhere. The question is whether it is implemented in ways that respect user agency or in ways that extract data and concentrate power. Most of the first wave of crypto infrastructure avoided identity entirely, not because it was a principled stance, but because the tools to do it safely did not exist. As every launch scales and scrutiny increases, that avoidance is no longer tenable.

Related: Solana WET presale hijacked by Sybil wallets as HumidiFi resets launch

This is where privacy-preserving identity becomes infrastructure rather than ideology. If teams want to limit one human to one allocation or prevent automated clusters from dominating governance or demonstrate basic compliance without collecting dossiers on their users, they need systems that can prove properties about participants without exposing who they are. The alternative is a binary choice between naive openness and heavy-handed Know Your Customer. Neither scales well.

In parallel, the industry is also confronting the limits of its wallet layer. Many of the issues that plague token launches are downstream of how wallets are designed and embedded. Fragmented accounts, weak recovery, blind signing and browser-based attack surfaces all make it harder to build durable relationships between users and protocols. When participation is mediated through tools that are easy to spoof and hard to trust, distribution mechanisms inherit those weaknesses. It is not a coincidence that the same launches suffering from Sybil attacks are also dealing with user confusion, lost access and post-launch attrition.

Some teams are starting to connect these dots. Instead of treating identity, wallets and token launches as separate concerns, they are approaching them as a single system — a system where a user can prove uniqueness without doxing, interact across applications with a consistent account and retain control without being asked to manage fragile secrets. When these pieces fit together, distribution stops being a one-time event and starts to look more like an ongoing relationship.

This is not about making launches smaller or more exclusive; it is about making them more intentional. Fewer participants who care is often better than many participants who do not.

Projects that optimize for human alignment tend to see stronger retention, healthier governance participation and more resilient markets. That is not ideology; it is observable behavior.

The teams that succeed will be the ones that stop treating distribution as marketing and start treating it as infrastructure. They will assume adversarial conditions by default. They will design for automation resistance from day one. They will view identity not as a checkbox, but as a tool to protect both users and ecosystems. They will accept that some friction, when applied thoughtfully, is a feature rather than a bug.

Airdrops did not fail because users are greedy. Airdrops failed because the system rewarded greed and punished commitment. If crypto wants to grow beyond its current audience, it needs to stop training people to extract and start giving them reasons to belong.

Token launches are where that shift becomes visible. Whether the industry is willing to follow through remains an open question.

Opinion by: Nanak Nihal Khalsa, co-founder of Holonym Foundation.