U.S. spot crypto exchanges have nearly doubled market share to 15% as ETF-driven flows and institutional venue consolidation pull liquidity back onshore.

U.S. crypto exchanges have almost doubled their share of the global spot market in the past year, underscoring how the ETF trade and institutions are pulling liquidity back onshore.​

According to new data from crypto analytics firm Kaiko, U.S. exchanges’ spot market share has climbed from around 8% to 15% over the past twelve months, nearly a twofold increase. Over the same period, liquidity in U.S.-listed Bitcoin pairs has strengthened to the point that domestic venues now surpass some leading offshore exchanges across multiple BTC trading pairs.

Kaiko’s analysis attributes the shift to three core drivers: surging demand around spot Bitcoin ETFs, consolidation of institutional trading flows, and improvements in compliance and transparency at U.S. platforms. Since the approval of spot ETFs, a growing share of large orders has migrated to regulated U.S. rails, tightening spreads and deepening books, particularly in BTC pairs most closely tied to ETF hedging and arbitrage.​

Institutional desks appear to be rationalizing venue selection as regulatory pressure and best-execution standards rise. Rather than routing size across dozens of offshore platforms, market participants are clustering flow into a smaller set of compliant exchanges that can support ETF-related activity, custody integrations, and reporting requirements. That process concentrates liquidity and helps explain why U.S. books are now overtaking some historically dominant offshore competitors on key BTC pairs.​

The growing domestic share also reflects a broader normalization of crypto market structure. For years, the deepest order books and tightest spreads were overwhelmingly offshore, creating an execution gap for U.S.-based institutions. Kaiko’s latest data suggests that gap is closing, with onshore venues now competitive on both depth and quality for the flagship BTC market.​

Regulatory risk, however, remains the main overhang. While improved transparency has supported the U.S. comeback in spot, policy uncertainty still drives parts of the industry to maintain parallel liquidity hubs offshore. If U.S. rulemaking stabilizes and ETF volumes continue to scale, the current 15% share could prove to be a staging point rather than a ceiling for domestic spot dominance.

Ethereum’s derivatives market is trapped between billion‑dollar long and short liquidation clusters, leaving ETH just one sharp move away from a forced‑flow volatility spike.

Ethereum’s (ETH) derivatives market is sitting on a razor’s edge as leveraged positioning piles up on both sides of the book around current prices. Fresh data from analytics platform Coinglass shows a dense liquidation band forming just below spot, with a matching short squeeze pocket overhead that could amplify any sharp move.​

If ETH breaks below the 2,210 dollar level, cumulative long liquidations across major centralized exchanges would reach roughly 1.389 billion dollars, according to Coinglass. That figure captures forced unwinds of overleveraged long positions and highlights how crowded the upside trade has become after Ethereum’s latest bounce. In practice, a clean sweep through that level could trigger a cascading sell-off, as forced selling from liquidations pushes prices lower and knocks out additional margin traders.​

For spot traders, these liquidation clusters act like hidden liquidity magnets in the order book, shaping intraday flows even when spot volumes look muted. Market makers and larger funds can and do trade around these levels, probing for liquidation pockets where they can source liquidity at a discount or force competing participants out of position.​

From a risk perspective, the current derivatives structure means ETH is less likely to drift sideways for long. As open interest concentrates around tight liquidation bands, volatility tends to reprice abruptly rather than gradually, with one side of the market forced to capitulate. Until that imbalance clears, both bulls and bears are effectively trading inside a leverage minefield, where a few hundred dollars of spot movement could unlock over 1 billion dollars in forced flows either way.​

Mastercard has struck a deal to buy stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, according to a press release on Tuesday, March 17. The deal includes $300 million in contingent payments and is expected to close before year-end, pending regulatory approval.

The acquisition is designed to integrate BVNK’s on-chain payment rails directly into Mastercard’s global fiat network, enabling use cases across cross-border transfers, remittances, and business-to-business payments. Mastercard said the deal would allow financial institutions and fintechs to offer services spanning stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and tokenized assets.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits,” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer.

Per the release, BVNK supports stablecoin transfers globally “on all major blockchain networks.”

The news comes four months after BVNK’s roughly $2 billion acquisition talks with Coinbase collapsed, as Fortune reported at the time. Mastercard had reportedly previously explored acquiring BVNK, and was also in the running to acquired Zerohash.

Earlier this month, Mastercard launched a formal Crypto Partner Program enlisting over 85 firms — including global crypto giants like Binance, Circle, Ripple, and Solana — to co-develop products connecting digital asset infrastructure to its card rails. In early March, the company also partnered with neobank SoFi to integrate SoFiUSD as a settlement option across its global network.

More broadly, stablecoin payment volumes are booming. B2B stablecoin payments surged over 730% year-over-year in 2025, with total annual volumes reaching an estimated $390 billion, per a report from Artemis and Stablecon.

In a similar move to today’s announcement, last year, payments fintech Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge.

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

Zcash price shot up over 25% on Tuesday, outpacing the broader crypto market and taking the spot of the leading gainer of the day.

According to data from crypto.news, Zcash (ZEC) price briefly hit a daily high of $288.12 on March 17, bringing its market cap to over $4.78 billion. Trading at $273 at press time, the privacy token still remains 34% higher than its weekly low and 41% above its lowest level this month.

Zcash’s sharp surge appears to have been fueled by investor interest after the privacy token’s price confirmed a multi-month falling wedge breakout on the daily chart.

Falling wedges are formed with two descending and converging trendlines, and a confirmed breakout from the upper trendline of the pattern has historically served as the precursor to sustained rallies over subsequent sessions.

Other technical indicators appear to support a potential bullish outlook for the token. Notably, the Supertrend has flipped green, which occurs when the price closes above the volatility-based resistance level, signaling that the short-term trend has shifted back to the buyers.

At the same time, the MACD lines have also formed a bullish crossover and are on the verge of moving above the zero line. When such a move occurs, it means that the positive momentum is accelerating and the asset is entering a more aggressive bullish phase.

As such, Zcash price eyes a rally to $318 next, a target that aligns with the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level. If bullish momentum lasts, bulls could push the price toward $400, where the next key psychological resistance lies.

Zcash has several bullish catalysts lined up that could help it sustain its uptrend.

First, the total amount of ZEC held in shielded pools has hit a new record high of $5.15 billion in March, a figure that equals 31% of the total circulating supply. A jump in shielded liquidity suggests that a greater number of holders are now using Zcash’s core privacy features, which translates to genuine utility and more demand for the token.

Second, Zcash’s hashrate surged to a new all-time high this month. A stronger hashrate means greater involvement of the mining community, likely fueled by expectations of higher profits as the privacy token gains traction in the coming weeks.

Furthermore, investor appeal for the token increased after the Zcash Open Development Lab managed to raise millions from key backers such as Paradigm and a16z. This influx of capital is calming investor doubts that emerged earlier this year after a core part of the development team staged a mass resignation, which had briefly cast a shadow over the future of the project.

Crypto trading firm GSR said Tuesday it acquired Autonomous and Architech for $57 million, expanding into token advisory and capital markets services.

Autonomous will keep its brand and focus on token launch operations, while Architech will anchor a new unit, GSR Digital Asset Advisory. The group will work alongside GSR’s trading, liquidity and asset management businesses.

Token launches today often rely on separate firms for structuring, token economics and market making, which can lead to misaligned incentives, the firm said in the GSR’s model combines those services into one platform, covering governance design, exchange strategy and capital planning.

At the same time, many token foundations manage large treasuries without formal financial tools. GSR is expanding into treasury operations, offering support in liquidity planning, risk management and diversification as projects look to move beyond holding their own tokens.

With the deals, GSR aims to give crypto projects a single provider for designing their own tokens, fundraising and market access, while also offering them GSR’s trading infrastructure.

Mastercard agreed to buy BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure company, for as much as $1.8 billion as it looks to strengthen its support for digital assets and onchain money transfers.

The deal expands Mastercard’s end-to-end support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions, the payments company said Tuesday.

U.K.-based BVNK is a stablecoin company enabling businesses to move money in seconds across more than 130 countries. Its infrastructure, used by firms including Worldpay, Deel and Flywire, processes billions of dollars annually and is designed to bridge traditional fiat systems with blockchain-based payments.

By integrating BVNK’s technology, Mastercard said it aims to connect on-chain payments with its global network, enabling use cases such as cross-border transfers, remittances and business-to-business payments.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services,” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, in a statement. The deal will help bring “the benefits of tokenized money to the real world.”

The agreement comes several months after Coinbase ended $2 billion acquisition talks with the stablecoin startup. At the time, a Coinbase spokesperson declined to provide a reason for the talks’ collapse.

For Mastercard, the acquisition highlights its growing push into digital assets as stablecoin adoption accelerates. Just last week, it announced the launch of its Crypto Partner Program, which brings together more than 85 companies from across the digital asset and payments industries, an effort to link blockchain technology more directly with the infrastructure that underpins global commerce.

Stablecoin payment volumes reached at least $350 billion in 2025, according to the company, with increasing regulatory clarity prompting banks and fintechs to explore offerings tied to tokenized deposits and blockchain-based money movement.

The company also said the combined capabilities will focus on interoperability between fiat and digital currencies while maintaining compliance and security standards expected by financial institutions.

The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close before the end of the year.

UPDATE (March 17, 12:45 UTC): Adds details on transaction, background starting in third paragraph, Coinbase’s approach in sixth.

Democratic lawmakers are trying to put a stop to potential manipulation of prediction markets by government officials who bet on events they know are happening, such as U.S. military actions, according to a new bill being introduced Tuesday.

The Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions (BETS OFF) Act would outlaw corrupt wagers from those who already know the outcome of matters including government action, terrorism, war, assassination and other events the bettor has inside knowledge of. It’s backed by Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has been a prominent critic of the administration of President Donald Trump, and Representative Greg Casar, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The lawmakers said they’re responding to reports that prediction market accounts had placed significant bets before the U.S. operations in Venezuela and Iran. While legislation from Democrats won’t likely be a priority for a Congress that’s still majority-controlled in both chambers by Republicans, the midterm elections are considered likely to swing the House back to a Democratic majority — and possibly the Senate, according to those same prediction markets the lawmakers are focused on. If Democrats control the gavels of congressional committees, their preferred legislation has a better chance at a hearing.

According to the text of the bill, any kind of bet that has the potential for insider trading would be barred. This extends beyond government-related actions, a one-pager shared alongside the bill text said. Events like surprise singers at the Super Bowl halftime show or winners of awards programming would also be barred “because insiders know the outcome in advance.”

The text of the bill itself defines “specified events” as including “any event … the outcome of which is under the complete control of any person; or the outcome of which is known by any person in advance.”

Market manipulation and fraudulent betting is a matter in the hands of the platforms’ regulator, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Trump’s appointed chairman, Mike Selig, is a fan of prediction markets who has argued they can represent an antidote to faulty political polling and media reporting.

They also have a potential insider-trading problem, as seen in a couple of internal disciplinary actions recently taken by one of the leading firms, Kalshi. It suspended and fined two of its users, including a political candidate who had placed a bet on his own candidacy for California governor that he knew the outcome of.

In January, Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who’s been a longtime ally of the crypto sector, introduced a bill with dozens of fellow lawmakers on board that was similarly meant to crack down on insider trading after suspicious bets on the actions in Venezuela. And just last week, Senator Adam Schiff of California introduced a bill to ban prediction market contracts tied to war, terror, assassinations or death outright, while fellow Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill of his own to target insider trading and market manipulation.

Murphy’s bill would similarly block the CFTC from listing contracts touching these areas outright.

Despite Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) best efforts to convince President Donald Trump to grant him a pardon, the latest update from Washington DC isn’t looking good for the FTX founder and convicted felon.

SBF stole over $8 billion from his customers, and was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. For months, the convicted fraudster has flooded X with pro-Trump posts, blaming his conviction on “Biden’s lawfare machine” and praising MAGA policies.

However, members of Congress on either side of the aisle are less than impressed.

Senator Bernie Moreno, a pro-crypto Republican, told Politico, “The guy’s a piece of ***t. He shouldn’t be pardoned.” 

Meanwhile, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a pro-crypto Democrat, expressed hope that Trump wouldn’t fall for SBF’s transparently self-interested rhetoric.

Mike Flood of Nebraska, another pro-crypto Republican, reacted with disbelief. “He crashed the market. He engaged in massive fraud,” Floodsaid. “Wall Street’s not bringing him back to fix anything,” he said.

Democratic Congressman Sam Liccardo piled on, cynically saying that only a large enough payout for a corrupt pardon would do the trick.

Painting on MAGA lipstick and saying whatever it takes

SBF’s X account, operated by a friend as a proxy for his Bureau of Prisons-permitted communication, has praised a host of Trump’s policies about which SBF has little understanding, including the new TrumpRX drug pricing initiative and “deep state” undermining of MAGA policies. 

Out of the blue, SBF has praised Trump’s social media companies. “Dems like censoring ‘misinfo’ on social media. Truth Social & GETTR have always put free speech first.”

SBF discussed sharing a cell block with Sean “Diddy” Combs, and blamed his conviction on a “Clinton-appointed” Democrat judge.

He also sat for an unauthorized jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson last year in a clear attempt to argue for a pardon. That interview reportedly landed him in solitary confinement.

SBF’s parents, ex-Stanford professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have reportedly consulted with Kory Langhofer, a lawyer who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Unfortunately for him, none of his pardon attempts have worked. Indeed, Trump told The New York Times in January 2026 that he doesn’t plan to grant his pardon request.

A White House spokesperson reiterated to Fortune in February that Trump’s position hasn’t changed.

A group of U.S. regional banks is developing the Cari Network, a tokenized deposit platform built on ZKsync, a layer-2 network, as lenders seek a regulated path to modernize digital payments.

The network, announced Tuesday, is being developed with banks including Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon, M&T Bank, KeyCorp and Old National Bancorp. It’s designed to let banks turn customer deposits into digital tokens that can move instantly between institutions — without those funds ever leaving the banking system.

That’s a key distinction from stablecoins, which are often issued by nonbank companies. Cari says its tokens will still represent regular bank deposits, meaning they stay on banks’ balance sheets and remain subject to existing regulations and FDIC insurance.

Under the hood, the system will run on “Prividium”, which is a private, permissioned blockchain built by Matter Labs, the main developer firm building the ZKsync network. Only approved participants — like banks — can use it, and transactions are designed to be both fast and private while still allowing regulators to audit activity when needed.

The effort reflects a growing push by banks to compete with crypto-native payment systems by offering similar speed and round-the-clock settlement, but within familiar regulatory guardrails.

The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America has backed the project, according to a blog post, highlighting regional lenders’ interest in upgrading payments infrastructure without risking a loss of deposits to newer digital alternatives.

The Cari network will roll out more broadly in 2026, and the banks involved will test how these tokenized deposits are created, transferred between parties and converted back into regular U.S. dollars.

“Banks should be leading the next phase of digital money, not reacting to it,” said Cari CEO Gene Ludwig.

Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski added that the project shows how banks can use blockchain technology while still meeting privacy and compliance requirements.

“Financial infrastructure is undergoing the same shift computing went through decades ago, from siloed databases to shared, programmable infrastructure,” Gluchowski said in the blog post. “With Prividium, banks can issue and move deposits on blockchain infrastructure while preserving the privacy, compliance, and control required by regulated institutions.”

Read more: Deutsche Bank’s L2 Blockchain to Be ‘Public and Permissioned,’ Says Tech Partner