The European Central Bank has renewed its push for tokenized central bank money as Europe works to build a larger tokenized financial market. ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said tokenized deposits and stablecoins will need a public settlement base in central bank money if the market is to grow across the region.

Cipollone made the case during a speech in Brussels on March 23. He said tokenized central bank money is needed as a settlement anchor for tokenized securities, deposits and stablecoins. He warned that without it, market participants may receive payment in assets they do not want to hold because of price swings or credit concerns. He said, 

“Without tokenised central bank money, a seller of a tokenised security may receive payment in an asset they are not comfortable holding – one exposed to price volatility or credit risk – which limits the market’s ability to scale.” 

His remarks place public money at the center of the ECB’s tokenization plan. The ECB has been building that plan through Pontes, the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger settlement project. Pontes is designed to connect DLT-based market platforms with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services so transactions can settle in central bank money.

The ECB said Pontes is due for an initial launch in the third quarter of 2026. That first phase is meant to meet immediate market demand and let participants settle DLT-based transactions in central bank money.

Pontes is part of a broader two-track plan. The shorter-term track focuses on practical settlement tools, while the longer-term track is Appia, which is meant to help shape a wider European tokenized financial system by 2028.

The ECB said Appia will be built with market input. It is meant to map out how tokenized finance can develop in Europe while keeping central bank money as the base layer for trust and settlement.

Cipollone calls for legal clarity across the bloc

Cipollone also said settlement alone will not be enough. He called for closer work between public institutions and private firms, along with legal rules that fit tokenized finance across the European Union.

One part of Appia focuses on interoperability. The goal is to make tokenized assets transferable across different DLT platforms through shared data formats and compatible smart contract standards.

He said the European Commission’s plan to extend and improve the DLT Pilot Regime is “important and welcome.” At the same time, he warned that Europe may still need a dedicated legal framework so tokenized assets can be issued, held and transferred more smoothly across the bloc.

In addition, the debate has also drawn comments from private sector firms. Circle said in feedback submitted on March 20 that the Commission should widen the DLT Pilot Regime and allow authorized crypto-asset service providers to offer e-money token cash account services.

That feedback came just days before Cipollone’s speech. Together, the comments show that both public institutions and private firms are pushing for clearer rules as Europe tries to build tokenized markets that can work at scale.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies has increased its Ether holdings again as chairman Tom Lee said the token’s recent weakness may be nearing an end. The company disclosed a fresh purchase of 65,341 ETH worth about $139 million, lifting its total holdings to more than 4.6 million Ether.

Bitmine said it has raised its buying pace over the past three weeks. Lee said the company’s base case is that Ether is in the final stages of a “mini-crypto winter” after several months of pressure across digital asset markets.

The latest purchase added 65,341 ETH to the company’s balance sheet. That brought Bitmine’s holdings to about 4.661 million Ether as of March 23, according to the company’s update.

Lee also pointed to policy and market signals that he said support a better outlook for crypto. In the company statement, he linked that view to progress on the CLARITY Act and to the way Ether and other digital assets have held up during recent geopolitical stress.

Bitmine’s total Ether position now equals about 3.86% of the circulating supply, based on Ethereum’s circulating supply of about 120.69 million tokens. The company has said it wants to accumulate 5% of the circulating supply over time.

To reach that goal at the current supply level, Bitmine would still need roughly 1.37 million more ETH. At prices near $2,156, that would require close to $3 billion in additional purchases.

Ether’s supply is not fixed. The total can rise or fall depending on issuance and token burning, so the amount needed to reach 5% can change over time.

Staking remains part of the strategy

Bitmine said more than 3 million of its Ether is now staked. That means the company is not only building a treasury position but also using the assets within Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system.

The company also reported other holdings on its balance sheet. These include about $1.1 billion in cash, 196 Bitcoin, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and a $95 million stake in Eightco Holdings.

Moreover, Bitmine is now one of the largest corporate Ether holders in the market. Strategic ETH Reserve data cited in public reports shows Bitmine ahead of other treasury firms, with SharpLink Gaming and Ether Machine trailing by a wide margin.

The company’s latest move also reflects a wider trend that grew across 2025 as more firms shifted capital into crypto treasury strategies. 

Fraud networks work by using X accounts

ZachXBT determined that there was a group of X accounts on the network that shared updates related to war to gain some credibility and an audience. Most of these accounts would frequently post about the political happenings to become known to active users, and they also had the benefit of reposting similar content that would assist in increasing their reach as well as ensuring constant exposure.

The accounts later started to promote fraud involving crypto after gaining a following. They involved bogus giveaways and organized pump-and-dump operations on unsuspecting participants. As a result, the users, who interacted with content about the war, were exposed to false promises of easy returns with the help of digital assets.
The research revealed that operators used to switch usernames and account identities to minimize chances of detection. They also purchased older accounts that were already followed to sound more believable. In addition to that, the network employed the same message being sent repeatedly on a number of profiles, which enabled them to push scam campaigns within a short period and successfully.

Major Profits on Organized Plans

According to on-chain data, such synchronized operations brought a lot of money to the operators. One instance was the report by ZachXBT that a campaign generated six-figure profits during short-term token promotions. There was also one case where multiple accounts promoted the token known as ORAMAMA in a single day and then never promoted it again.

The emergence of the scams is a part of a bigger story with scammers exploiting major international events to target online audiences to trick them. The presence of fear and uncertainty in the current conflict has empowered purported scammers to integrate misinformation into financial frauds, although the social media platforms continue to be at the center of the operation plans. The results mention how scammers can use geopolitical tension to organize coordinated campaigns of financial frauds, whereas the social media platforms remain central to their operational strategies.

Key Highlights

• Alibaba introduced the XuanTie C950, a cutting-edge 5nm RISC-V processor developed by its DAMO Academy division
• The processor operates at 3.2 GHz with performance exceeding its predecessor, the XuanTie C920, by over 300%
• Target applications include cloud infrastructure, AI inference operations, and agentic AI systems
• The company plans a separate public listing for T-Head, its semiconductor division
• BABA shares gained 2.98%, finishing at $126.06 on March 23

Alibaba’s semiconductor ambitions took center stage this week. During an internal DAMO Academy conference held Tuesday, the tech giant revealed its XuanTie C950 processor, claiming it represents “the highest performing RISC-V CPU in the world.”

The processor features 5-nanometer manufacturing technology and operates at 3.2 GHz, utilizing the open-source RISC-V architecture. This open framework enables chip developers to adapt instruction sets for specialized AI applications without incurring licensing costs — a strategic benefit for organizations deploying AI agents across large-scale operations.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, BABA

Performance metrics show the C950 delivering over three times the speed of the earlier XuanTie C920 model. The company has not disclosed which manufacturing partner produced the silicon.

According to Alibaba’s announcement, the processor targets cloud computing environments and AI inference tasks. End users will have the flexibility to configure the chip for specialized inference requirements.

Building a Complete AI Ecosystem

CEO Eddie Wu articulated his strategy last year: positioning Alibaba as an end-to-end AI technology company spanning both hardware and software layers. That vision is now materializing.

During last week’s quarterly earnings discussion, Wu confirmed that Alibaba’s custom AI accelerators have transitioned into volume production. The T-Head semiconductor division is now competing directly with Nvidia and Huawei in China’s domestic marketplace.

T-Head has already onboarded significant enterprise clients, and Alibaba continues advancing preparations for the unit’s independent stock market debut. That initiative remains in progress.

The company maintains two distinct chip product families. The Zhenwu 810E lineup focuses on AI model training and inference capabilities. Meanwhile, the XuanTie portfolio, now including the C950, targets high-performance cloud environments and agentic AI deployments.

RISC-V Emerges as Strategic Architecture

RISC-V has gained substantial traction among Chinese technology firms as geopolitical friction restricts access to Western semiconductor intellectual property. Alibaba ranks among the architecture’s earliest and most committed advocates domestically.

The standard directly challenges offerings from Arm Holdings and Intel. When Arm encountered limitations conducting business with Huawei following US export restrictions, RISC-V partially addressed that market void.

The C950 debut caps an active period for Alibaba’s artificial intelligence product portfolio. Last week witnessed the introduction of Wukong, an enterprise-grade platform engineered for AI agent orchestration.

Monday brought the global launch of Accio Work, the international edition of that platform. Targeting small and mid-market enterprises, it promises autonomous execution of sophisticated operational workflows.

Earlier this month, Alibaba consolidated certain AI development teams into a newly formed division called Alibaba Token Hub, concentrating on enterprise-focused AI workplace solutions.

The competitive landscape: Token pricing for Chinese AI models has plummeted amid intense domestic rivalry, compelling firms like Alibaba to pursue margin protection and competitive differentiation through hardware and infrastructure innovation.

BABA finished trading at $126.06 on March 23, advancing $3.65 or 2.98% for the session. Pre-market activity on March 24 showed shares retreating to $124.94, declining 0.90%.

Nasdaq will integrate its Calypso risk and collateral platform and trade surveillance system with digital asset infrastructure firm Talos’s institutional trading tools.

The integration announced Monday aims to offer institutional clients a “unified” workflow for managing tokenized collateral and monitoring crypto and traditional assets for market abuse. It aims to ease a bottleneck in institutional tokenization, with Nasdaq citing internal research that roughly $35 billion in collateral sits tied up in “corrective and non-interest-bearing measures.”​

Nasdaq’s integration of its trade surveillance tools means that Talos clients will be able to run alerts for opaque tactics such as wash trading, spoofing and layering across the venues they access. 

The companies said the partnership is intended to bring “institutional-grade” compliance standards to digital asset markets.